Insights & Advice
Haifaa Younis – The Ultimate Guide to Memorizing the Quran
AI: Summary ©
The importance of memorizing the Quran is emphasized, along with the benefits of learning the language of Islam and avoiding regret. Personal growth and commitment to learning are also emphasized. The need for a "people to fit” approach is emphasized, along with finding the right person for a job and environment. The importance of practicing and reciting the Quran is also emphasized, as well as finding opportunities to improve one's life.
AI: Summary ©
Salam alaykum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh Bismillah Alhamdulillah wa Salatu was Salam ala Rasulillah while I he or Sophie woman who Allah La Molina Mayan fauna on foreigner Bhima Alam tena in Kissimmee on Would you Would ya la Manya Oh to become an AMI lionpaw Wakil Villa Ayesha on FC Leticia, what do I use my Robin Allah to the Palu beneva is had Atana are having an AMOLED and Karasuma. In the kantele hub will be strictly sundry ways Cindy Emery was the Tamil assignee of polio Zack Malachy for joining us today Alhamdulillah Hello Brian May Allah pantalla open our hearts all of us to the topic of today to the journey of today. And it's
Allah Subhana Allah in the Quran and always these verses comes to my mind and he said twice, one time in Surah to Nisa, and one time, he said it's unsalted Muhammad in surah. T Musa Lawson, and hello to the Barone and Quran are located in India hydrilla Hello, do 50 laugh and Kathira why don't they comprehend and reflect on the Quran and if they have found differences in it, if it was not from Allah, they would have found so much differences or conflicts or contradiction in it. Same in sort of Mohammed aphylla to the Brunel Quran, Allah colluvial of Allah, they do not reflect and understand the Quran or their hearts are locked. These two takes me to the next verse, which Allah
subhanho wa Taala said that sort of coma and He repeated it like every few Ayat verses and this verse comes in well Acharya Sarona Quran Allah decree file me with the cure. We for sure have made the Quran easy
will occur the asana we made it easy A LITTLE WHILE Acharya Sundar Khurana Lydic, to be remembered to be recited fairly mediocre. Does anyone remember this statement? Does anyone remember this? So with this introduction, it gives me a great pleasure today to have a guest,
Dr. Saadia Mia Meaghan and she is joining us from Michigan. And the main reason or there's more than one reason but one of the main reasons for my heart close to my heart, that I have the honor and the pleasure of having her with us today is the fact that she is not only a professional, not only a physician, a woman, a working woman, but the main crown that Allah subhanho wa Taala blessed her with is the crown of Quran. She's also the author of the book, which some of you on probably many of you have read is The Crown venture, where basically a book talks about her journey in memorizing the Quran. And this topic of memorizing the Quran itself is so dear to me Subhanallah and gives me a
great pleasure to have her with us. He told us idea desert Crockett for joining us. May Allah subhanaw taala reward you and accept from you. I want you first to tell our audience which I'm sure everybody knows you but doesn't hurt to tell them. How do you want to introduce yourself?
So now I come. I'm so honored to be here in your class, Dakota Haifa.
I am an endocrinologist. I work full time I live in Michigan. I did write this book called The crowning venture inspiration from women who have memorized the Quran. I love other things like functional medicine, healthy lifestyle, things like that. And I'm really honored to be here today.
Thank you for having me. Absolutely. It's a pleasure, actually. So I'm gonna start by saying, Dr. Ross idea what made you write the book to start with.
I'll go back a little bit to my story and how I memorize the Quran in the first place. When I was in between finishing, I finished undergrad and I was about to start medical school I had about eight months off. I decided to go to Syria to learn Arabic. My initial intention was to go to Syria for three weeks and to learn Arabic. While I was there, I met my teachers. I met NC Tamra and CSUN and other teachers as well. They actually told me if you are able to extend your trip, you can get knee Jazza to teach the dweet.
Back at that time, there was not a lot of people, women in the United States who were certified to teach what on so there was a need for this. So I decided to extend my trip. I stayed for about four and a half months. I got my ijazah in Scituate. I came back and four days later I started medical school, my Shawn then but after spending the entire summer
are glued to the Quran working on that, that we that we're working to fix my law working to fix all these letters.
And hours and hours every day, I literally fell in love with the Quran. I could not get enough of it at that point, my heart just yearned to take the next step.
You know, it's when you fall in love with the Quran like that you yearn to know, it's the words inside and out. And I saw all these women there who had memorized the Quran, women and girls of all ages. It gave me something to look at, you know how they say you can't be what you can't see.
So I saw all these women have done it. So why can't I? At that point, I, I did two years of medical school and Hamdulillah I still had this desire that I want to have a chance to really spend the time to memorize. And so after I took my step two board exam that I passed it with flying colors. I had a friend who had taken a year off of medical school after she did two years and she went to Egypt for years. So I thought, Well, why can't I go to Syria for a year and then I'll come back and finish medical school. And that's what I did. Hamdulillah I spent that year there focusing on the memorization of the Quran. I was also learning Arabic at the time because my background is my
parents are from Pakistan. I was born in the US but my parents are from Pakistan. I did not speak Arabic. So I spent that year learning Arabic and memorizing the Quran at the same time.
And after I after that year, I came back I finished the second two years of medical school I went on to do residency, I did a fellowship in endocrinology. And since then, I've been working.
The book came about in 2015, I had traveled to Sweden, with NC Tamra and some other friends of ours who were in robots are part of Java. This is just a tomato gray. Yes, yes.
There was a women's conference in Sweden. So on our way back, we're sitting on the plane. For some reason, she turned to me and she said, why don't you write a book about memorizing Quran.
