How to caption an Islamic lecture or khutbah for YouTube
YouTube’s automatic captions are trained on everyday English. They write “sort of bakara verse two fifty five” for Surah Al-Baqarah 2:255, turn “sallallahu alayhi wa sallam” into a different phrase every time, and give up entirely when the speaker recites. Uploading your own subtitle file fixes all of that, and it takes about ten minutes per talk.
1. Export the audio
Drop the finished mp4 straight in, or export an m4a/mp3 from your editor for a smaller, faster upload. Anything under 45 minutes runs in the browser. For a full 60-minute lecture, split it into two parts.
2. Choose your house style before you transcribe
Deenscribe renders honorifics, Qur’an citations and transliteration according to settings, so decide once for your channel:
- Honorifics: ﷺ ﷻ رضي الله عنه are compact and unambiguous and suit burned-in captions; (SAW) and (RA) are common in English Muslim writing; the English forms suit audiences new to Islam.
- References: “Surah Al-Baqarah (2:255)” for general audiences, “Al-Baqarah 2:255” for study channels, “Qur’an 2:255” for academic or interfaith content.
- Transliteration: Simple for most channels; Academic (ṣalāh, in shāʾ Allāh) for institutes and publications.
- Arabic: keep recitation in Arabic script, or tag it [Recitation] so viewers who don’t read Arabic understand what is happening.
3. Transcribe with the language set to Auto
Auto lets Whisper switch to Arabic when the khatib recites, so the ayah appears in Arabic script in its own cue. If the talk has no recitation, English only is slightly more accurate for transliterated phrases.
4. Review the corrections panel
Every change is listed with a timestamp: click one to hear that moment. This is the place for a reviewer from your community to check citations, since Deenscribe formats what was spoken and does not verify it against the mushaf.
5. Download .srt and upload it to YouTube
In YouTube Studio open the video, choose Subtitles, then Add under your language and Upload file with timing. YouTube indexes the caption text for search, which is why a correctly spelled “Ibn Taymiyyah” or “Riyad as-Salihin” helps people find the talk.