How to do Hifz

What are the benefits for students in memorising the Qur’an?

1. Draws one closer to God as we literally internalise his words in our hearts.

2. Development of character.

The Quran is also a book of ethics which were part of the Prophet’s character.  His values are to be found abundantly in the Qur’an, ethics of justice, fairness, peace, love, compassion, tolerance, charity etc.  Memorising these values should remind us daily to bring out the best in ourselves.

 Aysha (R.A) was asked about the ethics of the Prophet and she said, “His ethics were the Quran”!!  If you would like your ethics be like the Prophet’s (pbuh), you have to memorize the Quran.

3. Purifying and healing affect on the soul and body.

The Quran is a healing for physical and psychological diseases. If reading Al-Fatiha (The Opening) cures a patient if Allah permits, what about who memorize the whole Quran? You will get rid of devilish whispers; your body immunity will increase due to the great change you experience while you are memorizing the Quran.  This is not only a theoretical speech but a real experience that is witnessed by those who memorized the Quran or parts of it.  Allah describes the Qur’an as a shifaa/cure.

4. Catalyst for intellectual growth.

An objective of hifz should always be to know the meaning of the Qur’an.  Hifz without meaning is devoid of its full essence.  Beyond it’s spiritual benefits it’s meanings invite and provoke stimulating thoughts.  This includes scientific themes, social themes, legal concepts, mystical dimensions to it’s meanings etc.  The more a Hafiz recites with meaning the more their mind will receive intellectual nourishment and open up.

Also for a student, the recitation of the Qur’an with the application of the full rules of recitation requires a considerable amount of mental exertion and is thoroughly stimulating to the mind.

GENERAL GOLDEN RULES / HABITS YOU MUST INTRODUCE INTO YOUR LIFE IF YOU WANT TO BE SERIOUS ABOUT HIFZ

1. Don’t tell too many people at first.

Because it can kind stressful when they keep asking where you reached, how many pages you’ve done, etc. Tell your “coaches” and tell your close friends for motivation and to not lose sight of the goal.

2. Memorize and recite DAILY.

No days off. None. Hifz must become a daily habit the mind gets used to daily.

3. DECLUTTER YOUR MIND SO YOU CAN FOCUS.

 It’s not about how many hours you have a day as much as how much you need to reduce mental clutter. You can get much more done in 2 hours relaxed than in 6 if you are worrying about something. The Quran does not enter with chaos. So before you start, make your to-do lists and put them aside, get essential things done, free yourself from worries and commitments. If anything worries you while you are memorizing, remember Shaytan doesn’t want you to focus and that the Quran will take care of your worries

GENERAL QUR’AN TIPS

Quran Memorization Tip 1: Wake Up Early

A hifz student should wake up before most people.  Pray your fajr and read your Qur’an.  Do not start your day with the TV or internet/ surfing.  Quran Memorization should be done twice a day, morning and evening at least.  The mind absorbs more in the morning after a good nights sleep rather than after a hard days work so this is the best time to learn new lines and leave revision for the evening. Parents should work with their children in the morning before school on their new lines.

Tip 2: Specify how many verses you want to memorise on a daily basis

For example, commit yourself to memorise 3, 5, 10, 20 lines per day.

If you have committed yourself to memorising 5 or 10 (for example) verses per day then do not exceed it.

Commit yourself to a regular number of verses you wish to memorise everyday and do not change this pattern unless you want to increase your lines permanently.

Quran Memorization Tip 3: Keep The Days Verses Close At Hand either in a mushaf or even HAND WRITE them!

You will often find unexpected time at your disposal, even several minutes which you should use to remember your lines from that morning or yesterdays new lines.

1. waiting for the bus, or waiting for a teacher to turn up to a class etc.

EVEN BETTER IS TO WRITE YOUR NEW LINES OUT ON A SHEET OF PAPER AND KEEP THIS WITH YOU TO REVISE WHEN POSSIBLE.  THIS WILL MAKE YOUR LINES VERY STRONG. (This is what students have done over the centuries before the arrival of printing press and still a method used today).

Quran Memorization Tip 4: Use What You Memorise In Every Single Salah

To further support your memory, recite your new lines of Quran that you’ve learned from that morning IN SALAH.   Alternate between the lines from that day, and the lines you’ve learned the previous days.

Quran Memorization Tip 6: Memorise from only one copy of the Quran

This is because in every Qur’an, the layout of the verses is different. If you memorise from one copy you will have a mental picture of the verse in your mind, whereas if you attempt to memorise from many different copies of the Quran, it could lead to confusion and difficulty in memorising the Quran.

Quran Memorization Tip 7: Find your memorization-style.

1. Some people use sign- language  by using gestures when reciting by heart! This is possible if you know the meanings and is a kinteic method of learning.

2. Write out verses.  This is highly recommended for everyone, adults and students, if you can…

3. Walking while you recite if it helps.

4. Listening to ayahs is nice-especially if you have  trouble reading- but is time-consuming. But please do this if you can’t read it well because the worst thing you can do is memorize something wrong the first time.  It will help children if their reading is not too strong.

Quran Memorization Tip 8: Have a Hafiz friend who also has good Tajweed.

We believe these methods  to be the best hifz methods based on our extensive experience working with students and teachers alike of diverse backgrounds, Arab and non-Arab. Possible.  This is the only method followed at the Birmingham Qur’an Academy.