So I just pulled out my smartphone right there. And I wrote out an introduction. And I wrote out an outline on the plane. This is what a book that's going to be about memorizing Quran, it should contain these chapters, these ideas. And subhanAllah. From there, you know, I just started writing, I wrote my story shared my story about the year that I spent in Syria.
I wrote very vulnerably, about the difficulties of
reviewing to, especially, you know, now after I had left Syria, now I'm back in real in the real world, working, you know, in school, always studying so hard, how to find time to actually review as well.
After I wrote my story, I thought, there are so many women who will never leave the US, there's so many women who will never have a chance to go to Syria, they will, maybe they already have children, maybe they
you know, have come from different backgrounds. So I found 12 other women who had stories different than mine, and interviewed them, so that anybody who picks up this book, if they don't relate to one story, they can relate to another. And 100 Allah, I have found that there, in doing that there has been so much about Africa. Every week, I hear from people all over the world from women who have said things like I started memorizing the Quran, and then I stopped and I read your book. And it motivated me to start this journey again. So 100 It's beautiful to get that kind of feedback. So if I want to ask, which is question I commonly also get, I'm sure you get it, why should I memorize the
Quran? One. The second is it's not an obligation. It's not a form. And it's true. It's not an obligation. Number two, number three, I don't think I can ever memorize the Quran. It's very difficult, and I'm gonna forget it. So let's start one by one. Why should I? And if this is one of our viewers, why should I?
That's a good question. Because I teach classes about memorization. And I bring up that point that yes, it's not fun. But ask yourself what I can say from my experience having gone through and I'm by no means a perfect Hatfield law at all, like I it's a journey. It's a lifelong journey for me. And by even even going through one time in memorization, you get to know the Quran so much more deep.
Please,
then when you just recite it, and because if you remember when I was getting my ijazah, I was reciting hours and hours a day. But once you start memorizing, there's something that different that happens, you enter a different dimension with it. And number two, there's a reward for all that time that you spend doing it. But the other thing is, I give this example to my students, let's say, somebody came up, you know, and I gave the example there are people who are not Muslim, maybe their professors in universities who their Arabic is better than ours, maybe they have even memorized the Quran. If one of them walked up to you and made up an idea, would you be able to recognize is this
in the Quran? Or is it not. And when you spend that much time with the Quran,
you get to know it that better at deeply at that level. And so there's you know, the also the benefits of
when you are, you're listening to the recitation in that a we, how beautiful it is, when you when you know it. Also, it just strings, strengthens your love for it, the more time that you spend with it, the more attached that you get to it, it just grows, you know, that attachment and that love. These are a list pod with all those words. If I remember my teacher, some of my teachers, they would say that if you were to receive a love letter, what would you do with that love letter, you would read it over and over again, let's say to your beloved, you know, you're gonna pull it out, you're gonna read it, you might read it multiple times, you might put away you're gonna pull it out again,
you're gonna read those words, again, you can't get enough of it. And this, these are the words of Allah subhanaw taala
Subhan, Allah, when I was asked this question, I gave a different answer, as a physician in your field that my first answer was, why not?
We have memorized and any of the physicians listening to us, and, and they told us idea knows this, when you study medicine, there's some books you really have to memorize. To be strong in your field, you really have to memorize and you have to memorize very well. So I said to myself, when people asked me I was like, subhanAllah, nobody asked me, why did you Why are you memorizing all these books of medicine? Right, everybody actually expect you to excel to become different physician than the others. So why when it comes to the words of Allah subhanaw taala. People question this, this, this brings me exactly the to the love letter, which I will add is where is the Quran, in my heart,
and in my life. And in my priority, I remember, and this is something is personal, but I'll share it with everybody. And you probably will feel it very well in my first exam, because you know, how many exams you get. So it was the first time I observed the Quran together. And I remember I sat in front of three teachers who were examining you. And the first question, I started crying, and I normally woman doesn't cry very easily. I mean, unless it's really something. And they thought that I'm so scared. So they called my teacher, and why did you bring her if she's not ready, we should not do this to her all this. And finally, when I was able to speak, and I said, I'm not crying because it's
an exam, I'm crying, because how can I sit in front of Allah subhanaw taala at the day of judgment, and I have memorized all these books of medicine. And I did not yet memorize his book, all his book. And really, this is how it came to me. So the first thing is, don't ask why sighs ask how come I have not yet done it? Start the journey. And we're going to come to your to the journey. But the first question is, ask yourself, why not? We have memorized I always ask this woman, not physicians, and I said, especially in your path, you know this very well. They thought a Saudi if I asked them, I said, Give me a recipe for biryani. Why? How many recipes I will get out of their heart. Nobody
will look for a book. We all learn that. So don't ask yourself, Why say your ask yourself why I have not yet started. Now take us through the journey. What is the obstacles? I'm sure there is obstacles. Of course there is. What is the obstacles if you want to if you want to start?
Well, I think you mentioned the very first time that obstacle is asking, Is this something that I should do or not? I still have people asking that. You know, is this something I should do? You know, there's the a lot of people are discouraged, either because they're women, or they're discouraged because of the fear of forgetting. Hmm
And I wrote a whole chapter about this concept of forgetting the Quran. And what does that mean? You know, they'll say, Well, it's worse to memorize and forget it than to not do it in the first place.
The, from all the research that I did, and as you, as you know that, like the abahani sisters who wrote a whole book about this,
forgetting is a natural thing, we expect it exactly, of course, you memorize something, you're going to forget it. But the key is that you keep on reviewing, and you never leave that commitment. So just hold on to the commitment and keep a daily word of the Quran. And don't worry about the forgetting or not forgetting, you just commit to every day you're going to be working on review. And the other thing is that, just like you again, if we take it back to medicine, I wish that we could read something one time and never forget it, because medical school would have been so easy.
