By Abid Mohammed

10 Steps to Ace Your Exams: Part I | Part II | Part III | Part IV

This is the fourth and final article in a series of articles entitled “10 Steps to Ace Your Exams,” where I hope to extract gems from traditional Islamic sources that would be of benefit to students struggling to revise for their exams. 

8. Testing: 1, 2, 3…

`Umar (radi Allahu `anhu—may God be pleased with him) said, “Take yourself to account before you are taken to account, weigh your actions before they are weighed and beautify yourself for the ultimate presentation. On that day, not the slightest secret will be hidden.”

It is surprising to see that for many of us, our actual exams are the first time we are testing what we’ve learnt. This could be because we either did not intend to test ourselves beforehand, or because we were procrastinating assessing our knowledge until we had completed our entire revision. Whatever the reason, as `Umar (ra) eloquently pointed out, this approach is fundamentally flawed. Why wait until the ultimate presentation to be assessed, when it is too late to do anything about your shortcomings or weaknesses anyway?

As is clearly evident from the Islamic tradition, many of the companions, scholars and activists took themselves to account on a daily basis. If we are to reach the same lofty heights they did, in this life and more importantly in the hereafter, then we must adopt this mentality in every sphere of our lives – including our revision. Whether it’s using past papers, sitting practice exams under timed conditions or even focusing on our exam technique, it is important that we test ourselves from the get-go before it’s too late.

9. Body, mind and soul

“And the heaven He raised and imposed the balance, that you not transgress within the balance.” (Qur’an, 55:7-8)

The Prophet ﷺ (peace be upon him) said, “Do not overburden yourselves, lest you perish. People before you overburdened themselves and perished. Their remains are found in hermitages and monasteries.” (The Musnad of Abu Ya’la, cited by Ibn Kathir in his tafsir)

Imam Al Muhasibi said, “Make your spare time a source of enrichment.”

Though we must never be moderate in our ambitions or our determination to realise our goals, we must strive to be balanced in all that we do, as God commands. The Lord of our revision and exams is also the Lord of our entire lives—it does not make sense to obey Him while revising but not with regards to everything else in life.

Unfortunately, that is exactly what tends to happens for most of us, and it is precisely why many of us find a severe barakah (blessing) deficiency in our revision. We retreat to our hermitages and our monasteries to focus solely on our revision and nothing else. Our physical health is damaged by eating fast food (because we don’t have time for good food), drinking Red Bull and not exercising or getting enough sleep. Our family lives are neglected because we simply do not have time to help our parents around the house, even for a few minutes. And overall, our general well-being plummets as our spare time is reduced to checking Facebook and surfing YouTube.

Cutting out distractions is a good thing, but our friends, family, physical health and spiritual well-being are not distractions—they are integral parts of our lives. By neglecting them, we not only neglect God’s commands, but yet again, we introduce procrastination into our revision. The mental dreariness of “all work and no play makes Hamzah a dull boy”  will only make us put off doing any work until we absolutely have to. By ensuring that all of our responsibilities are seen to—whether it’s our responsibility to our friends or to our own hearts—we ensure that God instills plenty of barakah in our revision. By being balanced, our body, mind and soul do not burn out; rather they are continuously alert and invigorated to perform any task that is laid out in front of them.

As Imam Zaid Shakir said, “Fill every moment with an action that will be the source of some lasting good. God reminds us, ‘…the enduring good deeds are better to your Lord for reward and better for [one’s] hope.’” (Qur’an, 18:46.)

10. Start now.

“And hasten to forgiveness from your Lord and a garden as wide as the heavens and earth, prepared for the righteous (Qur’an, 3:133).”

“Satan threatens you with poverty and orders you to immorailty, while Allah promises you forgiveness from Him and bounty. And Allah is all-Encompassing and Knowing. He gives wisdom to whom He wills…” (Qur’an, 2:268-269).

Imam Al Muhasibi said, “If you are motivated to do some good, hasten to it.”

Arabic adage: “Do not put off today’s work until tomorrow.”

Most of us delay starting on our revision because we feel that we are at 0% and we somehow have to hit 100% in the space of three weeks. But that simply is not true. Even if we feel that we have “done no work” the entire year, we cannot deny that we have picked up bits of information here and there. We have done the odd assignment. We have even attended a lecture or a tutorial here or there—if not many lectures and tutorials. And so in reality, we are actually at 30% or 45%, maybe even 60%! In which case, rather than trying to “start” our revision, we should just realise that we already started months ago—even if we were not necessarily in “revision mode”. Our task is now not to take that first step on what may seem like a never-ending journey, but to continue the forward momentum to reach even greater speeds and efficiency in our revision.

