Sidratul Muntaha

Chapter 15 🌺

Bismillahi Rrahmaani Rraheem•

Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuhu•

There are many changes and additions to the story so I would request you to read it.

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Muntaha's breaths were too ragged and his appearance even more. His heart was beating very strongly. His eyes were terrified as he remembered the scene he had just seen. He couldn't let anything happen to her. He ran a hand through his hair and closed his tired eyes tightly before opening them again. Shaking his head he whispered his protection from shaytaan and all the bad that he caused including the nightmare he just had. Then once he followed the sunnah of dealing with the nightmares, he got out of the bed and walked towards the window.

The night was quite dark even when the moon was shining brightly on the sky. He sighed and turned around, watching his room with a barely contained helplessness. Since she left with her companions, he had gotten his room back, but it was her imprints that had left themselves in the room and it didn't feel complete to him now. His companions preferred sleeping outside and had left the room to him completely.

He turned away again and watched the sky outside once more. Jasim had already left for Haraira taking the girl with him. She was to be deposited to a hakeema there who was very choosy while selecting students. He appreciated the girl's gesture. He wanted healers in his camp and Allah had helped him.

He decided to put his unease to the back of his mind and went to pray his tahajjud. Tahajjud was the only place where he was himself. He was an abd on his musallah, who was a mix of weakness and strength in the equal measures. His wishes and his desires combined with his duties at this place. It was the only place where he dared to shed his mantle and show weakness. Because this place was where he prostrated to his Rabb. It was where he connected with the Lord of the universe.

There is something about tahajjud that make all of the fears and hopes rise in a person. Words at this time are easier to utter in front of Allah. And after uttering those words the heart usually finds peace. It lightens it's load and feel refreshed.

Muntaha had raised his hands to the heavens each night at the same time and had cried out to Allah for everything. In shukr and in sabr, his Rabb had heard him call out and responded each time with the immense grace only that Rabb can possess. Muntaha cried out today too, because the unease in his heart was like the deepest abyss swirling and howling to swallow his soul and to pull him in the darkness that had seemed to swallow Sidra in his nightmare. He could feel the words flow but he didn't have the control over them. He had opened a door in his heart through which each feeling flowed easily and converted themselves into words, which he whispered to his Rabb. It was a meeting between a beloved and his lover.

There was a melancholy in the air. His heard beat abruptly. He wished the darkness of the night hadn't swallowed anything important. He sighed as he got up. It was almost the time for Fajr and he had to wake his companions up for tahajjud.

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Zuhayr stood with his back to the tree and waited for Hudhud. Two meetings ago, Hudhud had just been back from the island of Isqareen, where he claimed that he had witnessed a rare woman.

They had been keeping an eye out for Isqareen after they came to know that Sharr was a sorcerer too. They thought it might be all connected, but they hadn't found anything on Isqareen except her prophecy on the girl, Adara, as Hudhud had informed him and Adara's incredible reaction to it. That had made him quite curious about the girl and he had wanted Hudhud to keep an eye out for her.

The last time they had met, Hudhud had again been back from the island of Isqareen. This time he had witnessed another meeting, but this time it was between Isqareen and another man. Hudhud had spied on them from outside the house and they had been conversing about Adara. From the conversation, Hudhud had come to know that the man was Adara's father and was searching Adara for something. He also came to know that the man was a sorcerer too.