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.