Bismillah
As salaamu alaikum,

I guess I will leave my comments on the last verses of sura Baqara in favor of your personal discovery and simply continue forward with Ali 'Imran, the next chapter. I'll be starting it today or tomorrow inshaAllah. And the excitement is returning. I can hardly wait.

My last moments with Baqara were sweet to my soul. It ends just as it began with hope and faith, and the perfect balance of fear, mercy, and praise. The Qur'an is divided into 30 juz, and Ali Imran is about a juz shorter than suratul-Baqara. I want to finish it in two months so pray for me. I know that Allah can do what he wants. So if He allows me to, and I work hard out of hope and faith in Him, I will finish before May inshaAllah.

And if He wishes me to have a long drawn out bout with my character and my laziness, if He wishes me to struggle and cry, and grow and I don't finish Ali 'Imram for a year, that is okay too. It's not about feelings and empty words and this "God knows what's in my heart so I don't have to obey Him," foolishness. It's about whether or not I do what Allah has commanded. That is all I am responsible for.

If I study Qur'an for 7 hours a day and I still don't know the next juz by the end of the year, then I have done my part and must trust in Allah. But if all I do is hope for the best and don't follow up that hope with hard work, then the blame is mine and the failure as well. So I leave you with the last words of suratul Baqara. Words that have eternally existed and will never fade even as we forget and turn away from them.


[2:284]
Unto God belongs all that is in the heavens and all that is on earth. And whether you bring into the open what is in your minds or conceal it, God will call you to account for it; and then He will forgive whom He wills, and will chastise whom He wills: for God has the power to will anything.

[2:285]
THE APOSTLE, and the believers with him, believe in what has been bestowed upon him from on high by his Sustainer: they all believe in God, and His angels, and His revelations, and His apostles, making no distinction between any of His apostles; and they say:
"We have heard, and we pay heed. Grant us Thy forgiveness, O our Sustainer, for with Thee is all journeys’ end!

[2:286]
"God does not burden any human being with more than he is well able to bear: in his favour shall be whatever good he does, and against him whatever evil he does.
"O our Sustainer! Take us not to task if we forget or unwittingly do wrong!
"O our Sustainer! Lay not upon us a burden such as Thou didst lay upon those who lived before us! O our Sustainer! Make us not bear burdens which we have no strength to bear!
"And efface Thou our sins, and grant us forgiveness, and bestow Thy mercy upon us! Thou art our Lord Supreme: succour us, then, against people who deny the truth!"


May Allah grant this to all of us until the Day of Judgement. Ameen