The Ummah: The outbreak

Prologue

(listen to the song above while reading)

"As-salamu alaikum wa rahmatullah... As-salamu alaikum wa rahmatullah..."

The congregation repeated after the imaam, turning our heads to the right first, then to the left. Some people stopped to make a quick dua'a before leaving, the others departed into the hall to get their shoes and chat with their companions. My older sister, Alliah and I were part of the latter, waiting for my mother to finish her sunnah prayer while looking on the shoe rack for our shoes. I tried to remember where i had put my pink flip flops with the tan flower on the toe. My mother always dressed us up, but she dressed us up the best on fridays for jumu'ah at the masjid. Today, she had dressed me in a pink sundress with tan leggings and a tan long sleeve shirt underneath, the pink sandals, and a tan scarf to match.

After we'd found our shoes, we headed outside the door to wait for either our mother to come out or for our father to see us. As we waited, the usual older ladies stopped to greet us with kisses and their "You're so cute, masha'Allah!" One gave us candy, as usual. After another minute, I saw my friend Fahirah come out with her mother behind her.

"Husniyah" Fahirah cried. She always cried my name whenever she saw me, and her mother always said, "Tell her as-salamu alaikum."

"As-salamu alaikum!" 

"Walaikum salam," I replied smiling brightly.

Fahirah sat down on the side walk and patted a space beside her for me to sit. I sat down with her and we talked about her new doll while her mother stood nearby, talking to Alliah about how the end of her 5th grade year was going. When my mother came out with our 5 year old sister Jehan, she talked to Fahirah's mother for a little while, and then we had to get going. In the car, Alliah and I watched our older brother Ibrahim play Sonic on his GameBoy.

"Daddy, where are we going today?" Jehan asked every 3 minutes.

"You'll see," my father replied every time, patiently.

We did see eventually. Every friday our parents took us out to eat after jumu'ah and then either to the park, the library, or to go see family. Today, my father took us to my favorite place, a small halal restaurant called Dunya Kabab. It was probably my favorite because the walls were the most unique out of any other restaurants in Nashville: the walls were painted as if you were looking out of a window into a beautiful valley of lakes and mountains and green grass and flowers. My father ordered my siblings and I what we usually got from there, which was kabab, rice with fresh lemon on the side to squeeze over it, and bean soup. My mother got her usual gyro, salad, and lental soup, and my father got lamb with rice and tabbouleh. We ate and talked and laughed, the restaurant was basically empty except for one other customer enjoying their coffee in a booth, so the owner, brother Ahmed, came out to chat with my parents.

After we finished out food, brother Ahmed gave my siblings and I each a brownie cookie along with minute maid white grape juice, then after we said salam we were on our way. After about 2 minutes of driving, my father pulled into the parking lot of the playground, where i seen 2 pairs of our aunts and uncles along with our cousins on the pay set. I gasped and flung off my seat belt.

"Finish eating first," Alliah whispered to me.

"Oh yeah," I whispered back.

We finished our cookies and juice, then out parents walked us over to join our other relatives. On our way, Alliah stopped to pick something up.

"Alliah, come on, hurry!" I begged her.

She stood back up with something in her hand. "Look what I found!"

Alliah showed me a glittery light pink braided bracelet with a little gold heart at the end. "Isn't it so fabulous?"

I nodded. I wished I could've found something like that too. I'd always loved anything to do with fashion. But I didn't ask for the bracelet because I knew she would say no.

Alliah looked at it a little while longer then brushed the dirt off of it. "Here, give me your wrist."

I smiled from ear to ear and did as she told me.

She spoke to me as she put the bracelet on my arm. "Since I wont be in school with you anymore after summer, just keep this bracelet to remember me by."

"What do you mean you wont be in school with me?" I asked, my smile disappearing.

"I'm going to middle school next year, and that means I'll be going to school with Ibrahim now... I wont see you at lunch or recess or in the halls anymore."

I began to tear up. 

"No, no, don't cry!" she pleaded. "You'll still have Jehan."

"Jehan isn't you," I whined.

"Don't worry, we'll be in the same school again once you get to middle school, and then when you get to high school, and maybe we can go to the same college, too. But until then, just keep that bracelet for whenever you start to miss me at school, and remember you'll see me when you get home and you can tell me all about everything that happened at school when we get home."

I smiled. "Okay."

Alliah put her arm around my shoulder and we walked over to join the rest of out family on that beautiful spring day...