But why is medical school so difficult? Why does it require hours and hours and hours of study is because the nature of learning something is that you're going to forget it.
You just do in first of all, you go in with that. And it takes away so much stress. You know, I hear people all the time, okay, but I memorized this and I forgot it well, of course, you know. So it's that's the whole thing, you just commit that no matter what the rest of my life, I will be spending some time every day with the Quran and whatever that is for each individual person. You know, for somebody who has a newborn baby, it might be 20 minutes for somebody who has a lot more time that might be hours. But whatever it is, you you just pick an amount and you stick with it. And also realizing that there may be times in your life where things happen, you might miss a day, but that's
okay, you just get started again, the next day, you know, there's let's say you're there's a family member in the hospital who's sick or you get sick or something, you know, this is life, but a part of our life we we fit, we fit actually, you know, the way we describe it is fit your life around Quran, you know, I was going to say how do you fit Quran into your life, but really,
another way to look at it is okay, here's here's the Quran, and let me fit my life around this. So that's one thing is this concept of should I do it? And the concept of forgetting?
You mentioned at the actually we were having this conversation before we came live about finding a teacher, which, yes, it's important to have a teacher however, until you find a teacher. Now you can always start the journey and the journey is different for different people. For some people. Now i i recommend starting out with the sweet and, and really working on one stage we had before going deeply into memorization. And nowadays, there's no shortage of the great teachers, we can find them online, you know, back when I got my ijazah, there wasn't actually internet was brand new.
And now we really don't have any excuse. I mean, I had to travel to Syria, to get this knowledge. But now we have not only did we have teachers online, I mean all sacred knowledge you can, although it's nice to be in the presence of teachers, but we don't really don't have any excuse. So start out with the tweet. And I firmly believe that when you have a sense, deep, sincere intention that Allah subhanaw taala will open the way and whatever that that means whether it means a teacher will come into your life.
In my case, when I wanted to go to Syria, initially, my parents did not feel comfortable. You know, my mom did not feel comfortable sending her daughter to a country that was not, you know, their country.
It just so you know, turned out initially, you know, my mom, she didn't feel comfortable the first time. So I, I just put it to the side. And then a few months later, there was a group of of women going and one of them was my sister's friend and my mom knew her. She trusted her and she she herself brought it up and said do you want to go to Syria? And I mean, subhanAllah I,
that was a shock to me. And then even when it came to taking a year off after finishing two years of medical school, again, initially my mom was a little bit concerned and nervous about it. And I just kind of let it go. I remember it was Ramadan. It was towards the end of Ramadan that I asked her and there was maybe one more day left of Ramadan.
I, she was nervous. So I just said, okay, and I just decided, You know what Amazon's almost over, I want to finish another hertsmere. So I had, like, you know, 17 or something. And I just remember
quickly finishing with less in less than a day finishing another Hetzner. And I don't know if my mom saw me, you know how much I was working on it or what, but she brought it up herself again. So really just having that sincere intention. So first of all, deciding this is okay, this is something I want to do. Having that sincere intention, and then just making go out and take the first steps, don't don't put it off, you know, don't let anything, okay, this is something I'm going to do in the future. Just Just do it, you know, start learning to dream, if that's where you're at.
There's even memorization teachers. I mean, there's so many programs now, for women, men, children. So there's not those obstacles are not
like they used to be. And then of course, from there, just commitment, you know, and just committing that. Whether you you know, we're not we're a people of commitment. So starting out and putting that in your mind. That, you know, for me, like I mentioned, when I fell in love with the Quran, there was a lot of I had a momentum, just this, you know, a lot of feelings, you know, and that gave me force, it gave me power. But at the end of the day, some that waxes and wanes, sometimes you feel on top of the world, and you feel like you're just reciting with the angels. And sometimes you just want to get back into that, you know, in the morning, and just realizing that we are people of
commitment, and not people of feelings. So okay, I've made a commitment. Some days, it's going to feel great. And I'm going to do great and things are going to flow, it's going to be easy. Some days, it's going to be challenging, but that's okay. Anything in life, that's, that's really worthy, is going to be challenging. So those are the things Yeah, beautiful. So if I want to summarize is the first obstacle which is you hear it and it's actually us before people say to us, is that I will add number one, if you allow me to Terrassa is You, Me comes to me and says I don't think I can do this. This is very difficult. This is impossible. I mean, this is more than 400 pages, and I'm gonna
have to memorize every single word and I cannot put two hours before FDA and all this. So this is this has shaped on that's number one. This is shaitan. So push this away. And remember the verse I said in the beginning is certain Quran and Allah made it easy. We make it difficult, we look at it as difficult if now I look back and probably the Torah Saudia can say this to in your residency in endocrinology, or my residency in OBGYN How easy was that? It's very difficult. books about it, you have 72 hours continuous work, but we did it. Why? Because you had a goal. And you people always reminded you remember, in the residency, there is a light at the end of the tunnel, they always they
used to say this to us, there is a light under the tunnel. Now you are not sleeping three, four days, once you finish you choose your time Subhanallah and we did it and woman and professional and you have commitments and we did it and that needs to be keen to us and I'd like if ye for this dunya thing we put the commitments, why for the book of Allah, we cannot put the commitment and it is difficult. No Yes sir. No, it will be easy. One of my teachers used to get very unhappy when we say difficult, she used to say couldn't lead to other be Malla This is lack of manners with Allah. He said Yes, sir. None of Quran. He said we made it easy. Say it's challenging. Say. So that's number
one. We will forget Absolutely. If you don't forget there's something wrong. I was saying in the beginning. Absolutely. Because Doha for Roswaal is sought to a center
in Houma, Siena Yola, make us remember what we have made to forget. So alhamdulillah Blimey, exactly, I'll pick up on a word is commitment. Commitment. Again, one of my teachers used always to tell me this because you know, when you're a physician and work and you're tired, she used to look at me and says don't give the Quran your leftover time.
