AsSalaamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh. I hope you're all doing well:D
This is the last but one of the Eid chapters before we go back to normal. Enjoy! :)))
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"Zayn.." Abdul Bâqi murmured, looking at the boy. Zayn too was the youngest amongst them, just as this boy was the youngest amongst their line of competitors, yet still both were very knowledgeable! You could tell, since this boy was a Mureed.
His indifferent expression was probably due to sluggishness from the lack of sleep, Abdul Bâqi noted.
However what made him stand out to Abdul Bâqi, was the faint aura of holiness that seemed to vault him on all sides. It was a strange feeling Abdul Bâqi felt, but it was there.
He must be Isrâ'il. The Number Nine Mureed.. Mika'il said everyone calls him Isra though.. Abdul Bâqi thought in amusement, remembering when Mika'il had briefed him on the Mureeds just after they had finished the Salah. Mika'il had mentioned him, as well as the other four, and had given him an estimation of their levels of erudition, their talents and an assessment of the scores they had earned from challenging the Qur'an quest in previous times.
Even though he had already talked to him previously about the nature of the quest, Mika'il had taken him through it again, such that if you were to ask Abdul Bâqi to recite all that he said from beginning to end, he'd do it offhand. He sighed. That guy was really worrying too much.. even more than he, who was going to bear the consequences if he lost.
"You could never be too prepared." Mika'il had said. He had even gone to the extent of searching for his Baba for help, before the 'Asr salah. However he hadn't found him anywhere. The old man seemed to have disappeared entirely from the surface of earth, and that too, at the time he was most needed.
Why was this old man Zeeshan presenting himself as an unreliable master, and not appearing when he was most needed..? Could he be intentionally doing it to have him go against the Mureeds and prove himself as a worthy Doyen's apprentice..? Abdul Bâqi thought with a somewhat bashful expression on his face, remembering how he shamelessly persuaded the old Sheikh into taking him as an apprentice. Now he really couldn't feel wronged by the old man, even if he wanted to.
So this apprenticeship was not for free eh..?
Three of the nine posts were empty, and all of them just happened to be the very three just before Abdul Bâqi's own, as he stood at the path to the very edge of the nine archway paths. The closest path to him with a fellow competitor was Isra's own, and the one at the farthest end from his was where Prince Reyaz stood, the other three occupied what was in between these two.
As the final preparations were being made for the test to start, Abdul Bâqi turned to look once more at the letters on the keystone of the first solitary archway of his path - his Solitary Gate. They happened to glow a myriad brilliant colours like an iridescent rainbow of gold and silver, reflecting beautifully in the aureate glow of the post meridian sun. He realized that the words might not have just been written in gold and silver lines, but also glittering dusts and precious minerals which might have been added.
His eyes looked yonder, where 199 similar arches, each complete with their inscriptions were waiting for him to decipher. His path up the stairs was going to be filled with a striving and an attempt to decipher all 200 archway inscriptions. They each had disjointed letters which he had to decode into words. These words related to a particular ayah of the Qur'an which he had to unravel. For every ayah he unraveled from the inscriptions, he had one mark awarded. The keystones of each of the 200 archways had their inscriptions, but.. four other voussoirs on each arch of a solitary archway also possessed their own inscriptions!
In summary, climbing up the steps, he had a total of a 1000 inscriptions to decrypt! A thousand verses! Only one with a profound knowledge of Al Qur'an could do this, and given the limited time duration, it was also a trial on one's quick insight and familiarity with the ayaat of Al Qur'an.
From what Mika'il said, most competitors only focus on the inscriptions of the keystones as they ascend.. If you are able to decrypt 200, you are considered a Qur'an genius! Those who challenge the voussoirs in addition, and solve past 200 inscriptions, are recognized as Prodigies of Sky Legacy Haven. Once you've scored past the 350th mark, you're called Heaven's Chosen!
The Nine Mureeds are naturally of this latter category..
He looked at the four voussoirs surrounding the keystone of his first solitary archway. They had the same similar inscriptions of three or more disjointed letters from the Arabic alphabet. Mika'il had said that these disjointed letters were random letters of the Qur'an alphabet, and that it was rare to find the huruful Muqatta'at among them. Thus, these were complete words from which whole ayaat could be drawn!
