Reflections from my journey to memorize Quran

I started memorizing Quran as a mother of a toddler and a baby.

During the first few years of this journey, I read every available book and article with tips on how to memorize Quran while I struggled to find the time and energy to push my memorization forward.

In a way those tips made things worse. As most of the tips ran along the line “set aside a fixed time every day for hifdh, find a quiet distraction free place…..” and so on.

But as every mother with babies and young kids (and even older kids!) can tell that a quiet distraction free time and place doesn’t exist in the motherland. At least not if you want to raise your kids yourself and not delegate this job to a nanny or a day care.

So, I struggled. And felt hopeless. At that time, I had two choices:

1. Leave the memorization of the Quran until my kids were older
2. Carry on with the memorization even if it was not perfect. Even if I wasn’t achieving much.

I chose the second option. And all thanks and gratitude to Allah who made me chose the second. I know choosing the first option would have deprived me of so many blessings!

My journey to memorize the Quran is still going on. Even after years I haven’t completed my hifdh yet.

But at some point, during this journey, I realised that this whole idea of memorizing Quran in two, five, ten years is wrong. This whole idea of being done with memorization is wrong.

I realised that there is no shortcut to memorizing Quran. Hifdh takes time, patience, and dedication. It is a commitment for life. Even if a person memorizes the whole Quran in a year or two, their hifdh journey doesn’t end. It is a life-time commitment to revise and reconnect with what you have memorized.

And it makes sense. The purpose of hifdh is to make Quran a bigger and deeper part of our lives. So why should the process end? Is there ever a time and space where we don’t need to get closer to the word of Allah? Is there anyone who can say that they have made all the connection they needed with the Quran?

So, I shifted my focus from completing the hifdh to making hifdh-al-Quran a part of my life. A lifestyle change, which can be sustained for years to come. A steady and constant connection to the word of Allah, rather than quick spontaneous bursts and then combustion.

Along with this realization also came the discovery that a route memorization where I can rattle off the ayaat at top speed without understanding a word, or without letting the words make an impact in my life, is not what I want.

I also learnt that there is no one size fits all system to memorize, revise and study Quran. We all must come up with our own unique systems that work for us. Especially people who, like myself, have started this journey later in life and hence cannot dedicate their days solely to their hifdh. People who are working full time to support their families, mothers of young ones, people caring for elderly patients, people going through any other thing that life may throw at us.

But we may find inspiration from each other. With this in mind, I am sharing a few things about my own journey to memorize Quran and things that work for me. I hope some of the things I am writing may help you or inspire you in your own journey to memorize Quran.

1. Recitation of the Quran from cover to cover is extremely important

In my zeal to complete the memorization quickly I used to cut short on the recitation of the whole Quran. Since I haven’t memorized the whole Quran, focusing only on the memorized portion meant that I wasn’t reading the whole Quran very often.

I started spending more time on reciting from the Mushaf. And I found that without the pressure to recall from the memory I can focus better on the meanings and melody of the Quran and can think at a deeper level.

It may be different for you. You may find that you can ponder on the meanings better when reciting from memory. Do what works best for you. But if you haven’t memorized the whole Quran don’t neglect the recitation of those parts which are not yet a part of your memory.

2. I learnt Arabic

So I could understand Allah’s words directly, without the medium of a translation.

I stopped memorizing new portions altogether for a couple of years and spent more time and energy learning Arabic.

Pausing hifdh may feel counterproductive but I had limited time and energy. And knowing Arabic has actually made my memorization a lot faster and less error prone.

3. I eliminated the time factor from my memorization completely

Rather than thinking about the daily goals or monthly goals (for example half a page daily) I now think in terms of completing my target portion. The only commitment I have with my self is to memorize every single day. Be it one ayah or ten.

My target portion is one quarter of a hizb or an entire surah if it is around this size. I do not set aside any daily portion or a time frame as to how much I must do every day. Depending on various factors the amount I can manage to memorize in a day varies greatly.

I may complete my target portion in a few days or a few weeks. But as far as I am memorizing every day, or most of the days, I am okay with that.

4. I not only memorize a portion, I study it

I start with tajweed, trying to go over the rules of tajweed, listening to master Quraa’s recitation and improve my own recitation.

I read books of tafseer for that portion in all three languages (English, Urdu, Arabic). I read contemporary tafaseer and classical tafaseer. I read everything I can lay my hands on. I listen to lectures on that portion and read other books discussing that portion.

I study the grammar of those ayaat and go over the balaghah (rhetoric). And I listen and I write it.

