"How true is this?" He asked, leaning towards the girls faces, his eyes getting most with tears. He couldn't believe this, he really could not. It was just so overwhelming how Allah could gift you with something as huge and enormous as a human being. And Allah gifted him with nor just one, but two. Two adorable babies that had suddenly became the noor of his eyes. He felt as their love dived directly into the flesh he called his heart and planted a niche. He loved him, he really do, with all of his life.
The sudden rush of a father's pleasure, a father's love, the quest to protect and love someone as your child; overwhelmed Mu'ammar as he unceasingly looked at the girls. He couldn't point out whom they looked like, no matter how they looked like, they got his entire heart and soul.
The next thing he heard was the clicking sound of the camera, Deeni awwing, and the muffled tears of Tanzeel. That's when he knew he was staring deeply at them with tears gushing out of his eyes. It was said, inna ma'al usri, yusra. After every hardship comes ease. He couldn't believe he was holding the babies he and Tanzeel gave birth to. Like he knew she did all the work, but they had his as well as her blood. And they would be refer to as his children.
The Tanzeel he got married to as a blind, depressed woman. The woman he thought was as cold as the mountain Everest during a snowy day. He had never for once thought Tanzeel would love him, just the mere him. And her, the extraordinary lady.
He would forever thank Allah for the day she conceived these babies, without them, he wouldn't have known how he would have been now. How the void space in his heart he felt being filled by their love would have been filled with. Alhamdulillah. That's when the word came to him, he started saying Alhamdulillah silently before it started coming out loud and he began taking halting steps towards a happily crying Tanzeel. She was watching them, intently. Her world.
"Jazakillahu bil jannah, I love you. I love them. I love you all, Tanzee." He pecked her forehead and sat down beside her on the bed. She lounged her hands forward and collected the second baby.
"That is the first, Abbu." She smiled, widely and beautifully.
Ammar chuckled and they heard as the door clicked shut as Deeni and Abdul went out of the room to call their parents. He brought the baby's right ear to his lips and said the shahada for her, and named her. "She's Laila Mu'ammar Mahmoud." He kissed the girl and handed her to Tanzeel before he collected the second baby and did the same. "She's Sahiba Mu'ammar Mahmoud."
Tanzeel brought Laila to her chest and hugged her as tightly as she could, if she she was hugging the one she was named after. "Laila Jaan, I love you. I'm sorry, forgive me." She cried and kissed her forehead.
"Sahiba , I love you. Ammi loves you too." Ammar said to Leena and kissed her as well. Tanzeel looked at him and laughed.
"So she has a second name too? What a father material." She laughed so hard she felt her lungs aching. This was the happiest day of her life. Of all the happy days she experienced, this was the best, the ever best of them all.
They spent their time together before the musketeers walked in with Mama walking behind them. They rushed towards the bed and hugged Mu'ammar one by one. "Congratulations, Man! We couldn't be happier. Becoming Daddies in a day. Having two girls to flaunt at the world, gosh!" A'araf and Abbakar collected the babies and Amir had to move from one person's shoulder to the other, watching their beautiful sleeping faces.
Mama was busy asking Tanzeel what to eat, where was paining her to even notice how they were transferring the babies from one hand to the other. Or the fact that Maa and Baa were already in the room too, checking our their first grandchildren in life.
•
It was all beautiful, amazing and overwhelming. How she woke up to the two of them peacefully sleeping in their crib. She couldn't believe she was the one that gave birth to them, as in they were normal human beings, breathing, eating and doing all thathuman beings do. In a year they would be walking and blabbering with their mouths. They could be able to call her Ammi and Ammar Abbu. Ya Allah.
Tomorrow would be the naming ceremony day, and Tanzeel had never felt as busy as she had felt today. With relatives coming in and out of her room, Deeni calling her after every second to ask about what she wanted as part of the hall's decoration. Abdul calling her, he had taken care of her office. And Mu'ammar was almost together with them, because he had called her over one millionth time.
It was past 9pm, the house was less boisterous and she had her bathe, the babies too were showered. She got a call from Mu'ammar and she knew what that meant, he wanted to see her in the downstairs living room. She called the girl that was around helping her with the babies. She held Laila Jaan and the girl named Fatima held sahiba. Yes, the name had followed her too.
They walked to the living room, and seated there was Mu'ammar together with four of his friends, him the fifth. Her eyes fixed on Mu'ammar, she went beside him and sat down, Fatima handed Mu'ammar Leena Pyaar and left the living room.
They exchanged pleasantries with them and she stood up to hand one of his friends Laila Jaan to hold, just when she was about to place the girl in his hands, she staggered back, eyes popped out like a saucers, and Laila Jaan almost felt on the floor before someone among them held the girl.
She began shaking violently, her breath began siezing, she ran to Mu'ammar and hugged him, not minding wether she suffocated Sahiba or not. She was scared, utterly afraid of whom she saw. And he claimed to be a friend of Mu'ammar.
"Take him out of herr, Ammar. He killed my Layla Jaan!!!" She screamed at the pitched of her voice and that captured Deeni and Abdul's attention.
"What's going on here?" Abdul asked, and how his voice sounded sent a chill down their spines.
Mu'ammar explained to him what happened and simultaneously Abdul and Deeni turned their heads towards the said person, and there sat him, face washed with guilt and regret. He looked apologetically at them and stood up.
"Abdull..." he began, but before he could finish his sentence Abdul had slapped him hard across both his cheeks. He couldn't believe this guy had the effrontery to come to their house, after all he did to his sister and her friend. He let him go scot free because Tanzeel begged him to, and how dare him come back to her life when all she had in her life now was happiness? Raw happiness.
"How dare you?!" Abdul roared and went further to punch him but Deeni held his arm, Ammar stood up and went between them, "what's going on here, Abdul? Ashraf, you know them before?" He asked them both, looking confused.
Ashraf was his closest friend, and he wished all those memoirs Tanzeel had attacks for were because of him. He could remember what Ashraf once td him, Ya Rabb, let not it be.
"Ask him, better ask him Mu'ammar. This person shouldn't be in this house, he's a monster. Tanzeel should be protected from him at all cost. He deserved nothing good in his life. He had inflicted pain in her life more tham anyone else can. He was the reason she turned blind, deadly depressed and almost killed herself twice, he was the one. He knew it all. And after that, he was the one that killed her, Tanzeel's bestfriend, Layla Jaan!"
Of all the people in Tanzeel's life, it was only Abdul that knew the pain behind Tanzeel's depression and she begged him not to mention it to anyone. He had been hungry of revenge on Ashraf for all he could remember but every time he made mention of it, she stopped him. She stopped him from getting revenge for her. Because she was afraid, afraid of him. And afterall, a revenge won't bring back Layla Jaan, as she always said admits tears.
"Ashraf..." Mu'ammar slowly turned his head towards his own bestfriend too, and Ashraf shook his head silently.
"I thought you knew the truth, Mu'ammar, I thought you would believe me all the time." He was secretly begging, he could see the uncertainty in Mu'ammar's eyes and he hated it more than he hated what he did. Even though, they all misunderstood what happened. He didn't kill Layla Jaan.
YOU ARE READING
TANZEEL
Romance She was not an ordinary lady. Even the texture of her hair was alluring, she has perfectly arched brows and long eyelashes that rest beautifully on her cheekbones. Her deep hazel orbs, they sent shivers down the spine of people. Her subtle skin ca...
