Muslim Pro CEO Nafees Khundker says, “[Our] vision [is] to be the digital home for all things Muslim.”
By Exec Edge Editorial Staff
By leveraging emerging technology, the Muslim Pro app — which was created to provide daily prayer times in 2010 — has transformed into a central resource for members of the Muslim community.
The app’s numerous innovative features, ranging from Quran lessons to streamed videos, can help the more than 170 million Muslim Pro users stay connected to their faith — from essentially anywhere in the world.
“We started expanding our services very quickly,” says Nafees Khundker, the CEO and group managing director. “First was Quran recitations, then translations in different languages. You can actually read the Quran in more than 60 languages in the platform today.”
Users can now also book travel to Mecca and Medina, participate in live discussions with well-known Islamic scholars, and access other features through the app.
“As our users’ needs evolved, we realized they weren’t just looking for utilities,” Khundker shares. “They want a community, guidance, and a space to deepen their faith. That’s why we envision Muslim Pro as more than just an app; we want to be the digital home for all things Muslim, where Muslims worldwide can feel connected, inspired, and empowered in their daily lives.”
Speaking to a Specific User Base
Accommodating a diverse audience spread across more than 190 countries can be a nuanced undertaking. In addition to providing content that will resonate with regional users, Muslim Pro’s creators have worked to ensure the app meets global privacy standards and its individual users are comfortable with the way data is managed, which can be a particularly key concern, Khundker says, for members of the Muslim community.
“What they’re doing, what they’re searching for, how they’re practicing their faith [is] sensitive [information],” he notes. “In today’s digital age, data privacy is more important than ever, especially for faith-based communities who may face profiling or discrimination.”
Muslim Pro users have full control over what information is collected and why. The app’s commitment to proactively protecting user data and privacy includes:
— Never sharing personal user information with third-party vendors.
— Subjecting any service providers the company considers working with to a thorough due diligence review, which can include examining the provider’s history, core values, and data policies to ensure they align with Muslim Pro’s.
— Only requesting the minimum amount of information from users that is needed for certain aspects of the app to function properly. For example, a person’s location needs to be identified to provide relevant and accurate prayer times.
— Securely storing backend data on Google Cloud servers that have built-in security mechanisms.
— Thoroughly reviewing, testing, and implementing robust app code security controls at every stage of development.
— Working with the OneTrust global Consent Management Platform to ensure all Muslim Pro platforms comply with data protection laws.
— Openly sharing Muslim Pro’s data practices in app store listings and user-facing disclosures to maintain transparency.
— Only enabling location services if Muslim Pro users give their consent. If they do, their name, email address, and other personally identifiable information is automatically anonymized.
— Not storing the associated data or continuing to track users’ location on an ongoing basis.
“[If] the person says, ‘I am now in Singapore; what are the prayer times here?’ — but tomorrow, the person is in Indonesia and changes the location, we don’t keep the information for Singapore,” Khundker says. “We have only the last location the user asked us for.”
Informing and Uniting Users
In tandem with this dedication to data privacy, Muslim Pro’s creators are committed to bringing attention to important issues that affect the global Muslim community. After conflict arose between Palestine and Israel in 2023, for instance, Muslim Pro partnered with the Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund to sponsor a fundraising initiative.
Information about how to donate was added to the Muslim Pro app on a Friday night. Transactions in varying amounts — $2, $50, $100 — began accumulating, and by the end of the weekend, the donations totaled $200,000.
“Every donation, no matter how small, went directly to providing food, medical aid, and education for children affected by the crisis,” Khundker says. “Seeing our users come together and raise nearly half a million dollars was a testament to the power of community-driven impact.”
Beyond fundraising, Muslim Pro actively amplifies the voices of those affected. Through livestreams showcasing humanitarian efforts, interviews with key figures like the Palestinian ambassador to Malaysia, and educational social media content, the app sheds light on the resilience and cultural heritage of Palestine.
“As a team, we came [up] with a plan,” Khundker recalls. “We didn’t want to just talk about [the conflict] and add fuel to the fire. We wanted to concentrate more on some of the things the people in the region are going through, the story of the resilience in that part of the world.”
In the coming months, new features like guided journaling and interactive forums will help users cultivate mindfulness, deepen their spiritual reflections, and connect meaningfully with others. The app’s community section is scheduled to be relaunched before Ramadan; starting in the first week of March, users will have deeper, more meaningful ways to interact, including different types of forums, according to Khundker.
“We want people to share their thoughts,” he says. “It’s more [ways] of connecting. We want to be an app you turn [to] for anything you need to practice Islam — or anything you need in your daily life.”
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