Can someone provide me some tips?

[anonymous]

Salam everyone
I am on my hifz journey. But now i am feeling demotivated and i keep forgetting what i memorize. Can someone give me some advice? I am trying to keep the number of verses each day as minimum as i can. I have set the goal of 3/day. But still i get discouraged. Currently,I am on surah yaseen but it's a very long surah and my Memorization power isn't that much that's why i am discouraged to do further. Any advice?

 

['Abdullah]

Salam everyone

I am on my hifz journey. But now i am feeling demotivated and i keep forgetting what i memorize. Can someone give me some advice? I am trying to keep the number of verses each day as minimum as i can. I have set the goal of 3/day. But still i get discouraged. Currently,I am on surah yaseen but it's a very long surah and my Memorization power isn't that much that's why i am discouraged to do further. Any advice?

WaAlaikum Assalam Wa Rahmatullahi WaBarakatuhu,
​

• First please renew your intention that you are doing this purely for the pleasure of Allah.
• Remind yourself why you started Quran memorization? What motivated you in first place to start this journey?
• Re-read all hadiths which relates to high reward for those whom Allah chooses to preserve the book in their chests.
• Remember Allah promised that He will make it easy for those who will want to memorize Quran. Make dua to Allah & He will make it easy for you Inshallah. Your job is to do little but be consistent and have patience.
• Don't rush in the process of memorization. Do it the right way, focus on quality and not on quantity - remember Quran came down in 23 years. As I said in my previous point, be patient and trust in Allah - one day inshallah you will finish memorizing the Quran if you keep memorizing the Quran as your top priority.
• Eat right and eat less - this is very important. studies has shown the memory has a direct relationship with what we eat and how much we eat. Try to eat more nut, proteins and vegetables.
• Have a good sleep. When we are sleep deprived and tired, we tend to forget and it becomes hard to memorize anything efficiently.
• Stay away from any distractions, arguments, social media etc. These distractions keep our mind occupied with different things and when we don't have a focus, we can't memorize. Focus is the key.
• Try to stay away from any sins. Lower your gaze, speak less, interact with people only on as needed basis. YOUR ONLY COMPANION SHALL BE QURAN.
• Find what time works best for you to memorize. Many people do it before Fajr or after Fajr. But everyone is different. Pick a time when you are fresh and free from all distractions ( normally it is right after you get up from sleep).
• Review Quran on daily basis. Try to review all what you have memorized within 7 days. If 7 days is too difficult for you due to your schedule, then use 14 days or 30 days but it will have an impact on your memorization. The sooner you review, the better it is. I will talk more about this point later in my post.
• Pick only one Mashaf, my personal preference is blue Quran ( Mashaf Al-Medina).

Alright now let's talk about the process of memorization.
We can break the process into three categories namely memorization, connection & revision. ​

MEMORIZATION

• Ideally it is best to have a teacher who directly recites Quran to you but I can see that in today's age and time it is little hard. Either way you can download any app with Quran reciters and pick one reciter who has correct Tajweed to make sure you memorize the Quran with correct Tajweed. I personally prefer Sheikh Minshawi or Khali Husari. You can download https://quranmajeed.app/ which has several reciter and this app is great for memorization because you can go to setting to repeat a verse several time, or have a time delay after each verse so that you can recite after listening the verse, you can all set a range of verses to repeat etc. It also works even when you don't have internet.
• Listen to your preferred Quran reciter at least 3 times. In this step you are focusing to correct your tajweed as well as using audio means to save something in your memory. Studies have shown the audio memory works for short term memory.
• Read out loud what you are set to memorize for the day ( one page, or half page, or three lines - whatever works for you) by looking at the Quran 15-20 times. I know it sounds time consuming but if you want something to stick to your memory you have to put in more effort. Over time, you could tell exactly with what verse a page starts, where each lines ends etc. A very beneficial step especially for Mutashabihat ( verses who are almost the same and repeated in the Quran). So in this step is using both audio ( as you are reciting out loud) and visuals to store verses in your brain. Visuals help to have a long term memory.
• After reading 15-20 time the entire section you decided to memorize, break that into smaller sections. Let's suppose you decided to memorize three lines. So in previous steps you listens to the three lines and then you recited three lines by looking at it 15-20 times. Now you can break it into three parts. Read first line 15-20 times by looking at it, then 15-20 times with out look at it. Then move to second line and repeat the process. Now read both first and second line 15-20 times by looking at it and without looking at it. Once you can read both first and second lines without looking at it, move to third line. Repeat the process until you can recite all three lines without looking at it.
• It is also important to focus on starting and stopping points of the section you are memorizing. For example if you stop two times while reciting a longer verse, make sure you focus and stop on the same part of the verse every time. This will help is long term memory of the Quran Inshallah.​
• Now record yourself using your phone, listen to your recitation and correct any mistakes. Once you reach a point where you make no mistakes then repeat what you memorized 15-20 times.
• What you are done memorizing your "today's lesson" repeat 5 times what you memorized yesterday. Some people like to do this step at the beginning as a warm up. You can do whatever works best for you. But the point is to repeat "yesterday's lesson" 5 times.
• Before going to sleep, read the "Tomorrow's lesson", read its tafsir and translation so that you understand what you are memorizing. If you can read 10 times by looking at the mashaf ( after listening to the Reciter) then it will be much easier to memorize this section in the morning.

CONNECTION ( NEW MEMORIZATION - PAST 30 DAYS)

• It is important that you revise what you have memorized very recently every day for 30 days so that it becomes part of your permanent memory. In case you are memorizing 3 lines every day, this will constitute to be one and a half page of your very recent memory ( past 30 days) which you need to read from memory every day.

REVISION ( OLD MEMORIZATION _ ANYTHING WHICH YOU HAVE MEMORIZED MORE THAN THIRTY DAYS AGO)

• In this step you divide the Quran you have memorized so far. Let's assume you have memorized 70 pages. So every day you will revise 10 pages ( read from memory) to make sure by the end of 7 days you have revised all what you have memorized.
• Over time, number of pages in this step will increase. By the time, you finish Quran you will be revising 85-86 pages a day.

SOME OTHER TIPS:

• For connection and Revision, start reciting Quran you have memorized in your prayers such as in Tahajjad prayer, Sunnah in daily prayers, Duha prayer etc. If you read one page in each Rakah, you can end up reading 12 pages in 12 regular Sunnahs. and it will help you manage your time.
• If you commute daily to work, then you can either recite the portion of Quran you have memorized or you can listen to it while driving to work/school and coming back from work/school.
• Try to find a partner in your family or within your friends. This will keep you pushing for a health competition.
• Don't be discouraged if you are making mistakes or if you are forgetting parts of Quran you have already memorized. Your journey of Quran memorization actually begins after you will finish memorizing the whole Quran. Because at that point, Quran will still be in your short term memory. It takes about 2-5 years of continuous repetition to get a Rock solid memory ( Long term memory). One still needs to continue revising because Quran slips away from memory if we don't take care of it. As I stated above, you have to commit yourself that Quran is going to be your companion for rest of your life. Salafs used to revise whole Quran in 3 days and some would revise in 7 days ( that's why we have 7 manazil) or in 30 days ( that's the minimum one can do - that corresponds to one Juzz per day).

Say patient and be consistent. There is no race, if you memorize one verse every day, you can still memorize entire Quran in less than 18 years. 3 verses per day would take, little less than 6 years.
I pray that may Allah help you to memorize Quran in an efficient way.
All the best

Ma'aSalaam ​