How to Memorize Juz 28 (Qad Sami’a): A Surah-by-Surah Plan

To memorize Juz 28, learn its nine surahs from At-Tahrim back to Al-Mujadila at about 7 lines a day, six days a week, and you’ll finish its 282 lines in eight weeks. Before you start, learn the four surah openings that begin sabbaha lillahi or yusabbihu lillahi, because two of them are word for word the same.

Where does Juz 28 start and end?

Juz 28 starts at Al-Mujadila 58:1 on page 542 and ends at At-Tahrim 66:12 on page 561, 20 pages in all. It holds 137 ayat and nine complete surahs, with no half-surah at either end. Al-Hadid sits just before it, closing Juz 27 on page 541, and it’s easy to count it in by mistake.

It’s called Qad Sami’a after its first words, qad sami’a Allahu. In South Asia you’ll often hear it called Para 28, since para is the Urdu word for a juz.

If you’re coming here from Juz 30 and Juz 29, the first week can feel slow. That’s expected.

Juz 29 fits 431 ayat into 278 lines, so five lines there hold seven or eight ayat. Juz 28 has 137 ayat in 282 lines, about two lines per ayah, and the same five lines often hold two or three. It’s why Juz 28 ranks 21st of 30 in our comparison of every juz by ease, while Juz 29 comes second. Plan it by lines and it’s much more manageable.

Which surahs are in Juz 28?

Here are the nine in mushaf order, with the numbers you’ll plan around. Lines are lines of text in the 15-line Madani mushaf (surah titles and the bismillah aren’t counted). The lesson counts are at 7 lines a day, the pace of the plan below, and they add up to 43.

1. Al-Mujadila (58), “The Pleading Woman.” A wife’s complaint opens it, and with it the ruling on zihar, a divorce the Arabs practiced before Islam, in which a husband told his wife she was like his mother’s back to him. 22 ayat · 49 lines · pages 542 to 545 · 7 lessons.
2. Al-Hashr (59), “The Exile.” The longest surah here. It starts with the expulsion of Banu an-Nadir and ends on three ayat crowded with Allah’s Names. 24 ayat · 51 lines · pages 545 to 548 · 8 lessons.
3. Al-Mumtahanah (60), “She That Is to Be Examined.” Short on ayat, long on words: its 13 ayat run about 27 words each, the heaviest in the juz. Ibrahim’s break with his people sits in the middle. 35 lines · pages 549 to 551 · 5 lessons.
4. As-Saf (61), “The Ranks.” Its second ayah asks the believers why they say what they don’t do. The whole surah fits on one open spread of a printed mushaf. 14 ayat · 22 lines · pages 551 to 552 · 4 lessons.
5. Al-Jumu’ah (62), “Friday.” The shortest of the nine. Its last three ayat are about the Friday prayer, where the surah itself is often recited. 11 ayat · 19 lines · pages 553 to 554 · 3 lessons.
6. Al-Munafiqun (63), “The Hypocrites.” Al-Jumu’ah’s partner in the Friday prayer. Eight ayat on what the hypocrites say and swear, then three on wealth, children and spending before death comes. 11 ayat · 21 lines · pages 554 to 555 · 3 lessons.
7. At-Taghabun (64), “The Mutual Disillusion.” The last of the musabbihat, and the lightest ayat in the juz, about 13 words each, half Al-Mumtahanah’s. 18 ayat · 28 lines · pages 556 to 557 · 4 lessons.
8. At-Talaq (65), “Divorce.” Waiting periods and housing after divorce, threaded with promises to whoever fears Allah. 12 ayat · 29 lines · pages 558 to 559 · 5 lessons.
9. At-Tahrim (66), “The Prohibition.” It opens inside the household of the Prophet ﷺ and closes on four women as examples, two of warning and two to follow. 12 ayat · 28 lines · pages 560 to 561 · 4 lessons.

Al-Mujadila and Al-Hashr alone are 100 of the 282 lines, more than a third of the juz. The second half, from Al-Jumu’ah on, is lighter: 125 lines against the first half’s 157. That shapes the order we recommend below.

If you only want the easiest single surah, start with Al-Jumu’ah: 19 lines, three lessons, and words you may already know from the Friday prayer. At-Taghabun has the lightest ayat if you’d rather have short ones.

Why is it called Qad Sami’a?

