How to memorise Quran?
The journey to becoming part of the miracle of al-Quran
One of the most popular questions I received since the launch of Hifz is, how do I start memorising? Here’s how you do it.
I divide the memorisation techniques into two parts; spiritual effort and physical effort.
Spiritual
1. Sincere intention
Intention is the most powerful tool in accomplishing something. Intention is not a mere wish. It is wanting something so badly that it motivates you to take action. And Rasulullah said in a very famous hadith which is reported in Bukhari and Muslim about intention:
انما الاعمال بالنيات وانما لكل امرئ ما نوى فمن كان هجرته الى الله ورسوله فهجرته الى الله ورسوله فمن كان هجرته لدنيا يصيبها او امرءة ينكحها فهجرته الى ما هاجر اليه
“Surely all deeds begin with intention and a person will get what he intends for. If a person makes hijrah for Allah and His Messenger, his hijrah will be for Allah and His Messenger. And if a person makes hijrah for worldly gains or a woman he intends to marry, his hijrah is what he intends for.”
Such is the importance of intention. It will determine the result of our actions. Therefore it is important that we purify our hearts and our intention of memorising Quran soley for Allah. We are not doing it for the praise of people or to get some worldly gains.
With the right intention, we move on to step 2.
2. Make du’a
Never underestimate the power of du’a. Allah said in the Quran
وَإِذَا سَأَلَكَ عِبَادِي عَنِّي فَإِنِّي قَرِيبٌ ۖ أُجِيبُ دَعْوَةَ الدَّاعِ إِذَا دَعَانِ ۖ فَلْيَسْتَجِيبُوا لِي وَلْيُؤْمِنُوا بِي لَعَلَّهُمْ يَرْشُدُونَ
“ And when My servants ask you, [O Muhammad], concerning Me — indeed I am near. I respond to the invocation of the supplicant when he calls upon Me. So let them respond to Me [by obedience] and believe in Me that they may be [rightly] guided.”
al-Baqarah: 186
So ask, and He will answer. Makes lots of du’a that Allah makes memorising the Quran easy for us. Pray that Allah also reminds of the Quran that we have forgotten. And also pray that Allah gives us the strength to have istiqamah in our journey to memorising the Quran.
3. Avoid sins
One day al-Imam Shafie noticed that his memory wasn’t as good as usual. So he complained about this to his teacher and the conversation was recorded in a poem:
شَكَوْتُ إلَى وَكِيعٍ سُوءَ حِفْظِي — فَأرْشَدَنِي إلَى تَرْكِ المعَاصي
وَأخْبَرَنِي بأَنَّ العِلْمَ نُورٌ -ونورُ الله لا يهدى لعاصي“I complained to my Waki’ about my weak memory,
And he counseled me to avoid sins,
And he told me that knowledge is Light from Allah,
And the Light of Allah will not be given to sinners”
How are we going to do this? To err is human. Yes, but Rasulullah said the best sinners are the ones that make repentance. Do not purposely fall into sin. If you happen to sin by mistake, quickly repent and ask for Allah’s forgiveness.
Now that we have seen the spiritual part of memorising Quran, let’s look into the physical part of it.
Physical
1. Correct the recitation.
This is very important. Before you start memorising, you need to make sure that you are reading the Quran correctly. Get a teacher to check your recitation. Once you have commit a wrong recitation to memory, it is very hard to correct it.
There are two parts that you need to learn in reciting the Quran properly;
a. Tajweed
This is the most crucial. You need to know where to apply mad, ghunnah, idgham, ikhfa’ etc. You should not memorise Quran unless you can read Quran with proper tajweed.
b. Makhraj
Makhraj is the way to pronounce the Arabic letters. This might be harder to learn than tajweed if you are not an Arab. You don’t need to get your makhraj 100% accurate to begin. You can improve the makhraj while you are memorising Quran. As long as your tajweed is correct.
2. Understand the meaning.
While you can memorise the Quran without understanding it, it makes it alot easier if you do. And you retain it better. Yes, Allah in His Mercy rewards the reciters of Quran whether or not he/she understands it. But the Quran is our guide. How are we to be guided without understanding it.
Take sometime before memorising to read the meaning. If you can, read the tafseer too. If you are memorising using Hifz, you just need to slide to the right to read the translation.
3. Small parts at a time.
To memorise 6236 ayat of the Quran may sound daunting. But Rome wasn’t build in one day. So is memorising Quran. It will take time and only the one that preservers will succeed.
You need to take a small part of the Quran at a time. Here’s how you do it. You start by determining how much you want to memorise a day. It can be 2 lines, half a page, or a whole page, or even more. Don’t worry, it is not the amount that you can memorise in a day that matters. As long as you preservere, you’ll get there.
Okay now that you know how much you want to memorise, read it by looking at the mushaf a few times. After that break it into smaller parts. Read and repeat that small part until you have committed it to memory. You may need to repeat it 10–20 times before you memorise it well. Do not move to the next small part until you have memorised the first part well.
4. Join the small parts.
Now that you have memorised 2 small parts, join the two parts and repeat them from memory for 5–10 times. Then move on to part 3. Repeat step 3 above. Then repeat 1–3. Do this until you finish all your daily lesson.
5. Repeat to remember.
Memorising the Quran involves a lot of repetition. Imagine the reward waiting for you, for Rasulullah said that Allah prepares 10 hasanaat for each letter of the Quran you recite. Repeating also gives you the time to reflect and ponder deeply on the meaning of the Quran. For Allah said:
أَفَلَا يَتَدَبَّرُونَ الْقُرْآنَ أَمْ عَلَىٰ قُلُوبٍ أَقْفَالُهَا
“Do they, then, not reflect on the Quran? Or are there locks on their hearts?”
-Surah Muhammad : 24
6. Remember to repeat.
Once you have read, repeat and memorised, you need to remember to repeat it often. Otherwise you’ll forget it. So you need to have a system on what to memorise and what to repeat.
Hifz automates this part for you. It uses a technique called spaced repetition. It will periodically remind you to repeat a short part of Quran to revise. So that you memorisation always remain fresh. Every morning you’ll be asked to start your day by revising all your recent lessons and some parts of old lessons. This will take around 15–30 minutes. After you’ve done your revision, you’ll move on to memorising new lesson.
To reinforce your new lesson, Hifz will remind you to take short 5 minutes break to revise what you have memorised in the morning. This will happen a few times in the day. It won’t take long, just a 5 minute Quran break. And it will really help your memorisation to remain fresh.
There you go. Tips for memorising Quran. Remember, this is a marathon, not a sprint. Take your time, do not give up, and make lots of du’a, insha Allah you’ll get there.
You can download Hifz here.
