True Purpose

c h a p t e r 15

Saturdays. Zaynab usually hated them. Before she got married, Saturdays would mean no university, which meant that she had to spend the whole day at Samina's house in the presence of her aunt and cousin which, in turn, meant torture.

But for once in her life, Zaynab didn't hate this Saturday. After all, she had no reason to do so. It was the following morning after her nightmare, and Zaynab woke up to see that Hassan had already left. She knew that he had work even on Saturdays.

To Zaynab's horror, she suddenly realised that hadn't prayed Fajr. Zaynab had grown so used to her five daily salaahs that it felt like she had been praying them her entire life. But because of the way her night had gone, she caught some deep sleep during the later part of the night which resulted in her not being able to wake up. Perhaps Hassan must have tried but failed to wake her up.

Zaynab quickly went and performed wudhu and put on her jilbaab in order to make up for the Fajr prayer that she missed, before going downstairs to the kitchen in order to help her mother-in-law.

"Mum, what shall I do?" Zaynab asked.

"Oh, honey, you don't need to worry about this. Why don't you just go and study?" Rumaysah replied.

"No, mum. I can study later. I have to help you," Zaynab insisted.

"Alright. Just chop some of those vegetables I kept aside, and after that, there's some chicken that I've cleaned which needs to be pieced. Is that okay?" Rumaysah asked.

Zaynab nodded and set to work, thinking deep down how in the world she ever wondered in the first place that Rumaysah and Samina would be similar.

"Honey, were you really close to Samina?" Rumaysah asked, snapping Zaynab out of her thoughts.

The question caught Zaynab off-guard. Had Samina told Rumaysah by any chance that they were close? Is she did, why?

"Did she tell you that we were close, mum?" Zaynab finally responded.

"Yeah. She told me that she treated you like her daughter. She always did so much for you. She wanted you to get married to a reliable guy, and she said she jumped at the chance when I said I wanted to get my son married, because she thinks Hassan is a great guy," Rumaysah narrated.

Zaynab balled her fists in anger. How dare she? How dare Samina lie to Rumaysah? Samina never treated her like a daughter! She only ever treated Zaynab worse than a maid! And the only reason she jumped at the chance when Rumaysah mentioned Hassan's marriage was because Samina wanted to get rid of Zaynab, and that was it!

Rumaysah's eyes fell on Zaynab's hard expression. She placed her hand on Zaynab's tensed shoulder.

"Is everything alright? Why do you look so stressed all of a sudden?" Rumaysah asked.

Zaynab smiled, although it wasn't what one would call a genuine smile. "I'm alright, mum," she said.

"Good. You got me worried for a while!" Rumaysah said, returning Zaynab's strained smile with her own real one.

They resumed their work, and Zaynab's irritation with Samina died down. Rumaysah probably thought that Samina was a nice woman! Oh, how Zaynab wished that Rumaysah could have seen Samina's true colours.

The day went pretty fast for Zaynab. She helped with the household chores, she studied, she prayed her obligatory salaahs, and although she didn't really realise it, she looked forward to seeing Hassan come back home from work.

After dinner, when Zaynab went to wash the dishes, Rumaysah shooed her away from the kitchen telling her to go study, which Zaynab did.

After about an hour into her studies, Zaynab heard the bedroom door opening, and she turned her head to see Hassan entering. She could barely take her eyes off him as he ran a hand through his hair with a sigh of exhaustion.