The juz takes its name from the opening words of Al-Mujadila:

قَدْ سَمِعَ ٱللَّهُ قَوْلَ ٱلَّتِى تُجَـٰدِلُكَ فِى زَوْجِهَا وَتَشْتَكِىٓ إِلَى ٱللَّهِ وَٱللَّهُ يَسْمَعُ تَحَاوُرَكُمَآ ۚ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ سَمِيعٌۢ بَصِيرٌ

“Certainly has Allāh heard the speech of the one who argues [i.e., pleads] with you, [O Muḥammad], concerning her husband and directs her complaint to Allāh. And Allāh hears your dialogue; indeed, Allāh is Hearing and Seeing.”

Al-Mujadila 58:1, Saheeh International translation. Compare translations on quran.com

‘A’ishah said, “Praise is to Allah Whose hearing encompasses all voices.” The woman had come to the Prophet ﷺ to complain while ‘A’ishah sat in a corner of the same house and couldn’t hear her, and then this ayah was revealed (Sunan Ibn Majah 188, graded sahih by Darussalam). Sunan an-Nasa’i 3460 gives her name: Khawlah. On the plan below, Al-Mujadila is the last surah you’ll learn, so you’ll come to 58:1 in week seven, and when you do you’re reciting the reply to her.

Which order should you learn the surahs of Juz 28 in?

From the end, for most people. Start with At-Tahrim, finish with Al-Mujadila, and learn each surah forwards from its own first ayah.

• The lighter half comes first. Al-Jumu’ah to At-Tahrim averages a little under two lines an ayah; Al-Mujadila to As-Saf, a little over. You get used to long Madinan ayat on easier ground.
• The two longest surahs come last. Al-Hashr (51 lines) and Al-Mujadila (49) come in weeks 5 to 8, when a two-line ayah no longer feels strange.
• It continues what you’ve already done. If you learned Juz 30 from An-Nas and Juz 29 the same way, you’re already moving backwards, and starting at At-Tahrim puts the join with Al-Mulk (page 561 into 562) in daily use from week one.
• The surahs you half-know arrive in week three. The Prophet ﷺ recited Al-Jumu’ah and Al-Munafiqun in the Friday prayer (Sahih Muslim 879a), so many people have heard them for years. By week three you may find you already know a line or two before the lesson starts.

Go from the start instead if you revise by page, if your teacher sets lessons in mushaf order, or if you already know Al-Jumu’ah and Al-Munafiqun well, which takes away the week-three head start you’d get going backwards. Page order helps visual memory, and you meet the openings in their real sequence. The cost is that your first 135 lines, almost half the juz, would be Al-Mujadila, Al-Hashr and Al-Mumtahanah, the heaviest stretch of all.

Can you pray them in the order you learned them?

Learning order and praying order are separate things. Both positions below favor mushaf order in salah, so At-Talaq in the first rak’ah and At-Tahrim in the second. The Standing Committee (al-Lajnah ad-Da’imah) said the reverse isn’t wrong but mushaf order is better (IslamQA 121139). The Hanafi answer from Darul Iftaa Leicester calls deliberate reversal in obligatory prayers prohibitively disliked, though the prayer needn’t be repeated. Al-Jumu’ah then Al-Munafiqun is both the sunnah pairing and mushaf order.

How long does Juz 28 take? A week-by-week plan

At 7 lines a day (just under half a page), six days a week, Juz 28 takes eight weeks. At 10 lines it takes six. These are the numbers our free plan generator gives for the juz from At-Tahrim back, with Fridays off. Its lessons stop at the end of each surah, so a few days carry only a line or two (good days to revise), and the count runs a little over plain line math.

New lines a day	Lesson days	Weeks
5	60	10
7	43	8
10	32	6
15	23	4

We’d pick 7 lines for most adults coming from Juz 29, because it sits just under the half page a day that our guide to how much Quran to memorize each day suggests for part-time students, and it still brings the juz in within two months. Five is easier and finishes in ten weeks. Ten suits someone with a teacher and plenty of daily time.

