Try Before You Know
The technique that makes your brain memorise deeper - #210
Bismillāh al-Rahmān al-Rahīm,
Assalāmu ʿAlaykum!
There’s a moment most of us dread.
You sit down, open the muṣḥaf to a fresh page, and you have to start from nothing.
So you do the natural thing.
You read it. Carefully. You read it again. Then again. Then you try to remember.
This is how almost everyone begins memorisation.
And there is nothing wrong with it.
Recently, I revisited some cognitive science and found something strange:
If you attempt to recall something before you study it, you remember it better afterwards.
And that’s interesting because that’s exactly what I used to do!
You try, even if you get it completely wrong.
Actually, especially if you get it completely wrong!
The Experiment
In 2009, researchers at UCLA tested this with students.
One group studied material normally: read, then tested.
Another group was tested first - before seeing the material at all. They guessed. They got almost everything wrong.
Then both groups studied the correct answers.
When tested again later, the group that guessed, and failed, remembered significantly more.
The failure wasn’t the problem. It was the point.
When the brain generates a wrong answer and is then corrected, something happens that passive reading never produces: A jolt.
The brain registers the gap between what it expected and what is true. That gap creates a kind of urgency. The correct answer arrives at exactly the right moment - when the brain is leaning forward, waiting.
This is called the pretesting effect.
And it has a direct application to Hifz.
This is exactly why having a direct listener for your Hifz is important. That feedback loop also has an impact on your pretesting effect.
What This Looks Like in Hifz
Before you open the muṣḥaf to memorise a new page, try this.
Listen to the page once from a recitation, Shaykh Husary, ‘Abd al-Basit, Minshawi, whoever you use…
While you listen, try to mouth the words ahead of the reciter. Essentially, you try to beat them and keep up with them.
You will get most of it wrong.
When you stumble on a word, the reciter continues, and the correct word lands differently than it would have if you’d simply read it cold.
Your brain doesn’t treat it as new information anymore.
It treats it as a correction.
And corrections stick.
A More Structured Version
If you work with a teacher, this can be even more direct.
Ask your teacher to recite the first half of each āyah and pause.
You complete the second half, from guesswork and context.
You will be wrong most of the time. That is expected.
Your teacher corrects you.
Now you learn the page.
What you will notice: the words you got wrong during the attempt are the words you remember most clearly when you return to the page.
The mind has already been primed for them.
Why This Matters for the Pages You Already Have
This principle doesn’t only apply to new memorisation.
Think about your weak pages, the ones where a particular word or phrase keeps slipping.
Most people respond to this by repeating the whole page more times.
But the pretesting effect suggests something different.
Before your next revision session, close the muṣḥaf and attempt those weak āyāt first.
Don’t check. Don’t prepare. Don’t even try to recall carefully.
Just attempt.
Then open the muṣḥaf and correct what you got wrong.
That correction will go deeper than 10 repetitions of reading.
Because your brain was already working when the answer arrived.
A Caution Worth Naming
This technique is not an invitation to test yourself before you are ready in front of a teacher.
But privately, in your own practice, attempting before learning is not a sign of weakness or unpreparedness.
It is the mechanism.
You are priming.
The Deeper Principle
Standard Hifz advice says: learn it correctly first, then test.
And this is sensible for building the initial foundation.
Yet this research suggests that for depth of encoding, for making something genuinely stay, the moment of correction matters more than the moment of reading.
Every time you hear the right word after attempting the wrong one, your brain fires differently.
It is not just recording.
It is updating.
The Qur’an is not something you can simply absorb through repetition alone. The words resist passive intake. This is well-known to anyone who has sat with a page for an hour and still felt nothing settle.
The pretesting technique doesn’t eliminate repetition.
It gives repetition teeth.
Just think about the times where you have used an app like Tarteel vs. reciting to someone? Notice how reciting to someone is always better? It gives you grounding.
Try It This Week
Before you learn anything new, sit quietly and attempt to complete the āyāt you haven’t learned yet, from context, from Surah structure, from what you know of the passage.
You will not know them. That is fine.
