Surah Baqarah Complete - Full Update

• ·         I haven’t blogged for a while, so an update, mainly because I was simply driven to finish Surah Baqarah by the end of March, by March 31^st. This didn’t happen, although I did finish on Wed 6^th April 2016 alhamdulillah. Partly because also my 7 year old laptop is so slow it’s a pain to do anything. I’ve got a new phone though, and can blog via the app on there so inshaAllah will strive to 
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• ·         Surah Baqarah is complete – Alhamdulillah Alhamdulillah Alhamdulillah. This is a huge milestone for me. From within 6 months of starting this, to working the silly hours that I do, to be experimenting as to my way of learning, and now to have memorised Surah Kahf and Surah Baqarah.
• ·         The thought of quitting had crossed my mind at some point, prior to the completion of Surah Baqarah. Another reason why I had stopped blogging.
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• ·         I have gone back to my teacher, Shaykh Mahmood Al-Azhari. This was the best thing I could have done. As mentioned previously my intention was to complete Surah Baqarah and go back to him, but he messaged me and said to come back. He said don’t worry about money or anything just read. I am paying him (as much as my finances are stretched, there are many things you simply cant not pay for when you’re a doctor) but may Allah reward him he really isn’t fussed about that. My tajweed was off when I went back to him, but alhamdulillah within a very short period of time that recovered, almost within 1-2 lessons. When I first went back, he said, ‘your reading was not like this before!’ meaning I had abandoned many rules of tajweed in my haste of getting it done, but alhamdulillah that issue is resolved now. It also drives me to work harder, to meet the targets we set. He isn’t overly strict but I text him our targets so I know I have to get it done. Because there is a teacher, because there is a deadline, this has now become my number one priority.
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• ·         I have quit more stuff – A Level Arabic (although I have done most of the course), is out the window. I do miss not actively studying the language, but alhamdulillah my Quranic Arabic (in terms of vocabulary at least) is coming on leaps and bounds. I can translate anything in Surah Baqarah now.
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• ·         There have been some major distractions in recent months – my grandfather hasn’t been well with me having to do frequent visits. He is in hospital as we speak and if anyone reads this can please do dua for him. That aside, I’ve had assessments and job applications. But they’re all complete now and I can focus on Hifz now.
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• ·         I can easily memorise one page now – it does not seem daunting at all. And it takes about 1hr. A very difficult page I did recently (after work) took 1h20. In fact, compared to the thought of making up previous sections and revision in general, memorising the new portion is the part I look forward to now! I had previously had doubts whether I would be able to comfortably increase the amounts memorised as time went on, but now I have no doubt that inshaAllah I will be able to.
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• ·         There are still huge sections that I do not have actively in my memory. But I’ve come to a realisation that hifz is what every other hafiz goes through – a constant cycle of learning, forgetting and revising. I do genuinely want all of everything of what I have learnt to be actively in my memory but I shouldn’t overburden myself with this.

Overall, I have a much clearer idea of how to progress now Alhamdulillah in addition to a large amount of confidence from completing Surah Baqarah.

o   Overall:

• ·         The most important thing – have a teacher, have a good teacher.
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• ·         The second most important thing (for me) – learn the vocabulary well in advance as possible.
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• ·         Remain consistent