S02E02 – The Quran Memorising Journey – Farhia Yahya P2

Season Two, Episode Three.

Welcome to the Muslim life hackers podcast, the weekly podcast providing you the knowledge, tools and connections to help you get ahead in life. And now, your hosts Mithra Merv and mahane Malik

Assalamu alaikum Muslim life hackers. Welcome to another episode from the Muslim life hackers podcast. My name is Miss America and I'll be your host for today. Last week, we had a guest to sister for here you're here on the show to speak on the topic of memorization. Today's part two of that interview. When we release Part One Last week, we had lots of great feedback. Many of our audience told us how much they've benefited and how they were looking forward to part two. So in part one, we covered the motivation behind Quranic memorization, mindsets to overcome. And in today's episode, you hear the practical tips and final advice for those who are thinking of starting

or currently facing obstacles. I hope you enjoyed this episode. And please let me know what you took away from this interview by sending an email to podcast at Muslim life hackers.com with the subject Episode Three. Alternatively, if you have our mobile app, then you can just directly send an email from there. And don't worry, we read all your emails seriously, we do sometimes even the spam but that's enough, we get really bored.

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So for for someone who's busy and they're memorizing the Quran and everything, how can they actually approach the Quran in a way that it is a hot softening journey, would you say? taking some time out to look into the meaning of learning it's tough syrup? What's like a practical way? You'd advise someone in that situation who has maybe say they have one hour a day putting it out there like yeah, every day that they can work on memorizing Quran, what would you recommend to that person? Like to structure the hour? Right? Okay. So usually, if you have an hour to sit down, memorize for and that's, that's great, most people don't even have the hour. But what usually what I do is advise

sisters, you know, people in general, before you memorize that passage of or an Take a moment, you know, previous in that in the day before just to listen to it without exerting yourself in any way shape, or form. Or force yourself to memorize it, then just listen to it freely, get it get a feel for the I read up on the surah before you actually tackle it with regard to you know in memorizing it. So that when you do sit down to memorize Quran, you already somewhat familiar with it, you know, the meaning you've taken the time out previously to just maybe listen to it, go through the meaning, you don't have to do all the Tafseer I think that's another that's another thing for most people who

don't have much time to feel that slot or that I think sometimes it's sufficient to maybe look at the meaning and the general context of the eye. And if you have time, then by all means, yeah, go ahead and look into the pseudonym to see it or whatever it may be. But when you do want to sit down and memorize what and go through it again and again. So listen to it, listen to an audio recitation, and then pick it up with the audio. So you're reciting along with the reciter, the pirate and then attempt it on your own. But in the in the end, once you have sort of become familiar with it, or maybe you will have by the end of the hour, you will have memorized it. Take a moment to just

contemplate I think contemplation is a big factor with it within the Quran. If you're not contemplating then, memorization will just become a mundane task if you like and it does you run the risk of perhaps not continuing with the journey with enough motivation and enough depth. So we want to do is just contemplate every now and again. And then within your subtle words within your prayers. Repeat what you have memorized with contemplation. If you are somebody that you know, perhaps if you're too busy then things like family might be hard but if you do get up you know and you're able to spare a few minutes just to pray, you know, a couple of records a few records before

Virgil contemplation at that particular time of the day is, is something else, you know, it's just draws you closer to Allah subhanaw taala. So whenever you can, wherever you can just make sure to utilize to the board, this contemplation, and some kind of like, your health will actually become a lot more meaningful. And it adds fuel, I guess, to your drive of memorizing Quran. But the hour I think if you you know, if you have that Allah do break it up, and utilize that hour in order to you know, repeat, repeat, because repetition is key to memorizing. But in the end of the hour, have your contemplation or perhaps at the beginning, some people prefer at the beginning. And some people

prefer to do it the day before, as preparation for when they do sit down and memorize. Awesome. So pretty much. Listen to it the night before, read up on the Sora, before tackling it, memorize it, and then like contemplate on it and recite it in your prayers. Yeah, I hope that doesn't sound too overwhelming for our listeners.

