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To the untrained ear, beautiful Quran recitation may not be all that beautiful, technically speaking. Yes, a person may have a melodious voice and put emotion into what they are reciting, but they could be completely off with the rules. Although I was taught by a teacher as a child for a few years, and was aware of the basic rules of Idgham, Ikhfaa' etc, it was only until I started lessons a year ago, did I realise that I had a lot of work to do. We started from Chapter One: Al-Fatiha, and spent a week perfecting our pronunciation of every letter, every rule. Then we started Surah Al-Baqarah, memorising only a few verses at a time, and for around half a year, our teacher (from Saudi and studying a phd here) recited half a page to us; we recited back, having multiple mistakes corrected, and by the next week we'd have memorised it perfectly (or that was the idea). Then the memorisation gradually increased, and we'd be tested from anywhere in the surah before we'd be allowed to continue with that week's Quran. When Ramadan came around, and we took a break for a month, I thought I'd take advantage by memorising as much as I could, and then after Ramadan, he thought I'd be able to memorise more, so he gave me 3 pages to memorise every week. Today, alhamdulillah, I finished memorising Surah Al-Baqarah, the longest chapter in the Quran; and only a few months ago, I thought this task was impossible. As per tradition when scholars celebrate their memorisation of this surah, I have a cake waiting for me downstairs. Alhamdulillah.

But now the biggest challenge is trying to remember what I've committed to memory, as well as memorising more, and apparently this is where most people fall short. My advice to people wanting to memorise Quran? Don't feel disheartened if you can only memorise small chunks of Quran, because small chunks add up to bigger chunks, and with patience and a LOT of revision, you and I could memorise the whole thing one day inshaallah :)

Also, it's useful to have a teacher as kind and as patient as mine. Jazakallahu khair Hamid.