Choosing The Right Path

26) 👑Modest👑

"Please take your seats. I will be calling each group according to register order. I hope you are all prepared."

Raeesa, Rubina and I sat together at the back of the classroom waiting for the much dreaded moment when we were to be called to present our speech.

After waiting for half the lesson, we were called to the front of the classroom.

"Good day to Mrs. Jacobs and fellow classmates. Rubina, Raeesa and I chose to interview a man that inspired us to not only have such strong faith in our religion; Islam but also to be the best people that we can be."

The atmosphere was suddenly suffocating and the tears were threatening to roll down my face. I stared at my feet to avoid embarrassing myself and possibly ruining our presentation.

"Mr. Ramin Ibrahim Ali was a man whom I met on a bus as I was going home one day. I was under a lot of stress and Mr. Ali was kind enough to give me a few words of advice. Since then, I became good friends with him."

"I met Mr. Ali on the day of our interview with him. He was had an amazing personality and was the type of person that you could talk to about absolutely anything under the sun. As a Muslim man, Mr. Ali had strong faith in his religion and always tried to make me see that being a good Muslim isn't solely about dressing modestly, following the sunnah, which are the actions of the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him and praying 5 times a day. It is also about being kind to others, a healer to the sick, a motivator to the weak and an inspiration to the youth. Ramin Ibrahim Ali showed me that there was so much more to being a true Muslim than which the naked eye could see."

Rubina's speech honestly took my breath away. The extra two weeks that she was forced to spend with Mr. Ali had really had an impact on her. But that was a much needed impact, to say the least.

Raeesa's speech was short and sweet and because she didn't know Mr. Ali too well, she talked about the many facts that we had gathered about him during the interview.

We ended the speech with a power point presentation of twelve slides, two more slides than Mrs. Jacob had stipulated in the rubric that she had given us. That at least gave the three of us, four slides to talk about, fair and square.

"Well done, girls. You may take a seat."

Being extremely shy, I tended to avoid making eye contact with my classmates. Once we got back to our seats, Raeesa nudged me. "Everybody was in tears!" She hissed at me.

I said nothing. Now that I was safely at the back of the classroom, I eyed Rubina from the corner of my eye. Her head was on her arms and she was pretending to be fast asleep.

But I knew my cousin better than anyone.

》》》

The floaty material around her arms brushed against my hand as she left class. A spell of triumphance washed over me before she disappeared into the cafeteria. Raeesa and I walked slowly and a distance behind Rubina. When we finally reached the cafeteria, she was taking her seat at her usual table. Many pairs of eyes trained on the 'new girl' but Rubina remained confident and determined to pull off her 'new-look'.

On the other side of the cafeteria, Hamid and Petunia sat together and talked like old friends. The two of them had never been this close. I was happy that their friendship was flourishing.

Jana joined Raeesa and I shortly. She quickly set her lunch tray down with a thump and grinned widely. "Your presentation was amazing, you guys! So I take it that Mr. Ali passed away? What about his family? Do you know them personally?..."

We told Jana that all her questions would be answered in due time and she excused herself to sit with Jared. The two were now a couple.

✴ A Z L A N ✴

"So isn't it a big change for you to be wearing that? " Jared asked Rubina. He pulled his girlfriend close to him and I watched as they prepared themselves for Rubina's answer, a perfect picture of curiosity painted across the lovers' faces.

"Honestly, yes. But I'll get used to it, eventually. I've just got to get myself a new wardrobe altogether," Rubina chuckled, causing the group to laugh. Did I mention that Rubina ditched a somewhat bitchy personality?

Earlier in the day I noticed a fallout between Rubina and a few non-Muslim girls that hit a bit too close to home. Now her crownies had no popularity guru to follow and were up in arms about it. Rubina defended herself and her religion for once. I couldn't have felt more proud at that moment.

"What's it called?" Asked Georgia, one of the girls that tried to have a shot at being my girlfriend earlier this year, now sat at our table. She had finally stopped trying her luck with me and was by now, accepted into our cliquè.

"This is a hijab,"  Rubina lifted a corner of the weightless, black material, "And this is an abaya or otherwise known as a cloak. A hijab in English is a scarf or headscarf. Whatever you want to call it."

"That's so cool."

"Can I come over to yout house and try one on sometime?"

"How many do you have to own?

"Do you wear that to sleep?"

Since the group was so curious and was growing louder, we attracted a fair amount of attention from other students, who then crowded around the table to find out what the commotion was. Soon, Rubina was attacked from all sides with questions. She made up her mind to have a Q&A on her instagram that evening.

Moral of the story?

You don't need to dress revealingly and throw yourself out there to be noticed.