But I suppose every person has to find exactly which routine works for them. But pretty much like work work around that. Yeah, no, definitely. I mean, it's it does depend on the person sometimes.

You know, you might some people what they prefer to do is rack it up at the end of the week. So they'll do the the board at the end of the week so that our they just utilize it for half. And then maybe one day of the week, they'll take a moment just to contemplate or maybe during the course of your day, maybe if you take if you commute, I mean here in London, we're always commuting, whether it's whether it's to work or school or wherever. So that time that you're commuting is perfect time to contemplate and listen to an audio without the stress factor of memorizing it. So be very flexible, I think is what I'm trying to say.

If you can incorporate all these things into one slot, and that's great. If not, then just use that hour slot for health and have your to the board happening around it. So maybe at the end of the week, maybe the night before the day before, however you want to work it but the key thing is you're not just memorizing you're also internalizing the ideas and sort of absorbing them in your heart, somewhere along the line. Okay, so just taking a different tangent now, with with your work that you're doing on your blog, you actually wrote an E book, which was called walking with angels, and was a practical guide to memorizing the Quran and his planner, would you have to tell us a bit more

about it? What's that about? Okay, so the the E book working with angels is actually largely part of the course book that I made for the memorizing Quran course online. Okay, it was previously offline. And I took it online.

As you said, it was for the online course. And it was actually five weeks. So the E book is not something that you cover in one day is you know, we take the gradual, we take the gradual approach, even with that book, but it is better utilized within the course However, a lot of people can sort of maybe read it and derive benefit for themselves. And also for brothers because the courses I do is only for sisters, so I thought, you know, why not make the book available for brothers as well.

It does explore various aspects of health. The Koran is not just a guide on the steps of memorizing Quran is a lot more than that. I think anyone who memorizes what really needs to needs to realize that is never just memorizing and holofcener. And that's it. It's a lot more than that. There's times when you really really need to, you know, have patience reign in your emotions, you know, you need to sort of sacrifice time and it there's a lot more involved than just merely sitting down and memorizing. So to sort of help people sort of incorporated things like Quranic sciences. The Heritage of this Omakase have the Quran is the heritage that we have hamdulillah it's unique to this

oma in that, you know, we are the only ones that as an oma memorize the Scripture, you know, memorize the revelation, also talk about virtues. virtues behind have the Quran case studies. And I think I mentioned four case studies in the book. But as of course, I think we might go into slightly more than that. But case studies are really good because it sort of shows you the different types of people that memorize around so I think in one case, I take the blind teacher who was one of my teachers, another point, you know, take the grandma, so someone who's elderly, and other times somebody who memorized score and through the intensive route, and they finished maybe in less than

two months, and so on and so forth. So we have different we look at different case studies and derive benefit from each one. incorporated within the book is also 25 practical tips,

which are actually the tips of a chef in Egypt. So I translated them, and we sort of go into them a bit more in more detail. also things like dealing with obstacles.

breaking barriers as well as memorization techniques. So we explore international techniques used by various people to memorize or and we've got the Mauritanian method, Singaporean, the African method, and so on and so forth. So it's kind of like a overall course book on heaven or and utilizing many different looking at many different aspects of the subject. Well, that sounds really detailed and very, very foreign. And, sir, I forgot the, I forgot to mention the health planner as well, the that the plan is very simple, it's not detailed at all, it's something that is like a six month planner to do to sort of keep track of your health for six months. And it's got tables and charts and

reflection pages, but it's heavily set in goal setting. So you set you set a goal for the next month. And then after a month, you sort of are forced to reflect back on the month, you know, did you achieve your goals? If not, why not, you know, sort of

evaluate evaluating yourself and your efforts. So both of them are available online, through the blog, and also through my Facebook page, as well as your blog, if you just search for that it should be available on there as well. Okay, so for all our listeners, we'll put links to what we're referring in our show notes. Okay, so with regards to these case studies and stuff and and you're actually talking about goal setting, as well, there were a few questions that also come up when someone actually memorize the Quran. And they're very short for time, like, how do you recommend they revise what they memorize, because like you can memorize and then it's like, your past tours

are like kind of weekend stuff. How did they go about revising? Or did they do it at the end? after they finish everything? Or?

