Dawud.

Chapter 25: Meet the Muhammads

  بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Assalamu'alaykum! It's Sumaya here and I've got amazing news. Thanks to the mercy of Allah, you guys and your amazing support has helped this book reach 1000 reads! Alhamdullilah! & remember, I love you guys for the sake of Allah, because that is the best type of love.

Jannah's P.O.V

Today was February 28th. I was sat in my father's kitchen. It was Friday night and tomorrow morning I'd have to face reality by meeting my soon-to-be in-laws. My father's cellphone was slipping out of my hands due to the perspiration emanating from them. My dad watched me warily from the counter as I put his cellphone between the crook of my neck and ear, huffing with distress.

"It was very nice speaking to you, Qamara. Insha'Allah we'll see each other soon." I concluded, smiling a painful smile although she couldn't see me. My father's compassionate eyes lingered on me for a bit before he took the cellphone from my hands.

"Are you okay?" He asked me, covering the phone's microphone with his large hand. My queasy stomach spoke for me as it moaned and growled ferociously. I rushed upstairs to the bathroom and puked into the toilet, wheezing for air. After a few minutes of this, I heard a knock at the door.

I was nervous. I was scared. But most of all, I was tired. I didn't know what Qamara and Muhammad, Dawud's parents, would think of me! What if they didn't like me because of my skin color? What if they hated the way I wore my hijab? What if they thought, like Parihan and the others, that my henna business was useless and a waste of time?

"Jannah, open the door." My father said softly. I shook my head although he couldn't see me. "Please." He asked again. I couldn't help crawl towards the door. I flicked the lock horizontally and twisted the knob, encountering a saddened Sultan. He winced at the smell of puke that emanated from the toilet.

The next day, I felt a bit better. My father reminded me that Allah doesn't burden a soul than it can bare and that if I call unto him, he will respond. This set my heart at ease however the car ride to the house was terrible. My mother sat in the back seat with her arms crossed. Now and then she would murmur "I never allowed this," and "This shouldn't be happening until she's twenty-five." but I didn't let that bring me down. What was terrible about the car ride was how Mariam wasn't in it. She would meet us at Qamara and Muhammad's home. Since she wasn't here, the tension between my parents was so thick you cut it with a knife. I decided to lighten the mood up a bit and sing a song from my childhood, causing both my parents to laugh.

"You used to love that theme song." My mom said with a smile. I saw my father's eyes look up towards the rear-view mirror, where he had a perfect view of my mother. She grinned radiantly and I imagined how she looked like at nineteen years old. My father ran past a red light. "Sultan! You just ran past a red light!" She yelled, returning back to her gloomy frown.

"Huh? Oh, sorry." My father stammered, casting his eyes back down towards to the road.

My mother clicked her tongue in annoyance. "What were you looking at? The roads are completely empty today."

My father and I shared a smirk and looked on. The image of my parents getting back together caused me to grin to myself. May Allah, Glorious and Exalted be He, make it so.

We met Mariam in the parking lot. She clutched Abdallah's hand tightly as they shivered in the cold. The sun cast a yellow, pink and orange shadow in the sky. It looked as though the sky was on fire. Abdallah kissed my mother's cheek and shook my father's hand. I threw him a peace sign as I embraced my sister.

"I missed you so much." I said into her scarf.

"Same! It's bothersome having no one to argue with." She whined. I chuckled nervously. "Don't be nervous, Jannah! I'm here with you." Mariam smiled radiantly and all of my worries disappeared. I had my sister, whom I loved with all of my heart, by my side Alhamdullilah.

We walked up to the beautiful house. My mother stood next to me, my father in the front and Mariam and Abdallah in the back. The third time my father's fist came in contact with the door I felt my knees buckle. A few voices could be heard from inside the house. With the jingle of a metal chain and the switch of a lock, the door swung open to reveal a beautiful and plump woman in a hijab. When she smiled, I knew that she was Dawud's mother. Their eyes twinkled the same way. Her freckled cheeks jiggled with excitement as she welcomed us into her home. I followed my father in and kept my eyes lowered. Once everyone was inside the home, slipping off their boots and unzipping their coats, I allowed myself to take a peek around. The warm air smelt of pleasant food and the bright accents placed around the house gave the eyes something to look at. I watched as my family followed Qamara's directions and walked down the hall to the sitting area. Qamara's arm hooked itself around my own and used her free hand to lift my chin upwards so that our eyes met. It was now that I saw her soft and round brown eyes. Her large lips were naturally dark in color. I noticed this when she smiled, revealing perfectly white teeth. "You know," she whispered, "A woman's most beautiful garment is her shyness."

I shrunk into myself, wincing with a smile. "Sorry, I'm just really nervous." I gushed. I don't know why I had said that. Panic washed over me and I darted my eyes back to the vibrant yellow carpet below us. Qamara tilted my chin up once again, looking at me with a sympathetic expression. Her eyes held so much history. I could see all the pain she had felt as well as the happiness she had experienced. I don't know what it was exactly, but something told me I could trust her.

"Jannah, don't be! Muhammad and I have been trying to get Dawud to invite you over for weeks. As soon as he told us about you, my husband and I fell in love. If anything, we're the nervous ones!" She said with soft eyes. My heart melted and throbbed. "Please don't cry!" Qamara pleaded with a beautiful grin. I nodded and bit my quivering lip, squeezing her thick arm lovingly.

In the living room sat Mariam and my mother, laughing away at a picture on Mariam's phone. On the other side of the living room, Abdallah and Dawud were standing next to a window, chatting happily.

Dawud was breathtakingly beautiful as always. His long curly hair fell over his face from time to time as he spoke with animation. His green eyes squinted as he laughed, revealing a gorgeous smile. His thick and perfect eyebrows pulled together and arched upwards with expression and his thick eyelashes flapped up and down with each blink. His chiseled jaw was as sharp as always and his beautiful complexion shone in the brightly lit room. That boyish grin of his grew once his eyes laid themselves on me. I inhaled sharply and looked down, blushing with color.

"Muhammad, this is Jannah." Qamara said to the man on her left. I leaned forward to see him as he leaned forward to see me, causing the two of us to laugh. His eyes grew wide with wonder, which would have worried me if his one-sided grin wasn't so big. The same hair, eyes, eyelashes, nose, cheekbones and lips. He was Dawud's father and that was a fact.

"Ya, Jannah. You're as beautiful as the moon and as bright as the sun." Muhammad said with a captivating voice. My cheeks burned with shyness as I smiled sheepishly.

The rest of the night played out smoothly. I started to grow more comfortable when we took our seats and sipped tea. Everyone took turns speaking about whatever we could think of, setting my heart at ease. When it was time to eat, the men went off into the kitchen while the women sat happily in the living room. "They can feed themselves, can't they?" Qamara teased, causing my mother to laugh harder than the rest of us. The men returned and we said our goodbyes. I had an amazing night with my soon-to-be in-laws, Insha'Allah.

Chapter Twenty-Six ->