Give it your prime time.
Subhanallah So, for example, I'm a morning person, I'll do my Quran first thing in the morning. I'm a night person. I'll do it in the night. But do it and I will add up this. The memorizing the Quran is like going up. Like Hi
Think once you get to the 15, judo, you finished 15 Doesn't matter which sequence, once you get to the 15, you reach the top.
And then and then you start coming down much easier Subhanallah it gets much easier afterward. And once you finish the first customer, as you said, the first time you finish it, there is a momentum afterwards as luck. You say Allah made it easy to read, I will say absolutely agree with you. But let's make it clear, it's not about to do it, you have to be the perfect the three levels, just you have to read it well, meaning your letters are correct. So it's not going to struggle in the future. The HA is how or but once you get to the as we say Musto Well, first level, you can say it will start the journey and don't delay it, right? What's happened to you, after the meaning what changes
it brought to your life, after you memorized the first time when you finished
I felt like it
really gave me in my heart, it brought my heart to life.
And gave me the sense of discernment.
Where
my heart immediately knows.
It's either going to you know, it's going to turn away from something that that is not good. You know, there's, there's something that I just know, you know, I have a feeling like, this is not something that is a good thing for me to either do, or a good place to be. I immediately have the that those senses very, like sharpened. And the other thing that I when I when I look
at how it's just kept me solid.
You know, when when I say it's kept me solid and faith, it doesn't mean of course we have ups and downs in our faith as well. We know that Iman, you know, it goes up, up and down. But Hamdulillah I have never felt, you know, the desire to
you know, go back to anything that I used to do before, you know, like, as far as I mean, I'm that I was always in a good religious family. But for example, I have not felt the desire that, oh, I want to take off my hijab, you know, or I want to do X, Y and Z, you know, or it's just kind of kept me
with with with the goal in mind, like, what is the goal of this dunya
and I can't even like really explain it, it's hard to put into words. And I think that there's actually more
that I don't even realize what it's given me, you know, this protection.
Sort of like Allah subhanaw taala is just keeping me
going on this path of law, you know, without feeling like okay, I see this person's doing this, I need to do that, you know, or this person is doing this. No, no, no, I you know, I need to be doing this with my life. No, it's just kind of like, very straightforward and simple.
So Hamdulillah you know what this reminds me. The words have filled half of hifi a lot. It's basically translate, we all use it
loosely for the person who have memorized the Quran, but heavily in the Arabic word is not memorization actually is protection. Right? And they always used to say inoculum tafur The Quran will let you know Quran half Albuquerque, you did not memorize the Quran, rather the Quran protected you? Yeah, which is so true, then, and I loved what you said.
When Allah subhanaw taala put the Quran in your heart and I'm speaking to all the people who are listening to us when Allah Allah, Allah Who so true, I got a little bit emotional when you were saying this is literally the heart is one container. It contains only few things because it gets full. When you fill it with the Quran, things goes away from the other door. You don't have an interest anymore. It's not you're struggling. You don't have the interest anymore. And then you probably know the famous line of a mom of no pay him he used to say singing and Quran does not live in one heart. One of them comes in the second leave. And what does that mean you don't feel in? You
don't have this desire like everybody else, you know, the rat race, the dunya race, I call it your focus is on the Quran. And this is I think one of the ways the Quran protects you, young and old.
With a man or a woman, you're different you. And even you keep reminding yourself and saying you have the Quran in your heart. It doesn't fit anymore.
Am I right? Do you feel this? Taurus idea? Yes, yes from the Allah SubhanAllah. So it is a protection. It's even now and I want you to comment on this also, as a physician, what does it do to the memory
I believe that it
as far as the memory goes, the more we use those neurons, there's, there's a thing neuroplasticity
we are keeping our mind fresh, you know, by keep on doing this. And we can always form neurons, new neuron neurons and may actually make stronger than ones that already exist. And it is definitely one of those situations where you use it or you lose it. So I hadn't let that you know, it gives us a an opportunity to even it's a byproduct, you know, we don't memorize put on for the sake of our memory. You know, we're because we want to we memorize it for the sake of Allah subhanaw taala for the reward, because it's his words, but this is something it's a extra benefit that we get. And you know, what you said about the Quran being a protection 100% I'm, like I said, I probably can't even
I probably don't even know all the things that I've been protected from because I've been protected from them.
