A Muslimah's Story {EDITING}

Chapter 17

12 months later

My sweet baby daughter, Manahil, was born on Friday May 5th. She's adorable. So so adorable. Mashallah.
She's 3 months old now, and she smiles at you and kind of laughs.

I can walk perfectly fine now since its been three months. I walk over to Manahils crib which is beside our bed. She looks at me with those beautiful light blue eyes that Abdullah has.

She smiles at me and I gently pick her up.

I sing her a lullaby and soon she's fast asleep. I gently put her in the crib.

After cleaning the room, aka the clothes Abdullah left on the bed, some random baby supplies everywhere. Ugh, this room is pretty big but it would be great to have a separate room as well...

I take a warm shower and then pull on a warm shirt with churridaar pants and a duppatta covering my chest.

Some small earrings and some lipstick later, I leave the door open to our room and bring the baby monitor downstairs. Truly it helps so much. I turn on the one beside her crib as well. Now I can know when she's crying.

I go and cook a delicious chicken recipe and pita. I slice cucumbers and make some pasta salad alongside the dinner.
Mummy comes in and sniffs the air.

"Wow, mashallah, beta. That looks delicious," mummy hugs me and I hug her back before hearing a cry . Manahil.

"Jazakallah mummy. I'd better go." I shake my head . She shushes me.

"I'll check on her." And with that she smile and leaves as I laugh.

I hear a knob twisting and a key inserting. That twisting is music to my ears.

I hug Abdullah as he greets me and kisses me softly. Uncle comes in a bit later.

"Well, I'm back. Asalam." Mummy greets them both with Manahil in her hands. Manahil smiles up at Abdullah and Abdullah gently takes her in his arms. I take the keys and put them on the shelf then set up dinner for them.

"Mm, this meal was delicious." Papa tells me and I thank him.

"Agreed, " Abdullah agrees and puts the plate in the sink for me. I smirk at him.

"Tankss." I mutter and he pokes my nose before leaving. I roll my eyes. Manahil starts crying again and I take her in my arms while mummy washes the dishes. Everyone sits at the huge sofas and Abdullah drags me to the loveseat one with Manahil in my arms. I glare at him.

"Um, so, I have to ask you, should we ask mummy and papa about the room thing?" I whisper to Abdullah over the tv noise. He nods.

"But I don't know if we should. Like I don't want Manahil away she's too little." Abdullah says. I nod but know mummy will have an idea.

"Mummy we were thinking to give Manahil a room of her own but it won't be too safe and we aren't very satisfied." I tell her. She nods knowingly.

" well, you guys could.. Hmm. I think I know.." She shares a look with papa.

"We were thinking of repainting our room, and we could also renovate a little doorway to the room beside yours so you could always keep an eye on Manahil." Papa grins.

"Really! Mummy, papa that would be great." I smile.

"Jazakallah mummy, and baba." Abdullah thanks them and we all smirk. We resume watching tv.

...

"Abdullah, shhh how many times do I have to tell you!" I shush him and go through the renovated doorway and check on Manahil, rolling my eyes.

Abdullah rolls his eyes. "No it's not something to rolls your eyes at. She can wake up." I tell him.

"What's wrong habibti. Don't be upset." He pauses and puts my hair behind my ear as I frown and walk away, annoyed at his attitude these days.

He pulls at my arm and I pull away. "What's with the attitude Iqra? Are you okay?" He snaps, now fed up.

"Everything can't be fixed with love Abdullah, " I tell him and walk back to our bed. "You always to something wrong and then fix it with a gift or a smothering kiss, most likely a new ring. But I don't like it."

"What, don't be a drama queen!" He snaps.

"For every single thing you always do this, " I tell him.

"What! What did I ever do?"

"You're annoying me to death, please don't scream. I'm your wife, I just wanted to tell you what I don't like." I calmly say. "I'm not doing anything else but discussing."

"Still, the attitude is killing me. And if I have that many flaws, why did you even bother to marry me?" He spat and I shake my head. I just ignore him.

He takes on the whole bed while I stare and then decide to sleep in Manahils room, because really, I don't want to pick a fight again. I take my pillow and walk into Manahils room, and sleep on the small bed there.

...

We don't talk a lot but I still say my salams to him. He leaves for work while I sit on the bed replaying everything.
Until I can't take it.

"Mama, " I greet her on the phone. Then I tell her everything.

"It's okay, don't worry at all. This stuff happens." She reassured me. "In marriage life, the fights escalate to more love and practice. Humans make mistakes. Don't take it on the bad side, "

"Jazakallah mama. You reassure me so much.." I promise, and her words play in my head as we greet each other and give our salams.

...