Then read the page as normal.
Come back the next day and notice which words your mind held.
You may be surprised.
And remember me in your duʿāʾ.
وَصَلَّى اللّٰهُ عَلَىٰ سَيِّدِنَا مُحَمَّدٍ وَعَلَىٰ آلِهِ وَصَحْبِهِ وَسَلِّمْ
— Qāri’ Mubashir
👉 Read more articles
Hifz Camp - Coming soon. Join the waitlist.
📖 THE DIARY OF A HĀFIZ
I share these not to impress you, but to normalise the struggle. These are not ideal journeys. These are real ones. If you see yourself in them, that’s the point.
Here’s a roundup reporting the progress of our brothers and sisters this week:
🧕🏼 Aaliya — Year 2, Week 35
Background: 29 years old. I'm memorizing the 24th juz but I have 27 ajza memorized Alhamdullilah, I'm very close to completing.
“Alhamdullilah I completed 24th juz! I only have 2 ajza left!!
I revised 6-12 and 15-17. And I recited 23rd everyday. The end of 16 was really weak, I will practice more and redo it iA.”
🧕🏼 Umm Sulaym — Week 26
Background: 22 years old. Over two years on the journey. Memorised about 8 ajzā but without consistent revision. Now re-memorising previous portions while continuing forward. Currently on the 10th juz.
“Assalamu’alaykum,
I tried reciting the Surah Qasas to my teacher this weekend, I can tell the effect on the pages where I didn’t repeat enough. I’m going to take some time to perfect those pages before I move on in shaa Allah.”
🧕🏼 Aisha — Year 1, Week 22
Background: 37 years old, mother of six. Completed Hifz in madrasah, then forgot due to lack of revision and responsibilities. Has been re-memorising for one year. Now at 17 ajzā.
“Assalamualaikum warahmatullah,
I’m quite disheartened about my progress this week , I could only manage to familiarise myself with one page in Surah Mu’minoon and it’s not yet memorised fully , I still have 3 pages more to finish the surah. Constantly having to check after kids during distance learning is a headache and I’m mentally exhausted , maybe why I couldn’t do much when I sit to memorize.
For revision I recited ajza 1,2 ,3 and 30 in prayers , not much of a progress but alhamdulillah that I was able to do it .
I hope my situation get’s better inshallah.”
👳🏼♂️ Muhammad — Year 3, Week 31
Background: 38 years old. Forgot half the Qur’ān he’d memorised and struggled to restart. Shared his diary and mission with us. The most consistent of the diaries despite continued struggles.
“The last few weeks have been tough due to change in circumstances with work. So I have struggled with consistency. Please make dua that I find the right balance. I’ve been revising from the 1st Juz’.”
🧕🏼 Safa — Week 2
Background: 21 years old. Started at 18 with Juz ‘Amma by myself, building 10 ajzā before lack of revision set me back. Spent restrengthening every week for a year with a teacher, then pushed forward again. Now at 22 ajzā.
“For this week my teacher changed my schedule. She wants to test me every 6 juz+surah al taubah to access how well I remember my previous ajza. For that reason I have to pause my current schedule(30 to 11).
Insha Allah I hope I reach the standard in all of thise 6 ajza coming Friday”
👉 If you have any questions, reply to this email and I’ll feature them in upcoming issues.
We’ve reached the limit I had in mind now of 5 per issue. If you want to share your diary — get in touch. I have another idea I’ll be testing.
Allāh grant us all success and ease on this path.
⭐ COMMUNITY HIGHLIGHTS & UPDATES
Last week, the new Hifz Buddy Finder was released!
You can now:
– Discover compatible partners based on your level and goals
– Send requests and connect intentionally
– Share contact details only after mutual agreement
All through your own account. Check it out!
There’ll be a number of other exciting updates to follow. Keep an eye out.
Hifz Camp - Coming soon. Join the waitlist.
💬 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. 👇
JazakAlah khayran for this! I tried this method when revising today (I was accidentally doing this in the past, but not as often as I should), and wow, and it works really well! Thank you so much for articulating it so clearly in your article, Qari!