You know, because they never even And subhanAllah that's, it's a gift. Like we don't even know how many things could have happened to us. Or ways we could have strayed because they never even they never even came into our circle, you know, and so, that's definitely there. And, and that feeling of, we don't memorize Quran to have you know, a feeling or you know, but you can actually feel the Quran in your heart. You can you feel the Quran beating in your heart and when you recite it, you know when you're in prayer, it's a gift that Allah Subhana Allah gives you
know, especially in the night sada in the PM, and whether you're have your memorization is perfect, and you can recite without looking, whether you're reciting and then you still need it in front of you, just in case. The fact that Allah's and I this, I say this to myself every day, the fact that Allah subhanho wa Taala has chose you. And I'm saying this to everybody who wants or memorized or in the process chose you from all these billion people to be given his words. Now remember, the Quran is Allah has word Kalam Allah, to give it to you or to me or to the tourists idea, or to anyone who has done it or hamdulillah and then allows you to stand in front of him and reciting it. It's
amazing. It's overjoyed, like somebody who wrote and Allah is Exalted. But just to give you the example, somebody wrote in a beautiful poem, and he's a dignitary and he's sitting there and you're reciting the his, his or her poem, in a beautiful way from memory. And this is in dunya. Now this is a human beings like you and me. What about Allah subhanho wa taala? One thing I think we have to remind everybody and this is one of the one of the reasons I memorized it, is the virtues of memorizing the Quran. What did the Roswaal risotto Sudan taught us the person who memorized the Quran, what he or she will get in dunya and akhira. And their family? Do you want to comment on
that? Yeah, totally. Yeah, so definitely, that is where the book, the crowning venture starts with a hadith about the merits of memorizing Quran. And, you know, of course, we know that there's the reward for the parents, the person who memorizes the Quran, where they will be crowned in the Hereafter, there's a hadith about how you will be asked to recite, and you will go as high until you keep on reciting that was one of the Hadith that I heard for the first time when I went to Syria. And, you know, for me, I'm imagining, like, visualizing in the ACA, that there's an escalator and I see people are going higher and higher and higher. And that feeling of why did I do this? You know,
I had a chance. Everybody is given the same chance. And we have this short life to take that opportunity that that hadith really hit me. Then there's that that hadith about the merits of even recitation. So for every letter
You're getting 10 rewards and Elif is a letter you know, lamb and mean, if you think about how many times you repeat the Quran when you're memorizing, that's all reward. And you think about all of the mistakes that we make, and how our good deeds all the good deeds that we get that can cancel out, you know, in sha Allah for Army Zan and the ACA, that that reward is all there. The hadith about how the person who memorizes the Quran gets to intercede for family members.
You know, there's so many hamdulillah and my hero, Bill Quran, ma Sephora T Karam, the person who I admire her mean he's so or she professional, and so eloquent and knows the Quran very well. So that's definitely include include the half of my Sephora to Quran that's a hadith of Roswaal is sought to answer he or she, and this is no difference here is with the sufferer Quran, the Honorable angels. And this is number two, this is for everyone who's finding it difficult. And the person who reads the Quran and find it difficult to reciting which it is, even for me as an Arab speaking, there's still some words, I used to say it wrong. And that person, yeah, who are drawn this person
with all this difficulty has doubled the reward the reward of the difficulty, and I kept reminding myself and I'm sure you did, and I remind all my sisters, and anyone who's listening to us, the time you spend with the Quran, reading, understanding Tajweed memorizing it's an act of worship. It's like you are in Salah is like you're fasting. So don't look at it as it's think of the positive. I want you to take us into the practical,
like a practical scheduled somebody, let's assume I decided today, I'm so inspired by this talk. And I want to tell me the chorus idea, how did you start? What do I exactly do?
So my, my,
there's an excellent Oh, so my initial experience was different because I like I said, I spent a year in Syria just focused on Quran and Arabic, my day there, it was very different than it is for me now.
You know, if you happen to have for the person who is able to take time out, and do that, even if it's one week, even if it's a month, a year, my day used to start with four days of four hours of Arabic class. And then actually before that, because there's you know, the keystone habit,
when it comes to anything in life, but especially I believe with Lutron is to become regular into halogen, so that you are starting out your day correctly with the Boudicca even before Fajr time. And if it's something you have never done, or if it's your you're struggling, I tell people even wake up and pray to the gods before funded. So right when Fajr comes in, you pray Fajr Salaah and then afterwards, that that is the blessed time for Quran, you know, right after fajr it's a time where
we know from the Quran, that it's a blessed time. And also, there's not a lot of distractions. So if you have children or other things going on, probably most people are sleeping at that time. If your family is a weapon that should be there put on time as well. And that's that time
is key, you know, and so whatever you do in that time, so even before I had Arabic, my Arabic class, I would spend that time you know, before Fajr after fajr with the Quran, go to my Arabic class come back put in a few hours every day.
Of course now with work, it's you know, I don't have the few hours every day like I did at that time, but that time after fajr is still key. And so putting in the time after fajr before you start your day
is really
is the most important thing in this journey. Now for some people and this has never been me they find that before bed before bedtime is a good time for them. And that's never really been my because after work you know, bedtime, I'm usually ready to go to bed. You know long commute and everything. So really just taking advantage of that morning time. And there's so many different formulas that people share about okay, we you know, recite this page this many times 40 times before you even just like read it 40 times before you memorize it. One helpful
Some sort of recipe or formula that I have read and sometimes I use it is even now in reviews, okay, go through and either you read the whole page, like say 20 times, or you go through you read an ayah 20 times read the next 120 Times put them together, that's kind of, you know, how you just Repetition Repetition Repetition. Also
looking at the you know, if you don't know Arabic, in the beginning, I did not know Arabic so I used to have a translation open with me next to me, even though you do not have to know Arabic to memorize the Quran. And that's important because sometimes people will say, I want to learn Arabic first, before I memorize but like you said, Allah subhanaw taala has made the Quran easy to memorize. It's not like memorizing any other book. It's, it's easy, you know, because Allah Samantha has made it easy and beautiful, and the way it flows, that that we there's a gift. There's something there's a miracle and it's the miracle.
So you don't even have to understand it. I tell people, like if you look at most of the massages in the US, who is leading the majority of the people, many of them I should say who are leading that a we are not even Arab. You know, there's, I'm speak I'll speak for Michigan, you know, there's numerous indo Pak, you know, people who are leading that away.
Sometimes people will say about their children, like, you know, should my child memorize Quran or learn Arabic first, you know, and I tell them don't don't stop them from memorizing because they don't know Arabic, like, it's both are lifelong journeys. Even learning Arabic is a lifelong journey.
