My Hifdh Journey [GUEST POST] : the personal narrative of a Muslimah from Tatarstan

25 Nov My Hifdh Journey [GUEST POST] : the personal narrative of a Muslimah from Tatarstan

Assalaamu ‘alaykum wa Rahmatullah

Beloved Quran Hearts,

Weeks and months pass by, and we are now drawing closer to the end of another academic / work year: for some, this means plenty of deadlines to meet and the stress of exam results, etc. It is a time when some of us may allow for our hifdh commitment to slip, only to feel regret and frustration later on.

If you find yourself rushed for time and days go by without a hifdh connection, perhaps this recent blog will help you. 

Read on to learn about the journey of one aspiring Haafidha’s hifdh experience. If you would like to share a part of your Hifdh journey, we’d love to feature your piece, too! Email: rayhaanah@gmail.com  and your piece will be considered for future publication.

With the name of the One, Who grants with knowledge and Who is the Knowledge – in the name of Allah.

My Hifdth journey has begun along with my actual journey to another country. For the first time I found myself in an environment where my spiritual dimension were supported by external factors: surrounded by majority Muslim teachers and students from all over the world, having no issues on where to pray and take a wudhu, hearing the polyphony of athan every day, having plenty of halal choices for food and many others. I was a wayfarer … My tree was the whole country and my shade was people.

One of them was Ustaz Ziyaad Mahomed, who shared with us Tajwid knowledge. The way how eloquently he brought Quranic rules and recitation manner triggered me to ask him how I should pursue my connection with Quran and its memorization. Uztaz Ziyaad recommended me to listen Sheikh Hudhaify’s and Sheikh Al Husary’s recitation. And he mentioned that his wife is giving Hifdth classes…I remember how he wrote her contact details on a white paper and put her name “Hafidha Rayhaanah”. It was such a respect towards someone who had memorized the Quran subhanAllah, and they were ready to share this experience with others.

Ustaza Rayhaanah allowed me join her class and since 2016 Quran turned out to be much more complicated and complex, comforting and healing, alive and responding, inspiring and demanding than ever. When I was among those who visited Ustaza for Hifdth classes we would be sitting on a floor covered with a blanket, and revising and memorizing ayas out loud. It felt like a bees buzzing waking up our hearts and minds, and somehow I was imagining that this is how students in West Africa, hiding in a madrasas made out of clay and mud, were memorizing Quran in a past. And it made process more sacred and idyllic.

In my view, Hifdth journey is not just a way towards learning Quran by heart. It is rather attaching your heart to Quran – living and being a physical manifestation of the Quran. And that journey to me is full of hardships and questioning of my ability. But when Allah allows to dedicate even 10 minutes to connect with Quran, it will ground and make a veil on a heart less thick. Constant Hifdth will start revealing things about me, teaching me about myself: what makes me anxious, am I disciplined enough, what is the best way to my brain to absorb new ayas and so on. It is not just a test for a memory; it is an indicator for a soul and spiritual state. Hifdth makes me wonder of meanings and stories behind suras, as if I were looking on a see and trying to find out what deep waters concealed from us.

Allah’s mercy is to have a guide as my dearest Ustaza, who among other things taught me to appreciate small, even tiny improvements in my Hifdth; and co-travelers on this journey who inspired me with their restless and genuine efforts to please Allah, and for this may Allah accept duas of forgiveness asked by every creature on the heaven and the earth, and the fish in the sea for this people. Ameen.

Ainaz Faizrakhman (Kazan, Tatarstan/Russia)

Wishing you success and joy at every stage of your hifdh journey!

Rayhaanah