The Three Struggling Muslimahs

21

"If you ever need anything during the night call me! Okay?"

"For the millionth time baba, I will. And it's not like I'm staying with a stranger. Its Khawla!" Rayhannah said with a smile on her face as she tried not to let the baby face her dad was pulling off affect her.

"And its also not just anyone who is sleeping out. Its my princess. My only girl."

"Owwww. Baba! I love you so much. Bye now. And take care of mama. I have already set your alarms for tahajud and Fajr so don't tamper with them okay? " She said as she stepped out of the car and watched him drive away. Her dad was one of the most overprotective men she had ever met but still her favorite one.

When she was about to ring the doorbell she heard a familiar voice behind her, and in stead of jumping out of shock like she always did, it calmed her. "Hey, lemme get that for you!" He said as he took out the house keys from his jacket and tried to open the door. "How are you by the way. You were pretty quiet in class today."

"I'm good Alhamdulilah. And the class was new, the students were older than I expected so it shook me a bit. That's all. How are you? How's day two of Ramadhan treating you?"

"I'm good! And I can't even tell you Rayhannah. Ya Allah! I'm so excited. Ramadhan is like the only month that actually feels like a month you know. Everyone comes back to Allah. The drunkard, the drug dealer, the liar, all of us. We go back to Allah in these 29/30 days and that just soothes me wallahy." He turned to face her totally forgetting about the door and so did she. "Its like a corner of heaven. Like everything goes back to the way it should have been all year long you know?" She nodded and just then Khawla opened the door shocked to see Muhammad there with his key in his hand and his side to the door. But she smiled in stead, hugged Rayhannah and showed her to her room. After a quick shower, they headed to the prayer room to get copies of the Quran only to find the triplets dead asleep on their muswlahs.

"Ya Allah! This is so cute! Aaaaaah! I could literally stand here and watch them all sleep." Rayhannah said as Khawla rolled her eyes.

"Would it be too much if you could go ask Muhammad to come carry them to their room?"

Even if it was, she'd never have said it out loud. For it was still weird talking to Khawla about having feelings for her blood brother. She walked out of the prayer room and wondered through the halls looking for him when her eye was caught by a long series of certificates that were framed and hung on the wall. Muhammad Nurein Hassan - best Quran Recitor! Muhammad Nurein Hassan - best Muadhin! Muhammad Nurein Hassan - best student! "It gets real boring after sometime, considering mama only put mine up there!" This time she did jump as he had startled her. "Sorry, didn't mean to scare you."

"Umm... Khawla needs you to go get your brothers to their rooms. She's in the prayer room." He nodded as he walked towards the room and she followed slowly behind. After ten minutes of huffing and puffing, Muhammad finally managed to put all the three in bed and steadly went back to the prayer room.

"Come sit here next to me habib," Khawla called and Rayhannah envied her at that moment. That she could cal him habib out loud and that she could also have him sit that close to her and it still be halaal. "How's everything. We rarely talk nowadays." Muhammad smiled! Rayhannah zoned out. She'd never realized, until then, that Khawla and Muhammad were twins. Having them sit that close magnified their similarities. Since Muhammad was her mahram ( a man that can see you without hijab and its considered halaal) Khawla didn't have her scarf on so at that moment she could see the same hair color, same kind of hair, same face shape, same eye color. They were literally copies of each other but since Muhammad was growing himself a beard, it was really difficult to see and compare these features.