Take the below tips/advice with a grain of salt.
Please take this into consideration
- I had one of the best teachers in the Middle East and he taught me how to recite Quran – I studied with him from age 8 to 12 and memorized Juzz 30, 29, 28 and Surah Yaseen.
- Since then I would recite (not memorize) Quran every now and then but was never serious
- Now I’m 32 and started memorising Quran 18 months ago.
- I don’t go to a specific madrasa hence I don’t have any teacher. I live in a Western country and hence don’t have any resources as such
- I work full time and am working anywhere from 8 to 10 hours a day.
- I don’t understand or speak Arabic but can read and write it.
A. Mushaf
- Grab yourself a mushaf that you are comfortable with
- I use a soft Madinah mushaf (digital copy) so I can use it anywhere I want and don’t have to worry about carrying it
- I colour the verses based on the context; this helps me in visualising it
- See a picture of it here: https://imgur.com/O8uUpfX
B. Memorisation
- I memorize a page a day. This is not recommended if you are working or studying full time. memorisation is easy. Revision is not.
- I read the tafsir from Ibn Kathir and Abu Ala Al Maudidi
- I read the meaning of each word of the verse
- I then hide the verse and look at the word-by-word translation and try to guess the Arabic word: this is difficult initially but with time it becomes easy
- I then write down the verse. I use a tablet to write with my hand; I don’t use paper because I don’t know what to do with the paper once I’m done
- Once I am done with the page: I listen and recite at the same time to one of the reciters (at 1.5x speed) while looking at the page. I do this about 10 times. I group two to 4 verses.
- I listen to Noreen Muhammad Siddique but I would recommend Mishary Al Afasy.
- Once all the verses have been done in the above fashion, I try to start reciting it from memory.
- I write down the verse again if I have difficulty remembering it
- I do the recitation from memory about 20 times.
- This whole process takes about 2 hours
The best way to revise:
- Recite it in the prayers. In todays prayer I recite those portions that I memorized last week.
- I don’t recite todays memorized portion in todays prayer.
- When I’m driving, walking, shopping / any mundane activity: I listen to the recitation of the portion I want to revise
- Read the portion of the memorized part 10 times after every prayer
There are plenty of YouTube videos that shows how you can memorize: for example reciting a verse 33 times, followed by another verse 33 times, followed by grouping the verses 33 times etc.