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1436 H

HOW TO MEMORIZE? Establishing The Principles

By: Abu Abdullah Fahd At-Taahiriyy

Establishing the principles | Fahd At-Taahiriyy | A brief treatise on How to memorize?

NOTICE

Note that these classes took place on 1433 H. The

example that was given was based on the book ‘Four

Fundamental Principles’ however, we have

mentioned in here an example based on ‘The poetry

on etiquettes of Abu Ishaaq’. Furthermore, all books

can follow the suggested example.


I TEACHER’S INTRODUCTION J

Ever had trouble with Memorizing? Want to be able to memorize up to 3 full pages of text a day by the will of Allah? Wish you can kill that fear of

something called memorizing? Allow me to answer you, with real stories of our Salaf (rightly guided ancestors) and lift your spirits up high to the sky! In

the 2nd class we will introduce you to the actual and practical methods of memorizing, how to build a schedule, how to organize it, how to gradually

build your memorizing skill, how to reach a point where you can never forget what you have memorized, and how much you need to repeat the reading for

both memorizing and revising.

pp


I INTRODUCTION J All of us know the merits of seeking knowledge as there are several evidences in the Qur’aan and ahadith of the Prophet (sallallaahu alaihi wasallam) which includes the many tales and stories of the Sahabah (May Allah have mercy on them all). InshaAllaah we will discuss something very important and that is how one should gain this knowledge. This knowledge is beneficial only when we memorize it. Knowledge does not happen without memorizing. That is why the scholars of Islaam said:

من حفظ المتون حاز الفنون ‘Man hafidhal mutoon Haazal Funoon.’

Those who have memorized the books, gained the different fields of

knowledge.

Al-Muthoon (المتون) are the Books of knowledge that are meant to be memorized, the Books that are considered the key to enter a certain field of knowledge.

(Man hafidhal mutoon) (من حفظ المتون) – ‘Those who have memorized the Books.’

(Haazal Funoon) (حاز الفنون) - ‘gained the different fields of knowledge.’ And they also said:

ومن لم يحفظ األصول حرم الوصول

‘Wamallam yahfadhil Usool hurimal wusool.’

‘ And those who didn’t memorize the Books will not reach the knowledge as the ones before us reached.’

So, memorizing the knowledge is the Highest and the Most important level of all. Rather memorizing is a condition to knowledge.


This means that there is no way that knowledge can be acquired, gained, or gathered without memorizing and this was what our rightly guided ancestors were upon as we shall clarify, InshaAllaah. So we say that: ‘Without memorizing, it is NOT possible for the seeker of knowledge to reach

the knowledge.’ Imaam Ahmed (Rahimahullaah) was asked:

‘What is hifdh? What is Memorizing?’ He (Rahimaullaah) replied:

الحفظ اإلتقان ‘Al-Hifdu Al Itqaan’

‘Memorizing is to accurately know by heart what you have gained.’

Because of this importance of memorizing, there are many quotes from the scholars clarifying the importance of this level of knowledge and that is why they urged their students to memorize and guided them to it, clarifying to them that it is the most beneficial — more beneficial than even writing. Imaam Ahmish (one of the great Imaams of Islaam) said:

اإلتقان هو الحفظ ‘Al Itqaanu huwal Hifdh!’

‘Memorize what you have gathered. Memorize that which you have sought.’ Imaam Ahmish said:

‘Memorize that which you have gathered’

For he who gathers the knowledge and does not memorize it, is just like the man who takes a mouthful of food and throws it behind his back. Do you see

him


getting full? Never!! If he does so, when will he suffice himself as there is no intake?

So it is with I’lm (Knowledge). It is like taking bits and pieces of knowledge and throwing it without benefiting from it. Imaam al Asgari said:

‘If that which you have gathered of this knowledge was little and it was memorized, you will greatly benefit from it. And if the knowledge was plenty

and it was not memorized, your benefit of it will be very, very little’ Abdul Razzak ibn Hammam is an Imaam as San’aani and his Book is one of the sources of as-Sunnah. He has a Book called ‘Al Musannaf’ which contains many ahadeeth asnd Athaar of the Sahabah1, He says:

‘Every bit of knowledge which does not enter the restroom with the man, then don’t consider it of knowledge!’

What he meant was — Don’t consider what is not memorized and not in your heart as knowledge. Al-Khalil (one of the Imaams of al–Lugaah) says in his poem:

‘Knowledge is not what the books contain. Knowledge is what the heart contains.’

Now we will enlighten you with some stories as to how some Imaams memorized and how they considered memorizing as the key to knowledge. Aamir ibn Shuraheel as-Sha’bi, (the one who died in the year 104H), said:

‘I have not placed black on white, ever.’

1 Many tales of the Sahaabah


That means he never wrote anything down. He memorized everything he wrote.

