Memorize the Quran: the method and the tools

Learning the Quran by heart takes little: a short portion every day, plenty of listening and repetition, reciting without looking, and reviewing before you forget. Choose a surah: its plan splits it page by page, and the tools guide you from the first listen to the review. Your progress stays in your browser, no account needed.

Start with Al-Fatihah Where to start Practise in the mushaf Quran quiz

My progress

Kept in this browser, no account needed.

You have not started yet. Choose a surah, practise a portion, then say whether you knew it: your progress and reviews will appear here.

The method in five steps

For each portion, in this order.

Read and listen
Read the portion while following a reciter, verse by verse, until you can say it without hesitation.
Repeat
Repeat each verse several times with a pause to say it after the reciter, then join the verses together.
Hide
Hide one word in three, then two in three, then keep only the first letters, and finally the whole text.
Recite
Recite from memory: get tested on what follows a random verse, record yourself or recite to someone.
Review
Come back to each portion the next day, then at longer and longer intervals, and review before learning something new.

Where to start

Classic paths, from the shortest surahs to the longest.

To begin

Al-Fatiha, then the shortest surahs, starting from the end of the Quran: a few verses each.

Juz ’Amma

The last juz, which many learn in full, working back towards An-Naba.

Surahs often learned

A few pages each, learned portion by portion, one page at a time.

The long surahs

A goal of several weeks: one page a day, without neglecting reviews.

Memorization tools

A plan for each surah
Each surah is split into portions of one page of the Madinah mushaf, and you see where you stand on each.
Hide step by step
One word in three, two in three, the first letters, then the whole text. Tap a word to see it.
Get tested
A verse is picked at random and the others are hidden: recite what follows. Hint, answer, and the next verse recited by a reciter.
Record yourself
Recite, then listen back while following the text. Recordings stay on your device and are never uploaded.
Review at the right time
A memorized portion comes back after 1, 3, 7, 14, 30, 60 then 120 days; if you hesitate, it comes back the next day.
The teacher’s voice
The “muallim” recitations read slowly and leave time to repeat; repetition adds a pause of ½, 1 or 1.5 times the verse length.
In the reader and the mushaf
Memorization mode is turned on from “Display” in the reader or “Appearance” in the mushaf, and closed with one button.
On all your devices
No account needed: save your progress to a file or a text and open it on another device.

What Quran schools do

Habits passed down from teacher to student, which the tools follow.

Always the same mushaf
Learn from the same edition, ideally the 604-page Madinah mushaf used by the book mode: where verses sit on the page helps memory.
One portion per session
Schools split the Quran by page or by quarter hizb: a short portion learned well is worth more than a long one half learned.
Link the portions
Recite each new portion together with the previous one, and each surah with the one before it, so that passages follow on without hesitation.
New, recent, old
Many schools organize the session in three parts: the new portion, the portions of the last few days, then a rotating review of everything memorized (sabaq, sabqi and manzil in South Asia).
Recite to someone
Tasmi’: reciting from memory to someone who follows in the mushaf. They hear the mistakes you do not notice yourself.
The wooden board
In the Maghreb and West Africa, students write their lesson on a wooden board (lawh), read it to the teacher, repeat it until they know it, then wash it off: writing also helps to remember.

The virtues of some surahs: Al-Fatihah Al-Ikhlas Al-Mulk Al-Kahf Ya-Sin Al-Baqarah

Learn a surah

All 114 surahs, with their number of verses and pages in the Madinah mushaf.

Memorize the Quran: the method and the tools

My progress

To review today

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The method in five steps

Where to start

To begin

Juz ’Amma

Surahs often learned

The long surahs

Memorization tools

What Quran schools do

Learn a surah

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My progress

To review today

The method in five steps

Where to start

To begin

Juz ’Amma

Surahs often learned

The long surahs

Memorization tools

What Quran schools do

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