The eight-week plan, at 7 lines a day

Starting on a Monday, with Friday as the rest day:

• Week 1: At-Tahrim in four days (pages 560 and 561), then the first two lessons of At-Talaq.
• Week 2: the rest of At-Talaq, then three lessons of At-Taghabun. At-Talaq’s last line gets a day to itself, so recite the whole surah that day.
• Week 3: the last lesson of At-Taghabun, all of Al-Munafiqun in three days, then two lessons of Al-Jumu’ah.
• Week 4: the last five lines of Al-Jumu’ah, all of As-Saf, and the first lesson of Al-Mumtahanah on Sunday.
• Week 5: the other four lessons of Al-Mumtahanah, including both of its six-line ayat, then two lessons into Al-Hashr.
• Week 6: six more lessons finish Al-Hashr on line 14 of page 548. The last one is only two lines, the end of 59:24, so spend that day reciting the three Names ayat (lines 9 to 14) together.
• Week 7: six lessons of Al-Mujadila, the surah where every ayah names Allah.
• Week 8: Al-Mujadila’s last lesson on Monday, ending on 58:22 at the top of page 545, then the rest of the week revising the whole juz.

Before each new lesson, recite your last seven lessons from memory. That’s how the generator schedules recent revision, and it’s what helps you remember how each two-line ayah follows the ones before it.

On 10 lines a day the order is the same and everything moves up: At-Tahrim and At-Talaq fill week one, Al-Mumtahanah starts at the end of week three, and the last ayah of Al-Mujadila falls on the Tuesday of week six.

Expect Al-Mumtahanah to feel heavier than 7 lines sounds. 60:4 and 60:10 each run across six lines, so one ayah can be most of a day’s lesson. If it takes three sittings, that’s normal, and it still counts: the Prophet ﷺ said the one who recites with difficulty, faltering through it, gets two rewards (Sahih Muslim 798a).

Missed a day? Don’t double the next lesson. Restart the plan from today and let the finish date move.

Sabbaha or yusabbihu? The openings everyone mixes up

Four surahs in this juz open with everything in the heavens and the earth exalting Allah. Al-Hashr, As-Saf, Al-Jumu’ah and At-Taghabun begin with sabbaha lillahi or yusabbihu lillahi, from tasbih, declaring Allah free of every imperfection. With Al-Hadid in Juz 27 they make up the five surahs known as the musabbihat, so Juz 28 holds four of the five. (Some lists stretch to seven by adding Al-Isra and Al-A’la, which open with other forms of the same root.)

You may also hear that the Prophet ﷺ recited the musabbihat before sleeping and said one ayah in them is better than a thousand. Darussalam grades that report hasan (Jami’ at-Tirmidhi 2921), while al-Albani graded the version in Sunan Abi Dawud 5057 weak. Whichever grading you follow, the Friday pairing of Al-Jumu’ah and Al-Munafiqun is in Sahih Muslim (879a), so those two are the first to bring into regular recitation.

Here are all five openings in mushaf order, the first one included for comparison.

Al-Hadid 57:1, the one outside this juz (Juz 27, page 537)

سَبَّحَ لِلَّهِ مَا فِى ٱلسَّمَـٰوَٰتِ وَٱلْأَرْضِ ۖ وَهُوَ ٱلْعَزِيزُ ٱلْحَكِيمُ

“Whatever is in the heavens and earth exalts Allāh, and He is the Exalted in Might, the Wise.”

Al-Hadid 57:1, Saheeh International translation. Compare translations on quran.com

Al-Hashr 59:1 and As-Saf 61:1, identical (pages 545 and 551)

سَبَّحَ لِلَّهِ مَا فِى ٱلسَّمَـٰوَٰتِ وَمَا فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ ۖ وَهُوَ ٱلْعَزِيزُ ٱلْحَكِيمُ

“Whatever is in the heavens and whatever is on the earth exalts Allāh, and He is the Exalted in Might, the Wise.”

Al-Hashr 59:1 (As-Saf 61:1 is the same), Saheeh International translation. Compare translations on quran.com

Al-Jumu’ah 62:1 (page 553)

يُسَبِّحُ لِلَّهِ مَا فِى ٱلسَّمَـٰوَٰتِ وَمَا فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ ٱلْمَلِكِ ٱلْقُدُّوسِ ٱلْعَزِيزِ ٱلْحَكِيمِ

“Whatever is in the heavens and whatever is on the earth is exalting Allāh, the Sovereign, the Pure, the Exalted in Might, the Wise.”