Of course there will be obstacles along the way. And while there will be times when we feel things are going a bit slow, we should never allow Satan’s fear-filled promises of “not enough time” or “too much information” to overwhelm us or cause us to fall into despair. Time and time again, he will threaten us with humiliation should we fail and cause us to question our own self-worth and our ability to succeed. But we must realise that these are empty threats and promises and that our mental energies are better served focusing on the words of Imam Ali (ra), who said, “Do not fear anything except your sins. Do not long for anything other than your Lord. Let none of you lacking knowledge be too shy to ask until he learns. Do not let one who is asked something he lacks knowledge of refrain from saying, ‘I do not know’”. Let us start now and hasten to our home in the hereafter.”

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

“Shaykh Moheb, I can’t do this!” I vented to my Qur’an teacher. He had put me on a strict daily Qur’an schedule that included review, memorization and reading. I simply could not find the time to maintain it; I was completing my Master’s degree, conducting research, and working. I could not keep up.

The Shaykh, in his wisdom, listened to my distress and responded by sharing a different method with me in which I could memorize and review simultaneously without feeling overwhelmed.

I have tried numerous methods throughout my years of memorizing. Sometimes I would stop memorizing for months at a time and only focus on review (although this always failed when I didn’t have a teacher who could help me stay on track because I ended up wasting precious months without review or memorization). Sometimes, I would work on reviewing portions of what I had already memorized while continuing my memorization. This method, however, was tedious and would often result in my forgetting what I had reviewed as soon as I moved onto reviewing something new. Shaykh Moheb offered a different strategy—the most effective strategy I have experienced so far.

For anyone inquiring about how to maintain their previously memorized portions in the middle of their busy schedules and other commitments, here is a recommended schedule based on Shaykh Moheb’s advice:

1. Count how many pages or parts (ajza, sg. juz) of Qur’an you’ve already memorized.
2. Set a specific amount you will read everyday only from what you’ve memorized.
   • For example, if you have memorized half of juz `amma (the 30^th chapter of the Qur’an), read 2 pages of it everyday. Every 5 days, you’ll begin from the first 2 pages again.
   • If you’ve memorized more, like 3 juz, then make sure to begin by reading half a juz (10 pages) a day.
3. As you maintain your daily reading (wird) you’ll be reviewing all of what you have memorized within the span of a week. Slowly, you’ll realize that your memorization of those chapters is getting stronger and remaining fresh. You’ll find yourself able to recall an ayah (verse) from a surah (chapter) with more ease and speed.
   • Add more slowly as you increase in your memorization
4. For example, once you complete memorizing all of juz `amma, begin reading 4 pages of it everyday. Every 5 days, you should complete  reading all of juz `amma and then starting over again.
   • If you had 3 juz memorized and then finished memorizing another and now have 4 all together, increase the 10 pages by another 3 and begin to read 13 a day. When you complete the memorization of your 5^th juz, you should be reading 16 a day. Finally, once you finish memorizing 6 juz, you should be reading a juz a day. By 18 juz, you should be at 3 juz daily. By 24, you should be at 4. Don’t worry – because you’re building up to it, it’ll go by very quickly. It just takes practice 🙂
   • Continue reading to understand how to review the Qur’an once you’re finished with memorizing all of it.

The idea is to finish everything you’ve memorized from the Qur’an every week. If everything you have memorized amounts to less than 5 juz, then you should finish reading everything you’ve memorized within a 5 day period. Anything above 5 juz, you should finish in 6 days. This leaves only one day left in the week – make it a Friday and read Surat-Al-Kahf and allow this day to be for anything you have to makeup reading from the week.

I know that reading significant portions of the Qur’an everyday sounds difficult and incredibly overwhelming. I had once heard an Imam say that reading a juz a day should take no longer than half an hour. I was shocked. A half hour! It would take me a couple of hours to get through a juz. That’s why I could barely, if ever, even complete one reading of the Qur’an during Ramadan, the month of the Qur’an!

However, once I had memorized a few portions of the Qur’an, I realized the difference between him and me: he was a native Arabic speaker and fluently read Arabic. He had also already memorized the whole Qur’an.

