Hıfzhane

Hıfzhane is an educational strategy card game I designed for students memorising the Qur’an. It does not try to replace that training; it sits beside it. The idea is to add a table, some conversation and a little competition to the long memorisation days of a boarding course.

The terms come from the traditional method. Ham cards carry newly memorised verses; Has cards carry the revision of older ones. Both are dealt into the same hand, just like the “new page plus revision” rhythm of the course itself. Open Devam cards on the table decide how the memory is tested: the player on your left starts a verse and you continue it, you guess the surah, or you recite it from the beginning. Succeed and the card stays in front of you, and you earn a Meal card.

Meal cards are there to close a gap. In memorisation, the words often come before their meaning; these cards bring the meaning back into play with short questions about what a verse says. The game is for students aged 10 to 16 and plays with 3 to 10 people, in teams when the group is large. There is a quick 30-minute mode and a standard one-hour mode.

The alpha version has 100 cards: 50 Ham, 20 Has, 20 Meal and 10 Devam. The first test print used the “İkiler” deck. The rules keep changing as they are tried at the table.