Al-Jumu’ah 62:1, Saheeh International translation. Compare translations on quran.com

At-Taghabun 64:1 (page 556)

يُسَبِّحُ لِلَّهِ مَا فِى ٱلسَّمَـٰوَٰتِ وَمَا فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ ۖ لَهُ ٱلْمُلْكُ وَلَهُ ٱلْحَمْدُ ۖ وَهُوَ عَلَىٰ كُلِّ شَىْءٍ قَدِيرٌ

“Whatever is in the heavens and whatever is on the earth is exalting Allāh. To Him belongs dominion, and to Him belongs [all] praise, and He is over all things competent.”

At-Taghabun 64:1, Saheeh International translation. Compare translations on quran.com

Put them side by side and only a handful of words change:

1. The verb. Sabbaha (past tense) opens 57, 59 and 61. Yusabbihu (present tense) opens 62 and 64. A memory aid of ours: the odd surah numbers take sabbaha, the even ones take yusabbihu. In mushaf order it’s three, then two.
2. The second “ma fi”. All four Juz 28 openings say wa ma fil-ard, “and whatever is on the earth”. Only Al-Hadid’s says plain wal-ard. So inside this juz, the opening always has both.
3. What follows. 59:1 and 61:1 end wa huwal-‘azizul-hakim, like 57:1. 62:1 has no wa huwa: four Names follow straight on, every one ending in a kasra, al-malikil-quddusil-‘azizil-hakim. 64:1 goes somewhere else entirely, lahul-mulku wa lahul-hamd, wa huwa ‘ala kulli shay’in qadir.
4. The English follows the Arabic. Saheeh International renders sabbaha as “exalts” and yusabbihu as “is exalting”, and it drops the second “whatever” only in 57:1. If you don’t read Arabic yet, the English pairs are a fair stand-in.

Why past in some and present in others? Ma’arif al-Qur’an, citing Tafsir Mazhari, reads the two tenses together: Allah’s perfection is declared at every point in time, past, present and future (Ma’arif al-Qur’an on 57:1). Knowing the reason makes the difference easier to remember. As a memory aid of our own, think of sabbaha for praise that has always been and yusabbihu for praise going on now.

The pair you can’t tell apart by sight

59:1 and 61:1 are the same eleven words, and they even sit in the same spot: both begin on line 9 of their page, after a surah that ends on line 6, a title on line 7 and a bismillah on line 8. Picturing the page won’t help here, so rely on the ayah that follows each one.

Al-Hashr 59:2 begins

هُوَ ٱلَّذِىٓ أَخْرَجَ ٱلَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا۟ مِنْ أَهْلِ ٱلْكِتَـٰبِ …

As-Saf 61:2

يَـٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ لِمَ تَقُولُونَ مَا لَا تَفْعَلُونَ

Al-Hashr carries straight on into the expulsion, huwal-ladhi akhrajal-ladhina kafaru. As-Saf turns to the believers with a question:

“O you who have believed, why do you say what you do not do?”

As-Saf 61:2, Saheeh International translation. Compare translations on quran.com

That question has a story behind it. Some Companions said that if they knew which deed Allah loved most, they would do it, and the opening of As-Saf was revealed, which the Prophet ﷺ then recited to them (Jami’ at-Tirmidhi 3309, graded sahih by Darussalam). Learn 61:1 and 61:2 as one unit. The question in 61:2 is what tells you you’re in As-Saf.

It also helps to link each opening to the surah before it. Al-Mujadila ends on ala inna hizballahi humul-muflihun (58:22), and Al-Hashr’s sabbaha comes next. Al-Mumtahanah ends on min ashabil-qubur (60:13), and As-Saf’s follows. When you revise across surahs, run the last line of one straight into the opening of the next.

A few smaller traps sit close by.

• Al-Hashr opens with sabbaha and the full wa ma fil-ard, then closes 24 ayat later with yusabbihu lahu ma fis-samawati wal-ard (59:24): present tense, “lahu” in place of “lillahi”, and no second “ma fi”. No other tasbih line in Juz 28 takes the short form.
• The same long-or-short switch comes with ya’lamu. Al-Mujadila 58:7 says ya’lamu ma fis-samawati wa ma fil-ard; At-Taghabun 64:4, three ayat after that surah’s long opening, says ya’lamu ma fis-samawati wal-ard. Saheeh International mirrors it again: “what is in the heavens and what is on the earth” against “what is within the heavens and earth”.
• The Names in 59:23 end in damma, al-malikul-quddusu, while the same two Names in 62:1, five pages later, end in kasra.

