I got asked the infamous question again, “What Islamic software should I install on the mac?” My theory is, if you get asked more than once, its probably worth putting pen to paper. Err, in this case fingers on the keyboard . Anyways here goes my list of apps.

1. For Quran I would recommend Zekr. By far, in my opinion, this app beats any other out there. Its open source, free and very highly customizable. I’m thinking of a separate post to cover Zekr but will highlight some key features here. In addition to the standard arabic and translation you will find:
   1. capability to search both in arabic and english
   2. multiple translations in different languages
   3. good for memorization
   4. selection of various reciters and on and on…
2. As for an app for hadith, I haven’t found one so far.
3. To keep track of prayer times, I use Guidance. Unlike Zekr, this app has a native feel. It was written specifically for the mac. Again this too is free. It has a lot of options and stays very nicely and quietly in the menubar.
4. Any serious student of knowledge will have the need to type in arabic. So go ahead and enable that option. It’s all there, nothing to download or install. Go to System Preferences > Language & Text*. If you don’t see عربي, click on ‘edit list’ and add it. Once you finish that go to ‘Input Source’ tab and select the keyboard layout. I use Arabic-QWERTY as its easily maps to the transliterated letter. For example, If I need to type Abu in arabic, I type A B U and get ابو.
5. Another thing you might want to have when taking notes or just writing, is the ability to quote verses from the Quran. One way is to copy paste from Zekr or some website. But if you do a lot of extensive typing you how much of  a pain it can become. This is where text expansion comes in handy. Text expansion software will auto expand snippets or some sequence of characters into a desired string. So, if I wanted the first verse of Surah Kahf, all I do is type “q18:1″ and  الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ الَّذِي أَنْزَلَ عَلَىٰ عَبْدِهِ الْكِتَابَ وَلَمْ يَجْعَلْ لَهُ عِوَجًا ۜ appears in my text.  In order to do this, I have an app called Typinator. Now along with that you will need a bundle for The Quran. I’ve started a project to create bundles for different text expansion software. Leave a comment below if you’d like to download a copy. You can check out my project page at http://github.com/mabdulghani/quran-verse-expander

And that’s about it for my list. If you need any help with the apps above, feel free to contact me.

*this is in Snow leopard(10.6). In Leopard(10.5) or Tiger(10.4) you are looking for ‘International’ in system preferences.