Improving Your Memory

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
In the Name of Allah, Most Merciful, Most Compassionate
Assalaamu alaykum

Dear Friends

I pray that you are well.

A lot of people struggle with remembering things, and in many different ways. We are trying to memorize the Qur'an or hadith but we are having a hard time. Is there anything we can focus on in our daily lives that can limit what caused us to forget of the Qur’an or Ahadith? Is there anything we can do every day that will open our heart and intellect and make them better receptacles for knowledge?

Everyone's memory is different, but none of us have a perfect memory. In fact, even if you think your memory is perfect, chances are it isn't.

Imam ash-Shafi’i undoubtedly had a powerful memory. It is reported that he memorized al-Muwata from Imam Malik in a single day. However he began to sense a deficiency in his ability to memorize and retain information, so he asked his Shaykh, the famous Waki’ bin al-Jarrah about that. So this situation was turned into prose:

شَكَوْتُ إِلَى وَكِيعٍ سُوءَ حِفْظِي... فَأَرْشَنِي إِلَى تَرْكِ الْمَعَاصِي

I complained to Waki’ of a deficiency in my ability to memorize ... So he instructed me to abandon sin.

وَقَالَ بِأَنَّ الْعِلْمَ نُورٌ ... وَنُورُ اللهِ لَا يُؤتَاهُ عَاصِي

And he said to me that knowledge is a light ... And the light of Allah is not granted to a sinner.

So, if you are having a hard time memorizing the Qur'an or hadith or you easily forget what you have memorized, the first thing you should do is to abandon sins, turn to Allah and sincerely repent for your sins, do lots of istighfar by day and by night, and avoid Allah's prohibitions. At the same time take steps to improve your memory.

Improving your memory is possible inshaAllah. There certainly are some techniques proven to help you retain information, but improving your memory is just as much about lifestyle as anything else.

1) Exercise Regularly

We know that physical activity affects the brain in a number of positive ways, and one of those is a boost to memory. Most of us are aware of what happens to the body when we exercise. We build more muscle or more stamina. We feel how daily activities like climbing stairs becomes easier if we exercise regularly. When it comes to our brain and mood though, the connection isn't so clear. There is a lot going on inside our brain and it is oftentimes a lot more active than when we are just sitting down or actually concentrating mentally.

A study from Penn State revealed that "Those who had exercised during the preceding month but not on the day of testing generally did better on the memory test than those who had been sedentary, but did not perform nearly as well as those who had worked out that morning."

Starting to exercise regularly or even daily is still easier said than done. At end of the day, there is quite a lot of focus required to get into the habit of exercising daily. The most important part to note is that exercise is a keystone habit. This means that daily exercise can improve your memory and pave the way not only for happiness but growth in all other areas of your life.

2) Get Enough Sleep

Most of us have heard before that sleep plays an important role in memory, but as time goes on we're learning a lot more about how that works. Sleep and memory is an intensely researched subject, and it's pretty clear that sleep plays a significant role in memory formation. Essentially, it's thought that the better the sleep you get each night, the better your memory.

Many of us struggle to get enough sleep every night, but is the sleep we get any good? While it's important to get enough sleep, better sleep is a greater ally than more hours of sleep.

Sleep is a critical part of your body's maintenance routine and depriving yourself of it is the same as running a machine with no down time for preventive care and repairs. You can do it but eventually something breaks and usually catastrophically.

Your body is a complex machine. Our modern coffee-swilling, go-go-go, work-until-the-crack-of-dawn-and-collapse culture has only been around for the tiniest fraction of the history of the human species. We haven't adapted to less sleep, and we're likely not going to adapt any time soon. You need as much sleep today as your greatest of great grandfathers needed in 2014 BCE.

What happens when you don't get enough sleep? Everyone is familiar with the common side effects, like being tired the next day, sore muscles, and general irritability. Sleep deprivation also has a myriad of side effects you don't see as easily as yawning or a snippy attitude. Sleep deprivation increases your risk of heart disease, impairs memory retention, increases risk of diabetes and obesity (adequate sleep is required for proper glucose processing and insulin regulation), and increases risk of depression and other mental illness, the list goes on and on.

The only person who can judge the amount of sleep you need to be happy and alert is you. Studies come out year after year saying X number of hours is the best number of hours—8 hours to feel most rested, 7 hours to live long like the Japanese, 6 hours and you'll die young—but the only expert on what is best for you is you.

Practice Good Sleep Hygiene: Sleep hygiene is similar to your end-of-day personal hygiene. Just like you wash your face and brush your teeth before bed, sleep hygiene is an umbrella term that covers all the things you do leading up to sleep that help or hinder restful sleep. Step away from the screens. Purge your bedroom -- No computers, no television, no balancing your checkbook in bed, no reading novels, no anything but sleeping and getting it on.

Follow the Sunnah Before Sleeping:

The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wassallam said, ‘If you take to your bed, then perform ablution, lie on your right side and then supplicate: ‘O Allah, I submit my soul unto You, and I entrust my affair unto You, and I turn my face towards You, and I totally rely on You, in hope and fear of You. Verily there is no refuge nor safe haven from You except with You. I believe in Your Book which You have revealed and in Your Prophet whom You have sent.’…If you then die, you will die upon the fitrah.’

The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wassallam also said: ‘When retiring to his bed every night, the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wassallam would hold his palms together, spit in them, recite the last three chapters of the Qur’aan and then wipe over his entire body as much as possible with his hands, beginning with his head and face and then all parts of the body, he would do this three times.’

‘When you are about to sleep recite Ayat-ul-Kursi till the end of the verse for there will remain over you a protection from Allah and no devil will draw near to you until morning.’

More remembrance before sleeping here.

May Allah shower us with His Light and grant us tawfiq. Ameen.

Please don't forget us in your night prayers. Jazakum Allahu khairan.

And Allah knows best.
Wassalaam