How I memorize Surah Al-Mulk in 30 days

Alhamdulillah, I am now able to recite surah Al-Mulk without looking at the mushaf and to be able to memorize surah Al-Mulk is definitely a blessing from Allah.

This is achieved by Allah's help and after I made an intention to memorize any surah from Al-Qur'an, not a long one though and enough to test the ability of my memorization for my own observation.

How this came about?

One day in mid January this year, I was watching a video from Sheikh Fahad Al-Kandari; a series of episodes entitled Guided through the Qur'an (with English subtitles) about the stories of non-Muslims becoming reverts.

Naturally,
I became so much invested and hurriedly browsed through other videos from his channel and....

another series prior to Guided through the Qur'an which is Travel with the Qur'an appeared. Subhanallah, the first episode just struck my inner cord. What have I done with my life so far?! Astaghfirullah. There was so much to learn from the hafizs and hafizahs.

Honestly, I didn't know who Sheikh Fahad Al-Kandari was initially and after some researching I came to know that he is a hafiz and an Imam for the Grand Mosque from Kuwait and seriously he does very lovely recitation. Check it out in Youtube!

So, I decided to download all the series of Travel with the Qur'an and watch it one episode per day. This is because, I really really want to watch all of them in one whole day but of course we do have primary obligation to fulfill for eg. obligation towards Allah first and in my case, secondly towards my husband. Yours would be different and naturally everyone has their own set of obligations.

Anyway, when you find the need to rush...it is normally Syaitan's doing! He will incite the unduly need for speed and make you forget everything that you have learned and especially forget your intention of why you memorize the surah in the first place. Nauzubillah.

Well, to start with...after watching a few episodes of Travel with the Qur'an, I decided to memorize surah Al-Mulk. This is because I have been reading the surah every night before I sleep. Bi iznillah. Hence, I feel that it would be awesome if I could recite this without the need to hold the mushaf.

According to Sheikh Fahad Al-Kandari's advices and tips....

First, I need to purify my intention and make a supplication everytime before I start my memorization so that Allah will ease, strenghen me physically and mentally and bestow me success.

Why do I want to memorize?
To be near Allah and seek His pleasure at all times.

Secondly, to choose the right mushaf for recitation.
I do have a few mushafs at home but I do not have a small one which is easy on my eyes (the Arabic letters size) and with translation. Hence, I am sticking to the Al-Qur'an application from my smartphone as it is easy to travel with.

Thirdly, I chose my favorite exemplary reciter. For me, I love Sheikh Abdul-Rahman Al-Sudais. This is because after my father returned from Hajj back in 2011, he asked me to find the MP3 for Sheikh Sudais's recitation of Al-Qur'an as he cried a lot in Mecca when the Sheikh led the prayer in Masjidil Haram, he grew fond of listening to his recitation but he did not know the Sheikh's name.

The only clue was that, he heard the Sheikh's recitation before whenever I open it in my laptop. Subhanallah, I already had them way way back then but I did not know the reciter too. Alhamdulillah and from then on, Sheikh Sudais has become one of my favorite reciters along with others like Sheikh Mishary Rashid Alafasy.

However, for this particular first journey of my memorization, I will stick to Sheikh Sudais's.

From his recitation, I will mark the tajweed location and where should I elongate and what not. I even mimic his recitation to ease my memorization.

Fourthly, I stick to Sheikh Fahad's advice to memorize two verses ONLY after every prayer. Yes, it seems very little initially, because.....he knows that the first step was REALLY HARD!

Mark my word.. REALLY HARD to maintain your consistency in memorization and you will know why later.

My first attempt...I felt all sorts of feelings jumbling inside me. Like for example..why do I need to succumb myself with difficult stuff like this? Oh, dear...why don't you just give up! All of them, are the little voices inside my head. Well...again, tada...our enemy. Syaitan.

So...I hold dear to Sheikh Fahad's advices. DO NOT QUIT!

At one time, I can't even move on from one single verse the whole day!

Hence, I was curious why? why? why I cannot move on? Sheikh google's listed out other hafiz's and hafizah's experiences for me.

So, I came to one site. The hafiz's tip is to avoid sin. Hmmm...one major hurdle to avoid. We do sin every single day. Then, I check my whole day's activities what have I done wrong. Did I hurt my husband's feelings unintentionally? Did I procrastinate in Fardh tasks towards Allah? Did I use my time for useless stuff like checking out the latest gossips of artists or did I backbite (mengumpat - women's favorite part time work) anyone recently?

Then it struck me! This is one of the miracles of Al-Qur'an. When you try to have it in your heart, it wants a clean place (my heart) and not a dirty place. Automatically, this made me realize now that whenever I want to do something, I should be aware that all my action should not be done spontaneously but with a conscious heart.

Subhanallah, this is how Allah wants to teach me and He shows it through the failure of my memorization.

From then on, the memorization becomes easier. At one point I could memorize 4 verses in 10 minutes. Alhamdulillah! It was a miracle as I always doubt myself because of my age and many said that it is better to memorize from a young age. HOWEVER, my Creator knows me best! Allahu Akbar.

Fifth, I make sure that I understood the translation of the verse before I start memorizing it. I refer to a few mushafs for the translation, one is the English version, two from the Malay version (Al Qur'an per kata and a normal one) and the third Ibnu Kathir's Tafsir. You should totally check out the virtues of reciting Surah Al-Mulk's listed in Ibnu Kathir's Tafsir.

Sixth, I check the Arabic grammar of the verses according to what I have learned in Madinah Arabic classes by Brother Asif. Subhanallah, this has improved my understanding of the verses better as I can understand why the words are like this and like that grammatically. This reduces my errors during memorization greatly. Alhamdulillah.

Then, I continued this routine for 30 days:

1-After fajar prayer, 30 minutes memorization.
2-Watch Travel with Al-Qur'an one episode.
3-Whole day, repeat the MP3 of the surah while I'm doing my tasks. If I am outside with my husband, I will recite the verses to him while waiting for the train, in the train and basically, rather than idle talk we will do the memorization together.
4-At night, I will ask my husband to listen to my recitation.

Finally, after having completed the memorization, I read the surah during prayer and this is the biggest challenge so far as I do not want to have incorrect recitation when performing the prayer.

Alhamdulillah and May Allah help me to be steadfast in this journey, to keep Surah Al-Mulk in my memory and my heart until the day I die. Amin.

My next goal for March - Surah As-Sajdah, also 30-verse surah. Bi iznillah.