how to memorise the

In this third part of the series, we’re going to talk to you about the importance of learning the meaning and tafseer of the Aayaat.

As the majority of you probably do not speak Arabic, it would be extremely useful for you if you learnt the meaning behind the verses you are memorising and read their tafseer. This is a great tool for strengthening your memorisation and for helping to increase the presence and concentration of your heart whilst reciting and memorising the Book of Allaah. If whilst reciting a section you have memorised, you find yourself stuck at a particular aayah and are not sure what is coming next, knowing the meaning can help trigger your memory. And as there are many parts of the Qur’aan that narrate stories from past nations, it aids your memorisation when you understand and know the narrative.

The way to do this is to read the translation of the verses you are memorising before you start to memorise the new section, one verse at a time and its corresponding Arabic text. Try to compare the Arabic and English sentences and connect words that you know in Arabic to the English meaning. Also, if there is a specific word in the verse that will help remind you should you be made to forget, try to learn the word in Arabic.

In addition to this, should you choose to, you can read the tafseer of the verses. An abridged version of the Tafseer of Ibn Katheer has been completely translated into the English language in a ten volume set and is available at all good Islamic bookshops. This is very beneficial reading for any Muslim towards understanding the revelation of Allaah but even more so for the student of the Qur’aan.

Some of you may ask, ‘I don’t know Arabic anyway, so what is the point of me learning the English meaning in order to remember the Arabic Aayaat?’ This can be answered from two angles. Firstly, it is desirable for the student of the Qur’aan and its memoriser to have a basic understanding of the Arabic Language and the Qur’aan is the source, manual and explanation of this beautiful language. There are many verses of the Qur’aan in which making a mistake as simple as replacing a kasrah with a fathah can cause you to alter the meaning of the verse so much so that you would be uttering a statement of kufr (disbelief). An example of this is in Soorah al-Baqarah, verse 124 where Allaah says:

وَإِذِ ابْتَلَى إِبْرَاهِيمَ رَبُّهُ بِكَلِمَاتٍ فَأَتَمَّهُنَّ قَالَ إِنِّي جَاعِلُكَ لِلنَّاسِ إِمَامًا قَالَ وَمِن ذُرِّيَّتِي قَالَ لاَ يَنَالُ عَهْدِي الظَّالِمِينَ

And (remember) when the Lord of Ibraaheem (Abraham) [i.e., Allaah] tried him with (certain) Commands, which he fulfilled. He (Allaah) said (to him), “Verily, I am going to make you a leader (Prophet) of mankind.” [Ibraaheem (Abraham)] said, “And of my offspring (to make leaders).” (Allaah) said, “My Covenant (Prophethood, etc.) includes not Dhaalimoon (polytheists and wrong-doers).”

Mixing up the fatha on the letter meem in إِبْرَاهِيمَ (so that it reads Ibraaheemu) and dhamma on the letter ba in رَبُّهُ (so that it reads rabbahu) renders you to change the meaning of the verse to:

And (remember) when Ibraaheem tried his Lord….

This is a statement of kufr as Allaah is above being tested by any of His creation. This is a slightly complex example and mistakes concerning the vowels on the letters can be complicated for even those who have studied the Arabic language in detail.

But there are simpler examples which involve omitting prepositions and pronouns or mixing up letters such as replacing ta for ya in the word ta’lamu (you know) so that it reads ya’lamu (he knows).

Another good point for learning the tafseer and reading the translation is that the more you memorise of the Qur’aan, the more you will encounter Aayaat of very similar wording and this can make you confused but if you have a strong understanding of the verses, you will be able to distinguish the differences.

In time you will find that through applying this tip, you will increase in your knowledge of the Arabic language by acquiring a lot of vocabulary.

On a final note, please don’t put yourself in difficulty by trying to memorise the English translation as this isn’t something that we can see any benefit in. Even if you were to do it, you would eventually reach a point where you cannot continue because the English language and translation of the Qur’aan doesn’t retain the rhythmic and poetic flow of the original Arabic. So it is arguably impossible to memorise the English translation of the entire Qur’aan. If you are thinking of doing this, we would advise you to rather spend that time to learn the basics of Arabic as this will be much more useful to you.

