how to memorise the

One of the most powerful tools to aid your memorisation is du’aa (supplicating to Allaah). You should make du’aa to Allaah and ask him to make this task easy for you, to help you to grasp the Qur’aan in your heart, to enable you to ponder upon its verses, understand and implement them and to purify your soul and adorn you with the character of the Qur’aan.

Allaah, Subhaanahu wa Ta’aalaa, says in the Qur’aan:

وَإِذَا سَأَلَكَ عِبَادِي عَنِّي فَإِنِّي قَرِيبٌ أُجِيبُ دَعْوَةَ الدَّاعِ إِذَا دَعَانِ فَلْيَسْتَجِيبُواْ لِي وَلْيُؤْمِنُواْ بِي لَعَلَّهُمْ يَرْشُدُونَ

And when My slaves ask you (O Muhammad) concerning Me, then (answer them), I am indeed near (to them by My Knowledge). I respond to the invocations of the supplicant when he calls on Me (without any mediator or intercessor). So let them obey Me and believe in Me, so that they may be led aright. (Al-Baqarah 2:186)

He also said in Soorah Ghaafir,

وَقَالَ رَبُّكُمُ ادْعُونِي أَسْتَجِبْ لَكُمْ إِنَّ الَّذِينَ يَسْتَكْبِرُونَ عَنْ عِبَادَتِي سَيَدْخُلُونَ جَهَنَّمَ دَاخِرِينَ

And your Lord said: “Invoke Me, [i.e. believe in My Oneness] (and ask Me for anything) I will respond to your (invocation). Verily! Those who scorn My worship [i.e. do not invoke Me, and do not believe in My Oneness] they will surely enter Hell in humiliation!” (Ghaafir 40:60)

Indeed the promise of Allaah is True and unlike the creation, He will never let you down. So here is your creator, calling out to you to ask Him of His bounties and favours and condemns those who do not ask of Him. Contemplate on these verses and realise the extent of His Mercy to His Creation.

In an authentic narration, the Messenger of Allaah informs us that anyone who raises his/her hands up in supplication, Allaah is shy to return His slaves empty-handed [Aboo Daawood (2/78), at-Tirmidhee (5/557), Ibn Maajah (2/1271) and Ibn Hajar said its chain was good].

From the beauty of our religion and the perfect example set by the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, is that we have at our disposal hundreds of supplications that can be used for every situation and action in our daily lives so that our hearts are always connected to Allaah and His Rememberance is always on our tongues. Memorising the Qur’aan is no different. We have compiled for you a list of supplications to use in your prayers.

It is beyond the scope of this post to discuss the etiquettes of du’aa in detail but we would like to briefly mention that there are certain blessed times when one’s supplications are more likely to be answered. Of these blessed times are:

• The last third of the night
• Whilst in sujood (prostration)
• Between the adhaan and Iqaamah
• During rainfall
• An hour on Friday (the strongest opinion being that it is the last hour of Salaatul-‘Asr)
• Whilst drinking Zamzam water
• On laylatul-Qadr (the Night of Power)
• On the Day of ‘Arafah (in ‘Arafah)
• During the month of Ramadhaan
• When one is travelling
• Whilst one is fasting

Etc…and there are many many more but these are just a few.

The supplications….

اللهم علمني ما ينفعني، وانفعني بما علمتني، وزدني علماً

Allaahumma ‘allimnee maa yanfa’unee wa yanfa’unee bi maa ‘allamtanee wa zidnee ‘ilma

O Allaah! Teach me that which will benefit me and benefit me with that which you have taught me and Increase me in knowledge!

اللهم : اني عبدك, وابن عبدك, ابن أمتك, ناصيتي بيدك, ماضى فيّ حكمك, عدل فيّ قضاؤك, أسألك بكل اسم هم لك سمّت به نفسك, أو أنزلته في كتابك أو علّمته أحدا من خلقك, أن تجعل القرآن ربيع قلبي, ونور صدري, وجلاء حزني, وذهاب همّي وغمّي اللهم امين يارب العالمين اللهم امين يارب العالمين

Allaahumma Innee ‘abduka wabnu ‘abdik ibnu amatik naasiyatee biyadik maadhin fiyya hukmuk ‘adlun fiyya qadhaa-uk, As-aluka bikulli-s-min huwa lak sammayta bihee nafsak aw anzaltahoo fee kitaabik aw ‘allamtahoo ahadan min khalqik, an taj’ala-l-qur’aana-l-‘atheema rabee’a qalbee wa noora sadree wa jalaa-a huznee wa dhahaaba hammee wa ghammee. Allaahumma Aameen yaa rabba-l-‘aalameen

O Allaah! I am Your servant, son of Your servant, son of Your maidservant, my forelock is in Your hand, Your command over me is forever executed and Your decree over me is just. I ask You by every name belonging to You which You name Yourself with, or revealed in Your Book, or You taught to any of Your creation, or You have preserved in the knowledge of the unseen with You, that You make the Qur’aan the life of my heart and the light of my breast, and a departure for my sorrow and a release for my anxiety.

