In the Name of Allah the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful
I begin this article in the hopes that it could help you on the blessed and noble act of memorising the Holy Quran, for His Majesty’s Pleasure. It is by far not a full proof method, rather some ideas, tips, and techniques to help you get started with memorisation. Treat them as a blueprint when starting your journey and adapt them to your needs as suited, you will find a strategy that works for you in no time, inshaAllah. And remember that when you accept Allah, the Exalted and Mighty, as your teacher, there is nothing you cannot learn.
Lets get started with your journey to Quran memorisation
Lets start off straight away with tackling some of they key aspects of Quran memorisation, address some of the obstacles, and present a few tips to help you on your way.
1. Steadfastness, patience, and consistency are key
This is very important, because many a person has attempted this monumental, but achievable, task and have failed simply because they lacked the vision to succeed. They dived in deep, bit off more than they could chew, possibly, and gave up after a while.
Take your time and start off small, learn a few lines or few ayat (verses), a day. For example if you have the Uthmani script of the Quran, then learn 5 lines a day, each page of the Uthmani script is made up of 15 lines, this means in 7 days you have learnt 2 pages, and begun memorising the first 5 lines of the next 2 pages. Sounds small considering there are approximately 300 pages or more in the Uthmani script, but there is a saying “the journey of a thousand miles begins with one step”. Begin your journey humbly, and only do that which you know are capable of and stick to it.
You will find that being steadfast, patient, and consistent will decreases the chances of you giving up significantly. Consistency, do your memorisation targets everyday! That is why it is so important to choose targets that are small, which you can complete on a quiet day, but can manage on a busy day too!
2. Write out your target lines or verses for the day
So you have chosen your target number of lines or verses you want to memorise everyday, it has to be the same amount every single day, no more, no less, this is the key to consistency. Find a small piece of paper and write out the verses you are memorising for that particular day only, in Arabic, on this piece of paper.
Keep this piece of paper on you at all times, and whenever you have a free moment during your day, whether it be in between classes if you are a student, or maybe you are waiting for the bus or train, then get out your piece of paper and continue the memorisation of those verses.
Keeping the paper small means that you can easily and quickly refer to them without having to dig through your bag or pocket and flip through the pages of a mushaf (Quran in book form), to find your target verses. Much like when you wear a wristwatch to quickly glance at the time instead of fumbling about to find your phone.
3. Getting familiar with unfamiliar verses
When it comes to memorisation you may find some verses are easier to pick than others. So tackle this by familiarising yourself with the difficult verse, read it several times until you think you almost know it by heart, and then read it several times more. It won’t be long before you’ve already memorised it without even knowing it! That is when you test yourself and recite it from memory, I am sure by the Will of Allah that you have managed to memorise it.
Follow the previous tip of writing it down on a piece of paper, this will mean you can recite it several times a day easily, every free moment you have.
4. Five Finger Technique
This is a tip for practically committing a line to memory. You read the line or verse five times. Counting it out on your fingers five times. Then you recite them from memory, five times, without looking it, counting out on your fingers once again. Repeat this several times, five times reading out the verses and then five times reciting the verses from memory. After you are comfortable that you can recite the verses from memory impromptu, you stop. Get up from your place of learning, and go and distract yourself. Yes that’s right, do something other than memorisation. Maybe go read a book, watch television, play football, housework, and homework, help your mother or father out, anything to distractyou from what you was doing, which is Quran memorisation.
A little while later, 40 to 50 minutes later, lets say, come back to your memorisation tasks. Before looking in the Quran, try and remember and recite the verse or line, which you were learning from memory. I am hopeful that you will be able to recite it straight away, because you have memorised it and can recall from memory impromptu. If this is not the case, worry not, simply try again, and you will get it soon enough! With the undeniable Help of Allah.
5. Recite in every salah (prayer)
Muslim(ah)s pray five times a day, its no secret, during these salawat (prayers), use what you have memorised them and recite them in your salah, that way you are surely committing them to memory because it is a practical way of utilising what you have learnt.
6. Consolidation, review, and perfecting tajweed
You will, no doubt, need a teacher, a sheikh or sheikhah. To whom you will recite once a week or fortnight, but remember consistently, everything you have learnt since you last recited to him or her. This will give you the opportunity to consolidate all the individual lines and verses you learnt and recite them all together to the teacher. He or she should also correct any mistakes in pronunciation, recitation, or tajweed you may make. It will give you the opportunity to perfect your recitation as you continue on your noble quest of memorising the Quran.
A few last words for both you and me
The noble quest of committing the Quran to memory is a path that is honourable, and requires three key things that you give to this path so that you may follow it through right to the very end. These are time, patience, and consistency. Allah loves good deeds that are consistent no matter how small. So even a small deed, but done consistently can outweigh one big noble deed. Small rocks make a mountain. Devote time, energy and patience to your cause consistently and no doubt you will be successful. Within 3 months or so you will have memorised a whole juz (section of the Quran), and that will only motivate you further. So have the vision to see beyond the little amount you do everyday and see the big accumulation of deeds are you doing every month.
It will not be long before you are nearing the last few pages of the Holy Quran, and how surprised and happy you will be inshaAllah.