Long time, no blog post!
Life has gotten away from me between work, raising a toddler (already a toddler, gasp!), and keeping up with the house and family. I feel like I have had no energy to think about what to write about let alone carve out the time to write a post. However, I do enjoy writing and the feeling of posting an article that hopefully someone will find helpful, so I’m trying to make a better effort.
With that, I wanted to share something that I have been doing since the beginning of the year. I made a New Year’s resolution to read the Quran every single day. A couple of months in, I have stuck to it. I made no stipulations on how much I would read everyday, only that I would.
Admittedly, some days I only managed to read one single ayah as I tried my best to keep my eyes open before falling asleep (new mom life!), but still, I can honestly say that 65 days into the year, I have read from the Quran every single day.
The reason that I committed to this daily exercise is because I have a deep desire to understand the Quran and you can’t understand it if you don’t read it. Here’s what I’m doing differently this year to help me connect to and cultivate a love for reading the Quran.
1. Read Quran every single day
I’ve already addressed this. Read the Quran every single day and make it a habit to reflect upon it, even if it’s a single ayah. I personally did not want to commit to a certain number of ayah to read because I did not want to feel discouraged if I did not meet that goal. Generally, I keep reading until I come across an ayah or subject that I do not understand or that I have a strong connection to and want to reflect upon.
2. Write down my thoughts and questions daily
I have a beautiful agenda with lined spaces for each day of the week where I write my thoughts and questions to what I have read. It’s motivating to have a lovely place to write my notes and it’s one more way I have stuck to my daily goal.
3. Keep track of my questions
In that same agenda, I have the monthly calendar before the start of each month. Whenever I have a question or some topic I don’t understand in response to what I’ve read for the day, I will circle that date on my monthly calendar. Some days, I don’t have any questions and some days it feels like I have day after day of concepts I don’t understand.
4. Revisit topics
In my free time (lol) I can look at my monthly calendar where I’ve circled the days I had questions about what I read and try to find the answer to those questions through different sources. Sometimes, I can find explanations on Islamic question and answer sites and sometimes I get led to reading articles or books on the topic. I never know what path a question will lead me down, but that’s part of the fun! On the way to answering my question, I learn a lot more than I originally thought I would.
This is the method that has been working really well for me so far. It appeals to my love of journaling, writing, research, and habit tracking and I think that’s a big reason why I’ve been able to stick to it. I hope this helps someone try and approach learning and loving the Quran in a way that is new and fresh, it’s certainly helped me a lot!
So Remember Me 