اللهم ارحمني بالقرآن و اجعله لي إماما و نورا و هدى و رحمة

اللهم ذكرني منه ما نسيت و علمني منه ما جهلت و ارزقني تلاوته آناء الليل و أطراف النهار واجعله لي حجة يارب العالمين

Allaahumma-r-hamnee bil-qur’aan wa-j-‘alhu lee imaaman wa nooran wa hudaan wa rahma. Allaahumma dhakirnee minhu maa naseet wa ‘allimnee minhu maa jahilt war-zuqnee tilaawatahoo aanaa-al-laylee wa atraafa-n-nahaar waj-‘alhu lee hujjatan yaa rabbal-‘aalameen

O Allaah! Have Mercy upon me by the Qur’aan and make it for me a criterion, a light, a guidance and mercy. O Allaah! Remind me from it that which I have forgotten and become heedless of and teach me form it that which I am ignorant of. And grant me its recitation throughout the night and day and make it a proof for me O Lord of the Worlds!

اللهم إني أسألك خير المسألة و خير الدعاء و خير النجاح و خير العلم و خير العمل و خير الثواب و خير الحياة و خير الممات و ثبتني و ثقل موازيني و حقق إيماني و ارفع درجتي و تقبل صلاتي و
اغفر خطيئاتي و أسألك العلا من الجنة

Allaahumma innee asaluka khayral mas-ala wa khayra-d-du’aa wa khayra-n-najaah wa khayra-l-‘ilmi wa khayral-‘amal wa khayra-th-thawaab wa khayral-hayaa wa khayral-mamaat wa thabbitnee wa thaqqil mawaazeenee wa haqqiq eemaanee warfa’ darajatee wa taqabbal salaatee waghfir khatee-atee wa asaluka-l-‘ulaa minal-jannah

O Allaah! I ask you for the best of matters, the best supplication, the best success, the best knowledge, the best deed, the best reward, the best life and the best death. Make me firm and make my scales (of good deeds) heavy. Make my faith true, and elevate my status. Accept my prayer and forgive my sins. And I ask you for the loftiest place in Paradise.

اللهم اهدني إلى أحسن الأخلاق، لا يهدي لأحسنها إلا أنت، واصرف عني سيئها، لا يصرف عني سيئها إلا أنت

Allaahumma-h-dinee ilaa ahsanil-akhlaaq, laa yahdee li-ahsanihaa illaa anta, wasrif ‘annee sayyiahaa, laa yasrifu ‘annee sayyiahaa illaa anta

O Allaah! Guide me to the best of character, for verily, none guides to the best of character except You. And keep me away from the bad character, for verily, none can keep me away from the bad character except You.

اللهم لاتشمت أعدائى بدائى وأجعل القرأن العظيم دوائى وشفائى أنت ثقتىورجائى
وأجعل حسن ظنى بك شفائى ، اللهم ثبت علي عقلى ودينى ،وبك يارب ثبت لي يقينى وأرزقنى رزقا حلالا يكفينى وأبعد عنى شر من يؤذينى ، اللهم أسترنى على وجه الأرض ، اللهم أرحمنى فى بطن الأرض ، اللهم أغفر لى يوم العرض

Allaahumma laa tushmit a’daaee bidaaee waj’alil-qur’aanal-‘adheema dawaaee wa shifaaee anta thiqatee wa rajaaee waj’al husna dhannee bika shifaaee. Allaahumma thabbit ‘alayya ‘aqlee wa deenee wa bika yaa rabbi thabbit lee yaqeenee warzuqnee rizqan halaalan yakfeenee wa ab’id ‘annee sharra man yu-dheenee. Allaahumma-s-turnee ‘alaa wajhil-ardh. Allaahumma-r-hamnee fee batnil-ardh. Allaahumma-ghfirlee yawma-l-‘ardh

O Allaah! Do not let my enemies take malicious pleasure in my illness, and make the great Qur’aan my cure and treatment. I am the ill and you are the Curer. You are my trust and hope. Fulfil my hope of cure. O Allaah, protect my intelligence and my religion for me, and make my trust in You firm, O my Lord. Provide me with sufficient permissible provision; keep away from me the evil of the one who hurts me. O Allaah, provide me with cover on the face of the earth. O Allaah show mercy to me under the ground. O Allaah forgive me on the day of presentation.

