The Three Struggling Muslimahs

23

"Okay now we'll start the class by reciting Al Fatiha as usual. Okay Bismillah. Start," Rayhannah politely told the girls as she shifted her gaze onto the girl who never recited along. As usual, her head was held low, fingers covering her mouth as she pretended to murmur along. It was either one, she truly didn't know how to recite the Quran or two, she was just being a teenager and rebelling even the simplest of orders. After everyone had finished reciting Al Fatiha and the duah they said every morning, Rayhannah got up from her desk and went to the girl who had introduced herself as Misha.

"Hey Misha. Can I talk to you for a minute?" She asked when she got to her desk. She nodded and they went outside class. Before she left, she turned back and signalled to Muhammad to take over the class. These two had finally gotten the feel of normalcy when they were together in a room, as long as they were not alone.

"I don't mean to pry sweetheart but may I please ask why you don't recite the Quran with us in the morning? You do know it's the shield of anything and everything bad in this world right?" The girl broke down in tears as she cupped her face and shook her head shocking Rayhannah. Had she said something wrong?

"Do you know how to read the Qur'an?" She shook her head.

"Do you understand it when others are reading it for you? Or anywhere near you?" She shook her head again.

"I'm.. I'm... I'm Michelle! Not Misha. I'm not even Muslim. I don't know why I joined this class. Please don't tell anyone." Rayhannah tried to contain her shock as she enveloped the girl in a hug. Ya Allah! What was happening!? They sat on the floor as the girl slowly but surely stopped crying.

"Do you wanna tell me why you came here or what pushed you to come here in the first place?" Rayhannah asked.

"My friends. All my friends are Muslims. And I love how they carry themselves. How they are always neat. And how they are always covered up and all. I love how they read the Koran in the morning," Rayhannah smiled at her pronunciation. How did she not figure that out!? "But they have an easy life so that's why they are steadfast. Like you Muslims barely get tested you know? I've had a billion and one problems yet I'm only seventeen."

Muhammad who was having a hard time getting the girls to listen to him went out in search of his partner but stopped in his tracks when he heard her voice nearby.

"Love! That's not true at all. I'm nineteen. And I've been tested beyooooond what I thought I could handle. No one knows this but my mama abandoned my father and I when I was barely three years old. My baba, my biological baba passed away. And now I live with his friends. My family turned their backs on me and when my father passed away, they were so eager to get me married off so that they would get baba's wealth and my dowry. The person I love is always with me every single day and that just drains me because I want to talk to him, I want to be with him but I know how haraam that is. But you know what? Every cloud truly does have a silver lining. My mama left us and I didn't get to see her ever, I don't remember her, but Aunt UmmulKhayr, whom I now call mama told me she was soaked in drugs and alcohol I'm so happy I didn't get to see that because it would have broken me. Baba passed away with a smile on his face and he had wudhu and that just warms my heart wallahy. My family, well, they are just messed up. And my Habib, Ya Allah! He feels the same way Michelle. Allah does test us. But he tests us according to our strengths. Now, I'm no psychologist sweetheart but I think if your problems led you here, then your solutions are to be found right here. And don't you worry. Your secret is safe with me. If you want I could teach you how to read the Qur'an!"

Tears had soaked Michelle's eyes because her problems felt ever so minute when she compared them with Madam Rayhannah's. "How do you control yourself. Around your ...
habir was it!?" Rayhannah smiled.

"It was habib. I don't know how but he apparently manages to get strength from this. So when I see him, or I hear that, it calms me. Because all I could ever really want is for him to be happy. So you can imagine how I feel when I know that I am his source of happiness."

"And do you ever talk. Like do you text him or go out together?"

"Yes we've texted a few times. But no we don't like go out. He comes home for iftaar with his sister sometimes or I go to his place. But we are never alone. Because its not allowed in Islam for a male and a female who are not married and not related to be alone in a room."

"Gosh! That must be hard!"

"It sometimes is. But he's the kinda person who makes waiting worth it. You get it? I know I sound love sick but it's what I feel!"

Muhammad smiled. "If only you knew what I felt, then maybe 'love sick' would have a different meaning. An extreme one at that." He whispered to himself as he walked back to his desk and lost himself in his thoughts.  Thinking about the day he would finally get to call her his. The day they could finally be left alone and none had to worry about when to speak because they had their whole lives ahead of them.

"Do you wanna go back to class or do you wanna go home?"

"I cant go home cause my daddy thinks I'm at community service. He'd kill me if he found out I was here in stead."

Ya Allah! She totally forgot to ask,"No one in your family is Muslim!"

She shook her head. "Nope. I  have cousins who are atheists!"

"Subhanallah! Atheist. Really?"

"I knoooooooow!" They shared a laugh. One among the very many they were to share in the future. But the future would be a little different. They would add one more person to their equation.

"Let's go back in then. Okay love."
As they made their way back, Michelle made a heartfelt request.
"Call me something in Arabic."

"I'll call you something that my habib calls me. Hayaty."

"What does it mean?"

"My Life. And I've been called that over and over again but it feels different with him. Because it's him whose saying it this time round. Its his life that I am. No one else's."

"Awwwwwww. I wanna meet hiiiiim!"

'You already have,' she thought as she raised her eyes to find Muhammad looking directly at her with his big beautiful smile shining at her.

Author's note:

I'm so excited. Wattpad is officially my favorite app. You guys HAVE to see the story under the title Falling For You by Khaulaty18

Stay blessed ❤