how to memorise the

Ok so people ask me how did you go about memorizing the entire Qur’aan brother Aboo Thaabit? From cover to cover? Was it not difficult? How can I do something like that?

Well to be honest it is very easy and I’ll let you guys in on a secret.

Memorising the Qur’aan is extremely easy, in fact even a parrot could do it! And it is this concept you have to come to terms with.

It really has to do with the mind-set of a person, meaning if you think something is hard you will naturally find it hard but if you think something is easy, it will become easy. So when you start, have the right mind-set and Ikhlaas.

Allaah tells you in the Qur’aan itself:

وَلَقَدْ يَسَّرْنَا الْقُرْآنَ لِلذِّكْرِ فَهَلْ مِن مُّدَّكِرٍ

Hence, indeed, We made this Qur’aan easy to remember, then is there anyone to remember it? (Al-Qamar 54:17)

Do you then doubt Allaah?

Secondly is the issue of discipline, I cannot stress this enough, if you want to be a haafidh you have to make time to memorize.

Basically you will have to be a loner, lock yourself in your room listen to a recording over and over again.

When I used to memorize I had a tape player and I used to rewind the tape over and over again trying my best to get the pronunciation and flow of the verse correct, sometimes late into the night and I could hear the rest of the family snoring.

Also try to immerse yourself in the Qur’aan, make your breathing, eating and even your spare time into Qur’aan.

Recite it whilst walking or perhaps sitting in class waiting for the teacher to arrive.

In your sunnah prayers stop reciting soorah Kawthar and Ikhlaas, try a new soorah and master it!

One of the things that inspired me to start memorizing was when I saw the Imaams of Makkah, namely Sudais and Shuraim, leading the Taraweeh prayers.

When I saw them stand there leading so many people with that confidence reciting the verses of Allaah off by heart I thought to myself WOW! If they can do it so can I!

And whatever spare time I got not memorizing in my room I used to sit in front of the tv and listen to their recitations.

I used to quiz my friends about the Qur’aan, test them and then letting them test me.

When you love something it truly becomes a pleasure.

Remember to stop thinking about when you will be finished. I remember the day I finished my Qur’aan I was sad, people said to me this should be the happiest day in your life! I said I am sad because now I don’t have any new Qur’aan to memorize.

So do not be hasty dear brothers and sisters rather take your time, do not see memorizing the Qur’aan as a task or burden, but rather enjoy the journey and process.

I realise there are a lot of things left unmentioned but I figured there are many articles like this one all over the internet and my intention was only to inspire fellow Muslims  to do the same thing as me and not to boast.

My younger brother threaded the same path as me and will finish the Qur’aan shortly too inshaaAllaah.

اللَّهُمّ اجْعَلْنَا لِلْمُتَّقِينَ إِمَامًا

O Allaah, make us leaders for the pious!

Taken from: http://khalduun.com/articles/quraan/the-quraan/ (with minor edits)

Imagine a roller-coaster ride with its many stops and starts, the adrenaline rush that you get and the test that you’re put through, both mentally and physically. Despite all this, you don’t want the ride to end. This has been my memorisation journey so far and it is one that will go on for a further time period that only Allaah Knows.

I spent some of my youth in Saudi Arabia where I used to attend a Qur’aan school and memorised a good chunk by the age of 7, and then we moved to the UK. I guess from this point onwards everything went downhill. My parents exerted all their effort in teaching me the English language and pushing towards excelling at secular studies. As a result, I lost virtually everything I had memorised and it was not until I started to learn about the Deen myself in my teenage years that I began to pursue lessons in Qur’aan again and encouraged my siblings too. It was from this point onwards that my journey restarted. But the hurdles in front of me were greater now as I had to literally start from the beginning, as in learn the alphabet all over again and I was in classes where I was with children much younger than myself but that didn’t put me off. Unfortunately, due to personal matters out of my control, I wasn’t able to attend these classes on a consistent basis and as a result, my progress was much slower than I would have liked. At times, I would become extremely disheartened by this but I carried on struggling and battling everyday in trying to put the Book of Allaah first. There were a lot of lessons that I learned from all those setbacks, and I am learning and benefitting from those lessons now. An example of such a setback was time management, I was really bad at that but now alhamdulillaah I’m certainly much better than before, and as with everything, I am striving to be better.

