Juz Amma, the 30th and last juz of the Quran, is where most people start memorizing. Its 37 surahs run from An-Naba to An-Nas across 23 pages of the Madani mushaf (pages 582 to 604), with 564 ayat in total. Many of them are short enough to learn in a day, and you already recite some of them in every salah.
The order you learn it in matters more than people expect, and so do the few surahs that look alike.
Why start with Juz Amma
- Quick wins. Finishing a whole surah in a day or two builds momentum that a long surah can’t.
- Immediate use. Every surah you learn gives you something new to recite in prayer.
- Familiarity. You’ve probably heard many of these surahs hundreds of times already.
- Sunnah. The Prophet ﷺ recited surahs from this juz in prayer. He recited Al-A’la and Al-Ghashiyah in Jumu’ah and on Eid (Sahih Muslim 878a), and At-Tin in Isha while traveling (Sahih al-Bukhari 767).
Which order?
Backwards from An-Nas (most common)
Start with An-Nas, Al-Falaq and Al-Ikhlas, which you probably know already, and work back toward An-Naba. The surahs get gradually longer, so the difficulty rises gently. This is how most children and beginners learn it.
Forwards from An-Naba
Start at the beginning of the juz and go in mushaf order. This fits better with page-based memorization, because you follow the page layout from start to finish. It’s harder at first, since An-Naba and An-Nazi’at are the two longest surahs in the juz.
By difficulty
Some teachers pick the shortest unknown surah each time, regardless of order. This works but can leave gaps that are confusing when you later revise by page.
For most people, backwards from An-Nas is the easiest start. If you’re an adult planning to continue to other juz, consider switching to forward order once you reach the longer surahs.
A week-by-week plan
This assumes about 20 to 30 minutes a day and that you already know An-Nas, Al-Falaq, Al-Ikhlas and Al-Fatihah.
| Week | Surahs | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Al-Masad to Al-Fil | Very short. One or two a day. |
| 2 | Al-Humazah to Al-Qari’ah | Al-Qari’ah takes a couple of days. |
| 3 | Al-‘Adiyat to Al-‘Alaq | Al-Bayyinah is the longest so far. |
| 4 | At-Tin to Ash-Shams | Several surahs open with oaths. |
| 5 | Al-Balad to At-Tariq | Al-Fajr runs to just over a page. |
| 6 | Al-Buruj to Al-Mutaffifin | Longer surahs. Allow extra days. |
Then An-Naba, An-Nazi’at, ‘Abasa, At-Takwir and Al-Infitar, which together fill about five pages, take most people another two to three weeks.
If you go slower, that’s fine. A surah a week is still Juz Amma in under a year.
Free tool
Want the weeks laid out by date? Plan Juz Amma surah by surah from An-Nas, with revision included. Open the hifz plan generator →
Surahs that trip people up
The “idha” openings
At-Takwir, Al-Infitar and Al-Inshiqaq all open with “idha” (when) followed by a description of the Day of Judgment. Students often start one and slide into another. Learn them a week apart, and when you revise, compare the opening lines side by side.
The oath surahs
Al-Fajr, Ash-Shams, Al-Layl, Ad-Duha, At-Tin, Al-‘Adiyat and Al-‘Asr all begin with oaths (“wa…”). Learn the first word of each by heart before anything else. Once the opening is solid, the rest usually follows.
Al-Bayyinah
It’s the longest of the short surahs near the end, with long ayat and a few similar phrases inside it. Give it at least two days.
An-Naba and An-Nazi’at
Together these two fill about the first three pages of the juz. Split them into sections of five to eight ayat and join them carefully.
How to memorize each surah
- Listen to it two or three times from one reciter.
- Learn what it’s about. A two-minute summary of the surah makes the order of ayat much easier to remember. Al-Fil is the story of the elephant army; Al-Masad is about Abu Lahab; Ad-Duha was revealed to comfort the Prophet ﷺ.
- Memorize ayah by ayah, joining each one to the ones before.
- Recite the whole surah three times from memory.
- Use it in salah that same day.
Revising Juz Amma
Because these surahs are short and you use them in prayer, it’s easy to assume you’ll remember them. Many people find years later that they only really know the ten they recite most often, and they’ve forgotten the rest.
Two simple habits prevent this:
- Rotate your prayer surahs. Make a list of every surah you’ve memorized and work through it in your sunnah and nafl prayers.
- Recite the whole juz once a week. It takes about 40 minutes to an hour at a steady pace once you know it well.
The Prophet ﷺ mentioned An-Naba and At-Takwir among the surahs that turned his hair grey (Jami’ at-Tirmidhi 3297, graded sahih by Darussalam), which scholars explain by the weight of what they describe. Reciting them often, with some understanding, helps them stay strong.
For children
Juz Amma is the usual first juz for children too. Keep sessions short, play the surahs often, and celebrate each completed surah. How to Help Your Child Memorize the Quran has more.
What next?
Many people go on to Juz 29 (Tabarak), which starts with Surah Al-Mulk, or jump to surahs they want for night prayer. See Which Surahs to Memorize First and How to Memorize Surah Al-Mulk.
The Quran Memorizer app’s quiz modes work well for Juz Amma: name the surah from an ayah, say what comes next, or put ayat in order. They make it obvious which of those 37 surahs you really know.
Questions people ask
Can you memorize Juz Amma in 30 days?
Yes, if you can manage about 9 new lines a day. Leave out the surah headings and the bismillah lines and Juz Amma is 271 lines of the Madani mushaf, so 30 days works out at just over 9 lines a day, plus time to revise what you’ve already learned. At half a page a day it takes about 37 days. Our table of how long each surah takes to memorize has the numbers, and memorizing Juz Amma in Ramadan lays out a 30-day plan.
How do I revise Juz Amma once it’s done?
Once it’s all memorized, recite a seventh of it each day so the whole juz comes round every week:
- Day 1: An-Naba and An-Nazi’at.
- Day 2: ‘Abasa, At-Takwir and Al-Infitar.
- Day 3: Al-Mutaffifin and Al-Inshiqaq.
- Day 4: Al-Buruj, At-Tariq, Al-A’la and Al-Ghashiyah.
- Day 5: Al-Fajr, Al-Balad, Ash-Shams and Al-Layl.
- Day 6: Ad-Duha to Al-Bayyinah.
- Day 7: Az-Zalzalah to An-Nas.
Each day is about three pages. Day 7 covers more of the mushaf, but those surahs are very short. Recite each day’s portion from memory, in salah if you can, and mark any surah that needed a prompt so it gets an extra turn the next day.
What order should children learn Juz Amma in?
Backwards from An-Nas is the usual order for children. They already hear the last surahs in salah, and the surahs get longer gradually as they go. Keep sessions short and play each surah often before they start repeating it. When they reach At-Takwir, Al-Infitar and Al-Inshiqaq, leave a week between them, because all three open with “idha” and are easy to mix up.
More guides: How to memorize the order of the surahs · How to memorize a surah in one day
