Dealing with forgotten Hifz 👀

The Diary of A Hāfiz - Issue #89

Dec 19, 2023

Bismillāh al-Rahmān al-Rahīm

Assalāmu ‘Alaykum!

Hope you’re all doing well. Allah grant ease and blessing.

Today, I share a piece on Tafsir starting with the Fātihah and a framework or method that can be used for those that have forgotten their Qur’ān memorisation.

Requesting your prayers,

- Qāri’ Mubashir

🔗 READ

Surah al-Fatihah On How To Succeed In Times Of Fitnah (15 min read)

We are living in a difficult time. A time of multiple challenges and concerns. A time of various fitan - trials and tribulations. To connect to the Qur'ān in these times of fitnah (trial and tribulation) is paramount. There's no better time to start sharing with you the unique perspectives that I have learned over the years in Tafseer.

As students of the Qur'ān and those memorising it, you must make the most effort to take from the Qur'ān and live a life by it. This would be your greatest achievement. As for all of us, we need to cling on to it.

How can you do this? There are many ways but we start with Surah al-Fātihah. I'm going to share a Tafseer that you will unlikely ever heard before but if you understand it. You will have the framework and tools you need to succeed in life.

You Memorised The Quran But Forgot It, Now What? (5 min read)

Many of you have memorised the Qur'ān but have forgotten it. Take Bilal Memon for example, he memorised quickly and then had to re-memorise while working a 9-to-5 job. This happens for many reasons but most commonly:

You memorised too fast
You memorised without any revision
After you memorised, you stopped reciting

Now, you're probably stuck in cycle of trying to re-memorise but are struggling. I have previously mentioned ways to regain your memorisation and shared stories. My key focus today is on sharing a simple framework for you.

📖 THE DIARY OF A HĀFIZ

This is where we try to learn by watching others memorise. Today I share a roundup reporting the progress of a brother and a sister in their pursuit of memorising the Qur'ān.

Muhammad, 36, still on Surah an-Nisā’

Background: After forgetting what he memorised (half the Qur'ān) and kept struggling to start again. So he decided to share his diary and mission with us. After 19 weeks of struggle, he finally started. It took him a few months to do a few Juz’. He’s a few months away from having a years diary complete.
What he accomplished last week (1 year, week 15):
“So I mentioned last week that I would go back to basics. That’s what I’ve done. I’ve been using Tarteel on a daily basis to go through everything that I have memorised and basically collecting all the mistakes. I have covered Juz’ 1 to 3 this week and intend to continue this. I will then work on the areas of mistakes before moving forward again.”

Halima, 47, school teacher

Background: A 47 years old Black American Muslim school teacher. She has 3 adult children who are in university and grad school, Alhamdulillāh. She began memorizing the Quran about 5 years ago. It's been on and off with different teachers and motivation levels. She was inspired as a child to memorize Quran but my family lacked the access to a madrassah due to financial costs. She is the oldest of eight children. As a child she had never read more than the last ten surahs. Later in life, she rekindled her connection with Allah swt, and began taking tajwid classes in 2011, then finished her first reading of a khatam of Qur'an to her teacher in tajwid, from then her hifz struggles eased a bit. Currently, she is memorizing Surah al Maidah with Ustadha Sofia.
Week 3:

“La hawla wa la quwwata illa Billah is " there is no power and no strength except with Allah ". This was a trying week for me because I lagged so much to sit at a scheduled time to start strengthening my recent pages. I was enwrapped in the Gaza updates and felt a sense of overwhelm. Due to this lag, any new ayahs I would attempt to memorize would get mixed up and weak. This caused me to feel discouraged and deflated. I even canceled my mid-week hifz readings with my ustadha. At the end of the week when we met up for our second longer session, I pushed through even though I struggled through the pages. Alhamdulillah, I was surprised when the teacher said go ahead and start the new hifz. A welcomed smile came over my heart. I could just let go of my low feelings, trust in Allah, and start. This pushed me to have a new hope. I still lagged another day with distractions. However, by journaling my reflections, mistakes, and notes, I could formulate an intention to recommit. I set up 2 hifz work areas, so I could get a change of scenery to keep my flow and momentum. I let the people of Gaza and Sudan inspire me because I have the privilege to turn off the news, I would recommit to turning to Allah and this would be a way for me to help myself and them at the same time. I added my printed pages of Qunut Nazila behind my Quran stand to remind me that seeking out Allah through dua is the best form of adab and a source of relief. Duas.”

