how to memorise the

The love for the Holy Book and a determination to memorize it enabled a Saudi to overcome age and other barriers to fulfill a life’s ambition. Though he was above 70, Abdullah Muhammad Musa was able to memorize the Holy Qur’an and graduate with honors from the Qur’an Memorization Group for Adults at King Abdul Aziz Mosque here. He scored an average of 91 percent.
“When I was young, I memorized two chapters of the Holy Book but later forgot them completely, carried away by the cares of life,” Musa told Arab News. He, however, made it clear that his love for the Qur’an was always there and it was this love that pushed him to fulfill his dream at such an advanced age. He joined the special courses being held at mosques during the evenings for old men. “This gave old people like me and employees a chance to learn the Book of Allah,” he said. Musa said he began memorizing the Qur’an at King Abdul Aziz Mosque where he was able to learn 10 chapters by heart. “At first I faced great difficulty in pronunciation and Tajweed but was later able to overcome these problems,” he recalled.
He later joined the Qur’an memorization circle at Salah Karamah Mosque where he memorized all the 30 chapters of the Holy Book in two and a half years. “I used to memorize two to three pages every day during the day and in the evenings I would go to King Abdul Aziz Mosque to revise about two chapters of the Holy Book,” he said. Musa said without the encouragement and assistance from his wife and sons his quest to learn the Qur’an would have been unfulfilled. Despite his age, Musa walked daily for about six km from his house to the two mosques where he studied the Qur’an.
Muhammad Humaidan | Arab News JEDDAH:

Source: http://www.arabnews.com/?page=1§… KEN=77460159

An Interview with Umm Saalih, A Grandmother Who Completed Memorizing the Qur’aan at Eighty-Two Years Old

As Read by Dr. Saleh as Saleh (May Allah have Mercy upon him)

Al-Hamdulillaah (All-Praise is due to Allah), the One Who said (what means): “And in truth We have made the Qur’aan easy to remember; but is there any that remembers?” (Surah 54: 32)

Many all over the world memorize the Qur’aan, and it is not strange to see the youth memorizing the Noble Qur’aan and an early age. Al-Hamdulillaah, the One who made the Qur’aan easy for remembrance, had made it easy for Umm Saalih age 82. In an interview with Umm Saalih, she was asked the following questions:

Q1: “What was the reason that drove you to memorize the Qur’aan after so many years?”

She said, “I always hoped to memorize the Qur’aan from the time I was young. My father always used to invoke Allaah for me to become one of the memorizers of the Qur’aan, like himself and like the elder brothers of my family who memorized it. So I memorized in the beginning about three parts and then after I completed the age of thirteen, I got married and became busy with the household and the children. After I had seven children, my husband died. They (the children) were all young so I took the time to raise them and educate them, and then after they grew up and got married, I had more time for myself. Therefore, the first thing I directed myself to focus upon was the Qur’aan.

Q2: “Tell us about your journey with the Noble Qur’aan.”

She said, “My younger daughter was going to high school and she was the closest of my children to me and the most beloved, because she stayed with me after her older sisters got married and got busy with their lives, and because she was a quiet girl, upright, loving, and good. In addition, she was interested in learning the Noble Qur’aan, and her teachers encouraged her.

Furthermore, she was very enthusiastic and always told me of many women who were driven by this great motivation to memorize the Qur’aan, and this is where I started.”

Q3: “Tell me about your way of memorization.”

She said, “We assigned ten verses (meaning her and her daughter who was going to high school). So each day after Asr, we used to sit together. She reads and I repeat after her three times. Then she explains the meaning to me, and after a while, she repeats that three times. On the next morning, she repeats them to me before she goes to school.

She recorded also the recitations of Ash Shaykh al Husary, Rahimuhullaah, repeating each verse three times and thus I continued to listen most of the time. Therefore, the next day we would go to the next ten verses if my memorization was good. Otherwise, we would postpone taking additional verses until the day after. Moreover, we assigned the day of Friday to review the memorizations of the entire week. And this was the journey from the beginning.”

Then she said, “Over four years and a half, I memorized twelve juz” according to the way I described to you. Then this young daughter got married. When her husband knew of our task concerning the memorization, he rented a house close to me, close to my house, so that he could allow the continuation of the memorization. In addition, he, May Allah reward him used to encourage us and sometimes sit with us listening, explaining and teaching.

Then after three years of her marriage, my daughter got busy with the children and the household and our schedule was interrupted, but that did not make her give up. To the contrary, she sensed that my eagerness for the memorization was still established so she looked for a special good teacher to continue the journey under her supervision. So, I completed the memorization by the success of Allaah and my daughter is still working to finish the memorization of the Glorious Qur’aan. She has a little left, In Shaa Allaah Ta’aala.

Q4: “This motivation of yours, did it have an effect on other women around you?”

