This 100-year-old woman shows us what's possible
She Finished the Qur'an Every 3 Nights - Issue #168
Bismillāh al-Rahmān al-Rahīm,
Assalāmu ʿAlaykum!
Today I bring you a wake-up call.
Would you believe me if I told you that an elderly woman, now over 100 years old (Allāh bless her), has been reading 10 ajzā’ per day, every single day of her life?
You better believe me.
Even as she has aged, lost all of her friends and loved ones, she told her granddaughter:
"I feel estranged from everything except the Qur’an - it is my companion, my comfort."
She continued her cycle of khatm every 3 days. She wasn’t famous. She didn’t post about it. But this was her life.
The story highlights how the Qur’an can become so embedded in a person’s heart and soul that: "A person dies in the state they lived."
Her granddaughter says:
"I read so much, I reached a point where I felt like I wasn’t reading the Qur’an anymore... it was as if Allah was reading it to me."
Imagine reading so much that your soul flips, the Qur’an begins to speak into you. Commands. Warnings. Invitations. Descriptions of Jannah and Jahannam. All personal.
"Pause and realise: He’s not just telling stories. He’s talking to you."
She says: I once burned my finger from steam. It hurt for 14 days. Blackened skin. Nail distorted.
"And I thought—this is just steam. What then is the Hellfire?"
She read this verse and paused for hours. Not out of fear alone, but out of awe for the One who warns with love.
You open the Book of Allah and find:
“Nothing small or large is left unrecorded.”
It’s all in front of you.
Read, day and night. Learn.
What’s stopping you?!
Even when you memorise the Qur’an, you’re forced to read a page top to bottom.
You’re forced to concentrate. You can’t just skim through it.
You memorise with deep focus. You see the verse. You feel its place on the page.
You can’t just glance at the page and move on.
You stop. You engage. You live it.
Let me explain.
What do you do for exams?
You will try to learn everything. Every tiny detail. Multiple times.
You are now asked any question from the material and you give an answer.
Now compare this to a student who just reads casually. Flips through the textbook. Reads without structure or plan.
Who will retain more?
Of course, the one who memorised. The one who reviewed properly. The one who prepared thoroughly. It’s the same with the Qur’an.
When you’re on a ḥifz journey, you have regular tests. Daily, weekly, monthly. Your teacher checks your accuracy. You’re tested on the rubaʿ (quarter), the juz, the ḥizb.
Soon, you start learning the layout of the Qur’an.
You know exactly where the āyah ends: “And give glad tidings to those who believe and do good.”
You know its location in the muṣḥaf, top of the page, right-hand side perhaps.
The first “O mankind!” call in the Qur’an? It appears in Sūrat al-Baqarah, left-hand page, lower corner, perhaps.
You memorise every detail.
You don’t just read the Qur’an like any book.
Memorisation is another world.
The Qur’an memorises you
When someone keeps the Qur’an company for a long time, reads it for years, day after day, something happens:
It’s not that you memorise every detail, it's that the Qur’an itself memorises them.
You think you’re the one putting in effort, memorising the Book. But truly, the Qur’an is what’s preserving you.
Let me remind you: Allah does not need your worship or your ḥifz. Don’t think for a moment that Allah is waiting for your ‘ibādah. This is a favour on us.
Take Qur’an circles, for example. Maybe 20… 50… 60 people join. Only five finish. It’s a matter of selection. Allah chooses who completes the journey.
Some drop out along the way.
Some disappear mid-road.
Some can’t continue.
Allah opens doors to those that make efforts.
Whenever you memorise, you must be certain, while memorising every verse and every letter from the Book of Allah, that you are inserting a light from the Lights of Allah ‘azza wa jall into your heart and chest.
One of the greatest things that will help you, if you’re memorising, is that you sit and memorise as if Allah and His Rasool (صلى الله عليه وسلم) is teaching you. Have presence. All of a sudden, you realise, all this time, you’ve been in the company of Allah. Why am I complaining? Why am I complaining that I couldn’t memorise? Why am I complaining that I have no motivation? Because I forgot I was sat with Him.
A method called 5-to-3
This is for those who can’t memorise alone and need someone to do it with. The greatest thing that will help you, help your son, daughter, or partner, if you’re memorising with them, is that you sit and memorise with them.
So you memorise together.
