100 Proofs That Islam Is True (Part 16): Why Is the Qur'an So Easy to Memorize?
Mufti Faijullah Aman
Introduction
In Part 2 we saw that the Qur'an has been preserved both on paper and in the hearts of millions of memorizers. Today's question is a little different: how are so many people able to memorize such a large book? And how is this ease itself a proof of the truth of the Qur'an?
One Declaration, Four Times
In Surah al-Qamar, Allah repeats one verse four times: "And We have certainly made the Qur'an easy for remembrance. So is there anyone who will take heed?" (Surah al-Qamar 54:17, 22, 32, 40)
The Arabic word "dhikr" means advice and reminder, and it also means remembering and keeping in memory. The scholars of Qur'anic commentary explain that Allah made both memorizing the words of the Qur'an and understanding its meaning easy.
In a hadith qudsi, Allah said to the Prophet: "I have sent down to you a Book that water cannot wash away. You will recite it while asleep and awake." (Sahih Muslim) Writing on paper is erased by water, but what is engraved in the heart, no water can erase.
Who Is Memorizing It?
The Qur'an contains 114 chapters, more than six thousand verses, and more than seventy-seven thousand words. Look at who is memorizing this large book from the first letter to the last:
1. Children. Many children become memorizers of the whole Qur'an before the age of ten. At that age, they cannot recite even a small book in their own mother tongue from memory.
2. Non-Arabs. Bangladesh, Pakistan, Indonesia, Turkey, Africa: most of the world's memorizers are not Arabic speakers. Many memorize every word and every vowel mark perfectly without understanding the meaning.
3. The blind. There are countless blind memorizers who have never seen a single page of the written Qur'an, yet hold the entire Qur'an in their hearts only by listening.
4. The elderly. Many began memorizing at the age of sixty or seventy and completed it, at an age when people struggle to remember anything new.
5. Ordinary people. Becoming a memorizer requires no special lineage, class, or profession. The son of a farmer and the daughter of a day laborer, the door is open to all.
A Comparison With Other Traditions
For the sake of fairness, it should be said that some ancient religious traditions in the world also practice memorization. But in those traditions, it is usually preserved by a special priestly class through many years of strict training, while ordinary people remain outside of it. The case of the Qur'an is completely different. Here it is the children of ordinary people who memorize it, on every continent, in every language group, and their number is in the millions.
Beyond full memorization, almost every Muslim memorizes some part of the Qur'an, because it must be recited in prayer. Every day, in five daily prayers, hundreds of millions of people around the world recite the Qur'an from memory.
Features That Make Memorization Easy
1. Rhythm and melody. In Part 15 we saw that the verses of the Qur'an end with a sweet harmony of sound, and its flow carries a melody. This rhythm settles into the memory.
2. Rules of recitation. The rules of tajwid fix the pronunciation of each word in such a way that a mistake is caught by the ear itself.
3. Repetition with variety. Some themes in the Qur'an come again and again, which helps memory. But each time they come in slightly different words and in a different context.
Interestingly, this last feature is also the greatest test for memorizers. It is very easy to mix up verses with similar wording (mutashabihat). Yet millions of memorizers remember these fine differences without error. This shows that this ease is not merely the result of technique.
A Living Test Every Year
Every Ramadan, in hundreds of thousands of mosques around the world, memorizers recite the entire Qur'an from memory in the night prayer of tarawih. Behind them stand other memorizers who correct even the smallest vowel mistake. In this way, every year a vast living check of the Qur'an takes place across the world. And every year, from Dhaka to Seoul, from Cairo to London, the same Qur'an is heard everywhere.
Easy, But Not to Be Neglected
The Prophet (peace be upon him) warned: "Keep up the Qur'an. By the One in whose hand is the soul of Muhammad, it escapes (from the heart) faster than a camel escapes from its rope." (Sahih al-Bukhari, Sahih Muslim)
In other words, memorizing the Qur'an is easy, but keeping it requires regular recitation. And this regular recitation has been made part of Muslim life through prayer. Ease and a system of preservation, both together.
Why Is This a Proof?
Could any human author guarantee that for fourteen hundred years, people of every language, from children to the elderly, from the blind to non-Arabs, would be able to memorize his book? Even making such a claim would be reckless. Yet the Qur'an made this claim, four times in a single chapter, and fourteen hundred years of history have proven it true. This ease is a living miracle that anyone can still see with their own eyes by visiting any school of Qur'an memorization.
Conclusion
The Book that Allah has made easy is recited every day by the voices of millions of children. This sight itself testifies that the Qur'an is the word of Allah, who created human memory and engraved His word into it.
Previous part (Part 15): The Miraculous Beauty of the Qur'an's Language
In the next part: Hearts Transformed by Hearing the Qur'an. In sha Allah.
