Muslimah On A Mission

Chapter-8

Riya couldn't sleep that night with so much in her mind. It's not the butterflies that was given by the groom who was astonished by Riya and her simplicity attitude. But the confusion about herself wether is she ready to be a wife to a man, whom she thought is perfect in all the ways by analyzing him after the meeting with him.
The sincerity he had when talking to her mom, the way he lowered his gaze, the politeness he had and the connection he had with Allah swt, of-course he is a man of dream of every Muslimah.
The light in his face, and the clearance of his words explained the closeness he had with his Rabb. Riya was afar when compared to him, she thought to herself.
She didn't have the slightest clue of what is she going to do next!
Being a girl, she's created with sensitivity.
So, is she going to give up?
Is that all a girl is capable of?
With 1000s of thoughts in Riya's head, she decided to take a walk.

She wore her Nike shoes which was gifted by an aunt of hers who stays abroad, wearing an overcoat and wrapping a hijab around her head, she sighed and opened the door, the fresh wind hit her body, she felt refreshed and re-energized.

Riya started walking with hands in her overcoat pocket and so much in her head, she didn't mind informing her mom as she thought it's just going to be a quick one.

First time in months, she is feeling light! That means does she likes the guy?
Then what about her goal?
This step she is doing is for the sake of her mom. Her life is written that way, her fate is confusing to understand by her.
Is she really gonna get married, even after she has met the worst of men in the world?
Not all men are the same, C'mon she had her father who made her feel like she was the happiest soul in the entire world.
Can this guy give her butterflies or thorns? She has had enough in her life to such an extent she can bear both flutters and pricks.
She believes thorns would be better than butterflies as it might make her strong. This thought gave a glimpse of pain in her heart.
As she was once a girl who had a fairytale planned in her mind. She laughed a cold laugh at the thought.
She slowly turned her way towards her house leaving so much unsolved puzzles behind.
On her way home, she didn't forget to remember Shama.

***

Yusuf, being optimistic always had a plan in his mind about how his life should be. Being the first son of Mr. Saleem, and the only brother to Aqil, he should be a responsible man to the family as his father and brother are real spoilers of the family.

***
Yusuf's POV

After my higher studies in Australia, I returned to my motherland in 6 years. Meeting my family in people is the happiest thing to any abroad returns. Like any typical person I too was so excited to meet my family, my mom, dad and especially my brother. But things weren't suppose to be like as it used to be. 6 years is a vast period, that I realized anyone could change greatly. The day arrived, I got the worst news from my mom telling that my brother Aqil met with an accident, stayed in Coma and got married to some girl who isn't a Muslim, so she didn't bother to tell any of these when I was in Australia because she didn't wanna cause any barrier for my studies since she cared less about the matters of Aqil because of his relationship. Knowing my younger brother met with an accident caught me off guard. I couldn't control the hurt the news brought me, even after knowing he has recovered. What a bad brother I can be?

I hurried towards his room to find his room empty, with that I heard my mom say Aqil has already left the house. What a mess have I made by not knowing anything about the family and selfishly studying!
I got so mad with myself that I wanna cry as if I own the cause for the damage that have occurred to the family. I can't imagine of what my mom had been through in the past. She didn't even mention a single occurrence in here. After a three days of break I decided to meet my brother in person to know what actually happened. I at least wanna try to patch the leaking bucket.
I called Aqil and he spoke,
"Who the hell is this?" Aqil asked
"Aqil, it's me Yusuf. I arrived 3 days back. But what's happening? Where are you?" I questioned with concern but his reply made me miserable.
"Ow you? What made you call me? Your oh so darling mother would have cooked up a lot of stories against me I suppose, son, mom all will be the same! What made you call me?" He annoyingly asked.
A twisted feeling came in my stomach.
"Aqil, what's wrong with you? Why are you talking like this? Can we meet up?" I asked him.
"Sorry not interested." With that he kept the phone.
I tried contacting him again. But no answer.

I learned that he has been married to the CEO's daughter of his office through his friends. And after much further inquiries, I heard from them that Aqil actually pretend to be in a relationship with Mr. Raj's daughter for the fame, money and promotions in his career. This was another slap for me. I really got nauseous of having him as my brother. Aqil was once a religious boy from the day I remember. But what has got into him?
However this marriage cannot be excepted according to Islamic law.

I really need to find out and help him to get him out of this mess. As a brother it's my responsibility.
As days passed, nothing improved from my side in regard to Aqil, with the unsolicited problems being in hand, mom brought a news which made me skip a beat.

"Yusuf, you really need to get married. I know Aqil is my son. But if you want to get him out of this, you really need to get married." My mom said, while we were having our evening coffee on the couch together for the first time after my arrival.
I stared at her as if something has gotten in to her because it was the first time she brought up the marriage topic to me.

"I didn't get you mom." I said her by putting the words that came to my mouth into a sentence.
"Yes Yusuf. I know this might be shocking to you. But, after the day Aqil met with an accident, as a mom I couldn't bear his goings, I met his two friends and asked what really happened, because I know these three hang together all the time. So I just wanna know where were they when the incident happened. They told me some really irksome incidents and after further investigations I heard a lot more worse things after visiting his office as I wanted to know more truths about him since his friends' answers didn't satisfy me, which made me feel pathetic as a mom.." she said and two drops of tears fell from her eyes which I hurried to catch, but failed epically.
She told me everything from Rohini to Riya, a girl who was accused falsely.

I waited until she finishes,
"You need to get married to Riya. Because when I visited Aqil's office, I bumped into a girl called Safa, a Cleaner of the office, I randomly asked her if she knows anyone called Aqil, just to know if she might help me find his colleagues, but from the look she gave me, I realized I didn't need his colleagues to know about him. Maybe it was all Allah's plan to meet Safa and through her I got to know all about Aqil and Riya. Afterward I started gathering informations about Riya, from which I got to know that Riya's fatherless, and is the daughter of a famous artist Mr. Hakeem. They say Mr. Hakeem was met with an accident, but with much further scrutiny, I got to know that he was killed. Then I decided that if Aqil wants to turn better, Riya should be my daughter in law. She, being a software engineer joined as a cleaner of a reputed software engineering company just to get vengeance from AqiL means she Is the right person to mend Aqil." Said mom and showed me the photo of the girl.

I was too bewildered to look at the photo, because what my mom said made me very agitated. That I just wanna run away from the weights kept on my head.