Aslam

Praise be to Allah.

Firstly:

You should bear in mind these

two important matters, which are from the bounty of Allah that He has

bestowed upon His slaves.

The first is that Allah, may He

be exalted, says (interpretation of the meaning): “And We have indeed

made the Quran easy to understand and remember, then is there any that will

remember (or receive admonition)?” [al-Qamar 54:17].

The second is that the Prophet

(blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) said: “The one who is skilled in

reciting Qur’an will be with the noble, honourable scribes and the one who

recites Qur’an and falters therein, and finds it difficult, will have a

double reward.”

Narrated by al-Bukhaari (4937)

and Muslim (798).

An-Nawawi (may Allah have mercy

on him) said:

The one who falters is the one

who stumbles in his recitation because of his poor memorisation. He will

have a double reward: the reward for reciting and the reward for faltering

in his recitation and the difficulty he encounters. End quote.

If we learn that the Qur’an is

easy to remember and understand, and we learn that the one for whom any of

that is difficult to learn, memorize or understand will have a double reward

– once this is established, it will be appropriate for the wise person to

strive his utmost to achieve that and to show patience in seeking to attain

this sublime goal. How often has Allah made it easy for non-Arabs who do not

speak Arabic well to memorize His Book in its entirety. To achieve this

great virtue it is worth spending a great deal of time and competing with

others.

Secondly:

One of the things that help one

to memorize the Book of Allah, may He be exalted, is listening to it often

on recordings. If it is easy for you to memorize it in this way, then you

will become one of those who have memorized the Book of Allah, attained that

goal and earned the reward and status of the hafiz, by Allah’s leave. The

individual’s precision in recitation, memorization and acting upon the Holy

Book and its rulings and teachings will determine his reward and his status

before Allah, if he is sincere in his intention and seeks reward with Him.

However it is better to combine

two things in that regard: striving to recite it and to memorize whatever

you are able to whilst looking at the Mushaf, so as to attain the virtue of

reading it yourself and the virtue of looking in the Mushaf. Then by

listening to a recording of the Qur’an you will be able to do two things:

correct your recitation and make sure that you have got it right before

memorizing it, and then continue revising it and reminding yourself of what

you have memorized after that.

Undoubtedly the one who listens

to the recitation by his shaykh or teacher directly will learn the Book of

Allah more precisely than the one who listens to it from a recording. The

Muslim cannot memorize properly unless he learns directly from a shaykh and

attends his classes whenever he can.

But for the one who does not

have access to a shaykh but does have access to a recording, there is

nothing wrong with him listening to it and memorizing in that manner.

For more information, please see

the answers to questions no. 112763 and

147816

Thirdly:

Competing and hastening to

reward is something that is open to everyone. The one who cannot compete in

memorizing and reciting Qur’an can compete in prayer, fasting, giving

charity, remembering Allah, enjoining what is good and forbidding what is

evil, doing good deeds, upholding ties of kinship, honouring parents or

other innumerable types of righteous deeds.

All of the proven, prescribed

adhkaar bring a great reward, but there are some that bring a greater

reward. In the case of the Qur’an – which is the best dhikr – reciting

Qul Huwa Allahu Ahad (i.e., Soorat al-Ikhlaas 112) is equivalent to one

third of the Qur’an. Soorat al-Faatihah is the best soorah and Ayat al-Kursiy

(al-Baqarah 2:255) is the best verse. Whoever recites the last two verses of

Soorat al-Baqarah at night, they will suffice him. Memorizing these passages

and others is something that everyone can do, and in reciting them and

repeating them there is a great deal of reward.

Other adhkaar include the

following:

·That which was narrated by Muslim (2729) from Juwayriyah, who

said that the Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him)

left her house one morning when he prayed Fajr, and she was in her

prayer-place, then he came back after the forenoon had come, and she was

still sitting there. He said: “Are you still as you were when I left you?”

She said: Yes. The Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) said:

“After I left you I said four words three times, which if they were weighed

against what you have said today, they would outweigh it: ‘Subhan

Allah wa bi hamdih, ‘adada khalqihi, wa rida nafsihi, wazinata ‘arshihi, wa

midaada kalimatihi (Glory

and praise be to Allah, as much as the number of His creation, as much as

pleases Him, as much as the weight of His Throne and as much as the ink of

His words).”

·“Subhaan Allaahi wa bi hamdihi Subhaan Allaah il-‘Azeem

(Glory and praise be to Allaah, glory be to Allaah the Almighty).” al-Bukhaari

(6682) and Muslim (2694) narrated that Abu Hurayrah said: The Messenger of

Allah (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) said: “Two words that are

light on the tongue and heavy in the balance and beloved to the Most

Merciful: Subhaan Allaahi wa bi hamdihi Subhaan Allaah il-‘Azeem

(Glory and praise be to Allaah, glory be to Allaah the Almighty).”

·The best of prayers for forgiveness (sayyid al-istighfaar):

al-Bukhaari (6306) narrated from Shaddaad ibn Aws (may Allah be pleased with

him) that the Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) said: “The

best of prayers for forgiveness is to say: “The best prayer for seeking

forgiveness is to say: ‘Allaahumma anta rabbi la ilaaha illa anta,

Khalaqtani wa ana ‘abduka wa ana ‘ala ‘ahdika wa wa’dika ma astata’t.

A’oodhu bika min sharri ma sana’tu, aboo’u laka bi ni’matika ‘alayya wa

aboo’u laka bi dhanbi, faghfir li fa innahu laa yaghfiru’l-dhunoob illaa

anta (O Allah, You are my Lord. None has the right to be worshipped but

You. You created me and I am Your slave, and I am faithful to my covenant

and my promise (to You) as much as I can. I seek refuge with You from all

the evil I have done. I acknowledge before You all the blessings You have

bestowed upon me, and I confess to You all my sins. So I entreat You to

forgive my sins, for nobody can forgive sins except You).’ Whoever says this

during the day, having faith in it and dies before the evening comes, will

be among the people of

Paradise, and whoever says it during the night, having faith in it, and dies

before the morning comes, will be among the people of Paradise.”

Other kinds of dhikr, in

general, are the adkhaar to be recited in the morning or the evening, those

that are to be recited following the obligatory prayers and those that are

to be recited before going to sleep, for the one who regularly recites them

will have a great reward.

Please see also the answer to

question no 174947

Fourthly:

It is prescribed for the Muslims

to vary the adhkaar and all acts of worship. So sometimes he may read Qur’an,

sometimes he may remember Allah (dhikr), sometimes he may pray, sometimes he

may study books of knowledge, and sometimes he may relax by doing various

kinds of permissible leisure activities. He should not limit himself to one

specific type of worship, never doing anything else, because by doing that

he will miss out on the reward and virtue of the other types of worship that

he ignores, in addition to the fact that there is the fear that he may get

tired and bored.

Please see also the answer to

question no. 195274

And Allah knows best.