Author: Nurul

I have finally finished memorising the whole surahs in Juz 30 – from surah 78 – 114! The last few surahs were a struggle but I just keep repeating listening to recitations and practice. I wanted to finish the surahs earlier but I have to follow the pace of my memories so that the hafazans stick.

I am so happy! Like I was listening to just 30 recitation and thought how cool it is to memorise the whole thing last December and now I did it. Still a long way to go in memorising the whole Quran but I guess it will get easier as I go as long as I keep revising my hafazan. Thank you Ustazah!

On Eid Adha eve, I was helping mom cooking one dish for Eid celebration. I stayed up cooking in the kitchen with my mom until almost 3am. I slept early and mom stayed on. As I was cooking earlier, mom went upstairs to get her phone. I was alone in the kitchen and it was midnight. I proceeded to playback An-Naba’ on my phone initially to drive shaitan and djinn away as I work in the kitchen. Then I start to work on my hafazan and mom suddenly entered the kitchen. She thought I was playing du’a recitation in conjunction with Arafah evening. I told her its recitation of Juz 30. While working on my dish I just recite together working on my hafazan. And proceeded to chit chat with my mom on what I learnt from the surahs that I was reading. She even shared her vulnerability- on how she memorised some surahs before and had taught elderlies to read when she was younger. I hope it opened her up to recall what she had memorised. Thing with my mom, she thought she’s like so old that she couldn’t do a lot of things. To me, it’s just maintenance. She needs to put a lot more effort to sharpen her memories, her cognitive ability and preserving and building physical strengths.

It’s awesome that we could talk like seriously reflecting the ayahs and lessons behind it. It was something that we never did before. We openly talk about Islam since we went for Umrah together as I spent a lot of time with my mom over there. It’s a moment I would never forget, I hope we could have more moments like this. Maybe we could attend class together in the future. Thank you Allah for gifting me with Quran, home and family, and rizqs. Please accept my Ibadah and protect my family and myself from Hellfire.

Today, I have memorised up to surah al-Fajr. It’s a one page plus surah and I only had 2 days to memorise all the 30 ayahs. Struggled a little bit as I had headaches for a few days and can’t be bothered with doing things that require brain work. It’s the 89th surah in the Quran.

How I memorised within 2 days – I first read the translations and find contexts in each ayah with the time that I had. Ideally, I’d like to read the tafseer behind each ayah. So I broke down into chunks – first it talks about Fajr and nights. Then the races that Allah mentioned for us to learn from – the Aads, Thsamuds, Irams and Firaun – how they’re advanced as a civilization but at the same time are those who were tyrants, like Firaun. Allah too mentioned about the humans – who praised Allah when only they’re blessed with abundance and turned away when Allah tested them with insufficiency of rizq. And also some other characteristics.

I love the rhythms of the verses of ayahs 21 and 22 and all the reminders of the following verses like in ayah 24 – about people who regretted not performing more ibadahs and goodness when they were still alive. And how inviting Allah is of his obedient servants towards Jannah. It’s a beautiful ending for the surah.

It’s a challenging one as the sentences are not arranged in a form that I am already familiar with. So I need to rely on photographic memory if I can’t relate with the context of a sentence. I manage to recite my memorisation with small mistakes here and there; then again, my next homework is to memorise al-Ghasyiah and probably slot in al-A’la – I think I have memorised this surah before so it should be manageable. More practice on the line – the challenge is different now from the previous month, but I am excited.

Grateful for this journey. Thank you Allah for making it smooth for me.

Had my 3rd class last Friday, first class during Ramadan. My most challenging task prior was to memorise al-Bayyinah. I did it in 20 minutes, plus I did extra hafazan on ad-Dhuha and at-Tin. I was so pleased with myself and thank Allah for helping me with memorising with ease. So my teacher proceeded with murojaah (checking my other hafazan) for 30 minutes, the next 30 minutes she checked my Quranic recitation (tahsin) from surah al-Fatihah up to al-Baqarah page 6. I don’t know, I liked the class – actually looking forward to it and felt like it’s the best thing I did all day despite of everything that’s happening in my life that day. Ustazah asked whether I have to time to do my hafazan. I told her I used the time stuck in traffic to practice. I actually lost my voice a bit but the sense of gratitude and achievement after memorising a surah is priceless.

As at now I have memorised 23/114 surahs. I aim to memorise the whole Juz Amma (Juz 30) within a couple of months probably sometime in May or June. So much things I learnt by doing this. Like I am amused on how the verses are arranged and written. And the meaning in the surahs kind of stuck with me. Like how Allah wrote a surah specifically for gossip-mongers, those who are prideful of their possessions and a lot more. It works my brain in a whole different way. It also affects my heart and my soul. May Allah ease this journey and accept my effort to be closer to Him.

After being back from Umrah, I feel that I want to learn and get to know more on Quran, and protect it by memorising the ayahs. I also want to memorise as a challenge as I see a lot of people could do it at any age – also a way for me to recite when I got old enough that I could not read or illness could strike that would hinder me from reading Quran. I asked ChatGPT on strategies to do so, so it suggested that I memorise the last Juzuk first or ayahs from 78th to 114th surahs which are a lot. I tried on my own to memorise the verses for a week. Alhamdulillah, it set me up for my actual tahfidz class.

My first class was a bit chaotic, probably the academy wanted to slot me in so that I could fit in February schedule. So my Ustazah wasn’t aware of my enrollment. Anyways all things cleared, I proceeded with my first class on 5th February 2026 – also the birthday of my sister.

First class was okay, and a bit scary cause Ustazah was like asking me to recite all the verses from the last surah backwards as far as I can remember. I stumbled a lot but InshaAllah over time I would be comfortable enough to get used to it. So I managed to recite up to Al-Humazah and she taught me the strategies to memorise the ayahs. My first homework was to memorise the surah until I can recite smoothly without referring the Quran.

Second class, the Ustazah was a lot more prepared. So we discussed a bit what should we do for an hour class. I decided that I want to do a bit of taddabur so that I can understand what the surah or verses are all about, which would help in my memorisation. She tested on my previous homework and we moved forward until surah As-Syarh. I was occasionally leading prayers at school, so all these short surahs were in my head. But that was like 30 years ago. Ustazah wanted to test me on Al-Alaq, she said, can you recite al-Alaq, the first revelation from Allah – I was like, I used to remember, now I couldn’t recall it – she gave me a go to try the first 5 verses, of which I could barely do. It was like a direct pang for me, how could I neglect and not protect all the surahs that I already memorised last time. I felt sad but also grateful that Allah gave me the chance to meet Ustazah and sent her to me to guide me. I am so grateful for being surrounded by good people. So my homework for next class is to memorise surah al-Bayyinah and I am so excited to do it.

After class, I cried again, like big cry of gratitude and how I miss being in Makkah and on how Allah loves me so much. I feel like I am with the right teacher and I am on the right track. May Allah helps me to stay consistent with class and provide me with rizq to continue with classes and all the new commitments that I am into now. Alhamdulillah ❤️