You know, I'm still learning Arabic, I'm still in Arabic classes. So it but it did help me at that time to have a translation open. And that's how I learned a lot of the words too. But it's not necessary. Once you memorize a page, you can just recite it.
Absolutely, I remember very well, this is maybe more than 10 years ago, I was in South Africa, and Sheikh Abu Bakr sharp, or you which most people know one of the most amazing voices Subhanallah and we were in the same program, and he was advising young boys memorizing and he gave this formula. But before he gave the formula, I remember this very well it's number one. Stay away from disobedience of Allah.
Don't you think? And he was saying this to the boys and now I'm, I'm sharing it with everybody, don't you think on I am going to be looking and watching something on TV on the internet on any of the channels. And then I'm going to go and open the book of Allah, the words of Allah and Allah who will make it easy for me and read it doesn't work this way. So stay away from disobedience as much as you can. And if we fail, repent and go back one number two, best time again morning person morning person which I agree with you I'm a morning person. I did it all the time after fajr shadow before I go to work, to all evening, everybody wants to bed and you're an evening person
Alhamdulillah then the repetition he gave us like you read it seven times every if every verse you read it. And one of the things which I'm sure you know, that is when you memorize the Quran, which is so interesting. Literally the page will be printed in your brain. Some amazing things so that's when somebody asked you to recite from that part of the Quran. You immediately bring that page in you so they tell you read it read the verse he his his advice was seven times then recite it from memory seven times. You go to the next verse read seven times memory seven times one and two seven times. The bottom line is is repetition keep repeating your forget you do it in the morning I
remember very well. You do it in the morning. You go for a lower Tory Tory pray and recite what you memorize nothing is there, it's all gone. But once you keep reciting it tomorrow it becomes easier. Stay away from disobedience. Make a schedule time time allocated for the Quran. Like you know you have to go to bed and sleep you have to take care of your children three o'clock I need to go and bring my child from school there's a dedicated time for the Quran has to be repaid Repetition Repetition Repetition. i From my own experience gets a teacher better be in a class. Class is amazing. class five and this is for us specially woman. Park your ego Are you
Just to say this when I was injured, pack your ego and said it FedEx overseas.
I always said this to myself because it's a so specialty for you like I did it when you, I did it actually after I finished my residency. So here I am, you know, I've done all this and then here I am in front of the class, some of them are my patience, and I'm making all these mistakes, it was so not pleasant, but doesn't matter. Don't look at people look at our last panel with Allah. And Allah definitely will make it easy Subhan Allah,
what else you want to share with hamdulillah band with our audience, we have a very good number, what else you want to share with them that I did not cover?
I think we covered most of the important things. What I what I will say is you brought up some good points about the number one obstacle is our own selves. And I you know, I teach a lot of women in my crowning venture class through it a boss. It's a memorization class, and it's motivational. Most of it is motivational. I mean, we go through the ahaadeeth, and things like that, and tips and everything. But one of the biggest things that I find is as women, we put limits on ourselves, you know, and I go through an exercise in my class where I write, there's a column limiting beliefs. And then there's a column empowering beliefs. And I set a timer and I say, Everybody write down, what
are the thoughts going through your head right now about this journey. And they'll write down things like I don't have enough time. My memory is not good. I don't have a good memory. I'm not good at memorizing, it's too hard. All of these things, and then we talk about them, and I haven't crossed it out and write down okay, what are you going to tell yourself instead? You know, so instead of saying, I don't have a good memory, we can say that, you know, with the help of Allah subhanaw taala. You know, I can memorize the Quran. And, you know, I don't have time you can say I give time, to things that are priorities and put on as a priority, like, just changing our own internal chatter
is step one. And so I'm so glad that you brought that up. And I love how you said, you know, the word that I use this is challenging, and not difficult, but like you said, Allah subhanaw taala he has told us it's easy, but it's not the Quran that is difficult to us, you know, we are the ones who make it
difficult or challenging for ourselves by holding ourselves back. And the other thing that I found with the women that I work with, they are mashallah very advanced, you know, they've gone through, they've perfected their Scituate, they've started this journey, they have probably finished a six month with and now they're memorizing is oftentimes the other thing that holds us back as we paralyze ourselves by at the end of a memorization session.
Instead of looking at the blessing that we had of sitting there for an hour with the Quran, immediately we go to Oh, I didn't do a good job. I didn't you know, I can't do this. I didn't do a good job. Really just beating ourselves up instead of why not and was shook good. You know, regardless of what, how well or how much I did in this one hour, even if it's one I just say thank you y'all left for letting me sit here with the Quran for this invitation. Because I could have been doing anything else and that our true Absolutely there's the shaitan has many tools, because pay the Kurata Khurana festa is bIllahi min. Ash shaytaan regime the only act of worship in the whole Islam
that Allah specified that before you start saying oh, the William Shatner, Jim is reading the Quran. So interesting. Nothing before salah, nothing before you fast or Hajj or Umrah or any of these things, because that's where shaitan comes in. It depends who you are, and the ways the two things I want to add. And this is again, my personal it may help people and I shared it too. I did an alien feed. I don't know if you've seen it. It was about memorizing the Quran. Well, one of the main reasons I memorize the Quran was one of my friends who passed away and I saw her two days before she passed away. It was a very dear friend to me passed very young and had a very aggressive cancer
Subhanallah
and I remember very well, I was going to Amara No, I just came back from umbra. It was Wednesday she passed away on Friday. And she looked at me for still talking and everything but we know it was terminal and but we couldn't know exactly how long she said. I only want to Allah and she has two young children. She passed away the children 10 and 11. But look what she said. This is a dying woman and she said If Allah subhanaw taala She has amazing Iman
If Allah subhanaw taala will give me life. And I want Allah to give me life. And I, and the expected answer is because I want to be with my children, right? She said, I want Allah subhanaw taala to give me a little bit more for two things I want to do. I want to memorize the Quran and I want to go for ombre.
