This is the question we are asked most often — and the one most often answered dishonestly. The correct answer is not a single number but an equation with three terms.
The equation
Memorisation speed = (amount learned each day) × (consistency of review) ÷ (pronunciation difficulty for you).
The third term is routinely forgotten for non-Arabic speakers: someone who pronounces a letter with effort memorises more slowly, because attention goes to articulation before memory.
Real numbers
Juz’ ‘Amma (37 short surahs): six months to a year, at one page every two days. Five juz’: roughly two years. The whole Quran: three to six years for someone seriously consistent.
If you don’t yet read Arabic fluently, add six to twelve months at the start for reading. That is not lost time — it is precisely what shortens everything after it.
Why most people fail
Not from weak memory, but from neglected review. Freshly learned material evaporates within weeks without revision, and someone who memorises a juz’ then leaves it for six months needs half the original time to recover it.
The practical rule: one third of your time for new material, two thirds for old. It feels slow for the first three months and becomes unbeatable afterwards.
Is half an hour a day enough?
Yes, if it is daily. Thirty minutes every day clearly beats three hours on Sunday: memory works on frequency, not volume.