‘Neither did someone tell me something and I needed him to repeat.’ This means that they had developed their memorization skills to such an extent that they did not need anyone to repeat. And this everyone can do. Some people think that this is not something that is not real something that is impossible or very hard. On the contrary it is something that is very easy all you have to do is know the most effective way. Memorizing has only one way. Also Qatada ibn Da’ama as Sedusi (d118H) said:

‘I have never told a narrator to repeat for me and neither has my ears listened to something except that my heart would memorize it’.

Yazid ibn Haroon (d 206H) said:

‘I memorized 20,000 hadith and whoever wants let him test me with one letter’

Muhammad ibn abi hatim told about Muhammad ibn Ismaeel Al-Bukhari, [The one who wrote the Sahih al-Bukhari (d256H)]: ‘I heard Hashir ibn Ismaeel and another saying that Abu Abdullah al-Bukhari used to attend the classes of the Shuyook with us in Basra. He was a young

boy at that time and he wasn’t writing. Days passed and we said to him, ‘you attend with us but we don’t see you writing. What do you do?’ So he told us after 16 days, ‘you have insisted and you have asked me a lot and I want you to show me what you have in your Books’. So we took our books out and he read to us by heart what was in our books until he reached fifteen thousand

Ahadith. He didn’t make a mistake in one letter. He said: ‘Do you see me attending and wasting my time?”

what he meant was that he memorized everything he took. Abu Jamal ad-Deen as-Sarmadi said about Abul Abbas ibn Taymiyyah (d 728):


‘One of the wonders of our time in memorizing is Ibn Taymiyyah. He would read the book once and it would get eventually get carved in his heart’.

It was said about Abul Ma’adi’ al Muhammad ibn Ali ibn abi Ash’ari bin Halabi (d789) that he memorized surathul An’am when he was young after one reading and he memorized a lot in a very few period of time. And so did other a’imma as well. Ibn Sanama (d 82) memorized the Qur’aan in two months. And Muhammad bin Muslim az Zuhari (d 125) memorized the Qur’aan in 80 nights. In our times the Mashaaik said that there was a Turkish student in one of the universities who was able to memorize the Qur’aan only in 70 days. Qutubud deen ibn Yunini is one of the main narrators of Al-Bukhari. He narrated from his father that his father memorized Sahih Muslim in only four months, and Sahih Muslim contains about 8000 hadith. Also he memorized Surathul An’am in only one day. It was said to Hushaym ibn Bashir: ‘How much are you used to memorizing O’ Aba Muawiyah?’ He replied, ‘I used to memorize a hundred ahadith in one session. And if I were asked

about those hadith after a month I would have answered.’ Ishaq ibn Ibrahim ibn Rahwaya (d 238) said:

‘I never wrote something except I memorized it. Never have I written something except I memorized it. And I am today, it is as if I am looking at 70,000 ahadith in my books, it is as if I am looking at them right in front of

me.’ And he Ishaq ibn rahawaya also said:


‘I know the places of a hundred and thousand ahadith. It is as if I am looking at them in front of me right now. And I memorized 70,000 ahadith of them

which are authentic, and 4000 of them which are not authentic.’

Imaam Ahmed said:

‘I memorized a thousand thousand (1 million) hadith with the chain of narration’. This was made into poetry by Imaam Sar’sari who was a poet. He wrote in his poem: ‘Imaam Ahmed gathered in his heart one million ahadith.’

Then he said, ‘he was asked in 60,000 issues (people wanted fatawa from him) all of this he answered with hadasana so and so narrated to us that so

and so narrated to us that so and so narrated to us that the Prophet (sallallaahu alaihi wa sallam) said this and so and so. He answered the one

asking just by reading out the ahadith in sixty thousand issues.’ Abu Zurrah Ar Razi (d. 264 AH) – and he is one of the great Imaams who said: ‘In my house is what I have written 50 years ago and I never saw it from the

time I had written it. And verily I know in which book it is and in which paper, which page and which line it is.’ He also said, ‘I memorized 200,000 ahadith

just as a person memorizes ‘Qul huwaAllaahu ahad’. Ibn Abi Dawud (d. 316 AH), (the son of Abu Dawud) said: ‘I narrated from my memory, from my heart, in Asfahan 36,000 hadith and they, (the people I narrated to) said that I had mistaken in seven. So when I went back and checked those seven and I found that I had only mistaken in

two.’ So this is not a fairy tale. This is real and this is what they used to depend upon, especially in the days of the Sahabah — they used to memorize because a lot of them were not able to write or read. So this points out that if the person depends on his book more, his ability to memorize will grow weaker and weaker. But if he memorizes, (it is just like a muscle) — if you train it, gradually you will see your ability to memorize increasing. All you have to do is just one thing, (one key) and we will mention it inshaAllaah soon. Ali ibn Naisaboori said about Abdaan (d.136 AH):


‘As for Abdaan he used to memorize a hundred thousand ahadith’. Muhammad ibn Ismaeel al-Bhukari said:

‘I memorized a hundred thousand authentic ahadith and two hundred thousand non- authentic ahadith’.

