True Purpose

c h a p t e r 25

"Hassan, I need to speak with you," Zaynab said, once they had finished with the Qur'an class on Monday evening.

"I'm all ears," Hassan replied, shooting Zaynab his usual smile.

"Well, I don't know how to say this. It's all so complicated. I didn't know it'd be this difficult initially!" Zaynab murmured.

"Just tell me," Hassan said.

"It's about Arwa..." Zaynab trailed off.

"Arwa? Your friend - the revert?" Hassan asked.

Zaynab nodded.

"Well, what about her?" Hassan questioned.

Zaynab was silent for a while, trying her best to phrase in her mind what she wanted to say.

"Zaynab, I don't mean to rush you or anything, but please tell me quickly because I've to go for 'Isha in a bit. Or would you rather tell me after I come back?" Hassan said.

Zaynab quickly shook her head. Waiting to tell someone something was not Zaynab's forte. 

"Alright. So, this is a little strange, okay?" Zaynab said.

Hassan nodded. "Don't worry, just go on," he said.

"Okay, so remember when I told you one of the reasons Arwa was pulled to Islam was because of her brother's teacher?" Zaynab asked.

Hassan nodded in response.

"Well, believe it or not, Arwa's brother's teacher is none other than your own brother!"

"Oh, wow! Yasir was kind of the cause of someone's conversion and he's not even aware?" Hassan asked with a smile.

Zaynab nodded. "Yeah!"

"So, that's all that you wanted to tell me? That Yasir is the teacher to Arwa's brother?" Hassan asked, raising his eyebrows.

"Yeah!" Zaynab nodded. Then shook her head vigorously, realising her mistake. "I mean, no! There's more!" She quickly corrected herself.

Hassan smiled at her. "You're too adorable!" He said.

Zaynab blushed, looking anywhere but not at him, when she felt a hand gently cup her chin and turn her head around, and she found herself staring into a pair of deep brown eyes.

"So, what it is that you wanted to tell me?" Hassan murmured, looking at Zaynab intensely, hoping that his eyes didn't give away the emotion he felt for her before he could tell her himself just how much he loved her.

"Ar-Arwa li-likes Yasir," Zaynab managed to say. She stuttered, but this time, it wasn't out of fear. It was because she felt flustered at Hassan's close proximity. It was because she was nervous and her heart was racing a mile a minute, and a whole batch of butterflies had been unleashed in her stomach. Her mind could only focus on him, and nothing else, and her eyes involuntarily wandered to his perfect lips.

Hassan noticed how flustered Zaynab was. He realised that she stammered because of that, not because she was scared. And somewhere inside him, he was overjoyed that he had such an effect on Zaynab. That he could make her nervous, that he could make her blush. And when her eyes took in his lips, that didn't go unnoticed by him. Which made his own eyes subconsciously travel down to her lips. With his hand still cupping Zaynab's chin, before he realised what he was doing, he pulled her head closer to him, while leaning his head down towards hers. Zaynab's eyes closed when he slightly tilted his head, and he shut his own eyes, in order to savour the moment.

What happened between them, that little moment they shared, was something that neither of them could ever forget, nor did they ever imagine it to be as sweet and perfect as it was.