A Productive Ramadhan

One of the most effective ways to get yourself into a productive mindset is to take your productivity day by day. Don’t worry about tomorrow and how productive you’ll be tomorrow, just think of today and what you can do today. It’s all about today.

Many Ramadhans ago, I had always wanted to finish reciting the Qur’an at least once during Ramadan (that’s the whole 30 Juzuk). I had it all sorted out (or so I believed). I had this plan of finishing 1 Juzuk per day and come 30 days later, I should have finished the whole Qur’an. But as most of us had experienced, procrastinations set in, maybe I’d do it later or even tomorrow. Some of the days I did manage to complete the 1 Juzuk goal but there would be days when I couldn’t. In the end, I never did manage to finish it.Shoulda, coulda, didn’ta!

Sweet talking to myself, maybe I’ll get it done in the next Ramadhan. And many Ramadhans came through, and I still could not get it done i.e. finish reciting the whole of the Qur’an during the month of Ramadhan.

A few Ramadhans ago, I took a very different approach, a “doing-my-best-for-the-day” approach. Instead of taking a monthly approach, I took a daily approach. Small baby steps, if you’d like. So each day, I sat down and finish as much recitations of the Qur’an as I could. As if, it was the last day of Ramadhan. And guess what? I did manage to finish it, and then some. Just last year, I actually did manage reciting the Qur’an twice! That surely felt good, a lot better than the many Ramadhans that I could not even complete it, Alhamdulillah!

Doing a daily approach eliminates a lot of the pressure to complete 1 Juzuk a day. In fact, it frees you up to do a lot more, without having any bearings on the monthly outcome. It definitely worked for me!

So, how about yourself? Perhaps you do have a better plan? You are indeed most welcome to share it with us here.

 

Memorizing The Qur’an (Becoming A Huffaz)

A huffaz is someone has memorized the whole Qur’an (30 Juzuk, 114 Surah). Some tried but only a few succeeded. Most of us, at one time or the other, just wish that we are able to become one but we never did make an attempt to it. “Ohh, it will be so difficult” would be one of the excuses, “It must be time-consuming and I just do not have the time” would be another one. Yes, we hear it all the time whenever the subject of becoming a huffaz is being mentioned.

Young boys taking Qur’an lessons from wooden tablets in Mauritania, West Africa. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Did we ever wonder that we could recite the Fatihah so easily, while at the same time doing some other work. It just flows out instinctively without any moment of thought. It has withstood the test of time whereby we do not need to refresh the memory by looking the Qur’an itself. Sure we can quickly memorize a short surah but can we recite it back in a month’s time? Perhaps that’s the key…how could we have done it with Al-Fatihah? Let’s look at this phenomenon and figure out how can we apply it to the whole Qur’an.

Certainly, We have made this (Qur’an) easy in your tongue, in order that they may remember. 
(Ad-Dukhan, Chapter #44, Verse #58)

And We have indeed made the Qur’an easy to understand and remember; then is there any one who will remember (or receive admonition)? 
(Al-Qamar, Chapter #54, Verse #17)

We have been taught Al-Fatihah since we were kids, repeating them a minimum of 17 times daily, which amounts to more than 450 times in a month!. Is that the key? Repetitions? Kids in Mauritania (north-west of Africa) have been known to repeat 1000 times daily during their memorization of the Qur’an and/or Hadith. Before that, let’s establish some useful numbers. Looking at a typically normal Qur’an, it is divided into 30 Juzuk and each Juzuk is covered in 20 pages. And each page contains 15 rows of ayats.

• Let’s start small, say we hope to memorize 3 rows of the Qur’an daily. On the 1st day, recite the 3 rows 300 times.(for ease of reference, we will label this “A”)

• On the 2nd day, get to the next 3 rows and recite them 300 times as well (we will label this “B”). Once completed, recite “A” 150 times.

• On the 3rd day, get to the next 3 rows and recite them 300 times as well (we will label this “C”). Once completed, recite “B” 150 times and recite “A” 75 times.

• On the 4th day, get to the next 3 rows and recite them 300 times as well (we will label this “D”). Once completed, recite “C” 150 times and recite “B” 75 times and recite “A” 35 times.

• On the 5th day, get to the next 3 rows and recite them 300 times as well (we will label this “E”). Once completed, recite “D” 150 times and recite “C” 75 times and recite “B” 35 times and recite “A” 15 times .

• On the 6th and 7th day (will be Saturday and Sunday if you started on Monday), you will need to reconcile the whole page (yes, it’s a whole page of 15 rows) by repeating each page 100 times daily.

By now, you would have realized that most of it comes almost naturally, albeit a few glitches here and there. Surprised? Feels good?

Effectively, you will be reciting each set of 3-rows for 300 + 150 + 75 + 35 + 15 + 100 + 100 = 775 times!!!

And repeat the following weeks accordingly. You will soon get the hang of it and the process becomes easier as the weeks passed by. You will be tempted to increase the number of rows daily…just DON’T. Get a few Juzuk under your belt and progress in small steps. Once you have completed a Juzuk (in 20 weeks), take the following week by just reciting the Juzuk daily.

Again, let’s re-visit the numbers. The Qur’an contains 30 Juzuk and each Juzuk contains 20 pages. That brings us a total of 600 pages for the whole Qur’an. By sticking to the above program, you will become a Huffaz in 11 years. What? No worries, as you make those small progressions, you will accomplish it in 3-5 years, insyaallah.

Note: Get a standard copy of the Qur’an (mushhaf) and use it throughout your journey. It will breed familiarity.

Work hard, istiqomah (consistency) and make du’a. Allah shall make it easy for us to remember!!!