A STORY OF IMAAM AL-BUKHARI

And the test that Imaam Al-Bukhari went through is well known since it was narrated from a lot of scholars. You see, they wanted to test Imaam Al-Bukhari

since they heard that he was so young and he was correcting the narrators even when he was attending he was correcting the preacher when he used to narrate the hadith. So they heard about Al-Bukhari. Before he had travelled to a certain destination they heard of his coming so they made a session for him inorder to testhim in how much he has memorized. So ten of the scholars sat and they asked Al Bukhari about ten ahadith what they did was they flipped the ahadith with its chain of narration, that means they took a hadith they

mentioned with this hadith a chain of narration that belongs to another hadith. They mixed up the chain of narration with the hadith putting this chain of

narration with that hadith and this hadith with that chain of narration. And each scholar did this with ten ahadith.

So how many hadith did they test Al-Bukhari with?

A hundred ahadith.

Those days they used to test the scholars to see how trustworthy his narrations were. They were not put to test for any evil reason. So the first

scholar addressed Al-Bukhari: ‘What do you know about this hadith?’ And he read the hadith with the wrong chain of narration and then the second hadith, the third, the fourth until he reached the tenth. Then the other scholar said to him, ‘What do you know about these ten hadith?’ So every scholar narrated

ten hadith but they mixed up the chain of narration of the hadith. When they finished, Imaam Al-Bukhari knew that this was a test and that they had flipped around the ahadith. When every scholar used to finish a hadith he says to Al-

Bukhari, ‘What do you know about this hadith?’ Imaam Bukhari replied, ‘I don’t know it.’ And then he tells him second hadith and he says ‘I don’t know this hadith’. And they thought he didn’t know anything whilst Al-Bukhari knew

what they were up to. So they said, ‘this man doesn’t know anything.’


When they finished the hundred ahadith he said, ‘as for the hadith you asked me about this chain of narration is not with this hadith but this chain of

narration is with that hadith’, and he started attaching each chain of narration with the relevant hadith. The point here is that he repeated what every scholar

said which was not in order and then he put them in order. He memorized even their test i.e. the hadith they tested him with which was not in order and then he put them in order. That is why one of the scholars said, ‘the wonder is not in him correcting them but the wonder is in him memorizing how they had

arranged, mixed up the ahadith.’

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I METHODJ

How To Memorize?

Know may Allaah guide me and you, that whoever wanted to memorize something with accurate memorizing so that it stays with him for many years, he has to use only method and there is no other way except this way: This is repeating, just repeating. This is the only key. Yes, it is as easy as it sounds. If you want to memorize something, simply repeat it. Indeed, that is how they used to memorize and we shall mention some of their stories. And the key point on how to repeat is to memorize is that you have to lessen the portion you are memorizing each day. For example don’t take ten pages. Lesson the portion. Take for example as much as Surah Al-Fatihah which is about four to five lines. Take anything you want to memorize, anything you want to store in your heart, that portion and you just repeat it. And some of the scholars used to repeat for about a thousand times when they wanted to memorize and that’s why they reached a point where what they memorized got carved in their hearts, that’s why they don’t have to go back to the book and listen to it. So whoever wanted to memorize something, a certain book, let’s say the Book of Imaam Bukhari, you have to put the book into small portions, and every day take this portion whether it was twenty ahadith or ten ahadith or even five ahadith and I repeat it. Taking less is according to the Sunnah specially if the person is new to this. People are of two types with regard to memorizing: someone who is gifted with this gift of memorizing since his childhood and this is not the person we are talking about here. We are talking about the person who is not used to memorizing. First of all you lessen the portion you want to memorize, say if you are memorizing the four fundamental principles. It has an introduction so you take this introduction and you repeat it a certain numbers which you chose and you make a break between every session of repeating. After Fajr for example you hold the book and you read the portion – there has to be a rest between the times you are repeating – for example if you decide to repeat a thousand times don’t do thousand times without a break. Rather distribute the times you want to repeat the portion you want to memorize. You come after salathul Fajr and you repeat this portion twenty times or thirty


