Life Of Afreen

Chapter XXII

The Prophet (peace be upon him) said; "The Almighty descends every night to the lowest heaven when one-third of the night remains and says: 'Who will call upon Me, that I may give him? Who will seek my forgiveness, that I may forgive him?"
              _Al Bukhaari and Muslim.

            Chapter 22

In the silence of the night, taken over by the darkness, under the radiance of the stars and moon and amidst the feeling of her Rabb being in the lowest sky as He listened to her every word, every du'a and every thought in her heart, bent down in prostration, she prayed.

She made du'a for every dream she had begun to lose hope in.
She prayed for a beautiful ending and peace in her qabar.
She prayed for the blessing that awaits in the end of every calamity.
She prayed for happiness to herself and to her family.
She prayed for the whole Ummah that Allah provides them with all their needs.
And finally, she prayed for him.

Bring us together if we're meant to be, Ya Rabb, and make him good for me in this life and the hereafter, she had said.

As Afreen heard the adhaan for Fajr, she sat up from where she was sprawled on the prayer mat. Bringing her knees to her chest and wrapping her hands around them, she closely listened to the call for prayer and then, stood up for Salah.

She had never been a morning person, she loved her sleep more than she could describe. However, she eventually fell into the routine of offering the prayers in the last third of the night followed by the morning prayers, thus altering her earlier habit. She was amending her life so living could be somewhat bearable.

Once she finished the prayer and her mourning routine, promising herself that she'd take a power nap for just five minutes and wake up by 6:30 a.m, she fell asleep. However, her eyes fluttered open at 7:23. She was immediately put into panic mode because at this rate, she would be late for work.

Taking a ten minutes shower and dressing up in five, Afreen hurriedly went into the kitchen making toast and gulping it down with a cup of milk.

She took one of her fathers car and with her Latte cup in hand, she left the house.

As she got to the office, she prayed that the day will pass by in a blur as she was neither in the mood for any kind of interaction nor in the mood for any sorta work.

"AFREEN!"

Despite her mood, Afreen couldn't help but laugh at Yusra's desperate tone of voice, she hardly behaved this way.

"What's up?"

"Life! I can't deal with it anymore"

Occupying her chair in front of the computer, while browsing through the agenda for the day, she directed a curious glance at Yusra.

"So when I was coming to work this morning, Mom said she wanted to speak to me" Yusra started.

"...and?"

"She said some guy is coming to see me in prospect of marriage!"

Afreen's heart skipped a bit as she heard the word, marriage.

Why me? She directed the question to herself in silence.
All I want is to be happy and loved. Why is it so hard for me to find the right person.
Am I not worthy of being loved?

It took her a moment to calm her raging thoughts before she said, "Whoah. Masha Allah...who's the lucky guy?"

"Oho! I really don't want to know. I'm just 22, I'm too young for marriage!"