She said, “It really had a good strong effect. My daughters and stepdaughters were all encouraged and worked on learning and teaching the Qur’aan to their children and learning it themselves.

Q5: “After finishing the Noble Qur’aan, don’t you think about working on memorizing hadith?”

She said, “Now I have memorized ninety hadith and In Shaa Allaah I will continue the journey. I depend, in my memorization, upon the tapes and upon the Qur’aan radio station. At the end of each week, my daughter comes and checks for me the memorization of three hadith, and I am trying now to memorize more.

Q6: “Over this period of memorization of the Qur’aan, did your life change? Was it affected in one way or another?”

She said, “Yes, I went through a major change and I tried always, all praise is due to Allaah, to obey Allaah before I started the memorization. However, after I started the task of memorization, I began to feel a self-comfort, a great self-comfort and all worries began to move away from me. I even reached the stage of freeing myself from all these excessive worries concerning fearing for the children and their affairs, and my morale was boosted.

I had a noble objective to work for and this is a great Ni’mah (Favor) from Allaah . upon me, since we know that some women, when they get old and they do not have a husband, and their children got married, may be destroyed by the empty time, thoughts, worries, and so forth. But, AlHamdulillaah, I didn’t go through this and I made myself busy with a great task and a great objective.

Q7: “Didn’t you think at one point, to join one of the circles focusing on teaching the Noble Qur’aan?”
The answer was, “Yes, some of the women suggested this to me, but I am a woman who got used to staying at home, and I don’t like to go out everyday, and Al Hamdulillaah, my daughter sufficed me from all difficulty and I was so happy while I was learning from her. My daughter had set an example in goodness and righteousness which we rarely find in our days.

She started this task and journey with me while she was an adolescent and this is a critical age many people complain of. She used to pressure herself so that she could have spare time to teach me, and she used to teach me with kindness and wisdom. Her husband was a good help to her and he exerted a lot of effort. I ask Allaah . to give them success and to bring their children up on uprightness.”

Q8: “What do you say to a woman of your age who wishes to learn and memorize the Qur’aan yet she is worried about it and feeling unable to?”

She said, “I say to her there their shall be no despair with the firm, sincere and truthful determination. Begin with sincerity, firm determination and dependence on Allaah at each time. And remember that at this age you should have the time for yourself. However, do not use your time to only go out or to sleep and so forth. Rather, busy yourself with righteous work.

Q9: “Now what would you say to a woman who is still young? What would you advise her?”

She, may Allaah preserve her, said: “Preserve Allaah and He will preserve you. Make use of the favor of Allaah bestowed upon you from health and ways and means of comfort. Use that to memorize the Book of Allaah. This is the light which enlivens your heart, your life and your grave after you die.

And if you have a mother then exert the effort to teach her, and there is no better favor upon a mother than one of her righteous children aiding her to be close to Allaah.”

Presented on the 1st of Muharram 1426, Feb 10th 2005. Originally published in Ad-Da’wah Magazine, no.1552, 17th of Rabee’ Al-Awwal 1417,corresponding to Aug 1, 1996.

Source: Dr Saaleh as-Saaleh’s (rahmatullaahi ‘alayhi) website www.understand-islam.net

I found a small Arabic e-book a couple of years back, titled ‘How to memorise the Qur’aan in one Month’. At the time, I remember reading the title and thinking, ‘One month?! That’s impossible!’  I skimmed the pages of the PDF file but never read it until I completed my own memorisation. In the e-book, there were several accounts of how others managed to complete their hifdh but one story touched and inspired me a great deal. It is the story of a married sister by the name Umm Zayd who despite the responsibilities of housework, looking after children and tending to her husband’s needs, managed to memorise the entire Qur’aan under unique circumstances. I will briefly narrate her story to you in the hope that it will instil within you the encouragement and drive to achieve similar to what she did.

Umm Zayd doesn’t mention when she started her journey towards memorising the Qur’aan but she mentions how she felt the task would be unattainable and extremely difficult. She says she never dreamt in her wildest dreams that she would ever complete memorising the entire Qur’aan. When she first started to memorise, she began with Soorah al-Baqarah and Aali-‘Imraan, thinking they would be the hardest and take the longest. Her memorisation of these two chapters was extremely prolonged and lasted 7 years.