times by looking at it, just reading it. Then you leave it. How did you memorize Surah Fathiha? Everyone memorizes it no matter how old he is. This is just because you are repeating it. You recite it in the Salah, in every rak’ah, five times a day and even more if you do the sunnah. If anyone reads surah Fathiha will he miss one letter? No, never, because you are repeating it every day. Now just imagine if you were to take anything and repeat it every day wouldn’t you memorize it just like you would with al-Fathihah? So the key to memorizing is just repeating. There is nothing special about it. Repeat what you want to memorize and you will memorize it in no time. For example after Salatul Fajr repeat it for say thirty times or even ten times that is sufficient. Then take a break until you reach for example after Salatul Dhuhr. Then you repeat it for the same number for example ten more times. Then take a break. When you reach salatul asr then repeat for another ten more times and so on after each salah. After the third salah you will notice that you are starting to continue the sentence without even looking at it. And this is different from when you memorize in one go. If you repeat up to the desired number you want, say fifty times in one go, it doesn’t stay. Because as our rightly guided ancestors used to say: ‘What is taken at once is lost at once.’ So take it with gaps in between. And the best way to do it is to increase the repeating. And everything you memorize put a number. And I chose the number 950. For it was said that Imaam As-Shirazi – and he was an Imaam of As-Shafi’iyah – that he memorizes the matters of dispute in knowledge just as someone memorizes Al-Fathiha. Because he never studied an issue of knowledge except that he has repeated it one thousand times. The way I do it is I take a paper. I go to excel and I boarder 950. You don’t have to do it daily, you can do it for a week as well. Or three days if you repeat in 3 days 33 times then you would have repeated 99 times for someone who wishes to repeat a hundred times. And if you do it for 30 days you will reach a thousand. You take a piece of paper and you boarder 950 squares and you place it in the book you want to memorize, every time you repeat you tick one box until you are done. You do this for every section you want to memorize. And know that it is very easy for the heart to memorize what you put in it, even more than a computer does. It is just that people are not used to such a thing. We grew up and we were born in a time of writing when people learn how to read and write. Our dependence upon writing is greater than our


dependence on memorizing. But for the Sahabah this was something that was very, very easy for them, because it was what they depended upon from their very childhood. So if we do the same and get used in the same manner then it will be very easy for you to memorize anything you want. I will read to you some recent stories so that you don’t say that this is something from the past and that people are not able to memorize any more like they do. Even people that are mostly known with this gift of memorizing are the Shanaquiqa, the Shanquities, the Mauritanians2. One of them told the stories of the recent scholars in this issue. It was said the Muhammad ibn Mahmood at-Tarkuzi has a written print of a concise dictionary of four volumes. He has a copy of the written print taken from a manuscript that was written by the author himself that was Firozabaadi. Muhammad ibn Mahmood at-Tarkuzi used to memorize this dictionary of four volumes just like al-Fathiha. So he was challenging the people in Al-Azhar. He said he was worthier to be an Imaam of al-Lugah than they were because he had memorized al-Qamoos (the dictionary). So they said this is of course an exaggeration and they wanted to test him. So they brought him and he was reading out this dictionary from his memory. Before this these very people made fun of him and then when he came and they tested him, they were correcting their dictionaries from his memory. And now the dictionary is printed by his print which he had depended on. And this (Al Qamoos al Muheeth) which is the best, most precise and concise dictionary of the Arabic words and if anyone wanted to buy then let them take this book and this print. Al Allama As-Seedi Abdullah ibn al Haaj Ibrahim Al Alawi? (d 1250) He has a book of poetry in thousand verses which al Imaam Muhammad al Ameen Shanqeeti – the author of Ahyah al Bayyan- which he had explained this (Al allama As- Seedi Abdullah ibn al Haaj Ibrahim ibn Al Alawi) he said: ‘If the sciences of the four madhabs were to be thrown with all of its sources,

all of its major books in the sea, I would along with my student be able to bring it back without a deduction nor an addition, he has the Matan and I do

the explanation.’

2 Mauritania is a country in the Maghreb and West Africa. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean in the west, by Western

Sahara in the north, by Algeria in the northeast, by Mali in the east and southeast, and by Senegal in the southwest – Wikipedia.


This means that he used to memorize all the sources of the Fiqh and this is not a joke. We are talking about 20 to 30 volumes each source and he used to memorize them all by heart. This was what they were doing. Anything they wanted to memorize they were repeating it for days. They used to sit in circles in a group and each group would circle around the masjid and they would repeat what they wanted to memorize until they reached about eight hundred times. It was said to one of them ‘how come you are able to whenever we ask you something mention the quote of the scholar with the reference?’ he said to them ‘I have not read a book except I have repeated it 800 times.’

I OTHER MEANS OF MEMORIZATION J The main way to memorizing is repeating but there are other means:

1. Al-Ikhlaas.

2. Dua’a.

3. Abandoning sins.

4. Taking the issue seriously.

5. Getting used to it.

6. Acting upon it.

7. Choosing the right time.

8. Choosing a partner.

9. Revising.


Al-Ikhlaas – You are memorizing because you want to preserve this

knowledge within you so that it is easier for you to understand it.

Dua’a – You should ask Allaah first and foremost that He (azzawajal)

helps you with your memorization. You should not depend on your

abilities. In fact, your abilities are just means and reasons. At-tawakul is

to rely upon Allaah (subahanahu wa ta’ala) totally with your heart and

just do the means and reasons.