When you test these, give yourself the surah and ask for what comes next: from As-Saf 61:1 you should go straight into lima taquluna. A quiz that shows you the words of 61:1 alone and asks which surah they’re from can’t be answered fairly, because 59:1 is identical. Our guide to memorizing similar verses without mixing them up covers the full method.

Which ayat trip people up inside each surah?

Use this section as you reach each surah. You don’t need to read it in one sitting. Two patterns run through the whole juz, so start with those.

Fifteen calls to the believers

Juz 28 holds 15 of the Quran’s 89 ya ayyuhal-ladhina amanu, more than any other juz (Juz 6 is next, with 9). Add four ya ayyuhan-nabiyy, one ya ayyuhal-ladhina hadu (62:6) and one ya ayyuhal-ladhina kafaru (66:7), and that’s 21 calls in 20 pages. What separates them is the two or three words after each call, so learn every one as a pair with its continuation:

• All three in Al-Mujadila carry straight on with idha: 58:9 idha tanajaytum, 58:11 idha qila lakum tafassahu, 58:12 idha najaytumur-rasul.
• Al-Hashr has only one, 59:18, and it says ittaqullah twice before it ends.
• Al-Mumtahanah opens and closes with a call (60:1 la tattakhidhu ‘aduwwi, 60:13 la tatawallaw qawman), with a third in the middle at 60:10 idha ja’akumul-mu’minat.
• As-Saf’s three run from its second ayah to its last: lima taquluna (61:2), hal adullukum (61:10), kunu ansarallah (61:14).
• One each in Al-Jumu’ah, Al-Munafiqun and At-Taghabun: 62:9 idha nudiya lis-salah, 63:9 la tulhikum, 64:14 inna min azwajikum.
• At-Tahrim’s two come an ayah apart, 66:6 qu anfusakum and 66:8 tubu ilallah, with the call to the disbelievers wedged between them.

Phrases that travel between surahs

Wa ‘alallahi falyatawakkalil-mu’minun closes both 58:10 and 64:13. Dhalikum khayrun lakum in kuntum ta’lamun closes 61:11 and then 62:9, on pages 552 and 554. A’addallahu lahum ‘adhaban shadida opens 58:15 and 65:10, which then go different ways. When an ending feels familiar, ask which surah you’re in before you say it.

Al-Mujadila

Tip: Allah’s name appears in every one of Al-Mujadila’s 22 ayat, 40 times in all. We checked all 6,236 ayat of the Quran, and no other surah does that. If the ayah you’re about to recite has no “Allah” in it, you’ve left Al-Mujadila.

• 58:2 says yuzahiruna minkum min nisa’ihim; 58:3 drops minkum and starts with wa.
• 58:4 ends ‘adhabun alim, painful, and the very next ayah ends ‘adhabun muhin, humiliating.
• Two pairs open identically: 58:5 and 58:20 (innal-ladhina yuhaddunallaha wa rasulahu), and 58:6 and 58:18 (yawma yab’athuhumullahu jami’an). 58:20 is the short one, just eight words.
• 58:16 shares its first half with 63:2 (ittakhadhu aymanahum junnatan fa saddu ‘an sabilillah). Al-Mujadila carries on fa lahum ‘adhabun muhin; Al-Munafiqun carries on innahum sa’a ma kanu ya’malun, a phrase Al-Mujadila used one ayah earlier, in 58:15.
• 58:19 and 58:22 mirror each other: hizbush-shaytan who are the losers, then hizbullah who are the successful. 58:22 then fills the top six lines of page 545 on its own.

Al-Hashr

Al-Hashr’s hardest page is its last. Three ayat on page 548 open almost alike, and they’re easy to recite out of order.

• 59:22 and 59:23 both open huwallahul-ladhi la ilaha illa huwa; 59:24 opens huwallahul-khaliq with no alladhi. All three sit on lines 9 to 14 of page 548.
• 59:8 to 59:10 name three groups, and each opens differently: lil-fuqara’il-muhajirin, then walladhina tabawwa’ud-dar (the people of Madinah), then walladhina ja’u min ba’dihim, with its well-known dua.
• 59:9 ends exactly like 64:16, five surahs on: wa man yuqa shuhha nafsihi fa ula’ika humul-muflihun.
• 59:15 and 59:16 both start kamathali, two parables back to back: first “those shortly before them”, then Shaytan, kamathalish-shaytan.

