By Mairo Muhammad Mudi
The first time this topic came up was when my late friend Bilkisu and I paid a condolence visit to the First Lady as well as to thank her for the role she played during my Quranic graduation. After congratulating me, she asked me about my plans towards expanding the boundaries of my Qur’anic studies, and I told her of my intention to memorise the Qur’an but very doubtful of its feasibility considering my numerous daily engagements. She gave an assuring smile and said, ‘you can do it because I have almost memorised 20 chapters now.’ We were astounded by this revelation considering her social standing and tight schedules.
The first lady went ahead to give us some clues on her method of memorisation.
One year later, this week, I saw a post by Dr. Ibraheem Dooba titled, This First Lady has memorized half of the Qur’an!
Dr Ibraheem Dooba went ahead to tell his followers that he is inspired by the First Lady’s story.
“In turn, her story inspired me seeing that she is a medical doctor, and a consultant to boot, who still goes to the public hospital to treat women. To say nothing of her cancer center and the visitors (including politicians) she has to see regularly.
Indeed, I was the first person she saw today, but people were already collecting in her office when I stepped out.
If she could do it, I have to renew my own commitment. No excuses!
~ Ibraheem Dooba
In trying to support Dr. Dooba by corroborating what he said on how her method of memorisation can make it easy for anyone, I had some of Dr Dooba’s followers asking me to share the knowledge with them and in that post I saw so many people getting inspired.
So I quickly contacted the first lady to please tell me more about this method, reminding her this is Da’awah to make the idea appealing to her.
Here is my chat with her on how one can easily memorise the Holy Qur’an.
Your Excellency, please tell us more about your method of memorisation of the Holy Qur’an.
‘I try to memorize at least 3 verses which in most cases will allow you to memorise a page of the Qur’an in a week.
I spend about 30mins to an hour (depending on the length of the Ayat) after Fajr memorising the verses, I then practice them through out the day during all my prayers. By the end of the day I would have memorised the verses. When I don’t, I repeat them the next day before I get another set of 3 new verses.
‘To retain the ones I have already memorised, I make sure I read at least half a Juz of the Qur’an everyday, usually in the evening or before Fajr prayers. This usually takes me 30 to 45mins. I start from the highest Juz I have memorized till I get to Juz Amma and then I start all over again. I also read the memorized Surahs in my voluntary prayers as a way of revising them.’
Doesn’t your schedule of duty clash with this method of memorisation?
‘Sometimes, I get overwhelmed by my schedules that I am unable to memorise new verses. On such days, I revise the previous verses of the Surah.
I have a teacher who guides me. We meet at the weekend for me to read the memorised verses to her where she corrects me and extracts lessons from the verses for me. Whenever we are unable to meet, she calls me either on WhatsApp or regular line and I read the verses to her. Just so that we don’t miss days.
‘The key is to have a routine and stick to it. It takes dedication and discipline but it is also very gratifying, when your hard work pays off and you get to memorise yet another Surah.
‘You also need to pray to Allah to give you the Tawfeeq and the Tasbeet to remain in the journey of the Qur’an.
‘May Allah make the Qur’an the springtime of our hearts, the light of our hearts, the disappearance of our sadness and worries. Ameen.’ She concluded.
