Ibrahim’s Qur’an Memorisation Journey: A Gentle, Child-Led Approach
Make the Quran a familiar sound
Whilst my wife was pregnant with Ibrahim she made sure to regularly read Quran. Babies in the womb can actually hear so why not get them used to the sound of the Quran from the get go. As soon as he was born we again made sure for him to be surrounded by the sound of the Quran. Initially this was mainly the 3 Quls and Ayatul Kursi before his bed time.
My wife noticed that maybe around 1.5 years old that Ibrahim was really good at retaining information and words and so she started to write out Surat Al-Ikhlaas on a board for memorisation throughout the week. We would make sure to put the 3 Quls on repeat after reading it to him during his sleep. This was like his white-sound for sleep. We liked Khalil Al-Hussary and his image would appear as the music player album picture. Upon seeing the picture Ibrahim thought that this famous reciter was his grandad who just like Al-Hussary, is Egyptian, had a pair of glasses and somewhat of a grey beard. In a happy voice he would always say “Giddo got glasses” (Giddo is grandad in Arabic).
Officially starting his hifdh journey
On the 15th of June of 2022 I created an entry on my Google Sheet with a tab named “Ibrahim Quran Log”. It marked the start of his journey of the Quran. At that time he was almost 2.5 years old. On the 28th of January 2024 just before turning 4 years old, Ibrahim recited Surat Al-Naba from memory. By Allah’s grace, this marked the completion of Juz Amma. I’ll take you through what I did and hopefully it will also help you in your child’s memorisation of the Quran.
- Early Reading skills
My wife and I saw great potential in him starting the Quran especially because at about age 2.5 he was already comfortably reading the biff, chip and kipper series at level 4 (this level has a typical target age of about 5 years old). His cognitive abilities were very well developed and he was already speaking very well for his age. I believe these early developments can greatly contribute to aid a child’s hifdh journey. You can read more about his early reading journey and what can do in this previous post.
- Let them get used to hearing the Quran.
I already discussed this in the beginning of this post but make sure you as the parent recite the Quran to them before they sleep and also play it in the background as their white sound for sleep or even just in car journeys. If they hear something all the time then the sounds become familiar to them.
- Learning how to read Quran is not a pre-requisite
Allah revealed the Quran to our Prophet (SAW) in a society in which reading and writing wasn’t the norm. Rather it was an oral society in which people relied on their extraordinary ability to memorise lengthy speech, poetry, tribal genealogy, history and later the Quran. Pretend you live in that period and purely focus on just memorisation first by listening then by verbal repetition and also the visual aid by looking at the Quran (yes I know this 3rd point about visual aid may may not make sense because I just said to not teach them how to read Arabic, I will touch upon this contradiction more later on). Teaching them how to read the Quran is of course important but I feel it isn’t necessary at all in the beginning – especially if they are only 2 or 3 years old because it introduces a dependency on knowing how to read Arabic and its associated rules rather than starting the memorisation process as fast as possible. I only started to formally teach Ibrahim how to read the Quran after he memorised Juz Amma at around 5+.
- Habit creation: start with baby steps, be flexible and set realistic expectations
When you think your child is ready for memorisation, start with small baby steps. Firstly set the right intention and mindset. We want our children to love the Quran and have a good association with it. So be wary about how we teach the Quran and to never be harsh to them. Set some very realistic but also low expectations. In the beginning there might be some resistance in getting them used to regularly revising or learning new portions of the Quran. That is perfectly normal. Over time the child will slowly but surely start to accept that this thing we do with the Quran is just part of our regular routine just like brushing teeth before bed, washing hands before meals, reading a bedtime story, attending their swimming class or doing their daily maths homework. We want to focus on habit building by gradually introducing this new activity of the Quran and to adjust the intensity over periods of time i.e. you start with perhaps just a few minutes a day but over the period of weeks and months that might slowly turn into a solid focus session of 15 minutes or more. Also consider the different ways of teaching – it doesn’t always need to be a formal sit-down on a desk with a mushaf, it could be that you just put the first ayah of for example Surat Al – Ikhlaas on repeat in your house throughout the day. Don’t underestimate any baby, toddler or child’s ability to passively learn just through listening. I will give more detailed examples on how to approach teaching the Quran to your child.
- How to teach the Quran
A) Setup Environment: create the right conditions. Gauge when they are most focused in the day, maybe first thing in morning, maybe after their afternoon nap. Try to pick the right time for them and make sure to set up things in a way that will not distract them (i.e. tv, devices, any toys or other things within reach they can fiddle with). Using a visual timer can be useful because small children struggle to quantify time. At least this way they can keep track and know when they might be done.
