Tips on Memorizing the Qur'aan

The following is a list put together from about a group of 200 students studying 'Uloom al-Qur'aan under Shaykh Yasir Qadhi.

Realize it’s a spiritual AND physical project. It’s a miracle and blessing from Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala that you’re able to absorb the Qur’an. If you want to take advantage of this blessing, you should be in a position to receive it and therefore strive physically to achieve it and strive spiritually to get the maximum benefit.

The first matter you have to pay attention to is your intention (if you intend good you will get good). The more sincere you are, the more blessed it will be. Sincerity is not a one time factor rather it’s a continual battle that you always have to renew – there are dangers of wanting to do so for the sake of this world and of those to be the first to be thrown in the hellfire are those who memorize for the dunya – we seek Allah’s refuge from being amongst these so make your niyyah for doing it for the sake of Allah and Allah will bless your effort

If you’re not praying, then memorizing will be a barrier and impediment, if you’re not righteous then it will be hard to get it into you. Imam shafi’i had an incident in which he asked why memorizing was so hard for him and Waqee’ (his teacher) told him to abandon sin because knowledge is a light and sinfulness is darkness and the two cannot live together in one body.

Shaytan wants to get between you and your memorization. So when you sit down, say the ta’oodh MEANING IT – seek refuge in Allah against the accursed shaytaan and say bismillah and recite.

Of the physical elements:

• The first thing you should do in the day is memorize – even do so before your breakfast, because this is your spiritual breakfast. If you are really dedicated, you don’t need 8 hours – you don’t need to sleep 1/3 of your life away. 6 hours is more than enough of sleep (Ulema slept 3/4) and when you condition your body to sleep less, you will actually sleep better and those hours will be very good. The best time to memorize is right after Fajr.
• Memorize in a place that is quiet – you can’t memorize properly with distractions – so turn off all your distractional devices (aka cell phones) – it’s as if you’re a slave to this equipment – you can be in the most important conversation but you have to see who it is. You feel empty/naked without your cellphone if you forget it at home.
• There’s no magic technique, you just have to do it over and over again – the more you memorize, the faster/easier it is to memorize, and all huffadh here speak from experience in saying this. Shaykh Yasir Qadhi began memorizing fulltime at the age of 13 or 14 (before starting, fulltime he had memorized 6 or 7 juz). It would take him an hour to memorize one page. Finished memorizing in 10 months, and he’d do this every single page, rarely 2, once or twice was able to do 3. By the end, he was doing this in 15/20 minutes – it was a routine – the key is persistence x3. How long will 2 lines take you? Not more than 10 minutes, but do that EVERY SINGLE DAY. – in haydh, shaykh said to not take up new memorization but just review.
• Memorize from one Qur’an – not just the same script, but one bound book – you will have a relationship with that book. No one is allowed to touch the shaykh’s Qur’an – he still has it with tape pieces and all – even Ammaar (his son) is not allowed to touch it. It will become so dear to you, and you will remember the creases and everything.
  
• Shaykh Yasir's favorite recitor was Hudhayfee – so he would listen to one page of him then memorize that one – so listen to a shaykh before you memorize so that you have it right. You need a little bit pushing – for the shaykh, he had a qaari saab coming evey day at 4, so there was that pressure to do the “sabaq” by that time – it happens that sometimes one can’t, but this type of pressure is good and it pushes one and we need that push.

There are three separate things that we need to do

• The first is your new amount to memorize: let’s say you memorize one page, realistically for us it’s 2 lines to begin. This would be the first thing you do as soon as you wake –
  • before you close the Qur’an, you have to do stage 2 which is reviewing 7 days previous – this MUST be done along with stage 1 together. So you review 7 days previously – it links together the various portions and you will have read it 7 times by the next week so it solidifies the memorization. To this day, the shaykh’s weakest ones are the linkage and the bottom of the pages. So memorize your two lines and review your 7 days previous.
  • Then later in the day, mind doesn’t need to be at its freshest, you have to recite all the stuff before the 7 days. This is stage 3 – the old review. Bare minimum for someone trying to memorize is 10 pages (half a juz). Stage 3 is a life-long process – this never ever stops – whatever you’ve memorized, doesn’t’ matter whether it’s 10/20 or 30. If you don’t do stage 3, you will forget it as if you never memorized it. The Prophet salallahu 'alayhi wa sallam said: make sure that you hold fast to the Qur’an continuously repeating it, because it is easier to forget it than camels that are left without a pen (fence)” – and camels were notorious for running away. Wallahi it is faster to lose the Qur’an than a camel. There is no feeling as bad as rememorizing what you have already memorizing, because you would feel like “pshhhhhh” *makes motion of finger falling over a cliff* Never say you have forgot the Qur’an but say that you have been caused to forget it (bukhari) – that means you weren’t worthy
    
    

• Sit in the same exact place/same chair to memorize and wallahi if anything was different in that area, your memorization would suffer – if the vase were in a different place then your mind would be on that – so this shows the importance of continuity – same place, same Qur’an and then add persistence to that and it will work.
• The shaykh would be able to tell immediately if one who memorized with a shaykh with an ijaaza or not – there will be a difference even if your voice is beautiful. When you memorize, memorize with ghunnah. Imitate the tajweed of the one you’re listening to (remember the 3 mentioned – hussari, abdul baasit, minshawi). Voice is not what you need to concentrate on, rather you need to concentrate on your tajweed. And don’t say: should i learn tajweed first or memorize first? Do them at the same time.
• Some recommend to sit on a chair and say that’s better: shaykh said he feels if you sit on the floor for some reason it’s better. He’d memorize with back to wall and knees up and Qur’an on lap. Others criticize
• Make sure you recite your daily lesson from that day in your salawaat and make sure you recite the older ones too – what you will find is that you WILL make mistakes so after tasleem you will run to your Qur’an and see your mistake and you won’t forget that again – you will have to break your habit of surah ikhlas/naas/asr =P.
• Memorize slow – if you memorize slow, you can quicken it up any time. But if all you know how to do is speed through, you will never be able to slow it down. – this is true.
• Recite out loud – you cannot memorize silently!
• The foods you eat – almonds and kaajoo were given to shaykh =P. One haafidh: no donuts before memorizing Qur’an. Shaykh: I would memorize Qur’an on an empty stomach and if you have stomach before, have a light/healthy breakfast.
• One of the haafidh’s points: Any mistake that you always do, write it in the margin and when you read it, you’ll remember it
• Mutashaabih – those that are similar, put the other aayah there.
• Shaykh: the #1 thing that you should do when you finish memorizing is to lead taraweeh.
• Shaykh: I would have found that memorizing with color coded tajweed would be distracting and it would be easier without it.
• You’ll never ever beat the original – so don’t imitate others. What you do imitate is tajweed until you learn. You can’t memorize for long without learning tajweed.
• Do not pick random surahs to memorize back and forth, it becomes problematic because reviewing the old is problematic. Do not pick and choose. Shaykh would advise us to start in the back and work our way forward to at least surah Qaaf.
• Rocking while memorizing actually helps – it’s true that the jews do this and it’s an opinion that we cannot for that reason but the shaykh doesn’t see this as valid because that is their belief and for us it’s not done to get reward – no one believes that.