Alnihayya

||P u n i s h m e n t||

I could see Saddia, Soha and their cool friends on their usual table, Zara in a green scarf, sitting alone with a novel in her left hand and a croissant in the right one. Our eyes met briefly as she looked up from her book. She smiled and waved, I smiled back. I could even spot the female senior leaders, Maryam and Aymur. Then there were some girls I recognised from Khawlah and others that I did not.
I wish I could glance at the men's side to look for Ibrahim and Zeyara but it was too far away and too crowded.

I moved my eyes back to my own table and tried eating again but I still didn't feel the urge to. I wanted to eat with Zeraya, or at least know that he ate.
I wasn't even sure if he slept.

"Assalam o alaikum. Sabah Al khair. Good morning everyone!" Someone announced from the stage, his voice ringing in the entire cavern through the numerous speakers.
Everyone stopped chatting and rotated their heads towards him. I recognised him as the senior leader Miz'an Mujuthaba.

Once he caught everyone's attention, he started speaking. It wasn't anything unisual. Every Friday he announced the name of the members who would go out to help the Palestinians and distribute the donations. Since today was Friday, he was going to announce the names again.

"It's Juma'h again Alhamdulillah." He spoke pleasantly in his thick eastern accent. "Please don't miss the Friday prayer because you know what Humna would do to anyone who does that. It's not just Allah's punishment you're going to get."
There were a few chuckles at that before he continued speaking. "If it's cold water for fajr, it's hot water for juma'h. Not gonna lie, I got to experience that last Friday. I was ten minutes late. Yes that short deadline." He laughed and the others did too. "I thought it was just going to be water but no, when I went back to my room after the salah, my bed was covered with a billion post it notes, 'I will not be late for juma'h again.' Took me five hours to take them all off. She's very creative."

I couldn't help but stifle a grin. Zeyara did a good job when he added the extra 'sass' in Humna.

"So anyways, Humna tell us the members who are going out today." He looked back at the large screen behind him.

"Sir firstly, thanks a lot for praising my creativity but today's punishment would not be post it notes, it's going to be something I call 'spiky floor and hidden shoes.' If you liked the previous one, you would definitely love this one."

Laughter and grins spread in the cavern at the thought of that punishment. I glanced at Minahil to see that she was awake now and rubbing her eyes. She wouldn't want to be late for juma'h after this heads up.

"As per the rules, you can only change If someone else is willing to take your place." Humna's voice announced. "Since we have reached the letter M for the women, it's going to be Maimuna Abbas, Mahnoor Imran"
As the names were announced they appeared on the screen for everyone to see clearly.

"Maryam Amjad, Maryam Malik, Maryam Shahid, Maryam Osman.....I'll just take Maryam as common and announce the surnames."

The crowd erupted into laughter and claps as she continued mentioning the Maryams and it appeared on the screen like a maths question.

Maryam×(Ali, Hussein, Khan, Bashir)

"According to my calculations, Muslim parents don't realise that names other than Maryam, Ali, Abdullah, Amna, Ayesha are also halal."

I chuckled, it was so true.

"And two more non Maryams, Mashal Naeem and Minahil Nadeem."

"What?! Why??" Minahil whined, throwing her head back on the table.

"From the men it's going to be Ibadullah, Ibrahim Naeem, Ibrahim Hakim, Idris Ahmed, Jamaal Abdi, Jaabir Ali, Jaffer Irfan, Junaid Ali, Junaid--"