Al-Mumtahanah

The longest ayat in the juz live here: 60:10 is 55 words and 60:4 is 52. Break them at their pause marks and learn them in two or three pieces. The other traps are pairs that sit a few ayat apart.

• 60:4 qad kanat lakum uswatun hasanatun fi Ibrahim against 60:6 laqad kana lakum fihim uswatun hasanah: qad kanat becomes laqad kana, and “in Ibrahim” becomes “in them”. 60:6 also opens page 550, so it’s a page-start you’ll want cold.
• 60:8 la yanhakumullahu ‘anil-ladhina lam yuqatilukum, then 60:9 innama yanhakumullahu ‘anil-ladhina qatalukum. Two words change, la to innama and lam yuqatilukum to qatalukum, and the meaning turns from those who didn’t fight you to those who did.
• 60:10 ya ayyuhal-ladhina amanu idha ja’akumul-mu’minat, then 60:12 ya ayyuhan-nabiyyu idha ja’akal-mu’minat. The believers come first, then the Prophet ﷺ.
• 60:13 la tatawallaw qawman ghadiballahu ‘alayhim echoes 58:14, tawallaw qawman ghadiballahu ‘alayhim, back in Al-Mujadila.

As-Saf

As-Saf is short, and its trickiest neighbors sit outside this juz (see the last part of this section). Inside it, two spots need care.

• 61:5 and 61:6 both open wa idh qala. Musa says ya qawmi; ‘Isa says ya bani Isra’il. 61:6 also opens page 552, the halfway point of the juz by pages.
• 61:14 uses the same word three ways in one ayah: kunu ansarallah to the believers, ‘Isa’s question man ansari ilallah, and the disciples’ answer nahnu ansarullah.

Al-Jumu’ah

Al-Jumu’ah’s closest look-alikes are mostly in Al-Baqarah, so inside the juz there’s less to watch.

• 62:6 holds the juz’s only ya ayyuhal-ladhina hadu, and it opens with qul, “Say”, before the call.
• The Friday ayat come as a pair: 62:9 idha nudiya lis-salati, when the call is made, then 62:10 fa idha qudiyatis-salah, when the prayer is over. Nudiya, then qudiyat.

Al-Munafiqun

Al-Munafiqun’s traps are endings, and each pair differs by a word or two.

• 63:1 ends wallahu yashhadu innal-munafiqina la-kadhibun. 59:11, also about hypocrites, ends wallahu yashhadu innahum la-kadhibun.
• 63:7 and 63:8 both close with wa lakinnal-munafiqina, then la yafqahun in 63:7 and la ya’lamun in 63:8.
• 63:9 la tulhikum amwalukum wa la awladukum ‘an dhikrillah sits close to 64:15 innama amwalukum wa awladukum fitnah, one surah later.

At-Taghabun

At-Taghabun shares more with its neighbors than it does with itself.

• One phrase appears three times in the juz: 59:15 dhaqu wabala amrihim, 64:5 fa dhaqu wabala amrihim with an extra fa, and 65:9 fa dhaqat wabala amriha, about a town, with a different close.
• 64:9 and 65:11 share a middle, wa man yu’min billahi wa ya’mal salihan, though neither ayah starts there. 64:9 adds yukaffir ‘anhu sayyi’atihi and ends dhalikal-fawzul-‘azim; 65:11 goes straight to yudkhilhu and ends qad ahsanallahu lahu rizqa.
• 64:18, the last ayah, is the shortest in the juz at five words: ‘alimul-ghaybi wash-shahadatil-‘azizul-hakim.

At-Talaq

At-Talaq has three wa man yattaqillah, all on page 558, each with its own reward: 65:2 yaj’al lahu makhraja, 65:4 yaj’al lahu min amrihi yusra, 65:5 yukaffir ‘anhu sayyi’atihi wa yu’zim lahu ajra. In short: a way out, then ease, then forgiveness and a great reward. The first runs straight into 65:3. Together they’re the pair many people know as “Para 28, ayat 2 and 3”:

“…And whoever fears Allāh – He will make for him a way out

And will provide for him from where he does not expect. And whoever relies upon Allāh – then He is sufficient for him. Indeed, Allāh will accomplish His purpose. Allāh has already set for everything a [decreed] extent.”

