The informants reported that before starting memorizing the Quran, memorizers are taught Arabic letters and sounds, and how to make ‘words’ out of them. This learning of ‘words’, however, is restricted to phonological form in that they do not learn the meaning (signified) or translation of words and rather only focus on the form (signifier). This is a pre-
memorization stage where learners (almost all Muslim children) acquire knowledge of letter- sound relationships in Arabic. At this stage they are only concerned with how to pronounce or read out ‘words’. This process starts at quite an early age of three or four and learners internalize the word structure/phonotactics of the Classical Arabic without reference to meaning. According to the Quran teachers-memorizers:
That is how the foundations of Quran learning are laid. Students are taught to recognize and pronounce Arabic letters. Then they are taught to arrange letters and sounds into words. They imitate their teacher in saying Arabic words. Initially, they may find it difficult to combine letters and sounds, but they gradually learn it (SM01).
I teach them to pronounce Arabic letters like native Arab speakers. Once they have got knowledge of how to form and articulate Arabic words, they move on to the reading of the Quran text, and complete reading the entire Quran before beginning the memorization. Children make few mistakes in pronouncing the words if they are grounded well in the sound system of Arabic (SM02).
The aspiring memorizers have thus already completed reading the Quran text before embarking on memorization proper, and are familiar with phonology (sound), orthography (written form) and phonotactics (word structure) of Classical Arabic in that they fluently ‘read’ the Quran. Once they have achieved this basic proficiency in reading Arabic in general and the Quran in particular, they are ready for memorization.
This method of learning the Quran is in keeping with findings from literature on committing information to memory. In chapter two it was shown that familiarity with lexical and
phonological properties of a language enhances the processing capacity of phonological short term memory, resulting in a greater learnability of language (French 2006; French and
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of words yields better learnability as compared with words with which the learners are not familiar. According to Ellis and Sinclair (1996), similarity of phonotactic patterns between the learners’ native language and the to-be-learned foreign language is an important factor in the learnability of words: repeating and remembering words that share phonotactic structure with words in one’s native language are easier than ones without such similarity. Learning to ‘read’ Arabic at quite an early age, can thus be said to have benefitted the Quran memorizers in committing the text to memory.
This early attention to the phonology of the Quran text indicates the importance of accurate pronunciation in tradition of Quran memorization. If one can’t read the letters and pronounce them correctly, one could easily introduce errors that would then be passed on to the next generation of memorizers until there was more than one version of the sacred text. Moreover, this basic knowledge of Arabic phonotactics might help them in chunking sounds and letters into ‘words’, ‘words’ into phrases and phrases into verses, leaving more capacity in working memory. That is, memorizers’ knowledge of Arabic phonotactics enables them to arrange sound patterns into predictable and pronounceable (intelligible) word sequences and longer stretches of text.
Once they have completed their ‘reading’ of the text, they embark on memorization proper. The practice of Quran memorization is in line with what Moore (2006) calls ‘guided
repetition’ which “involves modelling by an expert and imitation by a novice, followed by rehearsal and performance by the novice” (p. 110). According to informants, memorizers normally but not necessarily start with the last Part of the Quran, because:
The last Part has short chapters which are easy to memorize. Not only are chapters short but the verses therein are short too. The short verses rhyme with one another and are easier to memorize than the long ones (SM02).
Starting with the last Part has a psychological effect on the memorizers. There chapters are small in size and it takes a short time to complete a chapter, giving them a feeling of having completed a certain number of chapters (SM03).
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Almost all Quran memorizers begin young. My participants had a consensus on a difference between young children and adults in memorizing the Quran. According to them, starting early in life improves the outcome in terms of time taken to memorize the text, how well it is learned, and the accuracy of pronunciation. According to two teachers:
Memorizers in the UK normally start at the age of 9 or 10 which is the right age for
memorization. They normally finish at the age of 16 or 17. Late starters are rare and they take longer to memorize. Children have better memory as compared to older children/adults for various reasons. Adults have family and other responsibilities which distract them from focusing on memorization. There, however, may be some rare exceptions to this. I know some people who have successfully memorized the Quran despite having started in their twenties and thirties (SM04).
It is important to start memorization early in life. The right time for memorization is the age of 8 or 10 years. When you start early, you take shorter time to complete as opposed to late starters. At a younger age, you are not committed to other duties and the mind is not occupied by worldly things (SM03).
The emphasis and the practice of starting memorization early in life coincides with the notion of brain plasticity in that changes in neural connections and the ability to learn information in general decays with age (see chapter 4). Children complete the process within a short period of time and remember it better, compared to older children or adults.
Three informants had this to say:
Normally, a young memorizer completes memorizing the Quran within two to three years. Some memorizers complete it within one year, and some, although very rarely, in six months. However, in the UK, memorizers may sometimes take 4 to 5 years due to the school work. It depends on how much time you give to memorization. Late memorizers are rare and they take longer to complete it. Also they may not remember it as well as the young memorizers. I can tell you this on the basis of my experience with memorizers of different ages. Late starters struggle when it comes to memorization and remembering (SM03).
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Memorizers daily memorize in the Mosque for three hours, six days a week.A full time Madrassah (a religious school) student, however, spends six to eight hours memorizing the Quran. Sometimes students leave school for a year or so to give full time and attention to their memorization. In such cases they normally complete it in a year. I don’t know many memorizers who may have started late but I know one person who started at the age of 30 but he could memorize only 12 Parts (SM04).
It needs to be noted that some learners memorize the Quran in exceptionally short time which might be the result of differences in individuals’ aptitude:
There are individual differences in personal ability to memorize a text. I, along with two other friends of mine, started memorizing the Quran at the same time and same age. i.e., 11. While I and another friend took almost three years to complete it, the third friend completed it within eight months. I know a person who successfully completed memorizing the Quran in 55 days but people like him are exceptionally rare (SM05).