No, it's never recommended to leave it until the end? I think this is where actually a lot of people find the struggle. So at the beginning of health, they get through it, you know, it's all fine, because to be honest, there's not many sources, they need to revise the issue comes after a certain while when they have memorized certain sources, and maybe they're going into two or three or four years, it starts to build up. And I think you feel the pain here. Because you go back to those sources or those Jews and you find them really weak. In some cases, you might think that it's almost new, right? Yes, if you've never memorized them. And to an extent, this is natural, and I think

people need to recognize that it is natural. But one mistake people make is they leave off revision, you need to be keeping up with your revision, even if it is a very small portion compared to your head. Now there is a ratio that people can pick up, you might want to do you know, for every page that you memorize, you also review one page, okay? That that's like maybe a general ratio, another time, you know, for every, if your revision is quite strong, you might want to do, you know, two to one sort of ratio. So you work with yourself. And usually, you know, your teacher will pick this up and did you know, dictate how much revision and how much you should be doing.

But I sort of liken it to you know, the image of a tractor, that's plowing a field. So at the front, you have these huge, you know, knife like sort of things that just sort of cut the crop. But then at the back, there's also another sort of machine that's picking everything up. And that's how essentially heft and mirages revision, how they work together. So your head, you know, you get through it, but you also need to have another system, which is the revision system, trailing behind all the sutras that you've memorized, just sort of consolidating and picking them up.

And in the balance might be an issue for some people, they don't know when to sort of revise how much to revise and that's something I really recommend a person to discuss with their teacher or the supervisor of the health you need, you need to be reciting to somebody

the the past portions that you've done, just so that you don't slack or you don't forget those, those soldiers that you've done. Now, at the end of the of the heft. At the end of the journey.

we sometimes forget that you know, the moment you finish that suit your entire life, inshallah will be dedicated to revision. So, I would never recommend someone to completely abandon half because the volume of their current health is a mug, do you see what I mean? It can be a plot of shade line that he stops you in your head because of the fear that you know, oh my god. Now I have so much to revise and what's the point of me revising if I'm forgetting, what you want to do is keep the struggle you know, just keep struggling through it. Because at the end, you will have ample time in Sharla to go back and review. And this is why many times people don't just stop out here they actually continue

on to a more agile system or revision system.

They're doing customers. So they'll finish. And then they'll go back and finish again. And then they'll go back and finish again. So that, that it gets more and more stronger. So you just need to find a good balance between New memorization and revision. There are some times you know, somebody will be advised and it's it's good advice that maybe to pause at the end of beverages and review that juice. So that's, that's another thing that they can do. But it's a pause, it's never a full on, you know, stop. They're never stopping. They're just pausing maybe for a week to review that that portion. So that's another thing that they can do. That sounds very practical. My final

question is, since since you mentioned a few times about supervisors and teachers and stuff, how can someone actually go about finding a supervisor or a teacher and finding that time to kind of schedule it in and stuff? Like, what are some ways people go go about with that?

Okay, so usually in your community, you might have

a set of classes happening, and I really recommend just getting to know your community, you know, finding out what's happening in the area, call up the mosques and messages, maybe visit them, ask about, you know, teachers in the community, make, make an effort to get to know what's out there. If If you can't find in the community, and that's quite rare, unless you live in the middle of nowhere.

