Islam Is My Diamond

Chapter 2- The Beginning

                 

The car ride was long and silent, well kind of quiet. Noah was driving and Ella was next to him in the passenger seat surfing the stations on the radio. That left me and Laila in the rear seat of the car, listening to the twin's argument.

"Will you please stop playing with the radio?" asked Noah.

When Ella didn't answer, he slowly moved his hand up and smacked her hands away from the radio.

"Ouch!" yelped Ella.

"That wasn't hard, how could that have possibly hurt," said Noah while closing the radio.

"I slipped and fell on that hand yesterday when I was running in the house from excitement."

"That's what you get for running around the house like a psychopath," he joked.

Ella just stuck out her tongue at him and ignored him.

When I looked into the rearview mirror to see his expression, I was met with a pair of gorgeous grey eyes. I felt the world spinning around me; it was like everything in the world just disappeared except me and those beautiful eyes. 'Oh my Allah (God), snap out of Amal he's your best friends brother.'

I quickly looked away at the same time he did, I felt every part of my body burning and I was starting to sweat.

"Hey, can I open the window?" I asked in a shaky voice.

"Of course," he answered. "Are you alright?"

I looked in the rearview mirror again and this time, he wasn't looking, but I didn't miss the smirk he had on his face.

Okay, now he is just mocking me, but I answered anyways with a nod and said in a low voice, "Yes, I am fine Alhamdulillah (Praise God)."

"Good," that was the last thing he said before the car fell back into an uncomfortable silence.

*****

After that long 10 minute ride to the mosque, we were finally there. As soon as I entered the holy house of Allah, I heard the most beautiful sound, it was the sound of the azan (the Muslim call to ritual Prayer) being made. The whole Mosque was so quiet while the Muslims repeated after the azan; it was a moment of peace for all the Muslims.

After the Sheikh (a leader in a Muslim community) finished making the azan, someone came running to me and gave me a really hard hug. When that person released me I saw that it was one of my closest friends I made in the past year. She was one of the few friends that helped me learn about the beautiful religion of Islam.

"Asalam Alaykum (greeting of peace), Amal," said the girl.

"Walaykum Assalam wa rahmatu Allah (And to you be peace together with Allah's mercy), Yasmine," I replied.

"Congratulations, today is the day you will officially be announced as a Muslimah," she said happily.

"I am actually very excited and nervous at the same time."

"No need to be nervous, everyone here will support you, just like everyone did with Ella, Noah, and their mother.

"I know, but there are so many people," I said while looking around and seeing the unfamiliar faces.

"Don't worry, Me, Ella and Laila will be right there to support you," soothed Yasmine. "Speaking of which, where are those two?"

"Ella and Laila needed to go make wudu (ablution before praying), so I told them to go without me since I already made my wudu before I left the house."

"That's good, it's a Sunnah (an action the Prophet Muhammad used to do) to make wudu before leaving the house."

"Really? I didn't know," I smiled out of  happiness. It is such a wonderful thing to learn something new and copy what the Prophet Muhammad use to do. After reading so many stories about him, he became my number one role model.

After the iqama ( the same thing as azan but the only difference is it means that Prayer has started) was called for salah al-asr (one of the five prayers, the afternoon prayer), I saw Laila and Ella heading our way. They both said a quick greeting to Yasmin before we started praying.

When we  finished making our salah, the sheikh that was going to help me say the Shahadah called me up. 'It was time' this is the moment where everything is going to change.

I got up slowly from my spot and went up to the sheikh. I felt many different stares on me. It was really uncomfortable but I kept reminding myself that this was for Allah's sake. When I finally reached the sheikh, that was when I started my testimony, "I witness that there is no god but Allah and that Prophet Muhammad is His messenger," I repeated after the sheikh in both English and Arabic.

I had the biggest smile plastered on my face, and I felt myself tear up from happiness. It felt like a big block of weight was lifted off my heart while everyone in the crowd was cheering and saying, "Takbeer," and everyone replying with "Allahu Akbar." (God is Great)!"

In that moment, I felt like the happiest person in the world, and no amount of words can describe what I was feeling.

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