Door to Jannah

Chapter 24

"My friend's sister had a wedding and she enjoyed a lot. She showed me the pictures of her sister's marriage and they had all the rituals in her sister's marriage. They had engagement, haldi, sangeet, mehendi and juta churai etc. The best one was juta churai rasam (a ritual which is practised by Hindus and is now adopted by maximum of Indians, where the bride's sister steals the shoes of the groom and asks him money in return). You know my friend, Ritika got ten thousand money in return of the shoes and now she's challenging me. My family is not allowing me to do so many rituals which is just a fun. What would be the harm if I'll enjoy a bit. They don't love me." She explained me her problem with a sad face. Poor thing.
I was thinking what to say and suddenly I recalled the words of Ahmad regarding bida'h.

"Okay sweety I know you want to enjoy the ceremony but it can be done by remaining within the boundaries of islam. And you know what did our prophet (PBUH) say? 'The world is a prison house for a believer and paradise for a non believer.' [Muslim]. So won't you sacrifice the little enjoyments of the world for gaining big enjoyments of the hereafter? Won't you control your nafs for the aftermath of controlling it? The best jihad is to control your own nafs. Allah gave us the blessing of nikah then how can we adopt that blessing by going against Allah? Remember that Allah doesn't hesitate turning that blessing into a curse within seconds. When you hold on to something strongly against Islam, that is indeed the whispers of shaitan. Just let it go smoothly and you'll feel a relief inside your heart, you'll feel happy that you left something for the sake of Allah, to please the one who created you. You know these things are bida'h, it was never in our islam but we adopted the rituals of Hindu's living here. Living in the same country with Hindu's never changed the Hindu people instead we Muslims changed our islam according to them. Now how shameful is that? And madam if you are in the company of non believers you shouldn't be affected by them, their company shouldn't come in between you and islam. I know my princess is strong, she'll overcome the whispers of the shaitan. Isn't it?" I asked her and she was staring at me without blinking her eye.

"I can't believe Ayesha Appi is giving me lectures. Wow I mean just wow, jiju just changed you." She said with excitement and I rolled my eyes to her statement.

I gave her further information about the bida'h which Ahmad had mentioned earlier. Alhamdulillah Rida agreed and admitted her mistake.
It was not only Rida who was surprised by my lecture but there was someone else who was surprised too and it non other than me. How did I manage to give her so much lecture about it? Did Ahmad really had that affect on me? Nah.

After chatting a bit about Hana's nikah we went downstairs.

"Ammi I am hungry." Rida shouted and made her way to kitchen where Huma Aunty was whereas I sat beside Hana in the drawing room.

"How did her mood change suddenly?" Hana enquired to me.

"It's Ayesha's magic you know." I winked at her and she gave me a i-know-that look.

"Ohh noo how could I forget to tell you that. After you called me yesterday I discovered something about your would be husband." I said in excitement cum teasing tone.

"And what is that?" She asked hiding her excitement and blush. She doesn't show it but I know it all.

"First you have to say something." I said and she told me to go on.

"Say Ayesha is the best, there is no one like Ayesha and...okay I think this would be enough." I said in a happy tone and Hana gave me a death glare.

"Huh I'll say that in your dreams Ayesha." Hana said ignoring my words.

"Huh then I'll tell you too in your dreams." I said shrugging her words.

"Why are you cutting these spices for?" I asked her observing them.

"I am cooking biryani for Ahmad. Call him and tell he's invited for dinner." She informed me with her tongue out.

"That means I am invited too. Okay I have to call him for picking me up. I'll inform him later. Can you teach me how to cook biryani?" I asked Hana batting my eye lashes.
I wanted to learn some cooking so that I can show Ahmad that I can cook.

"Oh my Allah Ayesha is asking me to teach her cooking. Am I dreaming or do you have a fever?" She asked in surprise and touched my head to check it.

"Shut up." I said and we further went to prepare for biryani. We forcefully had sent Huma Aunty out of the kitchen taking the responsibility of dinner.

"Oh no, Ayesha did you inform Ahmad about the dinner? It's almost eight O' clock" Hana said in gasp while I was filtering the rice.

"Do one thing bring my mobile from my bag kept in the drawing room. Please." I said with a smile showing all my teeth.
She went to bring my mobile and I asked her to dial the call for me.

"Put the call on speaker mode, I am busy in this stuff." I asked her with puppy dog eyes and showed her my work I was busy with and she sighed at it.

"Let's see he recognizes your voice or not, after all you are his wife." She said with a wink when she dialled the number.

"Assalamu alaikum" she greeted.

"Walaikum assalam." Ahmad greeted from the other side. Wait, this wasn't the voice of Ahmad.

"Sorry...." Before the one on the other side could speak. Hana blew up.

"Did you recognize me?" She stated.

"Is it Ayesha speaking?" Came the voice from other side.

"You should be sorry then. You didn't even recognise your wife's voice?" She snapped at her winking at me and I told her to shut up by hand gesture but Hana being Hana shrugged me off.

"My wife? Sorry sister I am not married yet and Ahmad forgot his mobile in my home." The man from the other side apologized.

"Who are you then?" Hana asked suspiciously.

"Sister I am Hammad, Ahmad's friend. And can I know who is this as I have to inform Ahmad about it." Hammad spoke from the other side.
The bowl of rice almost slipped from my hand. Wait they don't even know who are they speaking to? Hana glared at me.

"Who is Hammad?" She asked suspiciously while keeping her hand on the phone recorder.

"Your future hubby idiot." I said and her cheeks flushed red in shock and shyness. She stood still for a few seconds in shock.

"Hello sister are you there?" Came Hammad's voice from the other side.

"Ayesha please talk." She said and I shrugged her saying a big 'NO'.

"Please Ayesha you are best in the world and there's no one like you. Please." She said and I said no enjoying her request.

"Hello."

"He..ll..loo th..ii..ss isss Hhaannaa." Hana said with her trembling voice and there was a long pause in between. No voice came from the other side and I had to resist the urge to laugh out hardly.

"Sorry Ayesha was busy in some work and so she said to call Ahmad Bhai and tell him that ammi has invited him for dinner today. Please tell him when he comes back. Allah Hafiz." Hana said in a breath with a tomato face and ended the call before Hammad could say a word from the other side.
And as soon as she ended the call I burst into fits of laughter. I laughed so hard that I sat on the floor of the kitchen and Hana gave me a death glare.

"Why didn't you tell me that Hammad is Ahmad's friend?" She asked in anger while keeping her hands on her waist and I had hard time controlling.

"He called you sister." I said and again burst into another fits of laughter while catching my stomach in pain and Hana's face turned red while blushing.

____

Assalamu alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatahu everyone. Sorry for the bad grammer, I was occupied with some issues at home.

And please don't dream about a man like Ahmad rather be like Ahmad. I don't think guys like this now exists. Do they? *sorry*. Don't dream of a spouse who will wake you up for tahajjud/fajr rather dream of waking them up. I will always go for the latter because I want more ajar by waking them up for prayer. Try to improve your relation with Allah and he'll give you in the right hands. Leave it in the hands of Allah, in sha Allah you'll get the best.
*Now do I sound like a lecturer?*