As the hunger pangs kick in, and the sleep deprivation starts to take effect, somewhere on your to-do list, there’s probably a note saying “Read the Quran”.
And, unless you scheduled in an extra hour each day aside from family, cooking, sleeping, eating and praying… that’s usually the one to drop fastest from the list.
Here are a few simple, powerful strategies that make it much more likely that by the end of Ramadan you’ll have hit your Quran goals. The key is “Flexibility”. Keep your outcome to complete the Quran fixed, but be flexible as to how and when that outcome is achieved.
One other mindset piece to keep in mind before you pick up the greatest book ever is: make your goal match your skill set. If you want to get ‘addicted’ to the Quran this Ramadan, the ideal way is to get into what Mihaly Czikszentmihalyi calls “Flow”. They key to a ‘flow state’ is to make sure that the activity is not too difficult (or you’ll get frustrated and quit) or too easy (or you’ll get bored and quit).
With that in mind, here are some different ways you can hit all your Quran targets in the next 28 days:
- Read the Quran in English: if your Arabic is non-existent and all you see is squiggles and dots when you read the Quran, make it your mission to fix that in time for next year’s Ramadan. For this year, read the Quran in English with the intention and prayer that your mind and heart are filled with the light of divine wisdom and insight.
- Listen to the Quran in Arabic: a great option if you’re short on time or don’t have the Arabic-script reading skill yet. Pick a reciter you enjoy who recites at a moderately fast pace (one Juz (30th) of the Quran ought to take 40 minutes to 1 hour, but no longer) and listen to it on the go, or while cleaning up around the home or watching the kids. The idea is to fill your heart and mind with Allah’s words. This can have a profound meditative effect and if you’re sensitive to energy, you may notice your heart soften up over the next couple of weeks.
- The Quran Assimilation Method: if you’ve been through a few Arabic courses or have some idea of what the Arabic words mean, this can be a very powerful method – and potentially life-changing if you’ve never done it before. Basically, listen to a good reciter, while simultaneously reading the English translation, at the same pace. It’s like having subtitles for the beautiful, heart-warming recitation. I recommend you do this with an actual physical copy of the Quran translation, not just watch a Quran recitation video with subtitles. By the end of the month, you may well have fallen in love with your translation, underlined and made notes in the margin by the parts that were particularly touching and insightful for you.
- Read the Quran in Arabic: this is, obviously, the one most people aim for. If you can recite well and fluently, you’ll find that reading the text yourself is much quicker than listening to a reciter. If you know Arabic too, this is obviously the best way to do it. If you don’t know Arabic but can recite the script, this still has a meditative, heart-warming affect, much like listening to the recitation without understanding it does.
- Take A Quran Walk: Use method #2 above, while going for a walk. It becomes like a walking meditation. You’ll return home energised, refreshed, and buzzing knowing that you just took great care of your mind, body and soul.
- Recite 4 Pages After Each Prayer: 5 prayers a day, 4 pages per prayer means 20 pages (1 juz) per day. If your prayer habit is on point, and can recite the Arabic, this is an easy, convenient way to complete the Quran by the end of Ramadan. If not make it a prayer and intention to be able to do this by next Ramadan.
- Listen to the English Audio: the best translation of the Quran (in my humble opinion), the New Oxford Translation by Professor Abdel Haleem (incidentally, one of my professors at SOAS), is now available on Audible. Funny story: a couple of years ago, I was offered the job to be the narrator by the studio that recorded my own audiobook… but in the end they dropped me in favour of the professor’s own son. Ah well, maybe I’ll still get some of that divine reward by letting you know that it’s available…
- Do 2 Daily Sessions of 1 Hizb each: there’s a North African tradition, which I absolutely love, to recite 1 hizb (half a juz) after the pre-dawn Fajr prayer and another after the sunset Maghrib prayer. They recite it out loud in congregation, and just being in the room is very powerful. You can almost sense the presence of the angels. My local mosque when I lived in Rotterdam did this, and I loved it (…until COVID hit!). The key here is that it only takes about 20 minutes to do 1 hizb, and it feels natural to pause at that point. As long as you’ve got an unbreakable schedule allowing for 2 recitation sessions, this is a great way to go.
- Aim for 2 juz per day: if you want to absolutely guarantee you recite the Quran this month… aim to complete it all twice. Even if you miss your goal, you’ll definitely have completed it once. You may even take a couple of the strategies here and do them separately. For example, listen to the Quran for an hour each day as you do other activities, then at a separate time, sit down and read the translation using method #3 above.
- Up Your Weekend Quran Game: Another similar strategy is to do 1 juz per weekday and 2 juz each weekend day. That’s 9 juz per week, or 36 over the month.
There you have it, 10 ways you can complete the Quran this Ramadan, based on your current skill level.
If you want to increase your skill level so that this time next year, you can fluently, beautifully recite the entire Quran in Arabic with understanding, get your hands on the Quran For Busy People course. Plus, if you don’t currently have the Daily Quran Habit, make it a solid goal to deepen your connection and contact with the Quran this Ramadan, in a way that last for life. For help with this, get your hands on the Daily Quran Habit course.
