Ijazah in Quran Recitation and Memorisation

What an Ijazah is

An Ijazah is a licence to recite and teach the Quran, granted by a teacher who holds one themselves, and who received it from their teacher, in an unbroken chain back to the Prophet ﷺ. It is how the Quran’s recitation has been preserved for fourteen centuries.

It is granted only after the student has recited the entire Quran to the sheikh, from memory or from the mushaf, to a standard where no error remains uncorrected.

Two routes

Ijazah in recitation (from the mushaf) is for students who read with excellent Tajweed but have not memorised the whole Quran. You recite the full text, page by page, to the sheikh.

Ijazah in memorisation is for Huffaz. You recite the full Quran from memory. This is the more demanding route and the more widely recognised credential.

What to expect

The programme takes months at minimum, usually longer. Classes are one-to-one with a sheikh who holds Ijazah in the relevant mode; the standard is exacting and the sheikh will not sign off on recitation that does not meet it. That rigour is the entire point of the credential.

Before enrolling, we assess your current recitation frankly. If there is preparatory work to do, we say so. Most students spend some time in Tajweed or revision first, and that time is not wasted.