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1. Be Sincere
2. Correct Pronunciation
and Recitation
3. Apportion the Daily
Number of Verses to Memorize
4. Do Not Move to the Next
Portion Till You Master the Present One
5. Stick to One Specific
Copy of the Glorious Qur'an
6. Understand What You Are
Memorizing
7. Do Not Move from One
Surah to Another Till You Connect Its
Beginning to Its End
8. Recite Frequently before
Others
9. Follow Up Frequently
10. Pay Attention to
Similarities
11. Seize the Opportunity
of the Golden Years to Memorize
1. Be Sincere
One must clarify and declare
his intention to get the fruit of this task.
Thus, memorizing the Glorious Qur'an must be
observed only for the Sake of Allah and for
winning His Paradise, Pleasure and His Great
Rewards. Allah the Almighty says {So worship
Allah, making the religion His faithfully.
Verily the faithful religion is for Allah}. (Al-Zumar
2-3)
Also, He says {Say, “Surely
I have been commanded to worship Allah making
the religion His; faithfully}. (Al-Zumar
11)
Thus, there is no reward
whatever for those who read and memorize it to
be seen and over-praised by others. Also, the
one who recites it intending to win worldly
gains only is sinful.
2. Correct Pronunciation
and Recitation
The first step to take after
purifying one’s intention is to correct
one’s recitation of the Glorious Qur'an.
This will be possible only by listening to a
skilled reciter or an excellent memorizer. The
only way to become knowledgeable of the Qur'an
is to take it orally from others, as the
Prophet himself, peace and blessings be upon
him, took it orally from Jibreel. Also, the
Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, used
to recite the Qur'an once before Gabriel
during the month of Ramadan every year, but he
did it twice before him in the year in which
he died.
Consequently, the Prophet,
peace and blessings be upon him, taught it to
his Companions orally. The generations that
followed took it the same way from the earlier
ones.
Thus, taking the Glorious
Qur'an orally after an excellent reciter is a
must. One should always correct his recitation
and should not depend on himself, even if he
is knowledgeable of Arabic and its rules, as
there are in the Qur'an many verses that are
in variance with the well-known rules of
Arabic.
3. Apportion the Daily
Number of Verses to Memorize
One who intends to memorize
the Glorious Qur'an should specify the amount
he can bear daily, be it a given number of
verses, one or two pages, or one-eighth of a
juz’ (one thirtieth part). Then, he starts
to repeat and repeat till he perfects his
memorization. He should recite aloud, first to
follow the Prophetic Sunnah and second to
perfect his memorization. Intoning the Qur'an
is endeared to the hearing and helps with
memorizing, as it gets the tongue familiar
with a given tune and an error is easily
identified when the usual tune varies in one
way or another. When this happens, the tongue
feels the variation and stops to correct the
recitation. Besides, reciting aloud was
advocated by the Prophet, peace and blessings
be upon him, who said: “The one who does not
intone his recitation of the Qur'an is not one
of us.” (Narrated by Al-Bukhari)
4. Do Not Move to the Next
Portion Till You Master the Present One
One who memorizes the Glorious
Qur'an should not move to the next portion
till he masters the previous one. One way to
perfect his portion is to make it his business
day and night to recite it during his silent
Prayer and, in case he is leading the Prayer,
in his aloud Prayer. Also, one should recite
it in the Sunnah Prayers and while waiting for
the beginning of the Prayer. In this way,
memorizing the Qur'an will be easy and
possible for everyone, even if one seems busy.
This is because one will not sit down just
once to practice this. Rather he will listen
to the instructor once, then he will start
repeating it himself during the times
mentioned and in Fard (obligatory) and Sunnah
(optional) Prayers as well. If something
prevents one from memorizing his due portion
in the specified day, he should not move to a
new one portion till he has perfected his
memorization of the former.
5. Stick to One Specific
Copy of the Glorious Qur'an
One factor that helps to
master memorization is to stick to just one
copy of the Glorious Qur'an. This is because
man memorizes things by sight as well as by
hearing. The form of the verses and their
locations on the page of the Qur'an are
stamped in one’s mind because of the
frequent repetition and the act of looking at
the copy itself. Thus, if one changes his copy
or memorizes from more than one, his
memorization will not be so easy or good
enough.
6. Understand What You Are
Memorizing
One of the greatest aides to
memorizing the Glorious Qur'an is to
understand the verses and recognize the
relationship between them. Thus, one who
intends to memorize should read some
explanations of the intended verses and should
understand how they are related. He should
also be attentive as he reads to easily
remember the verses afterwards. He should not
depend solely on his understanding of the
verses; rather, the repetition should be the
basis of memorizing. This is to enable the
tongue to read even in times when the mind is
not wholly attentive. The one who depends
mostly on understanding is liable to forget
and stop as soon as his mind is not attentive.
This happens mostly during long recitations.