They repeated in different patterns and with different letters, as one moved up the archway path. But each was a combination of at least three disjointed letters, all based on the Arabic 'Root' system of forming words.
Abdul Bâqi was all calm inside, as he reviewed what Mika'il had told him about the quest, earlier in the masjid.
"There are nine archway paths.. Once you decide to challenge the quest, you will be allowed to choose one of the archway paths for a limited period of time during which you'll be moving up the path in challenge of the quest, with or without others to compete.
After every five successive flight of steps, you'll encounter a solitary archway on your path; each complete with jaded vertical columns and a full arch made of alabaster, ornamented with precious stones. On the keystone of each of their arches is a set of disjointed letters ranging from three to more. These are Arabic letters from the Qur'an. However they're not the huruful Muqatta'at...
The test is to form whole words from these solitary letters, and then from these words, recall ayaat of the Qur'an which pertain to them, whether directly or indirectly. Thus, all the 200 keystones with their disjointed letters, each represent an ayah of Al Qur'an!"
"So the challenge is to derive from the solitary archways 200 ayaat which are from the Qur'an, using the disjointed letters of the keystones? That's quite easy. I'm surprised there are not plenty 'Number One' Mureeds in SLH for a hundred years now. Are you all that not proficient in the Qur'an!?" Abdul Bâqi laughed.
Mika'il shook his head and continued,"You'd be right if that was all there was to it. Let me finish talking before you cut in, paysan.. Apart from the 200 keystones, four of the voussoirs on each arch of every solitary archway also possess a complete set of disjointed letters! So for every archway you meet, you're not limited to solving only one set of inscriptions which is on the central keystone, but five!
You see it's not just called the 'Marabout's 1000 Profound Steps' for naming sake.. Every five successive flight of steps provides you with a solitary archway, upon which are five different sets of disjointed letters each representing the five steps you've already crossed, and every one of them represents an ayah of Qur'an.
Thus in total, there are not 200 ayaat to be deciphered, but a 1000!!!"
Abdul Bâqi mulled over it.. If the time given had been unlimited, he might have completed all 1000 inscriptions in a day and a half, by just devoting only his free time to it. But considering all the students were given a limited time duration to challenge the quest, it was obvious they were testing not only intuition and one's strength of recall of Qur'an ayaat, but also the quick perception and sharpness of the students!
Mika'il continued,"Usually in order to move fast, students ignore the letters on the voussoirs, focusing only on the keystones and aiming for the 200 ayaat. Anyone who deciphers at least 200 is a Qur'an genius who can be considered fit for the position of ninth Mureed. Since the ninth Mureed's score determines the baseline for becoming a Mureed, depending on the statistics, not everyone above 200 can be a Mureed. However once you score more than 200, you're considered a Prodigy of SLH, whether you're a Mureed or not!
Those called Heaven's Chosen are those fit to enter into the positions of Mureed by beating the lowest Mureed score. Recently, the competition for and among the Mureeds has upped, and its not so as easy as before! Because at the moment, the Number Nine Mureed has a score of 351 ayaat!!"
"A whole 151 verses away from Qur'an genius, I see." Abdul Bâqi said calmly, and added,"If one wants to score higher, one must solve as many of the five inscriptions on each archway as one ascends, keeping in mind the time.
Which means that, if one sees that he's wasting his time at just one arch, one should move on.
That way one can maximize his harvest of verses within the given time!" Abdul Bâqi analyzed.
"I have one question though.." He asked,"Is one allowed to come back to the previous arches and solve the questions he's already passed, provided he's reached the last keystone and still has more time left..?"
"No." Mika'il answered,"Once you pass an archway, you cannot return. You're required to wait at the top till the time elapses, even if you've finished within the stipulated time and more time is still left."
"I see. This is just like taking a test with a thousand questions and being bounded by a time period.. Scoring depends not only on one's knowledge and recall of what one has learnt, in this case - of the Qur'an, but also on one's smartness to meet the given time limit with the highest yield of questions answered.
