Hifz ul Quran A to Z

Difficulties in Hifz ul Quran and their solutions

I am writing this article for those parents who are interested either in hifz ul Quran of their child or worried about many issues during their child's hifz program. So I thought I should bring my experiences in writing for all  concerned parents and students. All experiences which I am going to share are not just theory, it’s all practical and based on practical experiences. General Things to remember for teacher and parents regarding kids hifz program:

Hifz ul Quran is a journey consists of three eras.

1. Pre- Hifz

2. During Hifz

3. Post Hifz

In Pre-hifz times you have to make yourself model. Modeling is foremost technique to inculcate values in kids. Give Quran value if you want your child to value Quran. So prioritize Quran at home. Link yourself with Quran at all levels whether it is reading, memorizing, understanding and even practicing. And if you reach to the level of teaching then you will get best results.

Remind your child from childhood time to time that this is my wish to see my child as a hafiz and a person connected with Quran. This thing impresses a strong psychological impact on his personality and let him ready himself for hifz ul Quran.

few technical things during Hifz Program. In hifz ul Quran we use different techniques and methods to save complete or partial Quran in our memory. It doesn’t deal with intellectual quotient of a child. It deals with the practice and time. The more you practice and follow the commands of your teacher the more perfect hafiz you will be. That’s why we observe usually an obedient child does good hifz than sharp and brilliant. Because intelligent kids mostly use their mind in making more excuses while little dull students spend more effort in saving Quran in their memory by obeying their teacher. So remember if you want your child to be hafiz and you want him to connect with Quran by heart and soul first of all you need to do few things.

1. Everyone at home including mother and father should spend most of their time with Quran. And specially start the journey of hifz. Whether your speed slow or fast it doesn’t matter but your child should understand that it is not only me who is doing this blessed activity. And because it is a blessed activity that’s why my parents also doing this. Although their speed is slow because of busy life and responsibilities but they are doing their best efforts.

2. Listen his lesson regularly preferably daily. If one parent is busy you can do it interchangeably with mother and father at your convenience. Listen with regularity whatever time suits you even you listen one quarter para, no issue. This will make your good relationship with your child and it will help you to keep track on his performance.

3. Once a month show him a person who is practical hafiz and still attached with Quran even because of busy routine.

4. You must have saved the audio recitations of those paras which your child has memorized. Keep it handy; in car or flash drive or phone or mp3 player. Play it before bed, in car or whenever possible.

5. Give him experience of leading Salah’s especially loud Salah’s like maghrib, isha etc. Good time is when there are family gatherings etc. Observe his recitation and confidence. Guide him in solitude so that he can reflect upon his skills and try to improve it. This activity helps your child understanding his responsibility in society as a hafiz and make him more confident hafiz.

6. Ramadan is a gift for huffaaz. Never let your child miss it. Make a plan before a month with your child and take him in confidence and motivate him. Moreover, talk to his Quran teacher to prepare him for taraweeh. Whatever he has memorized even if it is one para. Ask him to lead taraweeh. Gather people at home or at mosque and ask him to lead even in nawafil.

7. Don’t use reward therapy. Like completing paras gifts and completing Quran gifts. Give your child unannounced and surprise gifts instead. Reward therapy will not help your child connect with Quran intellectually.

Before starting the hifz-ul-Quran of their child parents must know the details of lessons of hifz in their mind clearly. They should know their names, and specially the details of different types of lesson. How to prepare each type of lesson? How much time is usually required to prepare that kind of lesson? and how much time is required to recite that lesson to teacher? and which lesson should be required to recite daily or which lesson can be skipped in difficult circumstances?

So following is the detail of the lesson need to be prepared for memorizing Quran.

Types of lessons in Hifz ul Quran 

There are three types of lesson a student covers during his hifz class.

1. A new lesson that is some time called SABAQ

2. Recently memorized new lessons called SABAQEE

3. Previous Memorized Paras mostly called MANZIL

Now brief and important information about these three types of lesson

1. SABAQ:

Sabaq is new lesson which student prepare to cover his/her hifzul Quran journey. An average student memorizes 1 page side of Quran (usually 15-16 lines) in 60-80min. Usually the best time for preparing this lesson is between maghrib and isha. Student should revise the lesson before going to bed. Although it is weak but this practice will help him to recite strong new lesson to his teacher next morning or next day.

Student can also prepare new lesson according to his convenience and routine.

