The Halaal Way

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Anas (May Allah be pleased with him) reported: Messenger of Allah (PBUH) said, "He who desires ample provisions and his life be prolonged, should maintain good ties with his blood relations".
[Al-Bukhari and Muslim].

If Yasmeen thought that she was going to have it easy getting over her addiction, then she was wrong about the whole situation. It was taking a hard toll on her, but she wasn't going to give up; certainly not when she had tasted the sweetness of imaan.

It's been two weeks, two weeks since she decided to break free from the bondage of her heart desires; two weeks since she decided to be a better muslim; two weeks of riding through the journey of self-healing. The road was rough, rocky, and full of temptations; but it was worth the endurance because now, she knew what peace of mind felt like. And not just the peace of mind that came from having a wordly desire fulfilled, but the peace of mind that came with reconciling with the Creator, and having that connection with Him, which results in an eerie feeling of satisfaction that He has got your back and will be there every step of the bumpy ride. Yasmeen could swear that she had never experienced this feeling in the fifteen years of her life.

Finding out that Nihlah had been through a similar predicament as her, gave her a lot more confidence in Nihlah than she already had. After Nihlah shared her story with her, she realized that she Yasmeen, made matters worse in her own case.

She was well aware of how wrong it was for a muslim lady to have body contact of any kind with the opposite gender that is a non-mahram. She was aware that the Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said:

‘If one of you were to be struck in the head with an iron needle, it would be better for him than if he were to touch a woman he is not allowed to'.

She knew it was haraam but she went ahead and did worse than shaking hands, simply because she was in an era where haraam has become so normalised that no body saw any wrong in it; and she decided to blend.
Anytime she held Yasir's hand or hugged him back then, she always heard a voice in her telling her and cautioning her against what she was doing, but what did she always do? She always pushed the voice behind her and told it,

‘There's no harm in it. Everybody is doing it’

And, she had always used this statement to justify her actions. She didn't know that crossing the line would only make her crave for more of the haraam, which it actually did.

She shook her head in regret.

Now, she knew better. She was never going to cross that line again. Ever.

She stood up from the prayer mat where she had prayed salatud duha and walked to the bedside drawer. She pulled out the first drawer, and there was a small book. She reached for it and flipped it open. There, she had written her resolves.

Sincere repentance to Allah

Quit the bad habits

Frequent recitation of the Holy Qur'an

Salatud duha

Fasting

Never ever stay alone.

An idle mind is the devil's workshop.

Get married

The last two points before ‘get married' were written in caps for emphasis. Nihlah had stressed on how important they were, and she didn't plan on taking them lightly either. She read them every day for two weeks now just so she could commit them to memory and stick to them.