First Failed Attempt

 My first attempt at Hifz was circa mid 2023. I was on a roll, working hard to perfect my recitation, listening to famous reciters and trying to emulate their pronunciation and tajweed. I was reading the meaning and understanding the backstory of these surahs for the first time.

But something was missing.  I felt like I couldnt get enough, not tasting the sweetness of the Quran like how other people were describing it. 

Then I started to watch youtube and instagram videos of people talking about their Hifz journey. The struggle and the feeling of accomplishment. I was envious and instantly knew that I wanted to revisit my long forgotten Hifz days. 

It took me 3 months to complete Juz Amma and 2 surahs into Juz 29. I felt good, finally tasting the sweetness of the Quran. Memorizing new verses everyday after Maghrib. I practiced the verses in my prayers. I thought I had it. 

Major Major Mistakes I made this round was....

I DID NOT REVISE REGULARLY. I skipped days. I did not make Quran memorizing a priority. I also didnt listen to Quran reciters as much as I should.

"Revision" was just something I did for my newly memorized surahs. I neglected the old surahs. I could remember bits and pieces but once I went into Juz 29, the back surahs of Juz Amma were forgotten. And when I reached Al Qiyamah, I ran out of steam, and was frustrated that I've forgotten the previous surahs. Disheartened me just stopped. Cold turkey. I decided memorizing was just too hard. I'll settle for just reciting the Quran. 

It was not until 1 year later that the itch and desire to memorize came back to me again and came back stronger. This time, I took awhile to research the proper ways to memorize. I had to think about what went wrong the last round and what I'm not going to repeat this time. Watching videos and listening to podcasts about successful hafiz and hafizas. The most important thing they all stressed upon was REVISION. It was a non negotiable. And so was finding a teacher.

This time was going to go slow and steady. And I was not going to move forward until my previous surahs were rock solid. ANDDD I was going to get myself a Hifz teacher. Yes I was determined!