Only that, for the Marabout's quest, you're unable to go back to the previous unanswered questions and answer them, even if you have more time left after reaching the last question."
"Good analysis, bumpkin! You're actually much smarter than I thought! You were able to understand this more easily than I did. It took me a whole day to grasp the concept of this quest, and even still, I wasted all my chances of challenging the quest, and without leaving a mark too..!" Mika'il lamented.
Abdul Bâqi wanted to scowl and say it was so simple you'd be a bonehead to not understand, but Mika'il's last words diverted his attention,"-wasted all your chances..?"
"Of course Abdul, you only get to officially challenge this test a total of nine times in this school. Once you're done, it's over. If you're not a Mureed by the end of your challenges, you'd probably never be for the rest of your life~" Mika'il wailed dramatically.
"Why nine?" Abdul Bâqi asked, ignoring Mika'il's hyperbolized drama.
"There are nine archway paths. Once you challenge a path, you can never challenge the same path again in an official test. You're considered to be familiar with that path, and to have encountered its inscriptions so as for it not to pose a challenge for you.
You're to meet an inscription only once in your lifetime ya hear me! Once in ya lifetime!!!" Mika'il had tried to grab onto Abdul Bâqi's thobe to wail, but Abdul Bâqi had nimbly evaded him.
"Okay, so what's the highest score so far? The Number One Mureed's score?"
Mika'il looked at him in bewilderment.
"Why are you looking at me like I've grown a second head?" Abdul Bâqi asked with a dry laugh.
"I thought you'd ask me the score of the Number Five Mureed, Sinan. Since they're the ones you'd be facing isn't it wiser to focus on the highest score among them?"
"Bro, that's not how I do things. I always look for the best person, or the highest score to set as my aim and target. Have you not heard the adage: Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars..? Only that in this case, I'm dead set on hitting the moon."
Mika'il smiled wryly. Then he told him the statistics, graciously adding the details of the five he was going to face.
In his present mind, Abdul Bâqi remembered the last statement he had told Mika'il: Only that in this case, I'm dead set on hitting the moon. It was true. He couldn't be so lax as to fall among stars..
The Doyen said that he'd allow me to challenge only five of the nine Mureeds, but if this quest challenge is like how Mika'il describes it, I'm essentially challenging all nine of them! If I get a score below any of the other four within the same time limit they had challenged the quest before, I've automatically lost the wager. These people in this school really have supreme scheming minds! If I were not smart enough to ask for the highest score which was attained by the Number One Mureed, I'd be defeated in this simple quest without even knowing how it happened. He looked at the Doyen Sheikh Tariq at this thought, and saw the man was already looking at him, with a cold smile. Abdul Bâqi gave a cold snort internally.
Abdul Bâqi didn't know this, but the reason why he had yet to see his master was that, on one of the high pavilion towers nearby, like the one the princes Firdaws and Ihtisham stood, there was a gathering of all the six remaining Doyens and some notable scholars! The high tower stood out from the rest by the lush garden upon its top and the pavilion set within, with plush divans and exquisitely embroidered pillows spread about. The six higher-ups present in this gathering were part of the seven Doyens who were only second to the Grand Doyen, and they were actually watching the scene below from up above!
Abdul Bâqi's master was naturally a part of them, and presently, he reached across a central sufrah for a piece of lemon flavoured cake. Holding up a cup of flagrant tea to his mouth, he gently sipped it, his eyes glowing with joy. If Abdul Bâqi had seen him, he would have gone mad with rage at the carefree air that radiated him. Even as the old man supped his tea, his eyes scanned the competitors, particularly staying on his apprentice with a calm shrewdness and a smile in his eyes. Al Iskandarî, let's see how far your kid can go!
Down below, Abdul Bâqi went closer to the archway path he had chosen. Just before the first step at all the nine paths, was an alabaster plinth enforced in pure white marble. On it were engraved silvery lines of Arabic characters. Abdul Bâqi read the words on it. It was a hadith of Rasullullah sallallaahu alayhi wassalaam..
