HD 13: Overcoming Hubut (Laziness) by Sr. Fajr

Bismillah walhamdulillah

I have posted this before, but I decided I would like to re-post it and add it to my hifdh diaries inshaAllah, so please read (or re-read) the following piece on overcoming Hubut by Sr. Fajr (taken from Fee Qalbee blog)

Overcoming Hubut

by Sister Fajr (may Allah preserve her)

Hubut (هبوط)

This Qur’an, as much as it is the Gift of Allah which He gives to whom He wishes, it is also the test of Allah for many of us. If we’ve made a sincere decision to memorise the Qur’an, this Book which took 23 years to come down to Earth… we also need to realize that it’s not really going to be one simple, easy, straightforward road from the moment of ‘Azm (resolve) to the day of khatm (completion). It is the case that we’ll face many obstacles on the way, and one obstacle which is not always spoken about is a particular one which I call: Hubut – هبوط (an Arabic term meaning ‘diminution, lack of motivation, laxity, mental blocks, laziness, weakness, slackness’ – you get the idea)

In the course of your Hifdh, watch out for the ‘Hubut’ moments. Those days when you can’t seem to memorise anything, you have a mental block & your motivation feels like it’s just faced the firing squad. Yep, you know what I’m talking about… it’s a strange phenomenon faced by everyone but for the student memorizing Qur’an these ‘down moments’ are public enemy no.1, they can really mess you up and throw you off-course if you don’t know how to deal with them. Some students face major moments of ‘futur’ (laxity) and as a result; they abandon memorisation entirely and never reach their goal of Hifdh al-Qur’an (even though they have memorised over half the Qur’an done). Yeah, it happens.

It’s a frustrating period of time which makes a person sad, disheartened and feel like they’ll never achieve anything. So the one who used to memorise 2 pages a day is reduced to memorizing only a few verses, the one who used to wake up earlier than crows finds himself in hibernation and the one who used to make time for Hifdh despite his busy schedule can no longer be bothered with things.

So why does it happen and when does it happen?

Well, I guess that’s one for the psychologists to answer but in general, these moments can occur randomly and for different reasons. As a student you’ll have always been told to steer clear of sins (the wise advice of Wakee’) and this is because sins bring about these moments of hubut faster and more frequently than anything else – and once you begin to suffer from it, it creates the perfect atmosphere for one to abandon and forget the Qur’an. It’s a major tool of Shaytan which he uses to mislead the slaves of Allah from becoming constant in good deeds (watch him enter hubut into all your ‘ibadat). But sometimes in a person’s attempts of avoiding sin, they fall into the other ‘less known’ causes of hubut:

Stress
Work overload
Long periods of not listening to or reciting Qur’an
Emotions running high or low/emotional instability (such as anger, over-excitement, depression, mood-swings, giddiness etc).
Thinking too much
Eating/sleeping too much
Not finding a companion to work with or a teacher to assist you
Too much empty time
Boredom
Receiving too much criticism from others

For sisters, you may notice hubut near the times of your menstrual cycle and hence you face mental blocks either before, during or after your period.

So what do we do?

Good question, my friend!

But a better question is: ‘What would you do if you were on your way somewhere important and something blocked your road?’ Or ‘What if you were going home from university or work but as you come to the tube station, the Underground folks tell you that the Northern Line has been suspended’ (doesn’t that always happen?) and your route home has now been affected. What do you do?

Your answers would probably include things like:

– Avoid the blockage

– Get around it or move it out of your way somehow

– Find a different route

– Wait a while for things to clear

– Don’t rely on London’s Transport! J

Please, Fajr… something more detailed?

Ok, ok…

· First thing first: When you’ve hit your moment of ‘hubut’, it’s important that you do not end up doing the dreaded, which is: stopping your Hifdh altogether. You can decrease your portion if necessary, but never halt it. Instead, to make up for things, try to increase your listening of Qur’an so have your Surah playing in your iPod or cassette player, around the house, in the car, on your way to work etc. If you are familiar with your hubut and know that it’ll only last a few hours or a day, then maybe take a break from Hifdh for that time period and do something different until your laxity passes by.

· If your moment of hubut is due to something physical (e.g. you’re tired, hungry, or stressed etc) then you need to satisfy this first and overcome it. So sleep well, eat well, relax, and maybe get a massage and do some stretches if your menstrual cycle has made you feel like a hippo stuck in mud lol.

· Stay away from anything which will lower your spirits or demotivate you – be it junk food (this is crime I say), loneliness, laziness, boredom, lack of support, friends/family who may criticize your efforts (be kind and patient with them but take a break as well) basically whatever does not float your boat and gets you down.

