How to start learning the Qur’an as an adult: a realistic first year

Starting the Qur’an as an adult comes with its own kind of embarrassment: children at the mosque recite what you are still spelling out. It helps to know how the Prophet ﷺ spoke about exactly that:

“The proficient reciter of the Qur’an will be with the noble and obedient angel-scribes, and the one who recites the Qur’an stutteringly and finds it difficult will have two rewards.”

Two rewards for the one who finds it hard. Here is a first year that takes that seriously.

Months one to three: learn to read

Learn the letters and their sounds, then the short vowels, then how the letters join. With steady daily practice this takes months, not years.

Do it with a teacher, in person at a mosque or online, because recitation is learned by ear and corrected aloud, not from reading about it. The Qur’an asks for care in how it is recited:

and recite the Qur’ān with measured recitation.

Fifteen or twenty minutes a day will carry you further than an afternoon a week.

All year: the meaning alongside

Do not wait until you can read the Arabic to understand what you are reading. Read a translation with a short tafsir beside it, one āyah and then its explanation. If you are unsure where to begin, we compared the two most useful ones in Al-Mukhtaṣar or Ibn Kathīr.

The Companions took it a little at a time, and with its meaning:

“… they would listen to ten verses from the Prophet (may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him) and not move to the next ten verses until they learned the knowledge and application contained therein.”

From month three: memorise for your prayers

Start with al-Fātiḥa if you do not already know it, then the short sūras at the end of the muṣḥaf, the ones you will recite in your prayers every day. We worked out how long Juzʾ ʿAmma takes, and where the time goes.

And We have certainly made the Qur’ān easy for remembrance, so is there any who will remember?

All year: keep it

The part adults skip is the daily part. A fixed time every day, even a short one, is what turns a good month into a year:

“The most beloved deed to Allah is the most regular and constant even if it were little.”

And none of the small amounts are wasted:

“Whoever recites a letter from the Book of Allah will be credited with a good deed for it, and a good deed is multiplied tenfold. I am not saying that ‘Alif-Lām-Mīm’ is one letter, but Alif is a letter, Lām is a letter, and Mīm is a letter.”

What to skip

• Three courses at once. One teacher and one daily time slot beat a library of programmes you will not finish.
• Comparing yourself with people who started as children. Their head start is not your deadline.
• Waiting until you have more time. The hadith of the five before five names free time among the things to use before they go:

“Take advantage of five before five: your youth before your old age, your health before your illness, your wealth before your poverty, your free time before your busyness, and your life before your death.”

The one du’ā to keep

رَّبِّ زِدْنِى عِلْمًا

“My Lord, increase me in knowledge.”

The reader in DeenDrops puts Al-Mukhtaṣar behind every āyah, recites āyah by āyah with repeats and a slower speed, and tracks what you have memorised. But a muṣḥaf, a teacher and a fixed time each day are the whole method. The rest is help.

“The best of you are those who learn the Qur’an and teach it.”