This simply means dividing the ayahs into groups or sections based on their meaning so that each section or group comprises of a complete story or specific idea. The person memorizing will be able to follow the "story line" in the group of verses as he/she memorizes and this will aid their memorization.
In doing this, we must pay attention to the meanings of the verses, being careful not to combine the verses of mercy with the verses of punishment, or combining the verses of Jannah with the verses of Jahannam as examples. Only a person who understands the concept of starting and stopping (الوقف والابتداء) in the science of Tajweed will be able to split the passages in the noble Qur'aan into sections successfully. {I have come across copies of the Qur'aan that have been colour coded based on this concept of splitting the verses into sections based on their relationship with one another and most importantly, their meaning}
On the authority of Abi Bakr (رضي الله عنه) that Jibreel (عليه السلام) said:
"O Muhammad! recite the qur'aan in a harf(in one dialect)", then Mikaeel (عليه السلام)said: "ask for more" so he (Jibreel) gave him more and said: "recite in two harfs (two dialects)". Mikaeel said: " ask for more" so he (Jibreel) gave him more until it reached seven harfs (seven dialects) then he said: "This is sufficient so long as you do not end a verse of punishment with mercy or a verse of mercy with punishment".
[It was related by Imam Ahmad in his musnad]
Al Haafidh Abu Amr said:
This is from the completeness and the perfection of the prophet Muhammad's (صلى الله عليه وسلم) teachings, that Jibreel (عليه السلام) made it clear that we have to separate the verses where there is a mention of punishment from the verses that come after it if mercy was mentioned in them.
A vivid example is in suratul Baqarah verse 275 {...they are the companions of the hell fire, they will abide therein for eternity.} Here, there is a stop(it is the end of the verse) and it is not permissible to connect this verse to the one after it which reads {And those who have believed and do righteous deeds...}. It is not correct for the reciter to connect the two ayahs mentioned above and then stop on the word "الصالحات -deeds" because it will distort the meaning and this is not what is to be understood from the verses.
As for division of chapters that have only one main idea in them from the beginning to the end, like we find in Surat Yusuf (The whole chapter talks about the life and patience of Prophet Yusuf (عليه السلام)), even if it is all about one main idea, it still can be subdivided into events in his life. We can combine the verses wherein he told his father about his dream into one group, and combine the verses that describe how his brothers threw him into the well in another group, and so on.
The person memorizing will be able to relate with the different parts of the story and the main idea behind each section. This will tremendously increase his/her ability to memorize more for a building is not constructed in one chunk, rather it is laying one brick on top of another, i.e step by step and part by part.
We can also specify how much should be memorized on a daily basis. For instance, it could be 10 verses per day, or a page, or half of a juz (about 10 pages) or a quarter of a hizb (about 2.5 pages) or less or more depending on every individual's ability.
We ask Allah to increase us in Knowledge, Iman, Taqwa and Khushuu' for He is able to do all things, aameen.
The source and main material used in preparing the content of this blog is the book, Ways of teaching the noble Qur'aan and memorizing it by Abu Abdrahman, Jamal ibn Ibrahim AlQirsh (طرائق تدريس القرآن الكريم وحفظه).