اللهم آتني الحكمة التي من أوتيها فقد أوتي خيراً كثيراً

Allaahumma aatinee-l-hikmah al-latee man ooteehaa faqad ootiya khayran katheeran

O Allaah! Grant me wisdom, that which to whom you have granted it to, has indeed been granted abundant good.

A final word….

There is a du’aa that is found in some books about ‘Ali, may Allaah be pleased with him, seeking advice from the Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wasallam, about memorising the Qur’aan and not forgetting it. The text of the narration is as follows:

Ibn `Abbaas (May Allaah be pleased with him) related the following:

We were with the Messenger of Allaah (Peace and blessings be upon him) when `Ali (May Allaah be pleased with him) and said, “Bi abi anta wa ummi, O Messenger of Allah: this Qur’aan has slipped from my breast, and I do not find myself capable of it!”

So the Messenger of Allaah (Peace and blessings be upon him) said, “O Aba al-Hasan! Should I not teach you words that Allaah will benefit you with, and that He will benefit with them anyone whom you taught them to, and firmly fix what you learnt in your breast?”

He said, “Of course, O Messenger of Allaah! Teach me.”

He said, “When it is Friday night and you are able to get up in the last third of the night – since it is an observed time and during it supplication is answered, and my brother Ya`qoob said to his sons “I will seek forgiveness for you from my Lord” until Friday night comes, and if you are not able then rise in the middle, and if you are not able then rise in the beginning, and pray four raka’at. Recite al-Faatihah and Yaa Seen in the first raka`ah, al-Faatihah and ad-Dukhaan in the second raka`ah, al-Faatihah and as-Sajdah in the third, and al-Faatihah and Tabaarak in the fourth. When you finish the tashahud praise and completely extol Allaah, make prayers upon me and the other prophets, seek forgiveness for the male and female believers and for your brothers preceding you in belief, and then at the end of this say:

“O Allaah, have mercy on me so that I stay away from sinning for as long as I live! Have O Allaah, the Creator of the heavens and the earth, the Glorious and Honorable and Almighty, I beg you, the most Merciful, calling upon Your Glory and the Light of Your Face, to oblige my heart to remember Your Book the way You taught me. Bless me to read it the way that will please You! My Lord, the Creator of the heavens and the earth, You Who are absolute in Your might, I implore You the most Merciful, calling upon Your Glory and Light of Your Face, to illuminate with you Qur’aan my sight, to move with it my tongue and make it easy on my heart. With it make my chest wide and clean my body. Truly, on the path of Truth only You can help me and only You are able to give me the Truth. There is no might no power except with Allaah, the most High, and the most Glorious!”

O, Aba al-Hasan! Do this three, five, or seven Fridays and you will be answered by Allaah’s leave. [I swear] by the One who sent me: It will never err a believer.”

To which Ibn `Abbaas (May Allaah be pleased with him) adds:

[I swear] by Allaah: `Ali (May Allaah be pleased with him) did not wait save five or seven [times] until he came to the Messenger of Allaah (Peace and blessings be upon him) in a similar assembly and said, “O, Messenger of Allaah (Peace and blessings be upon him)! In the past I would only take something like four verses and if I read them to myself they would depart me, while today I learn something like forty verses and when I recite them to myself it is as if the Book of Allah is in front of my eyes; and I used to hear Ahadeeth and when I repeated it, it would depart me, while today I hear Ahaadeeth and when I recount them I do not drop a single letter from it.”

So the Messenger of Allaah (Peace and blessings be upon him) at that point said, “A believer [I swear] by the Lord of the Ka`bah O, Aba al-Hasan!”

This was narrated by at-Tirmidhee and al-Haakim. We wanted to bring this to your attention because most scholars say it is not an authentic hadeeth and should not be implemented.

In this post, we will discuss a few things that you need to do before actually starting to memorise the qur’aan.