It’s important to understand that this process is broken into 3 categories:

THERE ARE 3 DAILY TASKS FOR HIFZ WHICH MUST BE DONE IN THE ORDER SHOWN BELOW. THESE TASKS SHOULD BE SHARED BETWEEN PARENTS AND TEACHERS.  HIFZ IS NOT ABOUT DOING ALL 3 WITH THE TEACHER – THIS IS UNLIKELY AND OFTEN IMPOSSIBLE SO THE KEY IS FOR PARENTS TO WORK ON THESE TASKS AND CO-ORDINATE WITH THE TEACHERS.

Short term revison.

New Lessons

Long term revision.

All 3 must be done daily with priority given to Revision 1, New lesson and then Long term revision. If revision is weak remember that revision is always more important than the new lesson, don’t overlook this point!

• New lesson. This is your NEW LINES YOU LEARN – this will file in your short term memory.  Do not think you know this until you have read it every day as part of your revision 1 schedule for at least 3 weeks.  Anything learnt in the last 3 weeks remains in the short term memory.  What has been process over 3 weeks goes into the long term memory.  We will talk about Revision 1 later.

How to memorise new lines for your new lesson:

This is where you will be memorizing from scratch. If you are serious about memorizing, you’ll need to follow these tips exactly as they are written below.

a)    Read the page a few times to familiarise yourself with it.

b)    Read the first two sentences (approximately) on the page 10 times while looking in.

c)    Now read the same two lines 10 times without looking at it, until you can recite it without any mistakes. If it is a child they should read these two lines to their parents / teacher once they know them.

d)    Do the exact same with the next two lines. Read them both 10 times by looking then 10 times by heart. Children should read them to parents / teacher.  Test yourself until you read it with no mistakes.

E) You have now done 4 lines by heart. Now read all 4 lines as a block from beginning to end until you know them.  This is the ‘gluing process’ or ‘block method’ where the lines are all put together.  Again a child should read them to their parents/teachers.

e)    Read the next two lines by looking 10 times and then 10 times by heart. A child should read it to their parents/teacher. By this time 6 lines have been memorised but we need to glue everything together again so now read from lines 1 to line 6 as a block 10 times.

g)    Go to the beginning line and now read all 6 lines together until you can read all 6 by heart. A child should read to someone.

And so on until you’ve memorised as many lines as is the target.

As you can see this is the gluing method or the block method and also as you can see a child needs the support of someone to always listen to them to check whether they know it or need to spend more time on it.   Most young children can’t do this on their own unless an adult manages this process for them.

h)    You can repeat the above steps as needed to have a perfect page memorized.

Please note that a student may need micro-managing or may be able to work and manage themselves

WHAT IS REVISION 1 –

THIS IS THE REVISION THAT TRANSFERS SHORT TERM MEMORY TO LONG TERM MEMORY. ONCE A PASSAGE HAS BEEN READ FOR MORE THAN 21 CONSECUTIVE DAYS IT GOES INTO LONG TERM MEMORY.

Revision 1. – This is reading a quantity equivalent to 3 weeks worth of daily new lines of work.

So if you learn 10 lines a day this will be 10 lines x 21 (3 weeks) = 210 lines revision of lines that lead right up to where your new work begins , i.e. 140 lines counting back from your new passage,  which is around 14 pages on a 15 line Qur’an.

1)    Whatever you review in this section, you MUST recite it to someone who has either memorized the ayaat or is well-versed in reading the Qur’an.

2)    Before you recite to someone you must recite to yourself by heart a few times to make sure you know it without making mistakes.  Children again need to be reminded to test themselves before they read to an adult teacher/parent.

3)    From this point on, whatever you memorize, it MUST be read daily. When I say read, it means reviewed to yourself without mistakes AND recited to someone else.

4)    If for some reason you didn’t review your ‘new memorization’ for the day, then don’t memorize new ayaat. You’re pouring water into a cup w/ a hole. Each day you don’t review the ‘new memorization,’ you’re making the hole in your cup bigger and bigger until you won’t remember anything! (If you did not review a page for seven days consecutively, go back to the ‘new lesson’ and re-memorize the page).

3) Old Memorization

Old memorization – long term memory passages.  That which has been processed through the Revision 1.

This is anything you’ve reviewed for at least twenty-one days consecutively. The amount you review depends on how much Qur’an you’ve memorized. Once you’ve memorized the Qur’an (which I pray is soon for all of you seeking to memorize it), new lessons and new memorizations will come to a halt, and you’ll be left with the old memorization. This will continue for the left of our lives till death does us part.

1)    Daily review

1. Between 1-3 juz, you should review five pages daily.

2. Between 4-7 juz you should review 10 pages (which equals half the juz) daily.

3. Between 7-15 juz, you should review 20 pages (which equals one juz) daily.

4. Between 15-20 juz, you should review 30 pages(which equals 1.5 juz) daily.

5. Between 20-30 juz, you should review 60 pages (which equals 2 juz) daily.

2)    Read the Juzz to yourself then recite to a teacher/hafidh.

This process will continue for the rest of your life.

3)    In the ‘old memorisation,’ you should not get more than four mistakes, or four stutters in a juz.

A mistake classifies as reading something incorrectly and not being able to correct it. A stutter classifies reading something incorrectly, being sent back a few ayahs to correct it, and finally reading it correctly. At the same time, you should be make more than one mistake or one stutter for every five pages you read.