Memorizing the Quran: The goal and the process

Memorizing the Quran

It’s a life dream to memorize the whole Quran, reading its verses night and day, reading it while praying and teaching it to others. But the process we take to achieve this dream deviates from the goal of the revelation. Did Allah reveal the Quran only for us to memorize its verses?!

In This Article

The Reward

Prophet Muhammed (peace and blessings be upon him) mentioned many rewards for reciting and memorizing the Quran

‘Aishah (The mother of the believers) reported:
The Messenger of Allah (PBUH) said, “The one who is proficient in the recitation of the Qur’an will be with the honorable and obedient scribes (angels) and he who recites the Qur’an and finds it difficult to recite, doing his best to recite it in the best way possible, will have two rewards.”
(Sahih al-bukhari)

and this hadith menions the reward for Memorizing the Quran

The Prophet (ﷺ) said, “The one who was devoted to the Qur’an will be told on the Day of Resurrection: ‘Recite and ascend (in ranks) as you used to recite when you were in the world. Your rank will be at the last Ayah you recite.”‘
(Related by Al-tirmidhi)

And there are many other hadiths that mention the reward for Memorizing the Quran.

What is happening?!

Alhumdlilah many Muslims families who live in the west are doing their best to make their kids memorize the Quran through Online tutoring institutes. In general this is a good concept.

But the Question is:
How much are Muslim kids are benefitting from memorizing the Quran? Is Memorizing the Quran a goal in itself or a mean for something greater?

If we searched in the Quran about how the Muslim should deal with the Quran, we will find some orders like

Reflecting on its verses
“Do they not then reflect on the Quran? Or are there locks upon their hearts?” {Quran 47:24}
˹This is˺ a blessed Book which We have revealed to you ˹O Prophet˺ so “that they may contemplate its verses, and people of reason may be mindful.”38:29
Following its orders

“This is a blessed Book We have revealed. So follow it and be mindful ˹of Allah˺, so you may be shown mercy.” {Qur’an 6:155}

But if we searched for the orders regarding memorizing the Quran, we can notice something important, there is no direct order from Allah to memorize the verses of the Quran by heart!

And Allah grantees the preservation of the Quran by himself
“It is certainly We Who have revealed the Reminder, and it is certainly We Who will preserve it.” {Quran 15:9}

But what does that indicate?

Imagine that you travelled to a new country, and they speak a different language. Do you try to memorize the legal proceedings of this country without understanding it?! Or you try to search about the translation of this rules and understand it well?

If you find that a silly question, why do we apply it with the Quran?

The Quran is the message of Allah to us, there is no meaning to memorize the Quran without understanding it.

We need to understand the meaning of the verses, interact with them, ponder on its verses and apply it. It’s important that all Muslim families don’t consider memorizing the Quran as the only priority.

It was narrated that Jundub bin ‘Abdullah said:
“We were with the Prophet (ﷺ), and we were strong youths, so we learned faith before we learned Qur’an. Then we learned Qur’an and our faith increased thereby.

Alhumdlilah nowadays there are a lot of Quranic translations in all languages, a lot of videos explaining big portions from the Quran. We need to make a daily time for the Quran.

This is the only way

Every day we hear about strange ideas from here and there, most of it try to destroy our kids beliefs and pure in-nature Whatever we do to secure them from it, we can’t ignore the important rule of the Quran.

Memorizing the quran is the beginning not the end goal. Search for a teacher who can revive the Quran in the heart of your kid, The quran is sufficient for us to make a new civilization for Muslims to spread the light and peace through the whole world.

Written by: Sohaib Mohammed
A master’s student in Islamic studies in Al-Azhar university