Memorising The Quran In A Month With Hifz Camps

In Palestine, they memorise the Qur’ān in record timeframes. 10 days, 20 days, 30 days, or even 60, or 90 days. From young people to older people. It’s an incredibly intense process and one that has been continually successful.

In fact, the 'syllabus' used in Palestine is also used in Syria, Jordon, Lebanon, Turkey and now it's also being seen in the UK.

What does the Palestinian Qur'ān memorisation process involve?

In Palestine half of the population are children and young people (May Allāh protect them and grant them healing) and so they've placed a lot of emphasis upon attaching them to the Qur'ān. One such attempt is during the summer holidays.

They get youth usually between the ages of 8 and 25 to memorise the entire Qur'ān in the summer holidays (12 weeks or 3 months). It is a rigorous system of a 6 to 8 hour regimen of memorisation. This process has led to countless thousands of youth memorising the Qur’ān. Many of these take place in Gaza.

Intensive Qur’ān memorisation inspired by Palestinian methods

The day begins at Fajr, some memorise 5-10 pages a day, others up to 50 pages for the day. I have previously shared the journeys of those that memorised in the same or similar camps.

It’s intensive, learning 5 pages of the Qur’ān per day, leads to completing the Qur’ān in 6 months. However, when in the initial stages of learning it might take 5 pages per day but this soon develops into 7 pages a day. Initially, after a month, you slowly build up to 3 days per day, and then 5. If you manage 3-4, you can complete the Qur'ān within a year. If you do 5, then you can do it in half the year.

My thoughts on the Qur'an memorisation intensive

At most, I used to do 3 pages but that was after several years of struggle. You can read about that in my book. It's not easy. From my experiences and knowledge of others, there's a general principle that remains true:

"Whatever is memorised quickly, leaves quickly"

Most people that I have seen memorise quickly, wherever they might be from - Arab or non-Arab, they still have a lot of work to do. They're weak in the memorisation. One of the reasons for this is that the entire program is focused on memorisation. There's hardly any revision.

Didn't our beloved Prophet (ﷺ) say the following:

عَنْ عَبْدِ اللَّهِ بْنِ عُمَرَ أَنَّ رَسُولَ اللَّهِ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ قَالَ إِنَّمَا مَثَلُ صَاحِبِ الْقُرْآنِ كَمَثَلِ الْإِبِلِ الْمُعَقَّلَةِ إِنْ عَاهَدَ عَلَيْهَا أَمْسَكَهَا وَإِنْ أَطْلَقَهَا ذَهَبَتْ
'Abdullāh ibn 'Umar reported: The Messenger of Allāh, peace and blessings be upon him, said, “Verily, the example of the companion of the Qur'ān is that of a tied camel. If he is committed to it, he will keep it. If he releases it, he will lose it.”

Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 5031, Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 789

تَعَاهَدُوا الْقُرْآنَ فَوَالَّذِي نَفْسِي بِيَدِهِ لَهُوَ أَشَدُّ تَفَصِّيًا مِنْ الْإِبِلِ فِي عُقُلِهَا
Abu Musa reported: "Keep on reciting the Qur’ān (be committed). By the One in whose hand is my soul, tit can leave you (memory) faster than camels escaping their tying ropes."

Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 5033, Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 791

It is for this reason that I do not recommend intensives as a whole unless there's a good plan in place to ensure that you can have multiple rounds of memorisation and then solid revision alongside it. Intensives can be used to take inspiration from and can be used smartly. It’s possible to take out time in clusters to focus on Hifdh and make some progress. Like the story of a brother who memorised the Qur'ān in 9 years by doing summer intensives every year. He memorised as much as he could in those few months and then for the rest of the year he would solidify them. That's more sensible.

What is the system in the UK for Quran memorisation intensives?

The way I have seen this work in the UK (The Hifz) based in Rochdale, Greater Manchester is that classes will take place for 2.5 hours in the morning (6am to 8.30am) and then 1.5 hours in the evening (6.30pm to 8pm). A total of 4 hours - a figure my teachers used to tell me about when I was doing Hifz. It's not too different to what you may expect from a madrasah expect for the bit where they say you take one of two routes: complete Qur'ān in 6 months or in 12 months.

Who does Qur'ān intensives or Hifz camps in the UK / Europe / USA?

This is a question I have had many times and is something that I hope to perhaps implement myself one day. I'm not aware of many at all. Recently Turkey have Hifz Camps for 40 days taking the same concept from Palestine over there. It's basically full-time intensive, you'd expect to finish or at least the majority of it within the timeframe.

Learning more about the system and what it involves

I would personally love to learn more about these intensives from those that have been through them. If you know someone or have experienced an intensive, please do get in touch.

Allāh grant blessing.

May Allāh protect our sisters and brothers of Palestine and grant them freedom!