You're revising wrong this whole time!

Revision by looking or revision without looking? What's right? - Issue #164

May 27, 2025

Bismillāh al-Rahmān al-Rahīm,
Assalāmu ʿAlaykum!

Today, I answer some of your struggles and questions that I have received about revision challenges.

First up is how do we approach revision?

One of you asked:

“How to revise (dhor)? I mean when by looking I usually read fast 1 time (looking) and after that without looking but don’t get much results, and when I read slowly by looking, I get into lethargy mode. How do we revise (slow/fast) by looking and by without looking? How many times should I repeat the page by looking?”

I’d to start by saying that ‘revision’ or ‘review’ isn’t about repetition. It’s about retention, strengthening and mastery of recitation without looking. This means you need to be testing yourself systematically.

Revision is designed to keep your memory through engaging active repetition, rather than passive repetition. This means you have work on your mistakes again and again. More so, you have to make revision meaningful. Engage with the Words of Allāh.

Many are afraid of revision due to how difficult it can be. Seeking perfection takes time and by Allāh, you have time!

The biggest truth in memorising the Qur’an is that it’s for life and revision is part of the game. The quicker you realise that the sooner you’ll avoid these mistakes. The quicker you realise that revision is more than repetition, the sooner you won’t be paralysed by the thought of always forgetting. Revision by looking is not revision or review. That’s just recitation.

Revision by default should be done from memory and then if required, you look.

Let’s suppose you want to look first, you can try this.

1. Start With Slow, Looking (1–2 times)

Read the page slowly with your eyes and your heart.
Use your finger to trace as you read.
This helps your brain see the ayahs, their shapes, and connections.

Repeat once more with the same slowness, focusing on tajweed and pausing where the meanings end. You might feel sleepy or sluggish (this also might be a factor on timing in the day and your health) but it’s okay. But this step is sharpening your memory, not testing it yet.

2. Move to Active Recall, Without Looking (2–3 times)

Now close the Mushaf.

Try to recite the full page from memory, even if you struggle.
Don’t stop if you make a mistake, pause, try again, then go back to the last ayah you were confident with. If it doesn’t work, then look at the place in the mushaf, say the word out loud by looking at it, and then try again without looking 3 times.
After each recitation, check the mushaf and mark any mistakes or hesitations.

🔁 Repeat from memory 2–3 times total, fixing your weak areas each time.

3. Finish With a Fluent Recitation, With Looking (1x)

Once you’ve tested yourself without looking:

Open the mushaf and read the page fluently, not rushed but in your natural speed.
This reinforces the full page as a “flow” in your mind.

Generally, I would advice:

Don’t rush to finish the page. Focus on how well it stays the next day.
If you struggle with slow recitation, break it into 3 lines at a time, then move forward.
If you feel sleepy, stand up and revise while walking. Use movement to wake the brain.
Vary your method: One day fast, next day slow, third day only test without looking.

If your goal is to be strong in Salah, pass testing, or retain the Qur’an for life — then slow and accurate revision will always win in the long run. Fast revision is only for maintaining already-strong pages.

May Allah make your dhor a source of light in your chest and strength in your steps.

Another question on revision struggles:

“I have a question about my manzil/revision i’m feeling quite hopeless.
Every time I complete a juz and add it to my manzil cycle it is really strong to with maybe a 1 or 2 mistakes in the whole juz. And before adding it to the cycle i read it for a few days everyday. I then add it to my cycle which consists of 8 Juz right now, 2 juz a day. However overtime i’m getting mistakes in all these juz even though they were completely fine before adding to cycle. A lot of mistakes. My juz 8 has become really really weak compared to the others. I just don’t understand. As before adding to the cycle my juz are strong.”

What you’re experiencing is normal for many of us. Although I would ask you how you revise these 2 juz’ a day, as that might tell me a lot but…

When you're reading a Juz daily for a few days before entering it into your cycle, you're:

Reading it fresh
Repeating it often
Giving it full attention (because it's your current goal)

But once you move on, that Juz becomes one of many, and now it’s only being touched once every 4 days (if you’re doing 2 Juz a day from 8 total).

That drop in repetition + increased mental load = gradual weakening.

There’s a big difference between:

Focused single-Juz revision, and
Quick 2-Juz-a-day general manzil

What worked when it was “your Juz of the week” no longer works when it’s just part of a list.

That’s not because your memory is weak. It’s because your review method doesn’t match the memory strength needed to maintain long-term accuracy.