At-Talaq 65:2-3, Saheeh International translation. Compare translations on quran.com

One more: At-Talaq and At-Tahrim both open with ya ayyuhan-nabiyy, each at the top of its page (558 and 560). Learn idha tallaqtum and lima tuharrim as the words that tell them apart.

At-Tahrim

At-Tahrim ends on the busiest stretch in the juz: three calls in a row, then three examples.

• 66:6, 66:7 and 66:8 are three calls in a row: qu anfusakum to the believers, the juz’s only ya ayyuhal-ladhina kafaru, then tubu ilallahi tawbatan nasuha, which opens the last page.
• The closing examples: 66:10 daraballahu mathalan lil-ladhina kafaru (the wives of Nuh and Lut), 66:11 wa daraballahu mathalan lil-ladhina amanu (the wife of Pharaoh), then 66:12 wa Maryamabnata ‘Imran, with no daraba at all.
• 66:5 lists eight qualities with the same sound pattern (muslimatin mu’minatin qanitatin ta’ibatin ‘abidatin sa’ihatin thayyibatin wa abkara). They’re easy to shuffle. Watch the ending: only the last one takes a wa, and it’s also the only one that doesn’t end in -atin.

If you’ve already memorized At-Tawbah or Al-Baqarah

These four look-alikes reach outside Juz 28. Skip them until you’ve memorized the other surah.

• 61:9 and 9:33 are word for word the same. In both surahs it follows an ayah about putting out Allah’s light (61:8 and 9:32), so the only way to place it is to know which surah you’re in.
• 66:9 and 9:73 are identical in the Arabic. Saheeh International translates the verb differently (“strive against” here, “fight against” in At-Tawbah), so don’t let the English persuade you they differ.
• 62:6 and 2:94 both end fa tamannawul-mawta in kuntum sadiqin. Then 62:7 says wa la yatamannawnahu abadan where 2:95 says wa lan yatamannawhu abadan. Saheeh International mirrors the change: “they will not wish for it, ever” here, “never will they wish for it, ever” in Al-Baqarah.
• 62:4 ends exactly like 57:21 in Al-Hadid, the surah just before this juz: dhalika fadlullahi yu’tihi man yasha’, wallahu dhul-fadlil-‘azim.

Revising Juz 28

Juz 28 needs two kinds of revision: the recent lessons every day, and the whole juz on a cycle. Many hifz schools call these sabqi and manzil, and our guide to sabaq, sabqi and manzil shows how they fit with new lessons.

• Every day: your last seven lessons, about 50 lines at 7 a day, before anything new.
• Every week: the whole juz once, about an hour at Alafasy’s pace. If an hour won’t fit, split it at the hizb (Al-Mujadila to As-Saf, then Al-Jumu’ah to At-Tahrim), or take a seventh a day, roughly 40 lines and 8 minutes.

Drill the page openers too. Seven of the juz’s 20 pages open with ya ayyuha (pages 544, 549, 551, 554, 558, 560 and 561; on 549, 558 and 560 it comes just after a surah’s bismillah), so “how does page 551 start?” is a question worth asking yourself with the mushaf closed.

For the openings, a previous-ayah test is the drill that fits best. Quran Memorizer’s previous-ayah test lets you set the scope to Juz 28 and ask for the ayah before: shown 62:2 or 64:2, you have to produce that surah’s own opening, with the right verb and the right ending. Its next-ayah test does the same job for the fifteen calls to the believers. You can try the test in any browser.

Revise the joins as well. At-Tahrim ends at the bottom of page 561 and Al-Mulk begins on 562, the facing page in a printed mushaf. Recite 66:12 straight into 67:1 a few times a week, so the step from Juz 28 into Juz 29 needs no thought.

Start tomorrow with the first seven lines of At-Tahrim, and recite them again the day after. Seven lines, six days a week, eight weeks: that’s the whole plan.

Once the juz is in, Quran Memorizer‘s Daily Review (Premium) brings the ayat you miss back first. In a juz with this many near-twins, those are the ones worth the extra rounds.