Purifying your intention
First and foremost, the most important thing is to purify your intention. From the basic teachings of our religion is that every deed is rewarded according to its intention. The Messenger of Allaah, peace and blessings be upon him, said:
“Verily actions are by intentions, and every man shall have what he intended.” [Saheeh al-Bukhaaree and Saheeh Muslim]

Know that you are about to embark on a journey to carry out one of the greatest and most blessed deeds, a journey that will make you from the best of people amongst mankind, a journey that will make you one of the protectors of Allaah’s Speech and revelation. The rewards for memorising the Qur’aan are immense and so it is important that your heart is purified from anything that will taint your intention and as a result give you no fruits for the time you spent memorising and reciting the Qur’aan.
There are many people who memorise the Qur’aan but this doesn’t automatically make them from the people of the Qur’aan. They may have done so to please other than Allaah and seek His Pleasure and as a result, Allaah does not accept this deed from them and they will be punished due to the shirk they have committed. We cannot stress the importance of the issue of intention and due to not wanting to make this post too long for you to read, we are keeping it short but there are many books and articles written on this topic which you can refer to.

Make tawbah (repentance to Allaah)

There is a famous verse of poetry attributed to Imaam ash-Shaafi’ee (rahimahullaah) in which he wrote:

شكوت الى وكيع سوء حفظى . فأرشدنى الى ترك المعاصى

وأخبرنى بـأن العلـم نــور . ونور الله لا يهدى لعاصى

I complained to Wakee’ about my poor memory

So he advised me to leave off sinning

And informed me that knowledge is a light

And that the light of Allah is not bestowed upon a sinner

It is narrated that Imaam ash-Shaafi’ee complained to his Shaykh (al-Wakee’) about his weak memory after seeing the ankles of a non-mahram woman caused him to forget much of what he memorised. To many of us living in the West, hearing this shocks us because every day we are exposed to images much worse than this and our hearts have hardened so much due to the evils around us that we don’t appreciate fully the effect this incident had on Imaam ash-Shaafi’ee.

Therefore, it is important that prior to starting to memorise, you repent to Allaah from any major or minor sins you have committed and that once you do start, you continually increase in your daily istighfaar (seeking forgiveness). No one amongst us is perfect and if we were to sit and ponder on the number of sins we commit in just one day, we would be ashamed to stand in front of our Merciful and Loving Rabb. Remember that you need to strive within yourself to abstain from sin and with each aayah you memorise, make it a point to implement its teachings in your character and life. Because the Qur’aan is not just there to be recited, but to be acted upon as well. And no one has more of a duty to act according to the Qur’aan than those who carry it in their chests.

Learn to recite fluently

The third point is that if you want to memorise the Qur’aan but your reading of Arabic is not fluent, we would strongly advise you to work on improving your reading fluency first. By this we don’t mean learn tajweed but rather that you should be able to read the verses of the Qur’aan well enough in the same way you would for example be reading a book in english. Yes there are some difficult words that even fluent readers would be a little tongue-tied with and this is fine. But if you know that you struggle reading from the mushaf and depend highly on just using audios to learn the Qur’aan, then please believe us when we tell you that you won’t be able to progress too far in memorisation, nor will your memorisation be as strong as that of someone who was using and reading from the mushaf. There are many reasons for this and inshaaAllaah, we will be writing a post soon solely on this point.

Get a copy of a Mushaf

If you have read any tips on memorisation, you’ll know that one of the points that is always mentioned is to always memorise from the same copy of the mushaf. From personal experience, we can tell you that this is without a doubt an important element to strengthening your memorisation as the mind memorises with sight as much as it does by other means.

We recommend you get yourself a good medium-sized copy of the mushaf written in a clear script that is easy for you to read and compact enough for you to carry around with you. I (Aboo ‘Abdillaah) use the green A4 sized mushaf from saudi, the kind you find all over the haram whereas I (Ummu ‘Abdillaah) use a smaller A5 sized mushaf which is still written in the same script. Some people prefer to use a much larger mushaf as they cannot see very clearly on smaller ones. Whatever you choose, just make sure you discipline yourself to always use that copy.

Get an audio set of a good recitor

In the same way you will only memorise from one mushaf, we advise you to choose one recitor to assist in your memorisation. Download a set of audios (preferrably of high CD Quality) onto your iPod or mp3 player and use it to listen to the portion you are memorising or for reviewing sections you have already completed. When it comes to choosing a recitor, we strongly recommend that you listen to one of the following:

• Mahmood Khaliyl al-Hosary
• Muhammad Siddeeq al-Minshaawy
• ‘Abdul-Baasit ‘Abdus-Samad
• ‘Abdur-Rasheed ‘Ali Soofi

