The Circle Of The Qur'an #2[The Arkaan Series|Book One]

13 |The Marabout's 1000 Profound Steps.[Kahf's Wager - 2]

AsSalaamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh, hope you're all fine. Bonus chapter for us all, yayyyyy XD. This is the second part of the chapter: Kahf's Wager.

I hope you enjoy! :))))))

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Abdul Bâqi had yet to come to terms with the turn of events relating to Isra's sudden fall after his meteoric uprising, when Prince Reyaz created an uproar by moving from his position in the rear to the very first and leading position, just like Isra had done before. At this point in his path on the quest, he could roughly gauge the positions and movements of everyone, due to the gap they had given him and also because they were moving up on a diagonal plane, at the same side of the colossal pyramid. The archways did little to block his view.

Compared to Isra, the Prince's speed was much more formidable, and Abdul Bâqi was sure – just as Isra had done, this indifferent opponent of his was not just rising up the archways thoughtlessly, but solving as many inscriptions as possible as he passed. He didn't look the type to make a move without a forethought after all.

Abdul Bâqi had stopped dead in his tracks when all these sudden changes had happened. He thought of how the little boy who had been the closest to his path, had advanced so steadily till he had been leading all of them, and yet, he had somehow fallen victim to the after-effects of some malady. The pandemonium caused by that occurrence had yet to subside when the seventh Mureed, fourth Prince Reyaz overtook everyone with his overbearing ascent!

“Talk about meteoric uprising!” Abdul Bâqi uttered to himself, standing on his own path in a daze. He could hardly believe his eyes. He remembered the warning of Prince Firdaws, and the words of Mika'il – about the limited number of times one could challenge the quest officially. In all earnestness, Mika'il had briefed him on everything; especially on the advantages the others had over him, and had given him due warning. For Abdul Bâqi Al Aswâdi, this test meant everything. If he lost, he would lose his status and be sacked from the school. There would be no other opportunity for him to challenge the Marabout's 1000 Profound Steps again, not to talk of the nine official chances. 

At the moment, Abdul Bâqi began to feel a sense of apprehension. If he didn't see the potential of, and the threat that the fourth Prince posed by now, he'd be a fool.

Right from the onset of the Qur'an quest—just by studying his demeanour of self-possession alone, Abdul Bâqi could see that the fourth Prince was a focused and calculative person, the type who paid attention to the most important details, leaving out the irrelevant and distracting features. Such people had a sharp acumen and the prowess for doing everything they did with excellence, leaving no leeway for failure or imperfections.

At the beginning of the quest, Abdul Bâqi hadn't thought much about his insouciant behaviour because, what hadn't he seen from Ukashah?? He realized that like Ukashah, – it wasn't a case of looking down upon others, but simply being fixated upon the particulars. These prevented them from having space for ‘distractions’.

Abdul Bâqi felt that, to Reyaz, even though he could be considered a worthy opponent, he probably was still a distraction in the Prince's eyes, from the goal he had to keep his eyes fixated upon, and thus, the indifference. It was this type of people the Tâ Hâ Qaari was most wary of in such competitions.

However, it also exposes one major weakness of his.. creating the one sure way to win against him.. Abdul Bâqi smirked. The opportunity to conquer, is as usual, given by the adversary himself. If push came to shove, Abdul Bâqi didn't find any shame in using it against him..

“Prince Firdaws had talked about knowledge reserves. My haunch is that, no one has it in abundance more than the Prince Reyaz.” Abdul Bâqi intoned. Among the advantages the others had over him was that; once they had challenged the test more times than once, they knew the strategy of traverse of the quest and also perhaps, had more ability and confidence than an average person would have had, challenging the quest for the first time..