And meanwhile I keep memorizing that portion ayah by ayah. So, by the time I have memorized that portion I have understood it well and all the repetition in various forms helps me retain that portion better.

If I manage to memorize the portion before I have read all the tafseer/grammar books about it, I usually don’t move to next portion until I am done with reading those books.

Due to this reason alone, it usually takes me a lot longer to memorize. For example, reading/listening to surah alHadeed’s various tafaseer took me practically months. (Since Surah alHadeed is one of the deepest surahs in Quran and has many ayaat of very profound meaning and rulings)

But since I have moved my attention away from the time factor the delay doesn’t bother me. Rather I enjoy the process more and benefit from my memorization more. Alhamdulillah!

5. Revision is very important

More important, in fact, than memorizing new portions. I learnt this the hard way. There are days where I don’t memorize a large chunk just so I can complete my revision for the day.

Once I have completed memorizing my target portion, I revise it every day for at least a week. After which it is moved to my revision system.

After trying various revision methods, I have come up with a simple revision system which suits me and my extremely busy schedule well. You can read more about my revision system towards the end of this post.

6. Reciting the memorized portion in salaah has huge benefits

Not only does it strengthen my hifdh it helps me attain khushoo in salaah.

7. Reciting to someone else is also very helpful

I usually recite a couple of pages a few times a week to one of my kids. Before they were old enough, I used to recite to anyone who was willing to volunteer.

If your schedule allows it reciting to a teacher is the best, especially if your tajweed is not good enough. And in this day of technology reciting to teachers has become more accessible, Alhamdulillah!

8. I don’t memorize in sequence

I don’t memorize Quran based on juz. I like to memorize surah by surah. And I don’t memorize the surahs in sequence either.

Sometimes a surah or a passage resonates with me strongly. Or I like reciting it. Or I love to ponder over its meanings. Or there is something else which sparked my interest in that surah. In that case I memorize it first.

That doesn’t mean that I keep jumping around. But let’s say I completed my target portion and usually I go to the portion next to it. But if there is a portion from somewhere else which I am feeling connected to at the moment I would go and memorize that first.

My Revision system

When I am reciting the Quran cover to cover, I always read from a Mushaf. Even the parts I have already memorized, a personal preference.

But to strengthen my memorization I must recall the portions from the memory. Since active recall is the only way to retain what you have memorized. Reading portions that you have memorized from a Mushaf will not strengthen your memorization.

Since I cannot dedicate a set time for revision, I struggled with revision a lot. What I wanted was to mark portions I must recite each day and revise them whenever I get a chance.

I also like spaced repetition techniques like a Leitner system. In this method flashcards are sorted into groups according to how well the learner knows each one in the Leitner’s learning box.

And being a techy person, I wanted a digital solution. But free 😀

So, naturally the first thing I tried was the spaced repetition software Anki. But Anki and other software are made for memorizing flashcards, or short chunks of information, and their algorithm didn’t suit me to revise Quran.

I wanted a simpler system with five levels. My idea is that portions are assigned different levels. Portions at level 1 are revised every day. Level two is every two days, level 3 is every four days, level 4 is every 8 days, and finally level 5 is every sixteen days.

A portion which enters the revision system enters at level 1. Once I revise it and if there are less than five mistakes it moves to the next level and so on until it reaches the final level which is level 5. But if at any level I make more than five mistakes, or get stuck more than five times, the portion goes back to level 1 and must climb its way up again.

This way I end up revising the weaker portions more often and all portions get revised at least once every sixteen days.

I couldn’t find a software to do this for me without adding usage overhead or extra features which I don’t want to use. So, I setup an Airtable base for this purpose, wrote some complicated formula to calculate the due date and Alhamdulillah! I have my very own revision system.

Every day I check the portions I must revise in the morning. Throughout the day I keep revising the portions as I get a chance and depending on the number of mistakes either it moves to the next level or goes down to level 1.

Knowing which portions to revise for the day at the start of the day may look like a small thing but it has helped me to get all of my revision done every day without failure, Alhamdulillah!

I never take a day off from revision. Not weekends, not during holidays. Except if I am very sick (even if one is sick one can manage to revise a good deal from memory without any exertion.) And I don’t go to bed util I have finished my revision for the day. Without this kind of commitment, I find that the memorized portions slip from my mind very easily.

If you want to make your own revision system using Leitner system you can do so non digitally. Or if you would like a digital system (a copy of my own Airtable base to be exact) you can contact me.

Are you memorizing Quran? I would love to hear more about our journey. Do share in the comments below. And if you find any of the above helpful, please remember me and mine in our dua.