This point is something a lot of people seem to find difficult to stick to. The majority of Muslims are inclined to listening to the recitation of popular recitors (such as ‘Abdurrahmaan as-Sudays, Sa’ood Shuraym and Maher al-Mueqli) or ones with a very beautiful melody or rhythm (such as Mishaary Raashid, Faaris ‘Abbaad and Muhammad al-Barraak). No doubt, the recitation of the Qur’aan is beautiful in itself and listening to a recitor with a beautiful melody increases it in beauty. However, we advise you to stay away from listening to these recitors and sticking to one of the above for several reasons but the most important being the following two:

1. As someone who, by the Will of Allaah, will become a Haafidh, it is important that you learn tajweed (at least the basics of it) and recite with it. The recitors we have recommended are from the professional Qurraa (those who have mastered the science of tajweed, have had their recitation corrected from al-Faatihah all the way to an-Naas by a Shaykh and in most cases have been granted an Ijaazah in more than one recitation of the Qur’aan). Their recitation and application of the rules of tajweed is of the highest precision and listening to them will help you to learn and apply the rules of tajweed without you even realising it. It will also improve your pronounciation of the letters (makhaarij) as you will be hearing exactly how they should sound.
2. The second reason is that because these recitors are reciting with tarteel, they do not have any distinct melody or rhythm. In contrast to the melodious recitors, when you listen to the Qurraa your focus is on the sound, beauty and perfection of the recitation in its raw form whereas if we were honest to ourselves, most of the time when we are listening to the more melodious recitors, we focus more on the uniqueness and beauty of their melody. We’ve both come across many brothers and sisters who everytime they hear a recitation with a nice melody, switch to that recitor until they hear the next beautiful melody. They become so lost in trying to imitate that recitor’s melody that when they have memorised a portion of the Qur’aan and try to read that portion along with a recitor they are not familiar with, suddenly they become confused and cannot complete it. This will never happen to you if you listen to the Qurraa.

Find Yourself a teacher

Although we mention this, we know it is not something that everyone is able to do. As we mentioned before, Ummu ‘Abdillaah memorised the Qur’aan without a teacher or anyone else helping her. Each one of us can judge for ourselves whether we need a teacher or not. If you are someone who is prone to making mistakes and have not previously read the entire Qur’aan to a good recitor, then it is best to find yourself someone who can listen to your memorisation and correct it. On this point, we feel its necessary to clarify that you do not need a teacher who has an ijaazah (a formal chain leading all the way back to the Messenger of Allaah, peace and blessings be upon him, certifying that someone has memorised the entire Qur’aan, has mastered the rules of tajweed and recites it in the way it was revealed to the Prophet by the angel Jibreel). As someone who has not yet completed memorising the Qur’aan, what you need is someone who can pronounce the Arabic letters and read Arabic well. What most people here in the West fail to understand, is that if you were to go to the Arab countries and ask someone with Ijaazah to teach you, a good teacher who is dedicated to their work will tell you to go to a memorisation school where the focus is to simply memorise and read fluently (not learn tajweed) and thereafter learn the basics of tajweed (and perhaps also memorise the two poems Tuhfat-ul-Atfaal and Muqaddimat-ul-Jazaariyyah). Once you have completed these two conditions they will sit and teach you towards obtaining an ijaazah. So if you have not completed memorising the Qur’aan or cannot even read Arabic fluently, don’t make it a condition upon yourself that you will only learn from someone with an ijaazah. If you know of someone who can read Arabic well and doesn’t have an ijaazah, go to them and ask them to listen to you read or to teach you how to read fluently.

Make memorisation of the Qur’aan your number one priority

If you really are sincere and true in your desire to memorise the Qur’aan, you need to make it your number one priority. Everything else in your life should work around this goal instead of the other way round. Merely saying you want it isn’t enough, your actions are what will prove the statement of your tongue. And if Allaah sees you striving to succeed in it, He will make it easy for you as He has said in Soorah al-’Ankaboot:

وَالَّذِينَ جَاهَدُوا فِينَا لَنَهْدِيَنَّهُمْ سُبُلَنَا وَإِنَّ اللَّهَ لَمَعَ الْمُحْسِنِينَ

As for those who strive hard in Us (Our Cause), We will surely guide them to Our Paths. And verily, Allaah is with the Muhsinoon (good doers). [Al-'Ankaboot 29:69]

And lastly, make lots of du’aa (supplication)

The final point is a reminder that you should constantly make lots of du’aa to Allaah and ask Him to make this path easy for you, to make you of the People of the Qur’aan in this life and the next, to make you of those who recite His Book during the day and during the night, to make the Qur’aan the light of your heart and your refuge in times of hardship and sorrow, to make you strong against the plots of Shaytaan as he tries to deter you from the Qur’aan and to make you from those who emulate the Qur’aan in their characters.