B) Reciter selection: ensure you pick a reciter that is clear and slow in speech/ pronunciation like Al-Hussary and Mohammed Ayoub. Don’t go with someone like Sudais.
C) Pick your teaching tools/resources of choice:
- Chalk/White Board. This one from Ikea is quite good given you have both a white board and a chalk side.
- Mushaf with Quran Pen reader. I got this product which was specifically designed for children.
- Quran App – can be any native mobile app or web app of your choice. I used https://quranwbw.com and also use this app for my android phone
- LCD writing tablet – You can search for this online and you will see various budget friendly options.
D) Start the memorisation process:
Once you have decided on your teaching tool for the day, approach the new portion they will be learning like this. So for example if they are starting on the first ayah of Al-Ikhlaas it only contains 3 words. First recite or play the audio of the ayah a few times so the child can get familiar with it. Point to each individual word and let them repeat after you. Then you can chain each word which would look something like this:
- Repeat 1st word of ayah 3x
- Repeat 2nd word of ayah 3x
- Repeat 1st + 2nd word ayah 3x
- Repeat 3rd word of ayah 3x
- Repeat 1st + 2nd + 3rd word of ayah 3x
How I like to do with the Quran app is as follows:
- The child can press each word of the ayah to hear it and then they can repeat after it.
- Select an ayah range to repeat and in the settings have a pause in between that is equivalent to the length of the ayah. This is great when the child is memorising a few ayaat so they can try each ayah after it has been recited so it becomes ingrained on their tongue.
Let me go back to bullet point 3 in which I state that learning how to read Arabic isn’t a pre-requisite. You will notice that I did mention for the child to engage with each word as they are memorising, I feel that it serves as a good reference point so over time they will know how to “fake read” the Quran which was the case with Ibrahim. He simply acquired sight words over weeks and months so when he sees the word QUL he already associates this with the sound of QUL.
Make sure you don’t rush memorisation, you are not in a race. It took Ibrahim a little of 1 year and 7 months. Yes, maybe he could have done it in a little less time but that isn’t important. Keep it at a pace that is maintainable. Small and consistent wins the race.
Be creative and come up with ways to gamify things so the child stays engaged. In my personal experience I didn’t really do much in this area. It might be worth to google “how to gamify quran memorisation with a toddler” for some good ideas.
Ensure you praise and reward them in an appropriate way – some sort of star chart or a small treat. When your child does achieve this milestone of Juzz Amma celebrate it! When Ibrahim completed Juzz Amma we threw him a big party in a sports hall I hired with all sorts of bouncy castles he wanted.
As a minimum do this 4 days a week (perhaps alternating days) ideally do it every single day of the week as much as you can.
You will notice that when they are really small their letter pronunciation may not be as clear but as their speech develops the pronunciation of the letters will automatically become better. So don’t worry too much as long as in the long term the way the letters are pronounced has improved. Make sure to ingrain the correct pronunciation of letters that are commonly mispronounced like Ayn, 7aa and Haa, Seen and Saad etc…
E) The revision process
Always make sure you do revision. Even if memorisation is slow, never forget revision. If you don’t put emphasis on this you will undo all of the child’s hard work. You always want to at least maintain and not regress. The last thing you want to do is to memorise new stuff but at the same time forget the old stuff. Over time me and my son would actually do the majority of his revision in the car during journeys. He got so used to doing it that sometimes he tells me doesn’t feel like doing it when we are at home and that he prefers to do it later in the day in the car when we need to go somewhere. He is now actually the one who always initiates by asking me during my drive “baba what surah shall I do then?”.
If for some reason they are unable to read their revision portion then put that portion on repeat throughout the day in the car, house, and whilst they fall asleep.
Life will happen, you go away to see family for a few days or you go abroad on holiday for 2 weeks. Be creative in how you squeeze in the revision.
After my 3rd child was born life got a bit chaotic and through my mismanagement of time I was slacking with Ibrahim’s regular revision and his Juzz Amma became very rusty. We had to do a big make-over for a few months but eventually we got it all patched up again. This can easily happen to you too. Don’t beat yourself up too much about it like I did but then again it sometimes it’s a good thing because you are holding yourself to account. Just remember that if they did it before then they can definitely do it again.
Conclusion
Lots of opinions in this post but take it all with a grain of salt. Experiment with different things and refine your approach to see what works for your child. After all, each child is unique and they have different learning styles and personalities. His younger 2 siblings are also going to start their memorisation of Juzz Amma so it will be interesting to see how I have to approach each of their learning. Hopefully I can share my experience about the other too in a future post.
If you want to know more, follow along and we will be sharing his journey as time progresses insha Allah.
Salaam
Kariem