Reinforcement and Punishment in the Quran

Yesterday when I was reading the three surahs those included in our memorization project, it just like a great pleasure for me when I found that many verses in those surahs are related to our discussion about operant conditioned learning in our last few classes. What did relate to the topic is reinforcement and punishment which in the holy Quran, Allah mentioned both of them clearly. The most obvious one is in the surah al-Waqi’ah whereas Allah told us about three different groups of people; al-Sabiqun al-Awwalun, Ashab al-Yamin and Ashab al-Syimal.

            The first two groups of al-Sabiqun al-Awwalun (the foremost in performing righteous deeds) and Ashab al-Yamin (those on the right hand) are people whom Allah promised with many various rewards in the hereafter. They all will enter the Jannah (paradise) peacefully as a blessing by Allah because of what did they have done during their worldly life before. Meanwhile the third group known as Ashab al-Syimal (those companions of the left) are people who will be punished by God with a grievous chastisement which consists of different types of punishment such as eating the Zaqqum-tree, drinking boiling water, the shadows of pitch-black smoke, scorching winds and all these of course are in the Fire of Hell (Jahim).

            Through this surah, Allah wanted to remind us about His great rewards towards anyone who is doing good deeds and at the same time, He warned us on His painful punishment. Therefore, if we truly understand this surah, as a Muslim should we learn to avoid any sin and do a lot of worships for the sake of Allah in order to become His beloved servant as well as Ashab al-Yamin; not the Ashab al-Syimal one. Indirectly, we can see that this will indicate the process of operant conditioned learning which stressed on the reinforcement (reward) and the punishment.

            By the way, now I already understood the contents of those surahs generally so far and if Allah wills, I will finish my memorization by tomorrow after doing a lot of maintenance rehearsal everyday by using repeated recitation and echoic method as I told before in my past posts. May Allah bless us……. :^)

Another Method to Improve Our Memorization

Assalamu’alaikum to everyone, Happy ‘Eid al-Adha al-Mubarak and may Allah bless us during this recent great holy celebration. On this stage right now, I am pretty sure that all of us already memorize many pages of those three particular surahs; Yasin, al-Waqi’ah and al-Mulk. Since this memorization project had been launched at first on early October 2011, we are now in the second month of period of the project meaning that it is already one month passed if we realize it.

            Now, I want to reveal another good method to make sure our memorization is really ‘pasted’ in our long-term memory, that is to repeat the surah from its last page backwardly to its first page as it in the mushaf. It sounds like quite difficult and rarely applied by some people who are fully involved in the course of Quranic memorization (tahfiz al-Quran). The rational of this method is for average people like us can clearly remember each page of certain surah and do know sort of each verse permanently (after many repetitions).

            Let us imagine when we are hiking a mountain and there are many several check points and camp sites along a particular track. We have to follow the right track in order to avoid from lost. After few days we have passing the check points and the camp sites, we finally arrive on the top of the mountain. Then, we have to go down back to the hill through the same track backwardly and to find out every check points and camp sites that we have passed by the days before. After we finished the hiking and going back to our homes, we still clearly remember the expedition and its surrounding when we are telling others about it. Why does this happen? Of course because we were hiking on both directions through the same track; going up forwardly and going down backwardly. Therefore, no wonder if we can clearly share our experience with others.

            Now, what if we do the same hiking for next several times? Fortunately, the condition of its environment can be permanent in our long-term memory and we can still share our experience with our grandchildren later on. So, it is just the same with our case of memorization. For me, we have to do it both directions in order to make it as one of our long-term memory and at last, we will remember it even we are in the golden-age one day. (Alhamdulillah so far I can do all this continuously and perhaps God will make everything easier for us, “Rabbi yassir wa la tu’assir rabbi tammim bilkhair amiin”)