Whether you’re both memorising the same Surah, or you’re doing a different one, it’s not a problem. What matters is: your mushaf is with you, you're sitting next to them, and you’re memorising with them.
So memorisation becomes an exchange of recitation between you two.
You memorise, and he/she listens to you. Or he/she memorises, and you listen to him/her.
The important thing is: there’s mutual participation and cooperation.
“Allah is in the aid of the servant, as long as the servant is aiding his brother.”
If you apply this principle with the student you're teaching, or with your own child, you’ll find memorisation improves, and their level progresses, In shā’ Allāh.
5-to-3 means that you break the verse into parts and then, for each part, you’ll:
Recite 5 times with the mushaf, looking inside.
Then recite 3 times without the mushaf, from memory.
Once all the parts are firm, you put them together and recite the full verse 3 times.
You do this with your partner together. Bounce off each other too.
💡 Key Lessons and Reflections from today
Leave a comment on what we can learn from todays’ lesson.
You can read more here:
🔗 Using Your Mind to Boost Hifz and Motivation
🔗 How to Stop Feeling Trapped in a Hifz Cycle
🤲 Requesting your prayers,
- Qāri’ Mubashir
📖 THE DIARY OF A HĀFIZ
This is where we try to learn by watching others memorise. A roundup reporting the progress of our brothers and sisters in their pursuit of memorising the Qur'ān:
🧕🏼 Aaliya
Background: I'm 28 and I started memorizing full time about 2 years ago. I have almost 17 Juz memorized Alhamdulillah. I go to a masjid hifz class everyday and I'm trying to increase my daily revision to 2-3 juz. I'm hoping recording weekly diaries will motivate me to be more consistent and inshAllah help others who read it too.
Week 45:
“Not heard from her today. Hopefully, we get an update next week”
🧕🏼 Aisha
Background: I'm a 36 yr old, mother of 6. Getting married while memorising the Qur'an, my hifz got weaker and eventually led to forgetting it. Came across this wonderful website by Qari Mubashir and learnt many tips, connected with my childhood friend as a hifz buddy. Hoping to complete hifz with a strong revision!
Week 32:
“Assalamualaikum warahmatullah,
By the grace of The Almighty, I rejoined Tikrar, after leaving it I felt like a lost traveller in the vast endless desert , I lost direction and purpose , my nafs and Shaitan kept overpowering me and nothing can be worse than submitting to these forces instead of Allah.
Why did I leave it anyway ? Because everyday had become a struggle and the daily portion kept increasing, life and its responsibilities pressing on me , my toddler, housework , kids Qur'an and homeworks ,their exams etc , at the end of the day I would only have a small part of my daily portion completed , and to prevent negligence marks I clicked the completion button assuring myself that I'll complete this later .
Tikrar allows 3 negligences in a month , the 4th and you're account is excluded.
But something miraculous happened , I uninstalled the app , next day they announced that the app will be shut down for maintenance work , then after resumption they announced it was not working for everyone so negligence will not be marked , not my problem ....I thought , I'm out anyway.
10 days passed, I was depressed about not memorising anything and in a spur of the moment I decided to join Tikrar and start afresh .. from Baqarah .. , just tried my old account and Subhanallah wa bi hamdihi it was still active !! I thanked Allah for His mercy ! My halaqah teacher encouraged me , don't worry about the mistakes, just keep trying and complete your daily portion.
One should not despair of the mercy of Allah !! This is a divine path that we have been put on, He chose it for us !!
Currently I'm doing revision so paused the 15th juz , had done just about a quarter of it.
Insha Allah will get back to it soon.”
👳🏼♂️ Muhammad
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 38 and has been the most consistent of our diaries despite continued struggles.
Year 2 Week 43:
“I have been through the 5th Juz’ and continuing. Revision from the back needs to reengage.”
👉 If you have any questions, just drop a reply to me and I'll feature the questions and answers in relevant issues. If you want to join the diaries, get in touch also!
Allāh grant us all success and ease on this path!
⭐ COMMUNITY HIGHLIGHTS & UPDATES
I’m looking to do the workshop on memorisation on 7th July (UK, evening). Anyone able to do that?
📌 Your Turn: How Did You Find This Post?
🔥 Reply & let me know what helped you most today.
💬 Reply & tell me: What’s your biggest struggle in Hifz right now? Have a question? Reply to this email (or answer the question below) and let me know—I’ll try to feature your question in upcoming posts.