A Blossom in the desert

Kindness amidst Mayhem

Nabilah was folding laundry while a ten year old Emaan sprawled on the bed was doing her mathematics homework which had initially began with enthusiasm and bubbling energy but with each passing question ,the enthusiasm crumbled and energy depreciated leaving Emaan exhausted both from brain and body. Scrunching her nose at the wrong answer , she looked up at her mother for help only to find she was already muttering something but Emaan didn't seem to be able to hear anything. She quickly sat up and shifted a bit closer to her mother but still she couldnt listen anything what her mother was saying. Confusion etched her face in the form of unruly frown on her forehead which vanished as a realisation dawned on her making her shriek,

"AMMI!!".

Listening to her shriek , Nabilah flinched backwards causing the clothes to fall on the floor .Nabilah all horrified,looked up at Emaan to scold her but her every molecule of anger dissolved when she saw her daughter crying. She quickly sat beside Emaan on the bed and pulling her towards herself said,

"What happened to my baby ,why is she crying...is something hurting?..tell me meri jaan (my life)..don't cry like that you are scaring your mother".

"Am..mi...I ca..nt he..ar anything....I lost ear sight ".

Nabilah scrunched her eyebrows as she said,

" Ear sight ???..."

Emaan looked at her mother teary eyed and between her sniffing said  ,

"When we can't see we say we lost eye sight ..so I can't hear so it means I lost ear sight na Ammi".

Amusement pervaded Nabilah's entire being hearing her daughter's reply but suppressing her emerging laughter she said,

" My baby it's called hearing loss not ear sight ...sight means to see ...but if that's the case  how can you hear me now..."

Emaan blinked at her mother and then looked down as her mouth circled in  realisation as she said ,

"That means my ears are good " Nabilah nodded while smiling as Emaan continued ,

"But why I couldn't hear what you were saying Ammi while you were folding clothes ?".

" That because I was doing dhikr".

"What's dhi..kr Ammi ?"Emaan asked curiously.

"Hmm..tell me Emaan if you have something precious with you and you know if you don't protect it ,it will be stolen ...you will keep it in a safe place ...& keep on checking it if it's there or not ..isn't it ?" Emaan nodded her head vigorously .Nabilah smiled benigngly as she continued,

" Similarly our heart contains the precious treasure of  faith , trust ,love and fear of Allah SWT which Shayatīn consistently without a break tries to steal away from us..so that we become like them ..away from Allah SWT...but you know what.. Allah loves HIS every abd so much that to let HIS abd go away from HIM ...even though it is we who need HIM to be near to us..but our RAB who is Ar Rahman gave us the weapon of Dhikr ...i.e to remember HIM, talk to HIM , express our love to HIM and when we do this a fortress is created around  our hearts preventing us from every whispers of evil...and Allah himself says in Quran  'So remember me ;I will remember you[2:152]  '. And what could be better than have Ar Rahman remembering you and when HE remembers you then the devil runs away from such abds."