In part one, we covered the two ways in which you can go about memorising. Today we’ll look at how to draw up a timetable so you go about your memorisation according to a well structured plan.

Get yourself a pen and paper and sit down with your mushaf and a calendar and formulate a day to day memorisation timetable that outlines the exact number of aayaat you will be memorising for that day and the date by which you aim to complete it. We suggest you make a timetable for the Juz you are starting on and once you complete that Juz, spend two weeks or so consolidating that Juz before drawing up another timetable and starting to memorise the next Juz. If the following Juz starts or ends in the middle of a soorah, then set up your timetable so that you complete the whole of that soorah too. For example, the 27th Juz starts halfway in Soorah adh-Dhaariyaat, so you would draw up your timetable to include the whole of Soorah adh-Dhaariyaat not just the portion that is included in that Juz.

If you know that you are weak at motivating and disciplining yourself, ask a close friend or family member to help you by giving them your timetable and asking them to monitor you and to make sure that you are meeting your targets.

Please note that it is important for you to set yourself realistic targets and are aware of your limitations. Do not over-load your memory because this will only cause you to forget it. As the famous saying goes, ‘Whoever tries to acquire knowledge quickly, he loses it quickly’. Also, remember not to set up a timetable that spans a large chunk of the Qur’aan. The reason we advise you to draw it up Juz by Juz is because you will find initially it takes you longer to memorise because it is new for you but once you have several ajzaa under your belt, you’ll be able to memorise twice as much as what you were memorising before. And this is from the beauty and wonders of the Qur’aan that the more you memorise, the easier it becomes for you to memorise. Indeed Allaah has said in the Qur’aan,

وَلَقَدْ يَسَّرْنَا الْقُرْآنَ لِلذِّكْرِ فَهَلْ مِن مُّدَّكِرٍ

And We have indeed made the Qur’aan easy to understand and remember, then is there any that will remember (or receive admonition)? [Al-Qamar 54:17]

Here is a sample timetable for Juz Tabaarak (the 29th Juz of the Qur’aan) for you to look at.

So now we’ve covered most of the prerequisites of memorising, we come to the act of memorising itself. Rather than presenting you with one long post for you to read, we decided to split it and write a short post for each point so it is easier for you to remember and implement each point as we go along.

This first part will focus on how to go about memorising a portion of the Qur’aan. Let us assume that you have set yourself a target of memorising half a page. There are two ways that you can go about doing this. Before explaining them to you, please remember that before memorising any portion make sure you are able to read it fluently and correctly without any mistakes. Read the portion along with an audio of your chosen recitor and if possible, have someone listen to you read it to double check that you have not made any errors. Once you’ve done this you can memorise in one of two ways;

The first way is to read the first aayah (verse) of the portion and repeat it several times over until you feel confident to recite it without looking at the mushaf. Then repeat the aayah several times from memory. Then repeat it again this time reading from the mushaf again to make sure what you’ve recited from memory is indeed correct. Once you have memorised the aayah, repeat the same process for the following aayah. Once you have memorised it as well, go back and recite the two aayaat together until you are confident you have learnt them. Keep repeating this process until you have completed your set portion for the day.

The second way is to read the entire portion over and over again and repeat it from memory once you feel confident in doing so. Similar to the first method, after repeating it from memory, recite it by looking at the mushaf to make sure there are no mistakes in what you have comitted to memory.

Both ways are correct and only you can judge what method works best for you. We have not specified for you a minimum number of times you should repeat an aayah because this is also dependent on the individual’s ability to grasp new content as well as the relative difficulty of the verse. We do not use the same method as one another and we vary in the number of times we have to repeat something to memorise it. So if you’re unsure about which method to use, try one and if it doesnt work for you then switch to the other. And each one of us will be able to gauge for ourselves whether we have repeated something enough to attempt reading it from memory.

There are several techniques you can use to make the process of memorising a new portion easier but we will cover that in a later post inshaaAllaah.