One Minute: Hausa Love Story

OM 7

On the authority of Tamim Al-Dari that the Prophet, sallallahu 'alayhi wasallam, said:
"Religion is nasihah." We said: "To whom?" The Prophet, sallallahu 'alayhi wasallam, said: "To Allah and His Book, and His messenger, and to the leaders of the Muslims and their common folk."

[Muslim]

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A tap -or more like hit- is given to her shoulder and then the cover is completely drawn from her body, exposing her to the merciless cold air blowing from the A/C. She can feel her leg been drawn from the bed and then a shout of her name. All these are done by her personal Alarm AKA mama.

Knowing Aysha is a heavy sleeper, Mama takes the liberty of waking her daughter up for fajr everyday which is proving to be a very hard job. It takes at least 20 minutes for her to wake up for fajr.

She squints her eyes just as Mama says "I am going to pour water on you if you don't wake up this instance" Aysha didn't take the threat seriously until she faintly hears the footsteps of her mom heading to the bathroom.

"I'm up" she raises her hand while still laying with her eyes close.

"Why don't you try to make an effort to wake yourself up for fajr, seriously when you get married do you want to make your husband late to the masjid just because he is waking you up while you are sleeping like a bear who has gone into hibernation" her mom rants as she leaves the room. So early in the morning. African mothers! They don't go a day without talking about marriage, the moment you turn eighteen they'll start nagging about marriage.

Aysha enters the toilet to perform her ablution. Looking in the mirror as she opens the faucet. Her hair is sticking in all direction as if she rolled all over -which she probably did-, if she remembered correctly she had on a scarf but as usual it slipped off her hair while she was sleeping. She finishes her ablution and comes out of the toilet.

She splays the prayer mat and grabs a long hijab to cover every inch of her body as she has on only a spaghetti strap pajama top and shorts. When she finishes she removes the hijab and falls down on her bed, letting sleep to take over her.

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She brings her hand to cover her eyes from the rays of sun making their way to the room from the open curtains straight to her eyes. She blindly searches for her phone on the bedside table with her eyes close. When she locates it she brings it to her face squinting a little to see the time, 12:05 it says. Which is the normal time she usually wakes up.

She brushes her teeth and makes her way out of the room with a long hijab on, she knows her father and brothers are not in the house but just to be on the safe side, she wouldn't want to appear in front of a guest or a random male wearing only a skimpy pajamas.

When she makes sure there isn't any guest in the house she removes her hijab and goes to the kitchen in search of food. She enters the kitchen to see Fatima, their cook by the cooker, cooking something Aysha couldn't see from where she stands but knows would be amazing by the aroma coming from the pot.

"Good morning" she says sliding on a seat by the breakfast table in the middle of the kitchen.

"Good morning" she answers back with a smile. Fatima pours tea from the whistling kettle to Aysha's favorite mug and slides it to her and from the smell of it it is also her favorite, chamomile.