Or you live in a place where there aren't many Muslims, I do understand that. And then, you know, there's no harm in checking out the other towns, you know, that maybe somewhere that's an hour away, or you can drive down or you can take the bus slightly further away from home. If not, then there was always the online routes. And some people aren't very comfortable, I think, with memorizing over the internet, because it is one of those things where you just need to the teacher needs to sort of see the student see how they're reciting. But, you know, unless you can find somebody to sit down with online is another route that you can take. And Mashallah I think nowadays they have many

private teachers online and Institute's that they can go to online,

worse comes to worse, if you can't find like a teacher, then

it will help maybe having a companion you know, a friend that you can,

somebody who is on your level or perhaps just above, and that can listen to you. And I think we because of you know, our eagerness to find a teacher, we overlook people that are maybe close to us or within our own families or in our communities who can act if you like, as a supervisor until we find a

more qualified teacher, if you if you like, yes, that actually sounds pretty good. And something that we can all think about, especially going forward with making Quran memorization a part of our lives. So just just before we wrap up this interview, was there anything else that you want to add on any last last remarks on this topic? Because again, I know that there's a lot to speak about no doubt, and we can't get through it in this interview, but like any, any last final words, any advice or something for those who are thinking about going through this journey, or actually in this journey and facing obstacles? So

I would say go for it, you know, don't stop. I can't say it enough, you know, can't retreat it enough.

You know, employ all the means that you can ask Allah subhanaw taala make do I pray, you know, it is a very virtuous path to go down. And by its nature, it's not very easy. I guess at times, it might be hard, which is why people fall into the store, they store a lot. But you just need to have that patience and that strength to continue. The other thing is a lot of people sometimes think oh, you know, health is just for moms, and it's just for really righteous people. And that's not that's not true. I mean, many times what I what I say is that, you know,

you don't memorize God and because you're righteous, you know, nobody does that you memorize Quran because you need it, you know, you sort of you want to draw close to tell us how to Allah, you want to be somebody of a higher rank with him, not necessarily higher ranking or dunya you know, it's just with him as well. So don't let that put you off. And also don't let the volume of Quran put you off from memorizing the Quran. You know, there's that cliche or that quote, where they say

aim for the moon even if you miss your land among the stars. Yeah, this is I like to use as an example because if you you know, aim for the moon which is memorizing the Quran in its entirety, even if you miss it, even if you don't memorize it in its entirety, what will happen is that you'll have memorize huge portions you know, you'll have memorized enough you know that to get you so much reward in Sharla. Even if it's one sword or one juice, how much it is, you're still land among the stars. So don't let that

Put put you off in any way shape or form. And if anything, it will, it memorizing Quran however little it just sort of brings some life back into the heart and it's like the process and told us you know, in the lady Lisa fijo fish a woman on Korra incubated harinder the one who doesn't have anything of Quran in their heart is like a ruined house, you know, a demolished home, there's no life in it, there's no light. There's, there's no theater or such. So you want to have at least a little bit of iron in your heart to bring it sort of back to life to make it filled with light. So have a positive image of memorizing for iron, don't be daunted by the volume.

And just go for it. And the last part, I will make it easier anyone who starts memorizing Quran will testify to the fact that you know, at the beginning it may be a bit hard, but sooner or later really all the dams just break and it just becomes much more easier. You build up a momentum and that momentum actually keeps you going. So don't worry too much. If you're sincere. Have that sincerity at the beginning. Go for it and inshallah Allah subhanaw taala will see you through it, Shonda. Fantastic. That's really good advice. And thank you so much, once again for being on our show and inshallah we'll speak to you soon then suddenly, in sha Allah, Allah consolata. lubricates. Okay, so

that wraps up the final part of the interview. One thing I wanted to mention is that after we completed the recording for this episode, I was able to ask more questions to for here as to how she personally memorize the Quran. And she told us that most of her memorization actually happened between his studies and two jobs. While that was pretty inspiring, and don't worry, she gave us permission to share that information. Anyway, don't forget to let us know what you took from this episode, and what actions you have been inspired to do by sending an email to podcast at Muslim life hackers with the subject Episode Three. Also, if you can't get enough of Muslim life hackers, check

out our VIP email list. This is where you can participate in discussion, get access to exclusive content, and have the same the topics and guests we bring on the show. So you can check that out by going to Muslim life hackers.com slash VIP. So friends, that's all for today. Thank you for joining us. And thank you to our sponsor for today's episode visionair online, make sure you check out visionair by going to Muslim life hackers.com slash visionair and remember by supporting our sponsors, you are supporting the show. So until next time, aim high take action and be awesome

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