Fighting Society

Intro

NASHEED IS ONE OF MY FAV'S! Ama Zilna By Benammi!

It was a warm summers breeze as I squinted my eyes looking beyond the sounds of excited crickets, beyond the laughter of the oblivious children and far ahead of our little community.

We were an actual community, not one of those ghost neighbourhoods where your neighbour is just another stranger. I grabbed my small handy bucket of tools and made my way into my beautiful Holden. Sure it was small and I had to duck a bit to fit myself inside, bit it was mine. No strings attached. I had bought it without the burdens of an interest-dripping loan.

"In every place, in every time.
Above you is a Lord who loves you and will never forget you
Do we know our Lord?
Do we see our Lords blessings?
Do we know our Lord?
Do we thank him...Or have we forgotten
That we are his servants."

I had tuned my car into our community's local Muslim radio.

This particular house was located on the outskirts of the middle class residences that were located within Claridge, the suburb in which my neighbourhood lies.

Naturally brining my finger up to trigger the indicater, I parked into the small, narrow lane.

A stout woman was already there to greet me.

"You must be the electrician. Here, let me take you to the light meter. Did you want anything to drink? Tea, coffee, water? I know it's quite a hot day today."

"Water will be fine, thanks." I replied, wanting to get to the work. The sooner I start it, the sooner it'll be over.

She led me over to the light meter, telling me to ignore the bundles of spider webs that scattered the walls surrounding the meter.

Something had broken the parallel circuit and only enabled the lights to be activated in series.

That was according to her husband.

The truth is that the electricity of all houses is made in parallel so that when you turn one light switch off the rest of the lights can still function. Parallel lights can't just change themselves into series!

But of course, an 'educated' person like him would not agree. Nonetheless I stayed silent on the matter afterwards and focused on the job.

Unfortunately I wasn't so lucky today. They needed to replace their voltmeter and their ammeter was...well...it was definitely something let me tell you that. 

That meant I'd be running some errands for this house after all.

"That'd be $97.85" The girl at the register gave me a polite smile as she handed me back a bag of Panadol, Centrum and some Osteoporosis medicines.

There goes half of today's earnings.

With my head humbled I exited the pharmacy, sighing with relief as I took off in my car to my home.

My home wasn't much of a house to be honest. The only thing that made it home were my grandparents.

Closing the door behind me, I smiled. This was where my hard work paid off.

"Assalamualaikum Mum, Assalamualaikum Papa!" I said loudly as a declaration of my joy.

"Walaikumasalam Beta!" Came the reply of my beautiful grandmother, who rushed away from the kitchen. hands raised to engulf me in a safe haven of aromatic herbs and that indescribable scent of hers.

Alhamdulilah.

"Look at you, where were you? I was beginning to get worried! And what is that? What do you keep doing to your shirts? Do you make a habit of rolling around in the dirt? And you think I don't notice these things but I do, your becoming thinner than a stick! Put some meat on your bones so you'll become big and strong." She said, finally stopping to usher me to the table to get something to eat.

I just shook my head, my smile never fading as I followed her to our small 4 seater dining table, throwing the bag of medicines on the sofa.

"Assalamualaikum Beta. How was your job today?" Papa asked, entering the living room with his walking stick.

Yes, I call my grandparents Mum and Papa. That is what they have been and that is what they will continue to be.

"As it always is, Papa. Oh yeah I brought your medicines."

"Yunus, how many times have we told you. we're both perfectly fine as long as Allah is the lord and protects you, your grandmother and me." My grandfather replied.

"That's no reason to lie in pain! I know your osteoporosis is getting worse Papa."

"You know Arshad, I think Yunus is right." Mum said as she entered with two plates of delicious food. The smoke rose off them in wisps of love as Papa and I took in the smell.

"Smells delicious as always, Huma" Papa said to my grandmother.

"Oh Mum, let me do it." I began getting up to get the glasses, and my own plate of hot food.

"No it's fine, I can do it." Mum argued.

"No, No, it's your time to rest. I'll do it."

My grandparents chatted together as I got up and quietly picked up 3 glasses, a jug of water, my own plate of food and two tablets of the almost finished Centrum for both elders, aswell as an extra pill for Papa's osteoporosis. 

We were quite poor, infact to any onlooker we had nothing apart from a small apartment and an even smaller Holden.

However, what everyone didn't know was that we were perhaps the richest out of all in our time for the things that mattered.

Our ground floor apartment was divided in three areas:

- My bedroom

- Grandparents bedroom

- Living room/Dining room/Kitchen

That's all there is to it.

"And be grateful to me and do not deny me."
Surah Al-Baqarah:152