Generally, your most recent hifz is always the weakest, in the sense that it’s the most prone to gain mistakes and forgetfulness than anything else. Why? It’s still not in long-term memory. It needs more regular repetition. This is why, when you’re adding a new Juz’ to your cycle, it begins to slowly creep in these mistakes.

So here’s some suggestions for you.

1. Triage Your Juz Strength

Split your 8 Juz into 3 categories:

🟢 Strong e.g. Juz 1, 21x/week from memory

🟡 Medium e.g. Juz 3–5 Review every 3–4 days

🔴 Weakening e.g. Juz 8 Review every 1–2 days for 1 week, then move to 🟡

You can use colour stickers, highlighters, or a simple chart.

2. Don’t Just Recite — Test Yourself

Right now, you might be reading quickly through the Juz without mentally engaging.

Instead:

Start each Juz with a test: "Can I recall this without looking?"
Then only look where needed
After finishing, mark the ayahs/sections you messed up
Make a “weak spots list” for each Juz — hit those ayahs 3x each before moving on

3. Focus on Transitions and Anchor Points

Often, what’s slipping is:

Connections between ayahs (transitions)
Verses that are similar or repetitive

Build a list of anchor ayahs (start of every 5-line section, or where pages change)
Test yourself by jumping into the middle of a Juz. Can you keep going from there?

4. Alternate Between Review Types

For example:

Mon — Normal manzil (2 Juz from memory)
Tue— Targeted review (1 Juz weak + one medium-strength Juz)
Wed—Manzil again
Thu—Speed test (read one Juz quickly for flow)
Fri—Correction focus (review your weak spot list only)

This keeps your revision active and balanced.

5. Keep Going, Make Time For Strengthening

Just keep going as you are with 2 juz’ daily but give time for strengthening portions within your revision session. So for example, this can be that you do 2 juz’ daily but you add a quarter to focus on to make stronger. This can be Juz 1 + 2, but you focus on a quarter from Juz’ 8.

An alternative, is that you keep repeating your recent Juz’ daily for around 30 days as your second Juz’ alongside another Juz’.

There are many ways to go back it but it’s all about how you’re approaching it.

I have many of you emailing me and asking me questions like these where I break down methods and techniques.

In shā’ Allāh, I’ll be doing a workshop soon after ‘Eid on memorisation, perhaps you’ll be there?

I’m also opening opportunities for 1-on-1 coaching calls soon, interested? Let me know.

🤲 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:

👳🏼‍♂️ 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 37 and has been the most consistent of our diaries despite continued struggles.

Year 2 Week 39:

“I have managed to review the 1-4th Juz and will now continue on.”

🧕🏼 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 41:

“Last week, I focused on strengthening the 7 ajza that I had revised the week before. I tried to do sabak as well but I couldn't finish it. My sabak was the 13th juz and I spent a couple days revising it but I kept making many mistakes. It is frustrating but alhamdullilah I am still trying. I spent more time revising over the long weekend, so inshallah I will recite it better this week. I plan to recite 13-10th ajza as sabak by the end of the week inshallah.”

🧕🏼 Aisha

Background: I am a 36 yr old, mother of 6 kids. I memorised 20 juz in a madrasa but got married and although completed my hifz on my own , my revision was poor and I couldn't recite anything properly except for 5 or 6 juz. It's been 12 years of ups and downs trying to rememorise with little success. Alhamdulillah I found Qari Mubashir’s website that answered so many of my questions and took me out of self doubt, I discovered the tikrar program, downloaded the app and Alhamdulillah my path to rememorise has finally been made possible by the grace of Allah. I started on the 20th of June and so far have completed 8 juz , currently doing the 9th . I also gave my first test for juz 1 - 6 last month and passed it Alhamdulillah. I am looking forward to completing hifz, with a solid revision this time, bi iznillah.

Week 28:

“Assalamualaikum warahmatullah,

Alhamdulillah the past week I tried focusing more on utilizing every bit of time I could possibly get and revised my weak ajza.

New : Completed 3/4th of the 14th juz.

Connection : Kept revising the 14th juz from start till sabaq , almost perfect but still a few mistakes kept recurring.

Revision : Had to revise 43 pages daily (a bit over 2 juz) this time I decided to revise out of prayer so that I could check my mistakes and correct them , although I didn't cover all the mistakes but it was surprising how much I could recite without feeling overwhelmed and the fact that I could recite the weaker ajza properly from memory for the most part , Alhamdulillah.

May Allah keep me steadfast, Ameen.”

👉 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!

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