I’m not Arab and reading Arabic was something new; I would stumble over words, make mistakes and get bored and frustrated. It would take me forever. But once it was something I memorized, it became easier to read. The more I listened to the same portion, the more fluid its words were in my brain. The more I practiced, the easier it became. The one juz that used to take me hours can now easily be read in less than 20 minutes. And those much more experienced than my rookie self have shared that it only gets easier and faster with further practice and dedication. The point: ANYONE can get to reading seemingly enormous amounts in very little time. It simply takes practice, consistency and…practice!

Here are a few tips to mitigate the fear of reading a certain amount daily:

1. Build it up
   • Even if you’ve already memorized the Qur’an but completely forgotten most of it because of a lack of review, start with a few pages a day and stay consistent with those for a few weeks. Then after a few weeks, add a few more. Plan to be reading 1 juz a day within a month. Maintain the 1 juz for a month or two and then add another, and so forth. The more you do it, the faster you’ll get at it. It just takes practice and commitment.
2. Read it throughout the day
   • Always keep the Qur’an handy for those “unplanned” times you can get a few pages in (i.e. in a grocery line). That will add up and you’ll finish your portion without even realizing it.
3. Listen to the portion often
   • If you know you won’t be able to read it for that day, listen to it as you take care of other tasks that require your physical attention but will allow for your mind to focus on Qur’an.

Finally, once you’ve completed your memorization of the Qur’an and you’ve worked up to reading a certain amount of ajza everyday, you should begin to read 5 juz a day. Reading the 5 daily will help you know the entire Qur’an with the strength that you know Surat-al-Fatiha (Chpater of the Opener, Qur’an 1). I know, 5 juz sounds crazy! Impossible! Overwhelming! Take a deep breath 🙂 Realize – this is once you’re completely finished memorizing and you’ll be working up to it. When I first finished memorizing, I complained to Shaykh Moheb that 5 juz was just too much. I couldn’t handle it!

Shaykh Moheb put me in my place. “Your problem,” he shared, “is that you didn’t build up to it. You didn’t read two juz and then three juz and then four juz and then once you finished, start with five. If you had, it would be easy for you now.”

He was right. He had told me to start from the beginning, but I kept making excuses, justifying that I was busy with a million other commitments. It wasn’t until I was almost finished memorizing that I was reading 2 juz a day. It was hard and time-consuming. I’d read on the bus, during class breaks, in line for food… but within a few weeks, it became easy. As I neared the end of my hifth (memorization) and I compared the 3 juz I had to read to two, it seemed like two juz would take just fleeting moments of my day. However, now that I was finished memorizing, I resolved I would try my best because he told me that the one who reads 5 knows the entire Qur’an like they know Surat-al-Fatiha. He shared:

من يقرأ الخمس لا ينسى

“The one who reads the five does not forget.”

When I first completed my memorization and had been doing 5 juz for some time, I was disappointed that I didn’t know the entire Qur’an like surat-al- Fatiha already. But then I learned that this takes time; at minimum it could take up to an entire year if I do it regularly and possibly longer. But if I’m serious about maintaining it, eventually, I will know it like the back of my hand – and even better.

I can’t always do 5 juz a day; sometimes I simply do not have time and sometimes I get lazy. But I didn’t build up to it the way the Shaykh pushed; so for me, it still takes time. Thus, for all of you who seriously intend to build up to it, glad tidings that reading 5 a day is completely possible – it just takes planning, practice and dedication. And sometimes, there may be lapses (i.e. finals week). During these times, make sure to decrease the amount rather than leave it completely. Pick it back up as soon as you can.

You CAN do this, God willing! Allah subhanahu wa ta`ala (exalted is He) will never fail you when you make a commitment to His Book and you’re sincere about it. We have time for reading articles (hi!), checking email, and updating our statuses on Facebook. For me, reading 5 juz a day helped me realize how much time I really do have that I thought did not exist. The point is to work up to 5 juz throughout your memorization. Work on a few pages, then half a juz, then 1, then 1.5…then 2, then 2.5…then 3, then 3.5…then 4, then 4.5…and finally 5. And yes, it will take time. But it will get easier and faster. And isn’t knowing the entire Qur’an like you know Surat-al-Fatiha worth it?

Allah (swt) is with us as long as we make a sincere and serious commitment to His Book. He (swt) is ready to assist us and help us succeed, but we need to be the ones who make the effort. The question is: Will we be of those who work to show Him that we truly want His Book etched in our hearts?

Note: Please read Part 1 for tips on how to memorize the Qur’an. Please read ‘How Can I Enjoy Listening to the Recitation of the Qur’an in Taraweeh if I Don’t Understand What is Being Recited?’ for tips on understanding the meanings of the Qur’an for those who do not understand Qur’anic Arabic.