At what age should your child start memorizing Quran?
Let me give you my family’s experience.
My wife (Umm Khalid) is a hafidha mashaAllah, one of her many incredible achievements. We have had the dream of our kids memorizing the Quran.
But it is a daunting prospect. It doesn’t help when you hear about 4 years old or 5-year-old prodigies who have already memorized the entire Quran. You feel like: What am I doing wrong as a parent?!
It is important to be realistic and not be discouraged in this process. The question is should there be a process at all for very young children?
Well, yes. But not necessarily a formal one. We have had a much more organic approach that is primarily driven by our children’s interests rather than us trying to force them into a schedule. The reason being that they are too young. The typical 3-year-old or even a 5 or 6-year-old is not going to be able to sit and pay attention for long periods of time. And if they do not have a more docile temperament, they will resent being forced into a strict regimen and it will end up being a headache for everyone.
All that being said, our children started memorizing at age 2. It was just very organic. What do I mean by this?
Well, the adults read Quran out loud regularly. We try to make it daily, but some days it’s not possible. The thing is, we have raised our kid’s device free alhamdulillah: no TV, no smartphones, no tablets, no loud electronic toys (for the most part).
This is the single biggest factor because, even though our three boys have toys and they are constantly playing (and fighting with each other haha), when a parent is reading Quran or praying a daily prayer, that is the most interesting thing happening for them at that time. In other words, we are not competing with flashy electronic distractions. That means our kids take a natural interest. They want to sit and watch us. They want to imitate us. That is key. We don’t have to force them to sit and pay attention. They just naturally have that curiosity and interest.
That’s the amazing thing about kids. They absorb whatever you expose them to. So for us, it has been enough to simply read Quran around our kids for them to be interested in the Quran.
Once children have that spark of interest and motivation, then it becomes about guiding that interest. Our eldest is 5 and he has a little bit more capacity to sit and practice a few verses at a time and he is starting to learn how to read. But it would not be possible to even have such short practice sessions if he wasn’t motivated himself.
So there is no schedule that we have yet because, again, they are too young. Just whenever they bring it up and want to learn, we spend time. A few verses at a time. The important thing is that they feel connected to the Quran alhamdulillah and are excited about it.
One pro-tip. Bedtime is a great time for reciting Quran to your children. We usually reserve storytime for throughout the day and then bedtime is Quran time. They have memorized some short surahs and Ayat al-Kursi just from listening at bedtime.
Another pro-tip: A good first step for children to memorize Quran is to have them memorize in general. And the best thing kids as young as 2 or 3 can start memorizing are duas. What is the dua before and after you eat? What are the duas associated with leaving the house? What are the duas for entering and exiting the restroom, etc.? It is much easier for children to start off memorizing these and that gets them acclimated to the concept of memorization.
Masha Allah. This is good advice.
I personally started memorising the Quran at 12 and finished at 16-17, so I don’t think there’s any need to rush.
However, I do wish there had been more emphasis on teaching me the MEANING of the Quran alongside memorisation. That’s just my personal advice to anyone reading this. The Quran has become way more important to me when I started reading Tafsir and learning what it means.
Otherwise, there’s a risk of letting go when you grow older because the attachment isn’t there. I know some who’ve simply memorised it and now no longer recite it.
My 13 year old son was a hafidh by the age of 10. […]
What are u saying man gayism is haram in islam.
Are u muslim or a non beleiver.
I wish you had read the Quran to know how big the sin of gayism is.
Some pagan trying to muddy the water…lol
Nice try, but you have no idea how obvious you are as a Christian/liberal trying to act liberal-murtad.
Such a dumb comment. Sucks! You’re no Muslim,try harder🙄
I know right, he’s clearly a troll.
Starting memorization at a little age as in your post – yes that’s great and natural ma sha Allah.
As far as formally memorizing the Quran is concerned – I’ll share how it was done in my family.
Ages 5 and 6 are very small for children to have a serious understanding of what they’re doing. I’ve heard the ages of intense development are around 7 and 12 – whatever you learn in these ages stick with you for life. We had bits and pieces of the Quran memorized before that but began formal regular Hifz of the Quran at age 12, when we were old enough to have a level of independent discipline. All other schooling was stopped, in order to completely dedicate our hearts and minds to the Quran. We completed the memorization of the Quran in about a year – 11 months if you exclude the holidays.
The routine was like this – at the beginning, the child memorizes whatever they can. Maybe a couple of lines, that’s fine. The teacher comes in the morning and hears the child and makes sure they know it well. The child memorizes whatever they can for the next day. Then teacher listens to the previous lesson and the new lesson. Apart from this lesson and preparing for this lesson, the child is free to play or do whatever they want for the whole day. Over a few weeks, the child builds stamina and can start memorizing 1 to 2 whole pages in a day. With no schoolwork or any other burden, all the child’s energies are concentrated on this, so the results will naturally be good. Once the Quran is memorized, back to regular school, with a necessary revision routine integrated in. That’s it. We were home schooled ahead of our age anyway so the year’s interruption of schooling didn’t do any harm schoolwise. Even if the child does end up a year or two behind at school, it makes almost zero difference in the long run for secular education.
Salaam, that is amazing SubhanAllah. Is this in America, the UK or elsewhere and were you homeschooled from primary/elementary thru to secondary/highschool?
Jzk.
I have a younger than 1 and we let him watch a video of juz amma with related pictures so its also like sensory stimulation. Whay do you think of that?