Qur'an Reflections Video

Do You Really Want to Memorize the Qur’an?

The Qur’an Series: Part I | Part II | Part III Part IV | Part V | Part VI Part VII | Part VIII | Part IX

Many of us make excuses for why we cannot memorize the Qur’an. Some of us are too busy. Some of us simply feel it’s too insurmountable a task. However, we make these excuses while having many blessings, countless of which others pray to have.

Mu’ath, the young boy in this video, has memorized the entire Qur’an. What’s so unique about Mu’ath? He’s blind.

The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ (peace be upon him) taught us that there are only two people we should be jealous of, one of whom is, “…A person whom God has taught the Qur’an and he recites it in the day and night, and one of his neighbors hears him and says, “Woe to me! I wish I had been given what he has been given, then I would do what he is doing…” (Bukhari).

I used to be of the people who sat back and complained, those who were jealous of others who had memorized the Qur’an, those who but didn’t seriously apply themselves to learning it. I would watch videos like this and think, “Man. This kid has been blessed by God. I have it all—health, technology, time…” and instead of working, I’d sit back, think about how jealous I was, how much I wished I could be like them, and then continue wasting time with unproductive habits. But finally, I made a commitment and Allah (swt) helped me accomplish one small step in that continuous goal.

We do not have to watch this young boy, who memorized the Qur’an while blind, and simply say, “Wow. Ma sha’ Allah (what God wills). He’s blessed.” WE can be of those who follow in his footsteps. WE can be of those who are blessed, if Allah grants that to us—if we show Him we want it.

Do we want to be of the Companions of the Qur’an? Do we really? If we do, what are we going to do to become one of them?


Translation of the video [Please note: this video was translated in general to reflect the meanings of the interview through the translators’ understanding of the conversation]

Shaykh Fahad: When you would go to the Shaykh, and you had something to review with the Shaykh—a juz [1/30th of the Qur’an], for example—and you made a mistake—I mean, this long way you would go, this travel you’d make to go…

Hafidh Mu’ath [the young boy]: Yes, yes.

Shaykh Fahad: [Explaining to the audience] Shaykh Muath travels to the Shaykh—he is the one who goes to him. The Shaykh is not right next to his house to come to him.

Hafidh Mu’ath: Yes, yes.

Shaykh Fahd: He travels a long distance just to memorize.

Hafidh Mu’ath: Imagine, I used to go the Shaykh, [when memorizing] the first part of the Qur’an, do you know how many days?

Shaykh Fahad: How many days?

Hafidh Mu’ath: Three days.

Shaykh Fahad: Three days a week?

Hafidh Mu’ath: Only three days a week. And at first, he would only let me come two days and I fought with him until he let me come three days. He would stop me and have me focus on the meanings very intensely… Sometimes, he would only give me one verse.

Shaykh Fahad: Only one?

Hafidh Mu’ath: Only one.

Shaykh Fahad: With this whole distance [that you’d travel], he’d only give you one verse?

Hafidh Mu’ath:  I swear to God, he used to do that [just give him one verse to memorize.]

Shaykh Fahad: God is the Greatest.

Hafidh Mu’ath: Somedays, I would not play at all.

Shaykh Fahd: Yes, but I’ve heard you’re quite active 🙂

Hafidh Mu’ath: All praise is due to God, He has given me a great blessing, and that is that He has taken from me my eyesight. And this is a great blessing. When I pray, I don’t beseech God to give me back my eyesight.

Shaykh Fahad: You don’t want Allah to return your—

Hafidh Mu’ath: [Cuts him off] [Do you want to know] Why?

Shaykh Fahad: Why?

Hafidh Mu’ath: Because it could be a witness against me on the Day of Judgment…so that perhaps He lightens for me some of the punishment.

Shaykh Fahad: [Begins to cry]

Hafidh Mu’ath: And I stand, in front of Him, scared, fearful, and He asks me: What did you do with the Qur’an? So I hope He will lighten it for me and He enters whom He wills into His Mercy. But He has blessed me with the Qur’an. And I, all praise and thanks be to God, if I want to go anywhere, I go on my own—I go all by myself and no one is with me…but my dad, he gets scared for me.

Shaykh Fahad [thinking to himself]: I thought in these moments about the situation of many Muslims, those who are able to see, who have become lazy with regards to memorizing the Qur’an. Ya Allah. What will be their excuse with Allah?

Hafidh Mu’ath: So all praise and thanks be to God in all situations.

Shaykh Fahad [to Shaykh Mua’th]: Ma sha’ Allah, I’ve heard you have a rule from Ibnul Qayyim.

Hafidh Mu’ath: Yes.

Shaykh Fahad: What is this rule?

Hafidh Mu’ath: Ibnul Qayyim (may Allah have mercy on him) said, “Allah does not close one door for His slave out of Wisdom except that He opens two doors (for him) by His Mercy.”

Shaykh Fahad: So you never get upset when you’re with your friends that you don’t have the ability to see?

Hafidh Mu’ath: No, no…well, when I was younger, I’m not going to lie to you, I used to get upset sometimes. But now, all praise and thanks be to God, I don’t get upset. This is what God has willed.

Shaykh Fahad: Yes. The Prophet ﷺ says, “Whoever Allah tests by taking away two things beloved to him (i.e. his eyes) and he is patient, Allah will replace them for him with Paradise.”

Hafidh Mu’ath: We ask Allah to make us of the inheritors of the highest Paradise.

Shaykh Fahad: Allahumma ameen (O God, amen).

