The Bet is On (Completed☑️)

5. Move On

Chapter Five

Draping the white linen shawl around her head, Khushi spreads the prayer mat to offer her pending prayers of Maghrib and Isha.

They have been back twenty minutes ago. She changed, took a quick steamy shower and did ablution for Namaz. She could not sleep without Namaz when her heart is too heavy. Since childhood, it's her habit to elongate her prayers whenever she is laced with tension.

The first man of her life she felt attracted towards, is there at some club, enjoying girls.

Would he do Nikah with her only to legally bring her to his bed?

She would prefer death over this.

Shrugging her mind, she stands still and starts the Namaz. She needs the light to the right path.

While she is in Sajdah, she remembers a social post. "There is shame and fatigue in running behind the love of a Na-Mehram. Allah has put a restriction over it. If we flout his order, how can we cherish the heart tranquil."

How true is this!

She went against the order of Creator and so now she is restless.

But she has forgotten that The Creator she worships created this universe in the love of His Dear Prophet Muhammad (SAWW). Allah has given us the liberty to love but not commit sin; touching each other, talking dirty, sexting or sex.

The pure love is protected by Allah because he gets happy when His made pair loves each other with respect - keeping the aim to get tied into the divine relation of Nikah.

As she completes her Namaz in quarter to hour, she wails in her Dua. "I myself do not know my desire, Allah. But he... It tugs my heart when I think of marrying anyone than him. It is not possible, though. You know my family tradition, right? In past, many couples have gone through separation, to bear this tradition. Oh my Merciful, Beneficent, All-Knower and Wise Allah, remove his love from my heart or soften the family's heart if he asks for my hand."

The remembrance of his desperateness to go to club streams tears from her soul. She was sick. If he was serious with her, he could have stayed to be at least assured that she properly ate.

"His act states he does not care about me. He only wants my body." Her treasonous heart gets stabbed barbarously. "If he only wants my body, then no, my Creator, no. I don't to be his wife. Keep my family's heart of stone in this case."

She is herself confused upon what she wants; Him? His love? His attention? His name?

"You know heart matters, Allah. You know what we hide and what we show. I know loving him and wanting love from him is utter wrong. I know I am asking from you the love of a man who is not my husband. I beg your forgiveness for this but there is no other threshold for me to be." She wails her perplexities to the one who conceals the flaws and keeps secrets.

Shattered, she goes to bed, curling herself to sleep while trying to not wet the pillow.

***

Stripping off of his clothes, he hangers them, and moves to washroom in his boxer brief's only. The night was tiresome.

Staying at the party till quarter to four of morning, he leaves the place, alone with a bottle of white wine. He did not even want the company of his best friend. He wanted to drive alone with the Nusrat fateh Ali Khan's Qawalis. For a music lover, nothing can be as soothing as his voice, music and lyrics. They knock at heart and touch your soul.