She passed away 48 hours later.
And I remember very well when I left that day, and I said, What is my excuse? And I was there with her when she was dying. And when we were at the hospital and everything, and I every time I still remember her face, this is more than 20 years ago, and I said, What is my excuse? I'm still breathing. Yeah, and Allah gave me the time. And by the way, and Allah, of course, that worldwide Allah, but she was sincere in what she said, Allah will reward her. Yeah, because she was very sincere. Nobody dies, dining, and has young children and she was young in her early 30s. Talk about memorizing the Quran unless if they are really sincere, Allah who will carry him he will reward her
as if she has memorized. What is my execuse That's what I said to myself. What is your excuse? You're healthy, you're living what is time you will make the time and that 100 Lautenberg Atomy and I want to share this with everybody because the whole idea as long as I am breathing, then we can do it. And if I die tomorrow, and Allah said this, you know this character, this idea, Allah said this unsalted me Sal warmer, you had your feasibility. Now here it will have the Moraga and Kathira wasa who leave for the sake of Allah, He Jura migration, you will find a lot of opening and openness in Earth. The next one is what related to this woman you heard when Beatty well how'd you run? He said
Well hydrate Allahu Allah SULI to lay with recoil mount, and who whomsoever leave for Allah take the journey, then you die. Then he died. Taka Eduardo, who Allah Allah, Allah will reward. So it doesn't matter when I will finish. I'm 60 I'm 70 I'm old, I am a grandmother. I'm pregnant. Don't put this as shape ons, obstacles, start and see how Allah will make it and as you said beautifully in the beginning, there are so many opportunities these days when I started there was nobody I did it alone. I know in the masjid after fajr I have no idea how to memorize Quran nobody Mamre I have not seen except one of my friends only but nobody else. And then Allah subhanaw taala after not
immediately after couple of years opened. Do you want to add anything you haven't done? We haven't five more minutes. I'm up with Baraka. It's not Quran of course, there's Baraka Hamdulillah I just want to say thank you for sharing that story about your friend. That's beautiful.
Yeah, it's amazing. I mean, this is more than 20 years ago, I still remember her face when she was sitting in front of me full. I mean, it's terminal cancer. So you can imagine Subhan Allah Subhanallah and the other one is one of my patients. This woman is 78 and I was doing we were in the office counseling pre op before we do a surgery and she looked at me and says, the thought of when can I
go out of the house after the surgery? I was doing a major surgery and me I was like, Where does she want to go? Right? As if she arrived my mind and she said doctor because I want when can I go to the school of taffy of
and I said Chapin Allah and I even called her auntie so where are you Masha? Allah, you, you memorize? And she said yes, I'm an Al Baqarah I said, Masha, Allah, you're done. I thought she started from the back. 7080 round. Sure. And she said, No, I we just started and smiling literally, the way I'm doing it now. She said, No, I just started hamdulillah after we did the surgery, I went to visit her at home. And this stuck in my mind. And I said, where are you? Holla now she said then Ali Emraan not sure. This is six weeks later. 78 year old widow. So how are grandmother? What are him? What are resolved? handler?
This is a question from half source of the Salam Alikum one thing I would love to hear about is advice on learning the meaning of what we read. I take tafsir classes now.
So
there's a echo. The seer classes are great if you have access to that again, this year is a lifelong journey as well. But hamdulillah nowadays there are so many options online to learn theater as we're going and also you know there's so many different ways. Even if if you don't know Arabic there's programs for Arabic doing word for word translation or
You know, taking different kinds of Arabic classes. But definitely, if you have already found it the sere class that is, you know, a good class hamdulillah that's, that's amazing that makes a difference when you have gone through the theater of a sutra. And now you're memorizing it. The other thing that I found is the beauty another beautiful thing about having gone through and memorized even one time I'm in Sita class now so I'm in a lot of actually a lot of Islamic classes through the bots like you know, I just graduated with their the teacher certificate hamdulillah and I'm doing the next level and in Siena class now I feel like I have a different appreciation
because when we talk about the different is when they're revealed in different you know, times and Sita in the CETA it's beautiful because I know that I like and and it gives me a different angle. So now putting it all together like all the different classes you know, it's the theater is important but Seto so like knowing the CETA helps you to know the Quran it's all related. And that's why like Dr. Haifa was saying to be a well rounded dat Yeah, it's important to have gone through and spent a lot of time with the Quran of course the best is to be able to memorize it. And that's going to help you in every aspect every other Islamic class you take even even going to Arabic now like as I'm
still learning Arabic my examples are always from the Quran. You know, so Hamdulillah
I think you're on mute.
Yeah, one thing which I'm sure you've done it too, which I think we missed to say is listen to it also. Yes, listening to the Quran, Salah here driving humbler, we live in the States, half of our life is on the road. You're waiting in the waiting room, right? Especially if it's your during the monthly time. Listen, listen to what you have memorized. And I will say if you are so much limited in time, if you're going to study too many things, you're going to get overwhelmed. Focus on your memorization. With word towards meaning don't go to the whole detail of tavsiye because that's a whole science it's beautiful. But wait because I unless you have all the time beautiful take it all.
But if you are like most of the women are you have so many things you have to take care of and these are important start your memorizing journey but know the words meaning knowing that words helps a lot we are to a lot of the Quran has worked towards and then as you go through the journey, it will become easier you can add there was a couple of questions says what do you advise for somebody who continue to sin but they still wants to memorize the Quran was very nice question was earlier.