About the author

Maryam Amirebrahimi

Maryam Amirebrahimi

Maryam Amirebrahimi received her master’s in Education from UCLA, where her research focused on the effects of mentorship rooted in Critical Race Theory for urban high school students of color. She holds a bachelor’s in Child and Adolescent Development from San Jose State University, where she served as the President of the Muslim Student Association for two consecutive years. Currently, she is pursuing a second bachelor’s degree in Islamic Studies through Al Azhar University’s distance learning program. Maryam spent a year studying the Arabic language and Qur’an in Cairo, Egypt, and has memorized the Qur’an. She has been presented the Student of the Year award by former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and holds a second degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do. Maryam frequently travels to work with different communities to address a variety of social issues and writes about topics related to social realities, women’s studies and spiritual connections on www.virtualmosque.com.

31 Comments

  • I too became teary-eyed…what a beautiful, brave and strong soul this little boy has.

    At this point; I feel so utterly complacent and feel so ungrateful…because you know what? Yes many of us are those very things…ungrateful and complacent.

    Thank you very much for sharing this; it gives me greater hope in the resilience of the heart and in Allah’s gifts and mercy that we very often take for granted or don’t ponder on.

  • subhanalaah, i memorized quran in a very young age at 10 alxamdulilaah, but i lost it when i get older now i can only read from the book not in my head i am so worried about my life and how i am doing it, i still have hope and inshaa`alaah i will be the same girl i was, even thought now i am a mother of 2 soon to be 3 but seeing this i don`t have no excuse, please for me my sisters and brothers in Islam.

  • thanks for this post. I don’t memorise the quran. I love reciting and reading the translations. Reading and digesting what i read slow and steady. I love understanding what I am reading. It would defeat the purpose of reading the Quran if we only memorise without understanding it. Wallahualam..

  • What a humble and inspiring boy! MaashaaAllah!
    JazakumAllahu khayran sister Maryam and other staff for putting this post here.
    Very inspiring and actually this video and this post are Sadaqah Jariyah inshaaAllah….
    I’m gonna translate this to Farsi and Dutch inshaaAllah and you too will get rewards if someone gets inspired by this and starts to memorize (a part of)the Quran.

  • A beautiful story mashAllah. We truly have no excuse with so many resources at our fingertips. May Allah SWT guide us to memorize, understand, and apply the Qur’an, Allahuma Ameen!

  • Alhamdulillah. I was blessed with a good Tajweed teacher as a teenager and learned quite a bit of Quran. Then I got into college, got married, started having kids and used all of these things as excuses not to keep up with my studies.

    Recently, Allah has blessed me with the motivation to get back into studying the Quran and I must say, the way I see it now (including tafsir and Arabic studies along with Tajweed and memorization) has made me realize the beauty of Allah’s words.

  • Priceless tears you brought to us in your article sister. God bless you, shaikh Fahd and of course our shaikh Muath.

  • SubhanAllah! That was a beautiful story. JazakAllahu Khair. Studying Quran has always been a struggle for me. I used to get depressed b/c it was so overwhelming. I found that if you do one thing at a time, a person can study the Quran. First memorize in Arabic, then English and then study the tafsir. Speaking of which, I just found out that Tafsir As Sadi has been published in English by Islamic Literary Foundation. I’m so excited that it is finally coming out! For info you can go to: http://ilfp.wordpress.com/2012/09/10/tafsir-as-sadi-printed-in-english/

  • Assalamu alaikum! A helpful tool for all trying to memorise the Quran – I’ve been using http://www.QuranTracker.com for myself and the kids…the audio is great -choose your recitor, select your portion and repeat your selection as many times as you want and you can use it to track your memorisation aswell! It has 2 trackers – one for hifdh and one for revision and you click on the ayahs to colour code them according to how well you’ve learnt them. It automatically calculates your percentage for you! It also has a revision planner, like a calender where you drag in the surahs you need to revise each day so that you dont forget any, and a counter which tells you the last date revised. Also you can set hifdh targets, tell it which surah you want to memorise and by what date and it creates a schedule for you! So no need to write it on paper, you can keep changing and updating according to your needs. And since its all online, i can use it for myslef and teaching / testing my kids wherever we are! Its all free for juz 30, and need to pay for the other juz.

  • I would like to share an inspiring personal story with my brothers and sisters wishing to study Quran. Allah gave me the blessing to study Physics in a very good British University. It was four years of extremely harsh times, and I could usually meet my friends only very rarely. When I finsihed mu studies, I realized that in just four years (it was a 4-years MSci, not a 3-years BSc), i had studied several thousands of pages. Then I thought: when I look at the Quran, the Holy Word of Allah, it’s only about 600 pages: that is significantly less than what I did at university, and each page is only 15 lines, while my lectures notes were sometimes bunches of several hundreds pages with 30 lines per pages. And think about this: Law students have even more to study, and medical students MUCH MUCH more to study. So really, we have no excuse. If we don’t study Quran, it’s not because it is too hard, but because 1/ we are too lazy to study, 2/ our sins makes it appear as difficult

    may Allah put Quran in our heart, deeds, and memory. Ameen

  • Ya sister Maryam!

    You really know how to touch our hearts walhamdulillah. Recently I’ve been wanting to memorize the Quran and started reading your Quran series to gain some inspiration. SubhanAllah! This made me bawl even before I read the translation. JazakAllahu khayran for sharing it. May Allah reward you. Can’t wait to see you in Boston soon insha’Allah. *hugs*

  • I would also recommend typing into youtube “traveller with the Quran season 1” this is where the host from the above video travels the world meeting others from every walk of life that have faced different forms of hardships and have memorised the quran click the cc box on the video and you’ll also get the englisg subs

  • And I have 4 parts for the quran:
    1. Reciting
    2. Memorizing
    3. Reading quran
    4. Reading tafsir

    I don’t know what to do first…can u help me to manage it

Leave a Reply to Bushra X