This article draws on ethnographic fieldwork that took place in 2004 in a boys' "hifz" class which met in a north-east London mosque. Drawing on the results of semi-participant observations and semi-structured interviews, the research findings are collated under five themes: the routines and rhythms of the "hifz" class; routes into the "hifz" class; the students' perceptions of what they were doing; the "sacrifice" of becoming a "hafiz"; and "hifz" class and the rest of students' lives. Though the analysis is largely of the subjective responses of "hifz" class members and cannot therefore give definitive answers to research questions, the author points to some of the implications of this work and offers pointers for further research work in this field. (Contains 1 note.)