Destined To Find You #muslim-romance

♡ Chapter 8

"Ma Sha Allah, you got a very beautiful name," Aftab gladly praised Zayna as Noorie finally introduced them to each other. He recalled Noorie mentioning about her on their first meeting and he was quite taken to be able to meet an important person of Noorie's life.

Unlike Noorie, Zayna shook hands with him when they were introduced to each other. And she saw Aftab was hesitant doing so yet he did so because it is taken as being rude in the modern culture that Indians follow, if he had not shook hands when offered and Zayna had a very modern upbringing so she does not really mind shaking hands, as she has to do so quite a lot at work. Noorie could sense the reason behind his hesitancy. Maybe it was because in Islam, man and woman are not allowed to follow such gestures.

It's against Islamic principles to shake hands with a non-mehram. Noorie never shook hands with opposite gender either, not even with her teacher. She explained to them her reasons and they would appreciate her for being so grounded about her religion, even in this modern times and respect her decision. She was surprised Aftab follows the same. She gathered, it must be very challenging thing for him to follow these principles because being a man he has to work and meet all kinds of people of both genders and must feel forced to follow these civilities with opposite gender. She recalled that they never shook hand on their previous meet either and Aftab was giving lots of Islamic examples to make her understand. Those were the things that made her feel she didn't do anything wrong in trusting her. But today, she felt the mirror cracking, with him making a re-appearance, inspite of being aware of the fact that she had deliberately ignored him at the gift shop. Though, with what she witnessed of his character now, made her reason his action, wondering maybe he is not as bad as she has become to think of him. Maybe she is overthinking and he really has plans to meet his friend here. She was not convinced with this thought though.

"Thank you, I liked your name as well. It has a very nice meaning, something that suits your personality." Zayna said frankly.

"Thank you, but people are more than what they show and you hardly know me to make such conclusions," Aftab pointed out carefully not wanting to offend her, but being a little wary of her.

"I speak my mind and I am mostly sure of what I say because I observe before making my thoughts known." Zayna replied smartly, making Noorie feel proud of her. She remembered telling him about Zayna, now he gets to experience it himself.

Aftab was not stunned as he had met a lot of bold ladies at professional front and social circle, but Zayna's frankness and clarity of thought did amazed him as she added, "Please do not feel awkward for my complimenting you. I'm just so much into all these face reading and psychology that I just cannot refrain myself from talking whenever I have a thing on my mind to share. You can confirm it from, Noorie. I almost kill her with my talks and experiences," She said looking towards Noorie.

Aftab was about to ask who is Noorie when he caught the look on Noorie's face as Zayna looked at her with a grin and he felt as if his heart is dancing for finally getting to know her name. It had not gone unobserved by him that she still managed to keep her name a secret for him.

The smirk on his face was enough to let Noorie know that he was rejoicing over finding out her name - her well-guarded secret because of which he had been through much torture and hated himself for not convincing her enough to at least share her name, at their previous meeting, almost a year ago. Well to be precise, it had been 10months and 21 days since he last saw her and he had recently begun to give up on his hope of meeting her, taking their distance as a cue from Allah that they were not destined to be together. Though, the acceptance of it had been quite hard for him because he had already set his heart on her. She had been like that star he watches in the sky at night, whenever he used to go sleepless thinking of her. He knew it's there, and with its shine it comforts him, but he knew that he cannot ever own it. It belongs to the sky. And, she might belong to someone else. Maybe she had already found that person and is happy in her life.