Don’t say to yourself: ‘I could never memorize!!’ even if you are 80 years old. The problem is not in the age. The problem is that you are busier when you are older. You have a lot of things in your mind. Otherwise age has never been a barrier for someone to memorize. I heard a couple of years ago that a 70 year old woman entered into Islaam and she started memorized the whole Qur’aan This is not a myth! It is true, it is a reality. Whoever wants to memorize remember:

‘The key to memorizing is repeating!!’

(No matter how old you are)!

Abandoning the sins – this knowledge is a light from Allaah and it is not

gained with sins and the more you avoid the sins, the more Allaah will

give you this light.

Taking this issue seriously – if you start memorizing and repeat a day

and leave another day and go back to the third day and then you leave

two days. Put your heart into it and don’t let a day pass

without memorizing. Every day memorize something even if it was

three words or a line.

Getting used to it – Gradually increase the portion you are memorizing..

slowly… slowly. Don’t suffice yourself with one little portion. So for the

first month start with one line or even half a line. If you are very bad at

memorizing then lessen the portion as much as you can. Start with half a

line for a month or two weeks and then increase it to one line. And you

will realise that as the days pass, the more you are able to and also


getting stronger and better at this. And after another month increase it

to three lines. I know a student of mine who was not only bad at memorizing but he had a low IQ as well. He was very slow at understanding. I told him, ‘Listen! I will give you a piece of writing,’ (and I gave him a page full of text) and I said, ‘take this page. I will give one key thing to do. Just repeat it. Even without the intention of memorizing, just repeat it. Go home and repeat it until you are able to continue the sentence without looking at it. And then I want you to keep repeating until you have memorized the whole thing’. So he took the book and he went and memorized it. And I told him, ‘Tell me the number of times you repeated this to memorize it’. So the next day he came back and I asked him, ‘How many times did you repeat?’. He said, ‘I repeated forty times’. He was expecting me to say ‘Ah that’s a lot. Better luck next time.’ But I said ‘That’s great! If you were able to memorize this by repeating 40 times that is beautiful’!! I told him ‘Others repeat for 80 times and they don’t memorize because they need to develop their memorizing skills’. So I told him ‘Now do this for every portion, the same portion do this every day.’ By Allaah me and him were memorizing about two to three pages a day. And now MaashaAllaah this has even affected his IQ and he is getting smarter by the day. Why? All because of memorizing because when you memorize, you do not only memorize but you also learn the language of the scholars and how they speak and what words they use and what their meanings are. There is a lot more to memorizing than a lot of people think. And this shows how true the word of the scholar is:

‘Knowledge is memorizing!!’

العلم هو الحفظ That’s why the scholars wrote small, tiny Books for their students to memorize and they were able to write at the same time many major Books comprising of many as (thirty) volumes. And one might say ‘What is the benefit of this tiny book that you are writing when you are an Imaam and you have written several volumes?’ Let’s for example take Imaam Al-Juwayni who wrote a book on the ba an adding or nor a scis or the Fundamentals of Jurisprudence – which some of the scholars said about this book that this is the book of Islaam – which was in two


big volumes. At the same time we find Imaam Juwayni writing about seven pages on the same topic. Seven pages only. He wrote it for the people after him to memorize it. Because the key to seeking knowledge is to memorizing a book in every field of knowledge you want to involve yourself in because they know best. Because they are the people of experience and they know what is the key. They saw that people who were not up to memorizing a book of thirty volumes – might at least memorize this and they would then have the key and the base on which to build on whatever they wanted to after that. That’s why you will find in the biography of any scholar that he has memorized a small book in every field of knowledge. So you have to get used to it. Make it a part of your daily schedule. Never let a day pass without memorizing even a small portion.

Acting upon it – Seeking knowledge is only a means. It is not meant

directly. It is only sought because of what it should bring as an

outcome of practicing it. So if you stop there at memorizing thinking

that you are the scholar, then no, you are not the scholar until you

act upon what you have memorized. And one of the a’imma said:

‘One of our means to memorizing a hadith was acting upon it’.