Memorization and preparation of new lesson is an easy technique. Student divide his lesson of one page into smaller chinks of 4-5 lines each. Each chunk has to be prepared in 15-20 min. student will start from line one and make a group of 2-3 words. Read each group 5 times from page and one time without looking. Then next group and join with previous and keep on moving till the end of first chink of lines. When prepared read it once by closing Quran and then move to next chunk. And that’s it.

As I told earlier an average student memorizes one-page side in 60-80 min. you can easily measure the time taken by your child by sitting with him and assigning him a page and smaller chunks one by one. So in one sitting you will be able to understand the capacity of your child.

This is how you can analyse how much time your child should spend on new lesson according to his routine. Whether he should go one page daily or half or even two pages, it is up to your child’s efforts and available time.

2. SABAQEE

SABAQEE are recently memorized lesson. It should not less than a para. A student can take off from new lesson but he cannot leave revision of SABAQEE. Never let your child take it for granted. Mostly when students are eager to cover their paras in time then they don’t miss their new lessons but they start skipping sabaqee para revision. This thing is too much dangerous. Parents thinks that Masha Allah their child is memorizing one page daily he is going well but on the other hand they are unaware about this dangerous issue arising. Always tell your child that you can miss your sabaq no issue but you can never miss your sabaqee. And sometimes it happens due to teacher’s fault. Some teachers got targets from schools. In order to meet their target, they ask students to memorize more lesson and leave sabaqee for few days. They show their performance to parents that your child is going very well Masha Allah he is completing paras in 10-12 days. And they show their performance to school / madrassah that kids are going fast but nobody knows what’s going on the other dark side. the result will only be suffered by student at the end and mostly kids forget those paras so quickly. So it’s my humble request to teachers, don’t play with kid’s future. And it’s my request to parents that be aware of this issue.

Preparation of Sabaqee usually take an hour. Recently memorized new lessons take your 15-20 min. read them once from Quran and one time without looking. And rest of the part of SABAQEE you can read one day from Quran and one day by heart before reciting to your teacher.

3. MANZIL

These are the previously memorized portion of those paras which have been revised through sabaqee lessons after at least 20-25 revisions.

The more manzil your revise the more confident hafiz you will be. Here is tentative schedule of revision of MANZIL

If you have memorized less than 5 paras, then your manzil should be at least 1 para daily.

If you have memorized 10 paras, then your manzil should be at least 1.5 para daily.

If you have memorized 15 paras, then your manzil should be at least 2 paras daily.

If you have memorized 20 paras, then your manzil should be at least 2.5 para daily.

If you have memorized 25 paras, then your manzil should be at least 3 paras daily.

If your child is not able to prepare this much manzil then it means, there is something wrong. Ask his teacher why he is not able to revise. Stop his lesson. Make his revision plan even if it takes a month no issue, start new lesson after that.

You should keep check on your child’s manzil daily or plan at least 3-4 days/ week according to your convenience. In case he recites three para manzil to his teacher. Ask him to recite one para to me and rest of two paras to your teacher. And if your child’s manzil is one para ask him to recite first quarter of para to me and rest to your teacher.

Post Hifz Program is more important than “during hifz program”. There is a misconception among parents that if their child has finished the memorization of last para they think that now he is hafiz and ready to enter in other school studies. No he is absolutely not ready to direct to other studies. At this stage hafiz is premature. He needs guidance and consistent approach. Parents should hire a separate teacher of even if the same madrassah gives the services of making hifz strong. Prepare your mind that your child has to do another hifz. It will be crash program that can vary from 6 months to 1 year depending upon the situation of students. Parents should ask the student and his teacher and divide his all paras in three categories. Strongest paras, weak paras and weakest paras. Put strongest paras in the category of manzil. And start new lesson (SABAQ) of student from weak paras. This time student will take new lesson approximately 2-4 pages daily. In the same way his SABAQEE will move. After completing weak paras student will move to weakest paras and take new lesson according to his routine and time availability. So it takes student few months to re-memorize Quran and this time he will get a future plan how to recover his weak paras whenever it will happen again. It is my recommendation that don’t stop personal tuition until the completion of Quran and specially till the Ramadan, where your child has to lead taraveeh.

Due to lack of time I might not be able to share many other experiences and issues. If you are struggling in any difficult situation regarding yours or your child’s hifz program, I would be happy to help you. You can write an email to me.


Muhammad Mamoon Asghar

Parents counselor, trainer and COO IIQL

mamoon@iiql.co.uk
+9230095690080