The Circle Of The Qur'an #1[The Arkaan Series] ✓

[Tales of Rawdhātul Jannā: Bloody Moon, Starry Night Sky]

"Weren't you jealous?"Maryam asked, a playful gleam in her eyes. It was her turn to ward off the dread.

She didn't want Hayaa to think she was that much affected, or, going to be affected, by the tale.

"As my younger sister, I couldn't be jealous of you. After all, it's the duty of the elder to protect the younger."

Hayaa answered with all sincerity.

Her mother had always told her that. She never had any younger siblings, but she said, if she'd be allowed to express her view, she believed that Allah put elder siblings so they could protect the younger ones.

So she imbibed her eldest daughter with that notion.

Subsequently, she would not have to worry about these stuffs of 'sibling quarrels'.

"A butterfly followed you afterwards.

Midnight black, satin wings. Frail and fragile they were.

Though you loved it and it seemed to like your company, you would never encage it to prevent it from leaving you.

Somer, you called it. Though for whatever reason, ..we would not know.

You didn't want to steal its freedom.

But, it stole your freedom. Your identity."Hayaa eyes looked pained as she stared away from Maryam.
She didn't want her to see the anguish and sorrow in her eyes.

"The butterfly stopped appearing all of a sudden.. We didn't see it again, and you fell sick immediately after and couldn't leave your bed.

At first we thought you were just sad your pet 'insect' had left you. But then, things became serious as you began floating in and out of consciousness.

Father called in many physicians, but none of them had the answer to your ailment.

At that time, we would not have thought of anything anywhere near the need for Ruqyah.

Your strength to leave the bed, had simply gone, and you were bedridden perpetually."

"She was Junnah from grandmother's time, wasn't she?"Maryam's light voice was carried to her, now sober.

Hayaa only nodded.

"It was a jinn.

But we only got to know that years later when the attack on the South district started, and Sheikh Inaayat visited us with a strange story about an encounter with a girl who looked exactly as you. He pieced together that the butterfly probably was not really the creature it appeared to be.