Choosing the right time to memorize – Don’t choose a time where

you are for example (and this mostly for the sisters). Specially I want

to give instructions for the sisters as they are most that are suffering

from not being able to memorize and I will give you a simple way to

do so even if you are busy doing something. If you are cleaning the

house or taking care of the kids. If you cannot read when you want

to memorize most of the books that are written are now available in

audio format. So if you cannot memorize, of course the first way if

you want to memorize, if you are cooking, in a certain room or doing

the laundry, write what you want to memorize on a piece of paper

and stick the paper on the wall or in front of you. And this is ideal for

the brothers also when they are driving. You can stick the piece of

paper in front of you when you are on the steering wheel. And you

repeat. And if that doesn’t work for either the brothers or the sisters

the other way is to record yourself. If you don’t have the book in

audio format then you can make your own audio format. When you

come to a portion which you want to memorize then you can read it

out with your voice and record it. You can take an mp3 player and


then store what you have read in your mp3 player and then just put

it in your ears and repeat it. While you are working around the house play this piece of audio that you have recorded, put it on auto repeat, and keep on listening to it until you are done with whatever you want to do. By the time you are done you will find yourself memorizing the thing that you have heard. And this is mentioned in some the stories. In one of the stories this scholar was repeating a hadith until his old mother shouted from behind the door, ‘I memorized it now.’ So he told her, ‘ok repeat it if you have memorized it’. So she repeated it and had eventually memorized it just from his repeating it. Two weeks passed by and he came back to her and said, ‘Can you repeat what you said you had memorized at that time.’ So she said, ‘no, I have forgotten it’. He said, ‘this is why I revise, so that I do not fall into what you have fallen’. So take that piece of recording and if you can’t do it, I will do it for you. I have already done ‘Qawaaid al Arba’a’ and it is available on the website. So take it and put it in an mp3 and listen to it. And listening is more effective than reading from a book. When you memorize something recorded, it is more effective than memorizing it from a book. That’s why take me (Fahd At-Taahiriyy) as an example. In the beginning I memorized a couple of Surahs just by listening to the reciter. I used to repeat the surah just by listening to it and I memorized it in a way that I can’t make mistakes. So you take a reciter who you love to listen to and read along with him (If possible find a reader close to your voice, so it would be better). Read along with him until your reading is close to his. And just keep on repeating. It is not necessary for you to listen to the whole surah. Let him read about three or five verses and then stop the tape, and repeat it from the beginning. You will see yourself memorising in no time. If you want to do something you can do it. Don’t kid yourself and say, ‘no, I can’t no.’ Mind you, the sinners are memorizing songs everyday and we are worthier than those who are with their songs. Look at some Muslims kids who are memorizing songs and nasheeds. By the time they come back home they have already memorized it. The same thing you can do and there is nothing special about it. Just repeat!!


Some of them used to even choose ways that they would get themselves into a situation. Some of them would get out their homes and walk to the east repeating so that when he finishes repeating he doesn’t get bored. When he is returning home he says, ‘I can’t go back home doing nothing, so while I am walking I will just repeat.’ After he finishes for an hour or half an hour, he would then head towards the west and do the same … thereafter he heads towards the north and does the same. Then he heads towards the south and does the same. In a way , they were seeking means and ways for them not to get bored of doing repeating… Ali ibn Hashram said:

‘I never saw a single book in the hands of Ali ibn Waqram. It was all memorized. So I asked him about the medicine to memorize it. He said, ‘if I

teach you the medicine will you use it?’ He said ‘Yes by Allaah’. He said ‘leave the sins’ ‘I have never tried a stronger way to memorize than this.’

He is Bishr ibn Harith said:

‘If you want to memorize the knowledge then, do not sin.’

Yahya ibn Yahya said: ‘Someone asked Malik ibn Anas: ‘O Abu Abdullah, can you teach me a way to

memorize?’ He said ‘If it was something that would be a way to memorize, then it would be leaving off the sins’.

Make Isthighfar. This is very important also. This falls under the second category which is making dua’a. Sometimes I would memorize something or revise something and then suddenly I would stop. And I am not saying this to exaggerate and support the issue of memorizing. Sometimes I would just stop and not be able to continue even what I had memorized. And by Allaah I would recite the dua’a of Syed al Isthighfar — the one that says ‘Allahumma antha rabbi…’ it is in Hisnul Muslim and I would just continue with no hesitation and Allaah just gives me the ability to continue. So the sins are a strong obstacle/barrier to continue in this path because you are storing the knowledge within you. And this in itself is a great merit for you


as you have to store the knowledge within you, for the knowledge of Allaah is stored in the hearts of mankind. Never has come a time that I haven’t recited the dua’a except that I would continue saying out what I have memorized.

The stories of the scholars are not myths and they aren’t exagerated they are

those who have memorized large quantities of books, and memorized it until it

became their daily habit.

There are two types of people with regards to this skill of memorizing by

heart:

o Those who practiced to develop the skill.

o Those who are gifted with this gift from Allaah Subhanaaahu wa

Ta’aalaa .

Developing this skill can be easy but you mustn’t look back – once you look

back you will find the Shaytaan there, he does not want you to seek this

path. Don’t look back literally nor with putting your hopes down or depending

on your abilities. It is all up to Allaah Ta’aala. Yes there are people with limited

abilities but those could be developed – just like a muscle. A muscle grows

when you work it out. But this is if you try and work at it. Ther eis nothing to

be scared about nor should you worry about how much you are going to

memorize because there is no limit – it is a gift from Allaah.

