April 2023

Chapter 17: A Shared Bond.   The thirteenth day of Ramadan dawned clear and bright.  Naasir awoke with renewed hope and a determination to make things right. There was still the nagging fear of the unknown but Ummu Sulaym’s visit last night made him optimistic.   He also tried to push to the back of […]

Chapter 14: The Courage to Let Go . After the Qur’an class, Naasir sought Muneer’s opinion about what happened earlier at Ummu Twins’ place. Since Muneer was also male, he felt he could provide some Islamic-guided insights into the situation. . He didn’t give specifics i.e mention his name or Bushrah’s, rather he asked in

Chapter 13: A Time for Reflection Ramadan, Day 11 The following days progressed wonderfully for Naasir. He went to bed every day looking forward to his routine for the next day. He looked forward to making Sahur and Iftar (whenever he could) with Ummu Sulaym and Nusrah. They were actually teaching him how to prepare

Chapter 12: The Value of Empathy After ‘Asr Naasir waited at their neighbourhood mosque for Muneer. He took the opportunity to continue practising his recitation until Muneer arrived. Most of the letters were easy to pronounce, however, he still found a few — ع , ح ,ض— a bit challenging and if there ever was

Interlude II: Of memories best forgotten… One year ago. Bushrah hurried down the path away from the school library, books clutched tightly to her chest. She had just finished a study session with two of her classmates and it was almost closing time. As she passed by the new science lab that was not yet

Chapter 11: A Fateful Encounter At Mr Phillips’ office, Naasir apologised for missing the first class and promised to be consistent, going forward. “Did you come up with a basic curriculum to guide you?” Mr Philips asked. Naasir shook his head. “No sir, I did not.” “It’s no matter. You’ll share Bushrah’s.” “That reminds me,

Chapter 10: Ripples of Discontent Naasir was running late for his appointment at Lend A Hand. He was late because he had overslept. And he overslept because when he reached home after Subh, thoughts of everything he had done wrong to so many people kept haunting him. It was as if a covering had been

Chapter 9: The Path to Redemption On the morning of the fifth of Ramadan, Naasir woke at 4am sharp, courtesy of the analogue alarm clock he’d borrowed from the sitting room. He got out of bed and went to the kitchen to start Sahur. Since their stepmother was on call, he wanted to surprise Nusrah,