7. Do Not Move from One
Surah to Another Till You Connect Its
Beginning to Its End
After memorizing a whole surah
of the Glorious Qur'an, one should not move to
the next till he has mastered it perfectly. He
should connect its beginning to its end, and
his tongue should move with it smoothly and
easily without exerting his mind in
remembering the verses and continuing the
recitation. Rather, his memorization should be
as smooth as water and he should recite it
without any faltering whatever, even if he is
not attentive to the meanings sometimes. It
should be like the case when one recites
Al-Fatihah without any effort, and this, of
course, is due to its being frequently
repeated and recited. Likening this to
Al-Fatihah is something figurative, as no one
will commit the whole Qur'an to his memory
just like it. The point is that one should try
to fix the whole Surah in his mind, connected
and smooth, and not to move to the next till
he has memorized it perfectly.
8. Recite Frequently before
Others
One who memorizes the Glorious
Qur'an should not depend only on his
memorization. He should always recite before
another memorizer or even one who just follows
along in a copy of the Qur'an. It is
preferable that that person be an excellent
memorizer to notify the new memorizer with the
things he might forget or recite
inattentively.
It is true that one may
memorize something incorrectly and never
notice it, even though he is looking at the
copy of the Qur'an because reading precedes
sight. The memorizer may look at the copy of
the Qur'an and not recognize the fault’s
location. Hence, reciting the Qur'an before
others is a perfect way to amend these
mistakes and set one’s mind always
attentive.
9. Follow Up Frequently
The Glorious Qur'an differs
from other materials intended to be committed
to one’s heart as it is more fleeting from
one’s mind, as shown by the Messenger of
Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, “By
Him in Whose Hand my life is! It runs away (is
forgotten) faster than camels that are
released from their tying ropes.”
(Agreed-upon)
As soon as one who memorizes
the Qur'an leaves it, it flees from him and he
rapidly forgets it. So, one must follow up
frequently and continuously observe in order
to preserve it. The Prophet, peace and
blessings be upon him, said, “The example of
the person who knows the Qur'an by heart is
like the owner of tied camels. If he keeps
them tied, he will control them, but if he
releases them, they will run away.” He also
said, “Keep on reciting the Qur'an, for, by
Him in Whose Hand my life is, the Qur'an
runs away (is forgotten) faster than camels
that are released from their tying ropes.”
(Narrated by Al-Bukhari and Muslim)
This means that one who
memorizes the whole Qur'an should read at
least a whole juz’ per day, and he should
not exceed ten juz’s per day. The Prophet,
peace and blessings be upon him, said, “He
who finishes the recitation of the Qur'an in
less than three days, does not understand
it.” (Agreed-upon)
Through this frequent
follow-up and permanent observation,
committing the Qur'an to one’s heart can be
kept free from forgetting.
10. Pay Attention to
Similarities
The Glorious Qur'an has
similarities in meanings, words, and verses,
as Allah the Almighty says, {Allah has sent
down the fairest discourse - as a Book,
consimilar (and) oft-repeated, whereat shiver
the skins of the ones who are apprehensive of
their Lord; thereafter their skins and their
hearts soften to the Remembrance of Allah}. (Al-Zumar,
23)
It is a fact that the Qur'an
has more than six thousand verses, around two
thousand of which are similar in one way or
another. In some locations the similarity is
exact, while in others there may be a
difference of just one letter or one or a few
words.
Hence, one who memorizes the
Qur'an should pay great attention to the
similar verses. The more one pays attention to
these similarities, the firmer his
memorization gets. One may find help in
reading the books that deal with similar
verses. Foremost among these books are:
1. Durat Al-Tanzil wa
Ghurat Al-Ta’wil by Al-Khateeb
Al-Iskafi.
2. Asrar Al-Tikrar fi
Al-Qur'an, by Mahmoud Ibn Hamzah Ibn Nasr
Al-Karmani, and others.
11. Seize the Opportunity
of the Golden Years to Memorize
The successful person is the
one who seizes the opportunity of his early
golden years from five to nearly twenty-three.
Man’s memory during this period is in the
best shape. Before five, one is too young to
pay attention to memorizing, and after
twenty-three his faculty to memorize begins to
decline while his faculty of comprehension and
understanding starts to increase. So, as much
as possible, one should use these golden years
to commit the Qur'an to memory.
Committing anything to one’s
heart during this early age takes place very
fast, while forgetting it happens slowly. On
the contrary, when man gets old he memorizes
very slowly and forgets very quickly. Thus,
the Arabic proverb is perfectly true that says
“Learning in childhood is just like
engraving on stones, while learning in
adulthood is just like drawing on water.”
So, we should not waste these
golden years and should try to commit the
Glorious Qur'an to our hearts. If we were
unable to do so, it is better not to escape
the opportunity in regards to our children.
May Allah grant us all success, and send
blessings on our Prophet Muhammad, his family
and Companions as well.
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