They have recently discovered that the heart contains many memory cells and

it is the one which thinks.. This was told by Allaah Ta’alaa more than 1400

years ago. The thinking and understanding are by the heart and only thing the

mind does is organizes the information. However, the understanding is in the

heart.


The proofs for the above mentioned:

نس لهم ق لوب ل ي فقهون بها ولقد ذرأنا لجهنم كثيرا من الجن واإل

أولئك ولهم أعين ل ي بصرون بها ولهم آذان ل يسمعون بها أولئك هم الغافلون كاألن عام بل هم أضل

And surely, We have created many of the jinns and mankind for Hell. They

have hearts wherewith they understand not, they have eyes wherewith they

see not, and they have ears wherewith they hear not (the truth). They are

like cattle, nay even more astray; those! They are the heedless ones.

(7:179)

وا في األرض ف تكون لهم ق لوب ي عقلون بها أو آذان أف لم يسير فإن ها ل ت عمى األبصار ولكن ت عمى القلوب التي في يسمعون بها

الصدور Have they not travelled through the land, and have they hearts wherewith to

understand and ears wherewith to hear? Verily, it is not the eyes that grow

blind, but it is the hearts which are in the breasts that grow blind.

(22:46)

أق فالها ق لوب على أم القرآن ي تدب رون أفل Do they not then think deeply in the Quran, or are their hearts locked up

(from understanding it)?

(47:24)


وب ينك ب يننا ومن وق ر آذاننا وفي إليه تدعونا مما أكنة في ق لوب نا وقالواعاملون إن نا فاعمل حجاب

And they say: "Our hearts are under coverings (screened) from that to which

you invite us, and in our ears is deafness, and between us and you is a screen,

so work you (on your way); verily, we are working (on our way)."

(41:5)

ي فقهون ل ف هم ق لوبهم على وطبع الخوالف مع يكونوا بأن رضوا They are content to be with those (the women) who sit behind (at home).

Their hearts are sealed up (from all kinds of goodness and right guidance), so

they understand not.

(9:87)

مع يكونوا بأن رضوا أغنياء وهم يستأذنونك الذين على السبيل إنماي علمون ل ف هم ق لوبهم على الله وطبع الخوالف

The ground (of complaint) is only against those who are rich, and yet ask

exemption. They are content to be with (the women) who sit behind (at

home) and Allah has sealed up their hearts (from all kinds of goodness and

right guidance) so that they know not (what they are losing).

(9:93)

ثم أحد من ي راكم هل ب عض إلى ب عضهم نظر سورة أنزلت ما وإذاي فقهون ل ق وم بأن هم ق لوب هم الله صرف انصرفوا


And whenever there comes down a Surah (chapter from the Quran), they

look at one another (saying): "Does any one see you?" Then they turn away.

Allah has turned their hearts (from the light) because they are a people that

understand not.

(9:127)

These Aayaat make it clear that the place of understanding is the heart and not

the mind as many people think. Only n recent studies they have discovered

that the heart is the place of understanding and on top of that – the heart

contains thousands if not millions of memory cells.

You as a human body have far more capabilities than you think. You are able

to memorize a great deal – it is a gift that Allaah Subhaanahu wa Ta’aalaa has

gifted us with.

The past scholars that have memorized a great deal of Hadeeth were not

immortal neither was it something that only they could do. All of the narrators

and scholars used to memorize a great deal of Aahadeeth – but the examples

that were told to us or those who reached to such a high level of memorizing

that they reached millions of Aahaadeeth.

There is no need to have a fear – as long as you don’t know what you are

capable of, why not do the means and reasons and see what Allaah brings by

it.

Don’t depend on the means and reasons – do them but don’t rely on them.

Rely on Allaah and do the means and reasons. You might be in a limited ability

in memorizing but Allah is greater – He is your Creator and the One who

fashioned you and He is the one who will help you overcome this- Trust in

Him.


I THE WAY TO MEMORIZE J It is very simple, the main way is to REPEAT – but the repeating has to be organized as well. When you repeat something don’t repeat it at once – Choose a certain number not less than 70, because some of the scholars said that if the dars is repeated less than 70 times it is not enough, therefore, the teacher advised it to be 99 times as an odd number.

You would take the text you want to memorize and section it off into

portions. You cannot memorize it all at once especially if you don’t speak

Arabic, so at first choose a small quantity. Listen to it with an audio

recording and read it – look at it, look at what you are memorizing – this

is very important.

For example, if you wish to memorize the poetry on etiquettes by Abu Ishaaq

Al-Ilbeeriyy, choose a portion of the text you choose to memorize.

