How to Memorize the Holy Quran (With Tips From Fellow Hafizahs!)

2 - Build Your Fluency

Assalamu 'alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh brothers and sisters, hope you all are doing well In Sha Allah.

Number two: Practice reading until you are fluent. I cannot stress that enough. You will need to read everywhere - while you're reviewing, in Salah, to your uncles and aunties because they want to hear your memorization of Allah er Kalam (Allah's Word).

Storytime: @MahmoodLamb14 had a hard time memorizing because he had a hard time reading. It had nothing to do with his memory. His memory is actually way better than mine. His brain is nice and fresher, but he is a little slower (totally okay!) And then there's me, good ole me who got accepted into a Madrasah at age 12. This Madrasah, only one of two in my state and the better one of them, took in no one older than 8 because they had to teach the kids the basics, start from scratch. Even if they knew that, memorizing before puberty is the main goal. After that, once your brain's on the path to maturing, there's a lot coming your way to distract you - even the schools realize it - such as teenage moodiness, bad memory in general because you're getting older, and yeah, pretty much that. Thankfully, I knew all the basics, my Tajweed (pronunciation) was on fleek, and I had 4 juz memorized from the previous year. (It took a whole year, summer included, to get that far, because I memorized 5 lines daily, or a meager 1/3 page. And the Quran has 600 pages. Aaaaand I started from the back, which is easy, and then it slowly gets harder, which means you may lessen your lesson (hehe the pun) a little more and go slower as you continue. Ah, the struggles..!)

There is no required speed for reading. Some, like me, read fast, while others like Brother @MahmoodLamb14 read slower. If you can, I'd recommend for you to read slower! It is more respectful to the Quran and you can pronounce each letter more properly while sounding smooth. When I recite, I sound like I'm rapping and I pronounce each letter super clearly (kind of like Namjoon from BTS - sorry lol I just had to, that's the most accurate comparison I can think of to help you get an idea) xD I kind of regret not staying slow - when I started out, I was super slow, but as I built on my fluency, I built up speed as well. Anything works as long as you are fluent, meaning not choppy and however much you can recite in one breath is nice and smooth, and as long as you pronounce your letter properly. (You don't have to sound like a native, don't worry, but if you put focus on it and/or take Arabic classes on the side, the sounding-like-a-native part will come on its own and it's a nice plus).

Good ways to review your fluency are by just reading, reciting with looking Surahs that you did NOT memorize (it'll make it easier in the long run/future when you do reach that part), and also by reciting to your family if you're not too shy. I think I said something like this in the beginning... Sorry if I keep repeating myself, this is a continuation of a draft I wrote (exactly) 3 months ago.

Oh, and by the way, it is okay to be shy. BUT...

Note: It's okay to be shy to recite in front of your family. If you're not, that's great, and lucky you because I still suffer from this. But if you are shy, face it - sometimes you will be forced to read, even if you don't sound like a Qari'/professional recitor who recites beautifully (sometimes we don't read with melody, right?). But make sure that at school - if you're studying at a traditional Desi madrasah where all the Hifz kids read out loud - or at home - if you are self-studying, which I believe many of you, my beloved readers and siblings in Islam, are doing - when you are practicing on your own, you read out loud. Trust me, it's so important. Reading quietly the way typical private Islamic schools make you do in that 2-periods-a-week Quran class is NOT gonna help you at all. They make you do that so y'all kids don't bother each other when practicing, but it doesn't help, and I wish they would stop doing that. Instead, if they did it like in a Madrasah, then everyone will benefit.

Oh, another note: If you have free time - no, wait, we all have free time - when you have free time, take out some of that time and recite with a fellow Hifz student/sibling/or with anyone who can read properly. It's better if the person is a Hifz student, because that way, when you guys are practicing your own stuff, sometimes one of you guys would just take a break to breathe for a minute and rest, right? So in that time, the other person's Quran recitation goes through your ears. Whether you're paying attention or not, if you really know your stuff well, you'll subconsciously be able to tell when that other person makes a mistake because it will sound funny (sometimes, yeah), strange, and out-of-place for you. That's what they do somewhere in Africa, my dad recently told me. They make kids read the Quran at a young age, over and over again, but not memorizing - just a lot of reading. And apparently, they read so much that the Quran becomes familiar to them, meaning they might not be able to recite a random part if you ask them to, but if they hear something that's recited wrong, they would be able to detect the abnormalities (ooh technical language I'm using) and inconsistencies in the recitation.

Okay, I'll just wrap up here for now. I don't know if I'm done for today - I doubt it. I'll probably work on the next chapter and at least draft some stuff if I don't post. I hope this benefits/benefited you guys, my dear brothers and sisters. Until next time, assalamu 'alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh.

- 11/15/18