Fahmid, 17, college student

Background: A17-year-old college student from Bangladesh. Started Hifz during the COVID pandemic. After watching a documentary featuring some people doing Hifz, reading out their memorized Surahs to their teacher, he decided to start memorizing the Quran. He says, “I really became emotional to see the part where two brothers finished their memorization together and did sujood to Allah with their teacher. I started with Surah An-Naba. After memorizing almost one page, one day my mother told me that she wanted me to memorize the Quran. Weirdly enough, I didn't tell her anything about it. So I started memorizing Juz Amma under a teacher. Later I paired up with a younger brother from school to memorize the Quran. He and I used to hear each others' memorized surahs online after Fajr. I also had another teacher as my first teacher was too busy and couldn't give me much time. Things were going great. But things just messed up... Due to some personal reasons, we had to discontinue our online memorization. Later on, my second teacher moved to a further area and as a result, I couldn't continue hifz under him. Since then, almost one and a half years have passed. I had memorized 29 and 30 Juz, some Surahs from Juz 28, and some random Surahs from the Quran. I tried to memorize many other Surahs during this period, but I couldn't, rather I forgot many of the memorized surahs. I really feel bad about it. I had the freedom and opportunity to memorize, but I wasted it. I want to start again!”
Week 3:

“Bismillah
Though I couldn't fulfill my goals completely, things went quite well compared to the last week. This week I rememorized Surah Haqqah and Surah Ma'arij. I couldn't fully rememorize Surah Qalam. The lines on the last page seem a bit difficult to me. This week I will try to rememorize Pages 572 to 579 and Surah Qalam. InshaAllah I will be able to do it. Please keep me in your prayers.”

👉 If you have any questions, just drop a reply to me and I'll feature the questions and answers in relevant issues.

Allāh grant us all success and ease on this path!

⚒️ MOTIVATION, TIPS & TOOLS

During the genocidal crisis, the two siblings still preserve their hifz: https://twitter.com/Quranconnect_/status/1736381795623436436

"When I started I was scared"

"Assalamu alaykum!
My hifdh journey started in 2020. In that year I've got to know our beautiful religion more and more.

At that time I was living in germany and I didn't know a lot of people who've memorized the Quran.
I was always told that "If you forget anything you've memorized, you will get punished in the hereafter", this scared me a lot by that time. But after time I thought "That's actually good! This gives me the responsibility to always revise my pages and be connected with the Quran! There was a time where I didn't open the Quran for a month and I don't want to be at that stage again."

So I called my old Quran Teacher and asked If she could listen to the pages I will memorize. She agreed and we started this journey. I memorized a page everyday and sent a video to her over phone.
We continued a bit, but after time I stopped memorizing and that's where we stopped this journey.

Memorizing alone, without a group is hard because it is hard to be always motivated. But now I realized memorizing does not have anything to do with motivation! Hifdh is about discipline!!

In 2021 I went to a Quran Camp in turkey, Istanbul and I improved my Tajweed and memorized some small surahs. In 2022 then, after my Quran Camp I've got married and people were saying "How will you do hifdh with being married? That will be so hard!" But Alhamdulillah that was the best decision ever.

I went to a new Quran class in a new city and Allah allowed me to start hifdh.
Now -different from 2020- I've had a class with 12 people, all memorizing, a teacher and a fixed schedule.
This is really helpful when it comes to hifdh. You see all the other girls memorizing, struggling, achieving.
Memorizing with a group also makes it like a competiton. When you see others achieving and memorizing you want to memorize aswell.

It was not easy with being married, definitely not. But it was so worth it.
My days were busy with memorizing, cleaning, cooking, I didn't have much time to do other things.
Yes we couldn't travel a lot or we didn't have a lot of movie nights or anything but did I miss something? No.
Looking back makes me realize how grateful I should be for not wasting my time.

Hifdh is not easy but it is really worth it. You won't miss anything by starting somewhere.
You learn something new everyday.

Now I still continue and I have a long journey ahead, please keep me in your duas.
May Allah allow us all to memorize the whole Quran. And even If we die before completing it, may Allah allow us to pass away as women who intended to memorize the Quran.
I just wanted to share this story so maybe some sisters get motivated aswell <3"

-Hümeyra, 20.11.2023 Turkey

⭐ COMMUNITY HIGHLIGHTS & UPDATES

🎉 What’s new / recent 🎉

I have created a form for those looking for Hifz Buddies on the groups page - please visit if you’re looking for someone. I’ll either create a database or a tool to help you find someone.

Other updates

Marriage Introductions: I’ve been exploring the idea of a marriage listing that some of you were keen on. I’ve made a WhatsApp group for this. I will only be sharing updates there from now on.

📢 📢 Requests

1️⃣ My request is also on-going, share your usual hifz schedule with me. Please fill in the Form. (I have had several which I will add online soon)

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Brought to you by Qāri' Mubashir.