Will he be rewarded for memorizing the Qur’an if he memorizes it from an audio recording?

Firstly: 

You should bear in mind these
two important matters, which are from the bounty of Allah that He has
bestowed upon His slaves. 

The first is that Allah, may He
be exalted, says (interpretation of the meaning): “And We have indeed
made the Quran easy to understand and remember, then is there any that will
remember (or receive admonition)?” [al-Qamar 54:17]. 

The second is that the Prophet
(blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) said: “The one who is skilled in
reciting Qur’an will be with the noble, honourable scribes and the one who
recites Qur’an and falters therein, and finds it difficult, will have a
double reward.”

Narrated by al-Bukhaari (4937)
and Muslim (798). 

An-Nawawi (may Allah have mercy
on him) said: 

The one who falters is the one
who stumbles in his recitation because of his poor memorisation. He will
have a double reward: the reward for reciting and the reward for faltering
in his recitation and the difficulty he encounters. End quote. 

If we learn that the Qur’an is
easy to remember and understand, and we learn that the one for whom any of
that is difficult to learn, memorize or understand will have a double reward
– once this is established, it will be appropriate for the wise person to
strive his utmost to achieve that and to show patience in seeking to attain
this sublime goal. How often has Allah made it easy for non-Arabs who do not
speak Arabic well to memorize His Book in its entirety. To achieve this
great virtue it is worth spending a great deal of time and competing with
others. 

Secondly: 

One of the things that help one
to memorize the Book of Allah, may He be exalted, is listening to it often
on recordings. If it is easy for you to memorize it in this way, then you
will become one of those who have memorized the Book of Allah, attained that
goal and earned the reward and status of the hafiz, by Allah’s leave. The
individual’s precision in recitation, memorization and acting upon the Holy
Book and its rulings and teachings will determine his reward and his status
before Allah, if he is sincere in his intention and seeks reward with Him. 

However it is better to combine
two things in that regard: striving to recite it and to memorize whatever
you are able to whilst looking at the Mushaf, so as to attain the virtue of
reading it yourself and the virtue of looking in the Mushaf. Then by
listening to a recording of the Qur’an you will be able to do two things:
correct your recitation and make sure that you have got it right before
memorizing it, and then continue revising it and reminding yourself of what
you have memorized after that. 

Undoubtedly the one who listens
to the recitation by his shaykh or teacher directly will learn the Book of
Allah more precisely than the one who listens to it from a recording. The
Muslim cannot memorize properly unless he learns directly from a shaykh and
attends his classes whenever he can. 

But for the one who does not
have access to a shaykh but does have access to a recording, there is
nothing wrong with him listening to it and memorizing in that manner. 

For more information, please see
the answers to questions no. 112763 and
147816 

Thirdly: 

Competing and hastening to
reward is something that is open to everyone. The one who cannot compete in
memorizing and reciting Qur’an can compete in prayer, fasting, giving
charity, remembering Allah, enjoining what is good and forbidding what is
evil, doing good deeds, upholding ties of kinship, honouring parents or
other innumerable types of righteous deeds. 

All of the proven, prescribed
adhkaar bring a great reward, but there are some that bring a greater
reward. In the case of the Qur’an – which is the best dhikr – reciting
Qul Huwa Allahu Ahad (i.e., Soorat al-Ikhlaas 112) is equivalent to one
third of the Qur’an. Soorat al-Faatihah is the best soorah and Ayat al-Kursiy
(al-Baqarah 2:255) is the best verse. Whoever recites the last two verses of
Soorat al-Baqarah at night, they will suffice him. Memorizing these passages
and others is something that everyone can do, and in reciting them and
repeating them there is a great deal of reward. 

Other adhkaar include the
following: 

·That which was narrated by Muslim (2729) from Juwayriyah, who
said that the Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him)
left her house one morning when he prayed Fajr, and she was in her
prayer-place, then he came back after the forenoon had come, and she was
still sitting there. He said: “Are you still as you were when I left you?”
She said: Yes. The Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) said:
“After I left you I said four words three times, which if they were weighed
against what you have said today, they would outweigh it: ‘Subhan
Allah wa bi hamdih, ‘adada khalqihi, wa rida nafsihi, wazinata ‘arshihi, wa
midaada kalimatihi (Glory
and praise be to Allah, as much as the number of His creation, as much as
pleases Him, as much as the weight of His Throne and as much as the ink of
His words).”

·“Subhaan Allaahi wa bi hamdihi Subhaan Allaah il-‘Azeem
(Glory and praise be to Allaah, glory be to Allaah the Almighty).” al-Bukhaari
(6682) and Muslim (2694) narrated that Abu Hurayrah said: The Messenger of
Allah (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) said: “Two words that are
light on the tongue and heavy in the balance and beloved to the Most
Merciful: Subhaan Allaahi wa bi hamdihi Subhaan Allaah il-‘Azeem
(Glory and praise be to Allaah, glory be to Allaah the Almighty).”

·The best of prayers for forgiveness (sayyid al-istighfaar):
al-Bukhaari (6306) narrated from Shaddaad ibn Aws (may Allah be pleased with
him) that the Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) said: “The
best of prayers for forgiveness is to say: “The best prayer for seeking
forgiveness is to say: ‘Allaahumma anta rabbi la ilaaha illa anta,
Khalaqtani wa ana ‘abduka wa ana ‘ala ‘ahdika wa wa’dika ma astata’t.
A’oodhu bika min sharri ma sana’tu, aboo’u laka bi ni’matika ‘alayya wa
aboo’u laka bi dhanbi, faghfir li fa innahu laa yaghfiru’l-dhunoob illaa
anta (O Allah, You are my Lord. None has the right to be worshipped but
You. You created me and I am Your slave, and I am faithful to my covenant
and my promise (to You) as much as I can. I seek refuge with You from all
the evil I have done. I acknowledge before You all the blessings You have
bestowed upon me, and I confess to You all my sins. So I entreat You to
forgive my sins, for nobody can forgive sins except You).’ Whoever says this
during the day, having faith in it and dies before the evening comes, will
be among the people of
Paradise, and whoever says it during the night, having faith in it, and dies
before the morning comes, will be among the people of Paradise.” 

Other kinds of dhikr, in
general, are the adkhaar to be recited in the morning or the evening, those
that are to be recited following the obligatory prayers and those that are
to be recited before going to sleep, for the one who regularly recites them
will have a great reward. 

Please see also the answer to
question no 174947

Fourthly: 

It is prescribed for the Muslims
to vary the adhkaar and all acts of worship. So sometimes he may read Qur’an,
sometimes he may remember Allah (dhikr), sometimes he may pray, sometimes he
may study books of knowledge, and sometimes he may relax by doing various
kinds of permissible leisure activities. He should not limit himself to one
specific type of worship, never doing anything else, because by doing that
he will miss out on the reward and virtue of the other types of worship that
he ignores, in addition to the fact that there is the fear that he may get
tired and bored.

 Please see also the answer to
question no. 195274

And Allah knows best.