· Having some organisation in your life is like having salt and vinegar in your fish and chips. Really, it does wonders to be tidy, neat and organised – and it actually leads you to become more organised and focused at mind. With Hifdh of Qur’an, you need space. That means physical space (periods of solitude to contemplate and memorise) as well as giving yourself mental ‘space’ – if you overwhelm your brain with a hundred ‘things to-do’ and stick-it notes that are scattered in your mind, you just won’t find the focus, motivation or time for Hifdh.

. Routines are the best! You may enjoy living in the fast lane and being like a spontaneous person, but sometimes you need those ‘mundane’ routines in life. Think of them as ‘Thawabit’ – constants that hold you down whenever you feel like you’re about to fall off the road. If for example, you have a regular routine of coming home from work, showering, eating and then sitting down for half an hour to memorise half a page, then when you’re hit by hubut one day, you will naturally still be composed and find it easier to continue with that routine compared to someone who has no routine for their Hifdh – and were you to miss that daily half an hour of Hifdh, you will actually feel weird like something is missing! (Well, it is.)

· Stay active. Have workout sessions where you physically exercise your body, and depending on how fit you are, I would recommend doing rigorous exercise at least two or three times a week – it’ll make you more alert, creates a sense of passion/ambition in life, keeps things like depression, laziness and tiredness at bay and guess what? It’s a sharp sword against hubut and futur.

· Have a deadline, always. Set one deadline for overall Hifdh (e.g. by July 2010) and have another deadline for every commencing week and month etc. Make sure you write these deadlines in different places – on your work desk, in kitchen, as a reminder on your phone, or if you’re a typical Londoner have it engraved on the front of your oyster card! This way, whenever you are faced with hubut, you still have a focus and something to work towards, no matter what.

And the list goes on… Seriously, books can be written on this topic.

A point to note: If you look back at the pre-mentioned causes of hubut, you’ll notice a common factor… they are mainly causes which preoccupy and affect one’s heart. Hence, to avoid hubut, avoid anything which affects the healthy state of your heart, e.g. having too much attachment to this world.

Realise that through the course of memorising Qur’an you will be undergoing a form of training whereby you attain characteristics of a believer insha’Allah – e.g. firm and correct belief, patience, zuhd, gratitude, contemplation, determination, courage, humbleness, you gain good judgement, sound mind, kindness & ease in character (riqqa), and so on bi’ithnillah.

So it’s a training period to see you through life… and naturally any form of training will consist of testing moments or obstacles and hence hubut (as much as it’s an annoying and frustrating occurrence) it actually serves a purpose in the long run – so don’t be disheartened and definitely do not give up J

I ask Allah to keep us and our resolves firm. May He protect us from the downfalls and pitfalls upon this path. Amin

HD 12: Traveler with Qur’an – Sh. Fahad Al Kandari

Bismillah walhamdulillah

Looking for motivation for Qur’an memorization?

Are you facing a “bump in the road”?

Are you beginning to doubt yourself?

Are you starting to despair?

Look no further my dear brothers and sisters…

I have deprived you all of this for long enough …

It wasn’t intentional, subhanAllah I would continuously forget though it is not like me to do so. I concluded from that that shaytan really doesn’t want you all to see this…

So dive right in and share with others inshaAllah!

 

Bismillah

Does everyone remember this video that I posted once?

Blind Child Doesn’t Want To See

Remember how inspirational and mind-blowing that was?

Well, it turns out that this is a short clip… from a larger episode…which is part of a larger series… on Qur’an Memorization called:

Traveler with the Qur’an by Sh. Fahad al Kandari

It’s an amazing, truly amazing and inspirational series. I rarely watch a full-episode, and the rest, I just watch a few minutes here and there, and I am still running on the fuels from that subhanaAllah. The Introduction Theme alone will melt your heart. It will make you cry, feel small, and feel so determined to be from amongst Ahlul-Qur’an inshaaAllah! One thing that this series has done for me, by the mercy of Allah swt, that other Qur’an-help-sources have not, is that it makes you feel so determined that you are willing to discipline your entire life, just so that you can have more time for the Book of Allah aza wa jel.

And you are reminded over and over again:

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

The entire series is in Arabic, but more than 1/3 of it has already been translated into English!

There are 30 episodes full in Arabic here:
http://www.youtube.com/user/fahadalkandari
Tab >> Uploads

And there are ~11 episodes with English subtitles here:
https://www.youtube.com/user/hagirelhadari/videos?flow=grid&view=0
Tab >> Uploads

 

If you guys want – you can leave the sister (may Allah preserve her) a comment on her youtube page, telling her how beneficial you have found the series and encouraging her to keep translating, and you didn’t hear that from me. :)

May Allah swt grant us al ikhlaas wal istiqaamah, and protect us from laziness, distractions, and the plots of shaytan, and may He swt make us from amongst those whom He loves. May Allah swt accept this from me and you all.