CHOOSE THIS PART OF

THE TEXT FOR

MEMORIZATION


For organizing the times that you will repeat: First of all, don’t do it all at

once, so if for example you want to repeat something 99 times – you

would part it into three days – 33 repetitions a day for 3 days. you can

choose 3 prayers, for example: someone who has returned home from

work can choose `Asr, Maghrib and` Ishaa. After you have completed the

first prayer and the adhkaar, you read it 11 times – from the book –

while listening to the audio – then you let it go. Then after the next

prayer you repeat this again (reading from the book and the audio) and

again after the third prayer. You can do this with Qur’aan or anything

you want to memorize. The second day you do the same and the third

day you do the same. As you repeat, you will find yourself memorizing,

whether you wanted to or not (and of course we want to). It is even

better to not read it all from the book – You could make the first 22

times from the book and the last 11 times try to do from heart.

العشاء المغرب العصر

DAY 1 =

DAY 2 =

DAY 3 =

Use the signs over the squares

to cross over the box once you

have made the recitation as

shown. This chart can be used

for 3 days.

Once you read the portion the

first time after Asr, Magrib

and I’sha draw a line on the

square and complete all

square.

For Day 2 and Day 3 you will

use the respected strokes and

do the same as shown.

In 3 days you will have

accomplished 99 times.


*The more gaps you make between repeating the more you will pick it

up. The less gaps the less you will pick it up. Making gaps between the

repetition is very very effective (meaning don’t read all 99 at once) For

maximum effectiveness distribute the repetitions.

***99 repetition over 3 days: 33 repetition a day divided into 11 repetitions

after 3 salaat that you choose***

Take a partner, especially if you are not used to this already. Take as

many partners – two, three or four. This is encouraging for you and

good to have someone with you doing something that may be hard or

odd. The best partner is your spouse if you are married and the kids for

the mothers – for the sake to keep you going. If you are left alone you

will not go anywhere. Teacher does not say this to interfere with the will

of Allaah Subhaanahu wa Ta’aalaa but because the human self (the

nafs) is inclined to leave what is hard on her and what requires

effort! With a partner you will feel encouraged and you will try to do

better and there will be a spirit of competion. You should do this EVERY

DAY, don’t miss a day without memorizing – but if you rest let it only be

one day a week.

11 TIMES AFTER THE FIRST PRAYER…. 11 TIMES AFTER THE SECOND PRAYER … AFTER THE THIRD PRAYER- 11 TIMES BUT, TRY AND READ IT FROM HEART…

99 times is the least – therefore we have made boxes with one hundred

squares each that students can use for keeping track.


For example if you are memorizing Qawaa’idul Arbaa – cut out one box

and put it inside the book on the page that you are memorizing. After

you repeat it once – strike though the box like below – strike through

for each repetition until you finish … this box will encourage you to

continue, you will be motivated to complete the entire box.

If you want to use it again for the next part/section you are memorizing ( the section should be to a complete sentence) then you can start striking like so: and keep using it for each section you memorize so you don’t waste paper

You can choose less, but the most important thing is that it is not less

than 99. Many of the students that the teacher has in his location

started on 99. And they were very encouraged the first days to the point

that two of them did above 150. Remember the less you repeat, the less

your memorizing will be accurate.

The Teacher had chosen the numbers 99-950 because they are numbers

that are in the Qur’aan and Sunnah. The names of Allaah are 99 so

teacher choose 99 and Nuh Àlayhis salaam stayed 950 years calling his

people to Tawheed, therefore, so he choose 950 to be the limit.

One should revise daily, especially for revising the Qur’aan. It should be

your daily routine. The best way to do so is the sunan Salah – which can

reach up to 50 /day. It is a very good thing if you pray the 12 rawaatib

every day.

So if you want to pray 12 sunan prayers then read a page in every rakàh,

and if you can’t read a page then read half a page. and you keep reading

the Quran like this in your sunan until you finished what you have

memorized and then go back again. You start from the beginning of

where you have memorized until the end [reciting a page or half a page

in each rakàh] and when you reach the end you go back to beginning

again. The more you memorize the more you read in your sunan.


As for other than the Qur’aan: it is very very important that after you’ve

memorized something, you revise it that you try and read it once every

day , that is every once a day for 2 months and if you can’t read it once

a day then 3x for a week.

*The most important period in memorizing is revising* – It is even more

important than memorizing itself! You will find that the more you

memorize the more you will be so good in what you memorize.

If you do not have allot of time to spare in the day then lessen the

quantity you are memorizing but the important thing is don’t move on

to a new portion until you have memorized the first. It is better to start

with a smaller amount of repetitions at first which means that you to get

yourself used to it. Go slowly with your nafs or you will not stay with it.

In the first few weeks, go with 3 lines or 3 aayaat and gradually increase

after that do 5 aayat and always remember that the important thing is

that you don’t decrease, menaing always increase.

By: Umm Abdillah Zaiba Bint Hashim As-Sirilankiyyah

950 SQUARES

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