Praise is due to Allah who said: “And in truth We have made the Qur'an easy to remember; but is there any that remembers?” (Qur'an, 54:32) Youth all over the world memorize the Qur'an, and this is nothing strange. But, praise be to Allah, what about Umm Saalih who memorized the Qur'an when she was 82-years-old. Here's an interview with her: Q – What reason drove you to memorize the Qur'an after so many years? A – I always hoped to memorize the Qur'an from the time I was young. My father always used to beseech Allah to make me one of the memorizers of the Qur'an, like himself and like the elder brothers of my family who had memorized Allah's Holy Book. So I memorized in the beginning about three parts and then after I reached the age of 13, I got married and became busy with the household and children. After I had seven children, my husband died. They (the children) were all young so I spent time to raise and educate them, and then after they grew up and got married, I had more time for myself. Therefore, the first thing I directed myself to focus upon was the Qur'an. Q – Tell us about your journey with the Noble Qur'an? A – My younger daughter was going to high school and she was the closest to me among my children and the most beloved, because she stayed with me after her older sisters got married and got busy with their lives, and also because she was a quiet girl, upright, loving, and good. In addition, she was interested in learning the Noble Qur'an, and her teachers encouraged her. Furthermore, she was very enthusiastic and always told me of many women who were driven by this great motivation to memorize the Qur'an, and this is when I started. Q – Tell us about your way of memorization. A – We assigned 10 verses (meaning her and her daughter who was going to high school). So everyday after Asr, we used to sit together. She would read and I would repeat after her three times. Then she would explain the meaning to me, and after a while, she would repeat that three times. Next morning, she would repeat them to me before she went to the school. She recorded also the recitations of Ash-Sheikh Al-Husary repeating each verse three times and thus I continued to listen to the recitation most of the time. The next day we would go to the next 10 verses if my memorization was good. Otherwise, we would postpone taking additional verses until the day after. Moreover, we assigned the day of Friday to review the memorizations of the entire week. And this was the journey from the beginning. For four-and-a-half years, I memorized 12 parts the way I described to you. Then my daughter got married. When her husband knew of our memorization, he rented a house close to my house, so that he could allow the memorization to continue. In addition, he would encourage us and sometimes sit with us listening, explaining and teaching. Then after three years of her marriage, my daughter got busy with children and household chores. Our schedule was interrupted, but that did not make her give up. She looked for a special good teacher to continue the journey under her supervision. So, I completed the memorization by the will of Allah. – Ad-Da'wah Magazine
