Sidratul Muntaha

Chapter 100

Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuhu.

Miss me? I don't think you did. But thank you for your patience.

_____________

Amiza was sitting on the lowest step of the outer most stairs of the safe house. The night had covered the day and the darkness had veiled the desires that bound the hearts. She was facing the sky and watching the stars.

Tonight was an especially hard night for her to bear. She had lost someone she didn't even have. Every word that she had spoken to Rushi was true. She truly didn't love Murtaza to such an extent that she would choose him over Rushi. But she liked him. She respected him. Yet she had known where his interests laid from a long time ago. And now when she had asked Rushi to go ahead, her heart was paining. It was filled with grief. She sighed.

A long time ago, Adara and her would sit on the back steps of their house after dinner and watched the skies above, pointing at the various shapes of the stars and laughing. Their parents used to berate them for making fun of the stars as they believed that stars told futures and even now she remembered her sister's reply to their parents.

"Something that itself breaks and fall, can never reveal our rise and down fall. If stars could speak they would instead praise the One who created them and gave them their lights." 

Her face had paled by the fire in her father's eyes. She had been truly scared for her sister then. But Adara was speaking normally, fearlessly. She had no regrets for opening her mouth. Amiza had watched Thuraiz hit her sister and Adara hadn't even flinched. Maybe the years of punishments had hardened her to them.

Sometimes she had wondered what extra element flowed in Adara's veins. The blood that flowed in both of them had been the same and yet amongst all the four children of Thuraiz, Adara had stood out like the moon amidst the stars. Avik, Arvan and herself, all of them had been brave to a certain extent, but Adara's daredevilry had stood unchallenged and unmatched. The same Thuraiz who had demanded respect and fear from the people of Hinviz with just a glance, had been challenged time and time again, by his own daughter. Adara had always looked him in the eye and taken her punishments. She had questioned him so many times that Amiza had lost counts and just as many times Adara had been punished in ways that would often make Amiza sleepless at nights and Adara had survived all of that and gone on to become Sidratul Muntaha.

"What makes you sigh at this hour of the night? Why are you sitting here?" Sidra's voice broke the serenity of the environment. Amiza startled for a second and then turned to see her sister take a seat on the step above her. She smiled at her sister. Sidra turned her face away and placed her hands on Amiza's shoulders, massaging them.

"If you liked someone and they didn't like you back but liked a sister instead, what would you do?" She enquired softly. Sidra's hand stilled on her shoulders.

"I would move on." Sidra's response was so expected that Amiza chuckled.

"If Akhi Jibreel didn't like you back, would you be able to move on?" Amiza enquired. Sidra resumed her massaging but thought about Amiza's question. She realised her sister was genuinely waiting for her answer.

"Now if he would thwart me, I would be shattered." Sidra began, "Because now I know how madly he can love, loosing him or his love is something unimaginable for me. But if you would ask this to Sidra of months ago, who was unmarried, she would answer that she would move on." Sidra told her gently. "That time I was not tied to him and if he didn't like me back, it would have made leaving easier for me."

"Wouldn't you be heartbroken?"

"Not to such an extent that I wouldn't be able to move on." Sidra replied. "Amiza... Love is very important in life but it isn't the only reason to live. Life has many reasons to go on. Choose one and move ahead. Love shouldn't hinder you from accomplishing yourself in life and it should never break your spirit or burn your wings. More important than that would be to fulfill your own dreams and hopes. More important than that would be to to leave a mark upon this world, a positive mark, a beautiful legacy. It's important that you live your life in such a way that when you are taking your last breath, you have something beautiful and utterly honest to show your Maula. You need to understand that making this world a little better is much better than finding true love. I don't say you shouldn't love. You should, with every fibre of your being. But finding love and loving that person shouldn't be your only aspiration in this life."