You know, if you have the if you have the intention, that means you have goodness in you. And it means you want to stop sinning, you know hamdulillah that's the first step would it though but where does it start? That we feel remorse, you know, for what for what we've done or what we're doing. But then there is a point the next step where we where we do promise that we will leave this and you know if there's something that you're struggling with, to leave, look at a few different things. Number one, what is your sofa you know who like the more you around good goodness and good people it's easier for you to leave sin the more you're around opportunities and, and people who are doing
bad things,
the easier it is to do the same. And if you need help to stop a sin, like reach out to a mentor, reach out, and you know, whether it's you know, a che ha
You know, some kind of mentor, you know, a family member, reach out and ask for help if you're really struggling. Because and then da like you know, like since you're a doctor, please y'all Allah helped me to leave this, you know, because I really want to memorize your words. And you know, whoever wrote that question, you know, my daughter with you may was found out that I help you to leave whatever it is, that's that's holding you back and I really applaud you for having this intention. You know, it's beautiful, that you have not left this intention or told you you know, yourself that I can't do this, you still have that intention. So hold on to that intention,
sincerely, inshallah. You will find a way to leave what's not good and a door will open for you to move forward with your attention. Absolutely. Remember this beautiful sister Lenova. Yaki Allah, Allah will never let you down at all. But don't let Satan come to you through this Kulu Adam Hapa all the children have
furthermore sinners are sorry sought to Samson this and height will hotter intolerable and the best among those these sinners there are sinners, but there's a best among them are those who repent? Yes, just just repent if I can take a little bit more time. Is that okay? That starts from Jesuit 30 Is that okay?
There? Yeah, some people do start with just 30 You know, because the pseudos are they're shorter a lot of times people have memorized someone they were young but even if you didn't that's okay. It's it's an a nice sense of accomplishment you know, to complete one just and there because the sutras are shorter you feel that sense of accomplishment every time you memorize a sutra, before jumping to like say, you're gonna go next to Bukhara you know, or so, some people will actually memorize from Surah Yaseen, to the back first, there's no only one way to do it, you can do it any way you want, really, you know, and find what works for you, whatever just helps you move forward. For me,
personally, I find that the longer is are easier for me, you know, looking, the sooner the sooner that have longer I add than the ones where there there's more, but there's, they're shorter. Because I feel like it you know, if there's a page that has just three, if once you've memorized that if you just put them together, you know, that everybody's different. And I did start with DISA, you know, even before I started this whole journey
I started with with memorizing Kizomba and I wasn't somebody who had access as a child to a lot of Islamic. You know, I lived in a small town, there was no loss, there was maybe five Muslim families, our Islamic school was an hour away, and it wasn't regular. So I mean, sometimes I look back and I feel like I wish I had more opportunities, but then I tell myself everything is perfect the way Allah's pasada has written it out for everybody. It's perfectly perfect and better late than never and just be grateful. Whatever time in your life it comes to you the the desire and the means just be grateful and and move forward. So yes, to answer your question, you can start anywhere you want.
May Allah bless your parents, this is how I will say in a small town Mashallah. Absolutely yes there is because another question in the same Can we start with the sewers that we know more you have seen a walk
you know what I will say? Start the journey. Just start it doesn't matter. Most people I also started with just 30 years because we know what when we were younger just to give me better motivation like Oh, I'm gonna lie I finished the Jews. They're Irish to the 20 years and normal I remember 19 And then I started from my Bacara so it doesn't matter you know even when you go to Mount like in with us and Jana Institute, we start we have a class who finished the last five and they are going backward and we have a class who started with a Bukhara honestly doesn't matter. Just start and don't give up. Don't give up what ever happens. Even if you're stuck in one iron for three
months. Stay and see what Allah will open because Allah test us. He says how sincere Are we ready to take that journey? The amazing journey, the happy about that crown, your parents the Quran will and we probably have to mention this hamdullah Allah made me remember the Quran will talk to the will witness for us in the grave in front of Allah we will not speak the Quran will speak so amazing journey. Just don't give up. Start anywhere you want I think I don't know if I have any other question 100 level by May Allah reward you time. literally flew. It's an
beautiful shall not will not be the last time How about that?
Then maybe next time we will make we will bring schedule Exactly. And make it easy for people. But again, I will say this about myself. If I can do it, everybody else can do it. Absolutely. And I'm sure the same thing for you. If tourists idea that you grew up in the United States. You grew up in a small town. You're a physician, right? You just said it in family is not very religious. You're the first happy one your family. I am the first 100 and my family is religious. But we did not. Yeah.
Yeah, not not five. Yeah. And I had only seen two women in my life who had memorized the Quran before I decided to Well, I was I should say before I went to Syria once I went to Syria, I saw hundreds
but
I shared with you in my state
He's in Jeddah, I had None None who taught me not happy about and not happy about just happy about they caught the Quran as I shared it with you before we went live, they shared the Quran like we'd like you and I recite al Fatiha. Subhanallah so I looked at on this old woman they are young will all do marry, do pregnant, but it's just no don't do it. All my beautiful sisters who are listening and brothers, young and old, start this journey. And I always said this to myself. The words of Allah subhanaw taala absolutely worthy my time my effort, my struggle, and the result is amazing. Subhanak Hola, como humbucker shadow and la testa fuqaha to boudic some Allahu ala Sayyidina
Muhammad wa ala alihi wa sahbihi st mancha Theologica Kamala heavenly tourists idea, I'll leave the last word to you. I just want to say this, okay for having me really was my honor to be here with you. And you're a role model for women everywhere. So may we all in sha Allah know the entire Quran as well as well as we know sort of Fatiha
and inshallah everybody has a beautiful Ramadan, the month of the Quran inshallah inshallah Sadam on
them