It read:
"عَبْدِ اللَّهِ بْنِ عَمْرٍو عَنْ النَّبِيِّ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ قَالَ يُقَالُ لِصَاحِبِ الْقُرْآنِ اقْرَأْ وَارْتَقِ وَرَتِّلْ كَمَا كُنْتَ تُرَتِّلُ فِي الدُّنْيَا فَإِنَّ مَنْزِلَتَكَ عِنْدَ آخِرِ آيَةٍ تَقْرَأُ بِهَا"
Even as he concluded reading, the Doyen supervising the event began his address to the six, and the crowd.
"Let the competitors of the Marabout's quest stand at their six archway paths!" The Doyen Sheikh Tariq said, and even as the six stood at their respective positions, he spoke once again, addressing the crowds this time.
"Anyone can use a whole day to figure out as many ayaat of the Qur'an as are hidden within the inscriptions of the Marabout.. and that'll be normal.
But we haven't got all day. This test appraises alertness of mind, quick perception, and one's acutely sharp memory in Qur'an, and that's all the more reason why it's timed."The Doyen's voice sounded loudly within the entire gathering, amid the palpable silence. He then turned to six, saying,"At each solitary archway is a marbled plinth to the side. Scrolls, brushes and ink have been provided upon each plinth by which the verses gleaned from the arches can be written and left behind even as you ascend.
Once you've reached a certain point in ascent, there will be scholars delegated to ascend your paths, reading and marking your scripts, and grading your score.
Don't worry," The Doyen said, particularly looking at Abdul Bâqi in consideration,"There will be no injustice done to any of you, for your answers would be checked only by our most trustworthy and neutral scholars.
You've three incense sticks' worth of time (1 hour and a half) to walk all 1000 steps and find as many ayaat of the Qur'an as you can, hidden within the inscriptions."
The Doyen eyes scoured Abdul Bâqi once more with an enigmatic smile, and saw him murmur some words to himself. His cold smile widened as he wondered what the boy was saying under his breath. It was probably a dua. He thought.
Naturally, at this point one would feel a bout of jitters as the test was about to start, and Abdul Bâqi had his fair share of it. This was his first time after all.
So he closed his eyes calmly, and quietly murmured a dua to his Rabb. He really couldn't let these people with all their contempt to win.. or nothing would change.
His heart became steady even as he remembered the verses of assurance with which Allah Azza wa Jall had assured Musa alayhis salaam as he faced the magicians of Fir'awn in a great challenge.. The magic that they performed was strong enough to put fear in his heart, but Allah said:
قُلۡنَا لَا تَخَفۡ إِنَّكَ أَنتَ ٱلۡأَعۡلَىٰ
We (Allah) said,"Fear not! Surely, you will have the upper hand.."
[Surah Tâ Hâ, 20, Ayah 68]
"So it begins en.." Abdul Bâqi opened his eyes and murmured, a half-smile brimming with excitement and confidence broke across his lips.
Looking from the corner of his eye, the Doyen Sheikh Tariq saw the student assigned with the incense stick timing, light one. One could find batches of these in and around the school's masjid, kept for their nice odour and when they wanted to time the Profound Steps quest. It didn't have to be timed that way, but it was the tradition from the hundred years of challenging the quest. That time, the incense sticks were used to keep time, due to absence of modern methods. These incense sticks present in SLH were also so standard that, their burning time took exactly 30 minutes each.
"Your time starts now." The Doyen's voice rang through the crowd."Begin!"
At this, the six contestants immediately started climbing up the steps on their respective archway paths. Mika'il fisted his hand in a silent dua to Allah that Abdul Bâqi wins.
He intoned,"Iqra wartaqi..(Read and ascend..)"
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The writing on the alabaster before the 1000 Profound Steps is the following hadith:
Abdullah ibn Amr reported: The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said, "It will be said to the companion of the Quran: Recite and ascend as you recited in the world. Verily, your rank is determined by the last verse you recite."
Source: Sunan al-Tirmidhī 2914
Grade: Sahih (authentic) according to Al-Tirmidh.
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The dua Abdul Bâqi recited are the 25th and 26th ayaat of Surah Tâ Hâ. It's translation is:
[Moses] said,"My Lord, expand for me my breast [with assurance]And ease for me my task.."