Even when I was able to memorise the Qur’aan, I was losing it shortly after. Why? Well, I wasn’t reviewing properly, I was using the wrong techniques and tools. And one thing you have to understand is that if you sin then you’ll most likely lose the Qur’aan, as it happened to imaam ash-Shaafi’ee (rahimahullaah) where his teacher advised him to abstain from sins. Furthermore, I wasn’t making the most of all the resources available to me such as tafseer of the Qur’aan and understanding the meaning of the aayaat or learning some of the Arabic words in order for me not to confuse two aayaat or the endings of these aayaat. The more I was memorising, the more I was coming across new styles of language in the Qur’aan, and so for example, I hit obstacles when it came to memorising certain soorahs such as Soorat-ul-Jinn and Soorah Shoora. This is normal and it shouldn’t make you depressed and stop you from progressing, and you just have to keep going inshaaAllaah and try out different approaches to help you see what works best for you.

So what steps did I take and what improvements have I seen?

Well firstly, helping my family to practice the Deen more has been a huge boost as they have been encouraging and supportive in my quest. Secondly, I got married. Having a companion to help you with memorisation, test you and help you with reviewing is really important, and if that companion has already been blessed with having memorised the Qur’aan (as is the case with me alhamdulillaah), then it is just amazing mashaallaah. Having a strong drive and love for the Qur’aan has kept me going despite the many pitfalls that I fell in. Even with these positive steps, I felt that I had to be alone and away from the many distractions surrounding me at home and so I decided to move, and what better place is there for the Qur’aan than Egypt mashaAllaah? I can honestly say that my time in Egypt is helping me a lot in terms of my memorisation as the only companion that I have other than my wife and teachers, is the Qur’aan. Memorising after Fajr is simply the best time for me right now, normally after I have completed my reviewing for the day. Furthermore, reading the tafseer and translation of the meaning of the Qur’aan, as well as studying the Arabic language are invaluable aids in terms of memorisation as well mashaAllaah, whilst increasing this great love for the Book of Allaah every day. It has been 3 months now and alhamdulillaah I have memorised just over 2 ajzaa (nearly finished Soorah Fussilat), something that may have taken me a year to do in London.

So how do I memorise in a typical day?

After Fajr, I review whatever I need to for the day, including anything new that I memorised the day before. After that, I will normally read the soorah that I’m currently memorising and the soorah before it (I am working my way up to al-Baqarah). Next I go to the new page and start memorising aayah by aayah, and don’t move forward until I am fluent in them. Depending on the soorah and the language, I may memorise half a page, a page or 2 pages in that time. In the case of a page or 2, I split it into 2 and again don’t move forward until I am able to fluently recite them. In the end, I recite the full page or 2. After this, I listen to Minshaawi and recite with him. When I find my wife free, then I get her to test me. Another method that has been very useful is getting my wife to recite the aayaat to me and I repeat after her. We do this verse by verse until I’ve memorised a whole page. This has been extremely beneficial for me when I am faced with soorahs that I am having difficulty in.  Even with this method, I would go back to the mushaf afterwards and use it to build a photographic imprint of the page in my memory. Alhamdulillaah these methods have helped me a lot and my goal is to finish the Qur’aan during my time here and I pray to Allaah that He facilitates that goal for me. Aameen. Until then, my journey with the Qur’aan continues.

What advice would I give to those who want to memorise?

Don’t give up and don’t ever think that you cannot do it. I often had these whispers running through my mind and only in the last month or so have I managed to push them away. Now that I look back, I realise that this negativity played a large role in setting me back. I am not one of those people who are able to memorise large chunks of the Qur’aan within minutes and when I started out, it took me a long time to memorise just a few aayaat but as I keep going, it has been getting easier to memorise alhamdulillaah and I realise how true Allaah’s words are when He said:

وَلَقَدْ يَسَّرْنَا الْقُرْآنَ لِلذِّكْرِ فَهَلْ مِن مُّدَّكِرٍ

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

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