Memorize like a Programmer

04 Feb Memorize like a Programmer

ALLAH has said in soorah 54 verses 17, 22, 32 and 40 that He has made Quran easy to dhikr. Dhikr in here means reciting, understanding and even memorising/remembering.

Memorising Quran is easy, and we should know it’s easy if we really want it to be easy. We need to be like programmers or hackers, the good ethical hackers.

A hacker or good programmer believes that he can penetrate into or develop any system he want to and it may be hard but finally he will easily succeed.

The following are the ‘hacks \’ you need to accomplish your task of memorising Quran.

(1)Password – Intention.

You need to know the password. Think of your intention as the password.

If you want to memorise for worldly gains that’s a wrong password. And mind you the password need to be entered frequently. And don’t let people know your password by telling everyone you meet you are a hafidh!

(2)Programing (reciting) skills:

A hacker has to know the programming language of the system he is hacking. So you have got to know to recite very well Quran and understand the meaning. Never memorise with incorrect recitation. Never ever do that!

(3)Working late nights:

All programmers work late night not necessarily every night. You cant be a good hafidh If you don’t motivate yourself to stand up at night for night prayers (Qiyam layl). No way. It doesn’t have to be every single night but you have to wake up once a week atleast.

(4)Avoid distractions:

Some dedicated programmers have very few hobbies because most of the time they are coding and they rest for meal only. The worst distractions for those who are memorising are Music and movies.

Brother/sister if you love music or movies then please you cant hate me enough if I tell you you will be going back and forth and you wont finish or be perfect with your memorisation. Since when a person is both clean and dirty? You have to choose to be either dirty or clean. Quran is clean. It doesn’t stay in a diry heart that likes to watch movies and worse…listening to music.

(5)Hacks or Frameworks/Techniques:

Programmers use different frameworks or techniques that make their work easy and organised. As you get experience with memorising miracle will happen.

You will find different techniques to simplify your memorisation, some of them you will hear or read somewhere and others you can come up with yourself. Do research, ask others, read articles.

I remember when I was starting this journey there were some verses or pages that were difficult for me to memorise. And even when I memorised them I easily forgot.

Then I came up with few “hacks” (techniques) like pattern hack and order hack. I will explain the pattern hack as follows:

(a) Pattern hack:

I used it to pages I found difficult at the time, for example page 35 of moos-haf which has verses from 220 to 224 of suratul Baqarah (2).

I realised the following: Verse 220 start with “FEE DUNIYA WAL AKHEERAH”, then there is a comma then a word “WAYAS-ALUUNAKA” ..to the end of the verse. But if you recite like sheikh Sudais he joins “FEE DUNIYA WAL AKHEERAH” with the previous verse 219. So it is as if the verse 220 starts with “WAYAS-ALUUNAKA”.

Then the next verse 221 starts with “WALAA”.

Then the next verse 222 starts with “WAYAS-ALUUNAKA”.

Then the next one 223 is the cntinuation of 222 and after that the verse 224 starts with “WALAA”.

If you have realised the pattern it is “WAYAS-ALUUNAKA” then “WALAA” then “WAYAS-ALUUNAKA”again. Then “WALAA” again.

This is very helpful for someone who memorised it then forgot. Am sure you know by now that sometimes even when you are reciting from your heart if you forget what verse comes next but you are reminded the first word of it you will remember the whole verse and continue to recite.

Another example is on page 339 soorah Al Hajj (22). I used to mix up (the order of) the ending sentences of all verses from verse 58 to 64.

Verse 58: WAINNALLAAHA — LA huwa khayru raaziqiin.

Verse 59: WAINNALLAAHA — LA aleemun haleem.

Verse 60: INNALLAAHA — LA ‘afuwwun ghafoor.

Verse 61: WAANNALLAAHA — sameeun baseer.

Verse 62: WAANNALLAAHA — huwal ‘aliyyul kabeerr.

Verse 63: INNALLAAHA — LAteefun khabeer.

Verse 64: WAINNALLAAHA — LA huwal ghaniyyul hameed.

Look at the first word which is capitalised in each verse from verse 58 to 62. You realise “WAINNALLAAHA” appear twice, then “INNALLAAHA” once, then “WAANNALLAAHA” twice.

“INNALLAAHA” is sandwiched between double “WAINNALLAAHA” and double “WAANNALLAAHA”.

Then “INNALLAAHA” appear once again in verse 63 just ike the one time it appear before, in verse 60.

And then the pattern restarts (verse 64) with “WAINNALLAAHA”.

Also I believe you have realised wherever there is a word “INNALLAAHA” or a word “WAINNALLAAHA” (which is just addng “wa” at the left of former) a word “LA” comes next. This was also helpful to me because sometimes by mistake I omitted this “LA”.

Oh by the way the best of all hacks are two: understanding the meaning before memorising and repetition after memorisation .We have to repeat it even hundred times.

I learnt the hard way.

Your brother in Islam,

Hussein Hussein.