Your posts have really inspired me, and also given me some home. As someone who is a girl and memorised the Quran, I feel like I can relate to you

I recently started memorising the Quran full time, hoping to come closer to Allah and His book

However, ever since I’ve started, I feel like its been the opposite. I feel like I’m distancing myself from Allah. Maybe its because i’m finding it difficult to keep a balance, as I felt it was a big change from being a full time student. Maybe its also because I haven’t been learning the explanation of what i’m memorising. I want to also study the meaning, but I find it difficult to find time

Along with that, I also feel alone in this journey, and this leads me to question, is this what Allah wants me to do?

My iman has changed from before I started. Before, you could say I could taste the sweetness of iman and loved to read Quran. But since I started memorising, my iman has greatly deteriorated.

If you could offer any sort of advice, it would be very much appreciated

Should one focus on tajweed, tafseer, hifz or arabic language learning?

I am a 3rd year student (final semester and then insha’Allah I can dedicate more time – but I’m afraid if I can’t make time now, I’ll always just make excuses)…

and I find when I am in class, I am so motivated. (Islamic class or uni class)
But at home, by myself, I find it very difficult to recite quran, to learn arabic, to study tajweed, tafseer etc.

I think to do hifz, one needs to have excellent tajweed so one does not have to relearn everything, right?

At this point, I’m only wishing to memorise Juzz Amma, woith correct tajweed. My primary passion with Qur’an is to be able to hear it and understand it as it was revealed back in the day. Some peoples’ primary passion is to recite like Qari Abdul Basit, others, to have done hifz, mine is to understand Quran when I hear it, so that my salah is really good and so that when I hear it recited, it changes my heart.

So I feel like I should put hifz to one side except for the shorter surahs, and focus on tajweed and studying Arabic so I can fulfill these goals for now.

What do you think?

I don’t have any good tajweed teachers in my area and can’t travel unfortunately (female, and parents wouldn#t allow me)

Should one focus on hifz? Or language studies? Or tafseer of Quran? Or tajweed?

Please help! I feel like I’m just wasting time time thinking, I’ll do this, I’ll do that. I feel I’m just wasting time debating which field of Quranic study to put more focus on, that I’m not doing any of them! I’m afraid a couple of years will pass and in my confusion as to what to put my focus on, I’ll not have made any progress at all.

(I’m currently attempting to use Shariah programme and the bayyinah TV for arabic studies, and the bayyinah institute podcasts for tafseer studies)

I find the English translation of Quran to be really dry – so maybe I’ll try to find an audio of the English instead insha’Allah

PS – I’m recently married too. I make lots of dua to have understanding of Quran but I fear that since I’m married and will no doubt have a busy married life ahead, I won’t have time for these things. That’s why I want to start now, ASAP.

Walaykum assalaam warahmatullahi wabarakatuhu, JazaakAllahu khairan…your comment has provided some really useful insights maasha’Allah

Jazakallah for sharing with us your valuable advice with regards to Qur’an Sr. Maryam. May Allah grant you the highest place in jannah.

I was very vague in my original point trying to be sensitive to a beginner’s audience.

In regards to just Maqaridge and implementation of tajweed correctly, my sheikh would say, “If you even listen to a reciter, listen to Sheikh Hosari”. This may seem extreme to others and not everyone can become teachers of Maqaridge itself, but this is the path I chose after imitating the famous Qurra’. Not everyone has access to a maqaridge al-huruf sheikh or sheikha, and as you said practicing your voice and quranic recitation is a step. The next step is to develop one’s own recitation; based solely on the sunnah (upon sanad of Maqaridge and tajweed). This is indeed a high level and is not for everyone I guess. But if it weren’t for such people, where would proper implementation of Tajweed exist today. What about the 52-58 ways that exist in just the Hafs ‘An Al-Imam Aasim riwayah? What about the Tariqa of Tayyibah, tariqah of Shatibiyyah and the rarely known At-Tayseer?

Copying styles of a Qurra’ is different from imitating them, and to do so, one needs to proceed with caution. The more we educate ourselves of just how to recite Quran, we learn that there is a lot more.
So, sure this Sheikh in Makkah may be reciting very appealingly … but why did he not want to continue but was convinced to do so a little?

The one we should try to recite Quran like is the Prophet(s) and our own style and voice will come inshallah and won’t lead us to over beatify our recitation into a song like melody.

May people nowadays focus on what is referred to as “Maqamaat” citing that such and such qari did it. Those such and such Qurra’ never called it maqamat saba’ or what have you. They tried their best to stay close to what they were taught by their shiyookh who had a direct sanad to the prophet(s), and they defined their limits down to the minute technicality in sound why becoming pioneers in what others that came later called Maqamaat fil-Quran.
In Egypt as you may know, scholars of recitation have sessions of “gheebah” regarding what is within the confines of sunnah and what is not to make a clear differentiation. In these sessions of “gheebah”, the scholars identify what some qurra’ recite wrongly, and again, they only do this to differentiate the right way.
Finally, this may be only an opinion and there are other opinions.

Anything I said well is from Allah and anything that I have proclaimed falsely is from my mistake.
Thoughts?