The Halaal Way

CHAPTER NINE

It was narrated that Abu Hurayrah said: I heard the Messenger of Allah (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) say: “All of my ummah will be fine except those who commit sin openly, and it is part of committing sin openly for a man to do something at night, then in the morning when his Lord has concealed him he says: O So and so, I did such and such last night, when his Lord had concealed him all night, but in the morning he discloses that which Allah had concealed for him.”
Narrated by al-Bukhaari (5721) and Muslim (2990).

The morning was cool, unlike how the weather had been hot in the past few days. The trees swayed their leaves and branches in rhythm with the slow breeze that was blowing and Nihlah watched as the flowers in the garden did the same. It was past 11am in the morning and the weather was still very cool.

She closed her eyes for a while as the cool breeze gently washed over her face. She hugged her left arm and gently caressed it as she felt the tiny hairs on her arm stand on edge. She was wearing a sleeveless long gown and the cool breeze that came in contact with her skin was giving her goosebumps. It's been a while since she had a cool weekend like this.

She opened her eyes and slowly walked back to her room to wear a boyfriend jacket over her dress. The goosebumps were becoming intense. She stood in front of the mirror as she wore a cap over her hair. She stared at her reflection and let out a deep breath. She had lost some weight. She had no idea she had become so attached to Kamal that withdrawing from him was taking a hard toll on her. She was finding it difficult to cope.

It's been eleven days since she started her fast and in those eleven days, she tried her possible best to avoid her husband. She had bumped into him only twice in one week, and that was around midnight when she had woken up to get some water to drink. However, Kamal had knocked on her door every blessed day. When she opened the door in the first two days and he told her he only came to check on her, she stopped responding to his knocks. She would hear him knock and she would pretend not to hear and after a while, he would send her a text message.

I came to check on you. Hope you're doing fine?

She had read the message and had simply tapped the back button on her screen without typing him a reply. She wouldn't lie that the message had no effect on her. In fact, it had taken all the strength in her to resist typing him a reply. That simple message of his gave her an overwhelming feeling. She felt the care in his message. But then, the Kamal in her notes was always like that. She didn't want to start phone chatting with him when she was yet to completely stop the note chatting they were doing. That would make her troubles double and she wasn't ready to go mad. Not yet.

She pushed away Kamal's thoughts and walked to the kitchen to prepare lunch. She was not fasting today. She passed by the dining table and as usual, the food was untouched. She cleared the table and gave the food to the gateman’s wife. She then proceeded to prepare lunch.

She settled for something simple, boiled Irish potatoes with sauce mixed with shredded chicken. She already had the shredded chicken frozen so all she had to do was to peel the Irish, boil it and make the sauce.

Meanwhile, Kamal who had left home since around 7am was in the midst of his friends. Once in a while, the four of them come together on weekends and partake in all sorts of exercises. After the exercises, one of them would host them for breakfast and they would spend some time before they all head to their respective homes. Today was one of such days and Kaybee was their host. They had finished eating and were discussing random stuffs. Moh was sitting on a one seater cushion with his legs sprawled across the arm of the cushion. Kaybee was lying on the floor with his legs crossed on the two seater cushion while Hamid sat beside Kaybee's legs on the cushion. Kamal, who was deep in thought was seated on the other one seater cushion with his legs folded on the cushion, his elbow resting on the arm of the cushion and his palm holding the weight of his head. The thoughts of two people filled his head. One was his wife, the other was his girlfriend.