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

15 |The Marabout's 1000 Profound Steps.[Three Signs]

Shabaan's face was lost deep in thought when prince Firdaws shouted,"Earth to Shabaan!" When his eyes refocused, he saw the young prince laughing.

"It's okay if you don't want to tell me what the Grand Doyen said, but you didn't need to brood over my question just now. You need to chill man, it was just a simple question." The smile was still plastered on Firdaws' face.

"I'm sure you're here to seek news of the results as well?" Shabaan asked, diverting the topic.

"You're perfectly right, bro." Ihtisham gave him a thumbs up with a smile as they three stood side-by-side,"We thought the scholars would have began marking the answers to the quest by now, so we'd have a rough estimate of what was really going on.

You can't really tell the truth of the Qur'an quest, just by watching the competitors' movement on the Steps, you know."

At this, Shabaan gave a slight smile,"I guess we'll all have to wait till the end of the quest then."

"Ahn? I don't understand."

"The Sayyid apparently did not leave any answers behind. So there's no way of telling how he's doing on the quest." Shabaan said, not bothering to look at the shocked faces of his companions. Nobody ever did that, and so Shabaan would have been surprised if someone from among the student and scholar populace of SLH were to hear that and not be flabbergasted.

"As for the five, the scholars have said that there might actually be a change in the ranks of Mureeds."

"What!? Seriously?" Prince Firdaws had a look of surprise on his face. Shabaan chuckled. If he did not know the first prince as much as he did, he would say he was afraid he might be displaced by some other Mureed. Rather, he knew the prince was only feigning surprise, he perhaps already knew that this was coming. Perhaps, they all knew; students like the prince Reyaz, and Isra, were not supposed to be at those positions in the rear.

But once they came up, there would be a very hot contest for the higher positions among the six top ranking Mureeds.

There was a silence that followed among they three, as everyone got stuck up in his own thoughts.

"Did you hear what the people are saying about the Sayyid, on his performance on the quest?" Shabaan said after a while. The interlude of further silence answered his question.

"Most people believe he's a scam. They don't believe he would make it. After all, he's been at the rear since the quest began.

Even though that does not account for much on doing well on this quest, it does limit the chances of scoring high marks at the end, seeing especially that he's still trailing the four remaining Mureeds at this point in the quest."

"They don't know what they are saying." Prince Firdaws answered coldly, his voice came out hushed as his eyes narrowed with a glint. A flashback came to his mind of the day in Hâ Mîm, two years before, when he stood in a match of Qur'an Hifz and Tajweed against both Abdul Bâqi and Zayn. Even though he had warned the Sayyid about Shabaan and Kahf, he knew that, even between the Sayyid and Kahf, he couldn't tell who'd be superior in Qur'an. That was because, he was there that day. He had contested with those two. He might have been said to be at their level, but he knew Zayn was definitely of another dimension, and if anyone could truly compete with and rise to Zayn's level, it'd be no one but Abdul Bâqi Al Aswâdi. Perhaps that was why the Sayyid was that competitive with Zayn. Of course, all this he would never admit in front of the Sayyid, even going as far as to taunt him with Zayn's domineering performance. In the end, there was a reason why Abdul Bâqi Al Aswâdi, and not him, was crowned the Sayyidul Quraa' on that day at Hâ Mîm.