“Huffadh of the Qur’an ARE Ahlul-Quran…With the Qur’an, is the Love of Allah attained.” – Al Asbab al Mu’eena ‘alal Hifdh

HD 11: Picking up the Pieces [post-Ramadan]

Bismillah walhamdulillah
Not many people know this, but although I did not endorse stopping memorization during Ramadan, I put my own memorization on halt during the last ten nights.

[an uproar occurs on wordpress]

I had tried to keep up with my memorization homework, but it was much easier said than done. I recall one night, between ishaa and fajr, sitting slumped on the floor, leaning against a chair, and reciting in a barely audible voice. I felt very low on energy. Memorizing during Ramadan was much different than memorizing outside of Ramadan. But I kept going, because I couldn’t bring myself to tell my teacher that I wanted to take a break.

A part of it was because of how difficult it was for me to finally find a new teacher since my old one had left a few months back. I wasn’t just going to let this new one go because of a “lack of energy.” I would travel to her for every appointment. I would recite and ignore the embarrassing cracking in my voice, a mixture of shyness and dehydration. I could tell she was trying to politely ignore it, but it was so bad that I doubted at one point if she even could understand what I was reciting.

But I was finding it all quite difficult and I would remember my own advice: if it is hindering you from completing Qur’an, or in another way, then it is better to pause or to slow it down. My particular method of memorization does not actually give too much room for “slowing down,” (but I could have easily shifted methods, I just really preferred my own). So I ended up calling her one day, to ask for a break, really feeling like I over-estimated what I could handle. In retrospect, I should’ve given more serious thought to memorizing smaller portions, but I felt it was better to just pause and focus on the last ten nights, complete as much recitation of Qur’an as I could, and then give memorizatoin my ‘all’ outside of Ramadan,  inshaa’Allah.

I called her in the afternoon, and after exchanging our salams, I went into explaining what was going on for me and how difficult it had been, and how it was not normal for me to be making so many mistakes in recitation, and so on and so on. It would be safe to say that I was rambling.

Although my teacher’s English is good, it is not her first language, and my rambling probably caught her off-guard. She patiently waited for me to finish, and then kindly informed me that she had no idea what I just said.

“Hold on,” I said.

I quickly went into my contacts list in my phone and began looking for Arab friends of mine. No one was picking up.

Finally, a sister picked up. I quickly explained to her that I wanted her to translate, and then I joined the two calls.

My friend: Fatima is saying that she is finding it difficult to memorize Qur’an, and she would like some help.

Me: Don’t say that! I want to take a break during the last ten days.

My friend: She would like to continue after Ramadan.

My teacher was fine with it, and other than a couple of text messages that I sent to her, I did not get into contact with her until I was ready to return. I had a feeling she was used to people taking “breaks” and never coming back, so I made sure she understood that I was definitely coming back, inshaa’Allah.

Now here I am, trying to pick up the pieces after my “break.” I still felt that I needed it, but it is never easy to just halt memorization completely and then to return to that wonderful routine and be steadfast in it, especially now that my classes at the University have begun.

I’m learning that it is okay to take things slow, as long as you are consistent in it. I was accustomed to memorizing larger amounts than what my teacher was giving me, and I did not hold back from complaining [politely…okay, there was a little whining involved too]. But she calmly explained to me: “A little that you are consistent with is better than doing a lot and then you stop.”

So naturally, I hung my head in shame and agreed.

It will take time, but I am determined and I know that this task that I have in front of me is one that is miraculously easy, so I’m not afraid, and I’m not worried. And come next Ramadan, if Allah swt allows me to reach it, I will try even harder and I will push myself even more, inshaa’Allah.

I am trying to build better and different habits, trying new techniques and experimenting with what works best.

And in regard to setbacks in the process of hifdh, I think all of us have them. Some setbacks will be bigger than others. What distinguishes one person from another is how they respond. Do you let it throw you off course until you can’t imagine going back? Or are you willing to swim against the tide for a little bit, certain that you will surely reach your destination?
You know, everyone has their “tips for memorizing,” although they are all basically saying the same thing.

One of those things that I have noticed that is oft-repeated, in different ways is:

Consistency is key.

(May Allah swt grant us all tawfique. Ameen)

Golden Advice for Qur’an Memorizors – Islamic Poetry

A blind sheikh, hafidhahullah, wrote this beautiful short poetry and recites it in a very nice way.

Advice: How to Memorize Qur’an

7 tips for memorizing Quran