During one Ramadhaan, her husband told her that he would be spending the last fifteen remaining days performing I’tikaaf (seclusion) in the Haram (Makkah). This was difficult for Umm Zayd as she would be left alone with her four sons and they lived in a remote place, far away from family and friends, and the few neighbours she had did not mingle and preferred to keep to themselves. So when the time came for her husband to travel, she says, “I raised my hands to the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful and supplicated with a supplication of one in distress and tears poured from me, O My Lord, You are the Most Merciful of those who show mercy. Grant me righteous companions who are more virtuous than me so that I may (strive to) be like them and so that they may be for me the best of companions.” So Allaah answered her du’aa quickly. Whilst sitting in front of her computer one day, she came across an online academy for memorisers of the Qur’aan and at the time she did not realise that her entering this website was the answer to her supplication but she says she entered the website in a state of sadness and when she left, she was in a completely different state to that which she was when she entered. She met through this online academy the best of sisters who inspired her with their striving to reach this noble goal. She says, “There were sisters there who had memorised the Qur’aan in three days and (here) I was, in seven years I haven’t managed to memorise anything other than two chapters!” So Allaah removed Umm Zayd’s sadness and replaced it with a new found spirit and she said to herself, this Ramadhaan will be different from previous ones. She decided she would strive her utmost to complete memorising the Qur’aan in the last ten blessed days.

Umm Zayd reminded herself of the various ahaadeeth speaking of the virtues and rewards of the memorisers of the Qur’aan, those who are the best of mankind and who have gained the pleasure of Allaah and His abundant blessings! She wrote all these things down and placed them with her mushaf, which was to be her close companion on this journey.

She performed wudhoo (ablution), sat down and opened the mushaf. She began by placing her trust in Allaah and repeating out loudly the verse from the Qur’aan, ‘And We have indeed made the Qur’aan easy to understand and remember, then is there any that will remember (or receive admonition)?’ (Soorah al-Qamar 54:17). She set herself a target of memorising one page in ten minutes and so she memorised, page after page and each time she completed one page, Umm Zayd supplicated to Allaah to make firm her memorisation and said, “O My Lord, I commit to you what you have taught me so guard it for me.” She began to memorise from the time of Dhuhaa up until 2.30pm in the afternoon. She took a short break and returned to memorising up until close to the time of ‘Ishaa prayer. By the end of the day, she had memorised three juz!! Glory be to Allaah who grants these great blessings but unfortunately we do not know how to show due gratitude!

After six days, she had completed memorising twelve juz and started to contemplate whether she should continue memorising or review what she had covered so far. She sought the advice of the sisters she met via the online academy and they encouraged her to continue memorising. She looked forward to the return of her husband and for ‘Eed day to come, when she will have two joys; the joy of completing the fast of Ramadhaan and the joy of completing her memorisation.

But Allaah brought upon her trials to test her resolve and the sincerity of her intention; was she going to give in to the tests or would she continue to achieve her goal? On one particular day, she only managed to memorise two pages, not because she was unable to do so but because she became extremely busied by many things. Amongst them were that all her four sons fell ill with an extreme fever and she was awakened throughout the hours of the night tending to them, especially her youngest child who wept profusely. Then by the Will of Allaah, Umm Zayd herself fell ill but she did not stop memorising. She strove to do as much as she could until Allaah cured them all and kept saying to herself, “I will complete it soon InshaaAllaah.”

Their remained for her only ten juz to memorise and by the grace of Allaah, she memorised them quickly and easily. On the final day, she woke up that morning having dreamt a beautiful dream that this would be the day she completed memorising the Qur’aan and she was filled with immense joy. She had three juz remaining and by now, she was able to memorise an entire page in five to eight minutes. At 9pm that night, she completed her memorisation and she tells of how she was overcome with strange feelings and emotions, the like of which she had never experienced before, nor could she describe to the readers in words.

When she read the final verse, she threw herself onto the ground and prostrated a prostration of thankfulness, weeping out of happiness that she was finally carrying the Qur’aan in her chest. She thanked Allaah for granting her the ability to do so before death approached her and she hurried to share this happiness with her husband.

At the end of her account, she gives some final words of advice saying, “I am a woman like any other woman. I have a husband and children and they study in select schools known for their demanding curriculums and teaching methods. I memorised the Qur’aan without neglecting any of my duties and responsibilities, I put my children and (helping them with) their education first, and always hastened to do what would please my husband without falling short in giving him his rights and always fulfilled my obligations completely. And to Allaah is all Praise. O you mothers! By Allaah! Do not ever make excuses for your not memorising the Qur’aan. So how about those young girls who are not married and do not have such responsibilities upon them?”

She goes on to say, “When I thought that Soorah al-Baqarah and Aali ‘Imraan would be hard to memorise and take a long time, Allaah gave me that which I thought, for my memorisation of these two chapters was extremely prolonged. It took 7 years because I did not have good thoughts but when I placed my trust in Allaah and thought well of Him, and said I will memorise the entire Qur’aan in a short space of time, Allaah honoured me with the memorisation of His Book and made it easy for me….O you who wishes to memorise the Qur’aan! Place your trust in Allaah and be true and sincere and have good thoughts about Allaah that He will direct and facilitate that for you, for By Allaah, you will find that (you will reach that goal) quickly.”