A Promise to Aabidah (#1 Natives series) #ProjectNigeria

Chapter Twenty-Five

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Chapter Twenty-Five

          AABIDAH HAD HEARD ABOUT SADIQ'S death from Basmah but she hadn't been told the full details. Although it was nothing like how Idris had died, it was still a painful loss. Maybe much worse for Zaynab who'd had no one in her life until she met her husband.

"At first I couldn't understand why Allah would do such a thing to me." Zaynab's low voice carried on. "I was frustrated, furious, confused, and heartbroken. I didn't have a family and He took the one person who had been my family from me. Abubakar Sadiq Dawud was my father, my mother, my sibling, my friend, and most importantly, the man that I loved.

"We met in Zaria before I came here. I was an orphan and he was going to marry me. A lot of people talked about us, it was such a new experience and since no one from my hometown even cared if I lived there was no one to share my fears with. But Aunty Banafsha was different, she took me in immediately she heard about me. I stayed with a relative of theirs for a few months before we got married and the dream of the family I had always wanted came true. When I got the news of Sadiq's death my world shattered. I had two kids, I was an illiterate and I had no other family. Where was I going to go?"

Aabidah watched as tears slowly gathered in the other woman's eyes. "You don't have to tell me," she reassured softly, reaching out to lay her hand on Zaynab's own. "It's okay."

"No." Zaynab sniffed. "It's fine. You told me yours anyway." She swallowed, licked her dry lips wet then continued. "I brought up the topic one day with AbdulAzeez and his parents but they didn't even wait for me to finish before telling me that I was part of the family. I finally had a place to stay; to call my home. AbdulAzeez worked hard to put the kids in school and I worked small jobs at the market to help as well. After I saved a bit of money I started going to islamiya and that was when I started to let go of my pain and resentment towards Allah. I learned that every soul shall taste death and that Allah does not burden a soul with more than it can handle because after every hardship there is relief.

"Everything was qadr. Meeting Sadiq, his family, his death —everything was planned by Allah and because He had given me a little hope and light in the form of Sadiq, I knew He would do it again. That's where sabr comes in. What I'm saying is, whatever it is you're going through now it's a test from Allah. He tests us with things that we love and things that we hate, so it's up to us to be firm believers and do the right thing."

Aabidah shook her head. She knew all these things but why was she still being tested? Hadn't she gone through enough tests from her brother?

"It's because He loves you." Zaynab pointed out. "Allah tests those he loves so they can become even more dear to Him. And since I don't have a brother I'm not sure what your brother's intentions are, but he must have his reasons."

Aabidah snorted and crossed her arms over her chest. "I'm sure it's a very useless and childish reason. He's in his thirties but he still acts like a kid. I don't know what to do with Bilal much less him."

"You are not a bad mother, Aabidah." Zaynab punctuated firmly.

Aabidah smiled faintly then muttered, "Thank you."

"Bilal is just finding it difficult to fit in with the language and all. Khaila said since he can't speak the language he keeps to himself. I think all you need to do is talk to him, children like to be listened to and since you're never really available, he might not have anyone to talk to about it."