Zain's Love and Redemption

The Nightmare

Zain woke with a start. He had been sleeping soundly until the nightmare hit him. It was the same devastating one. To be truthful, it wasn't a nightmare but the remembrance of the worst phase of his life and also the biggest folly he had ever made, for which he knew that he might have gotten forgiveness from Aaliya but he knew very well he would never be forgiven in Allah's Darbar.

He always felt that as long as he could spend the rest of his life making sure that he could remove every shadow from Aaliya's memory of all the blight from that painful phase in their lives he would be happy to meet his maker and face whatever was in store for him there.

In the dream he relived every wrongdoing of his, from the first Talak to every mistreatment and insult that he had given Aaliya throughout those horrid months. Every hurt that he had caused was highlighted in his thoughts and memories. He had fought for Aaliya, and fought the world to get her back and he had her in the end but the bitter taste of regret never left him.

He was fearful that even though in the eyes of the world he had her but did Allah have other plans. He knew Aaliya had passed all the tests put  before her with flying colours as she was Allah ki Laadli and her faith gave her the strength to reach what she wanted and she also had the strength to accept it as Allah's Karam if she couldn't get that.

He however had come to the realisation that he did not deserve her as she was too pure and too otherworldly to be his, but he had been given the gift of her and even though undeserving he would hold on to her with all his being till the end of his time here on earth. He had made the mistake of doubting her and squandering the best thing in his life but now he knew the truth. And even if his eyes would say something different he would still believe Aaliya over everything else.

Once he had woken up, he did the first thing that he always did nowadays. He made sure that Aaliya was with him. Reality still seemed surreal, the scars from that whole year without her had him checking and making sure that she was back with him. And the only thing that could now separate them was death.

She was in a deep sleep. The day had been tiring to say the least, they had gone to the orphanage as they had arranged for a celebration in the memory of Abbu. It had been Aaliya's idea to remember him by spreading happiness rather than in sorrow. By bringing a cheer to the children of the orphanage they would get more blessings for Usmaan mamu. Mamu ki Bhanji always knew her Mamu well as he too would have liked that.

She might be sleeping but he wanted to wake her up, wanted to see her cross expression and then wanted to feel her melt in his arms with his soft kisses wiping away the traces of sleep replacing it with the heat of passion that their embrace always evoked.