His Hafizah and her Hafiz

Happiness

Hawa POV:

With exhaustion, I had placed Musa and Harun on their playmat and turned the TV on, distracting them with cartoons before Musa decided to scratch the living day out of Harun again. Previously, Harun had irked Musa by grabbing his clown-stuffed-doll and clamping it deep inside his mouth, and thus, Musa had decided to scratch his forehead leaving a bloody mark there due to his useless firing rage. Harun instantly gave out a piercing scream in agony, while Musa decided to cry as well in fear of punishment. Not like I can give him anyway.

The room was abruptly engulfed with a disarraying chaos. Aunt Sarah and Safoora immediately rushed in the room; Safoora picked up Musa on her hips and soothed him down, while Aunt Sarah rushed to get the first aid box and clean up the specks of blood in Harun's forehead. "You're a big boy, aren't you?" Aunt Sarah cooed, distracting him from his pain while plastering a tiny Spider-Man bandage on his forehead making Harun's tears come to a whimper. 

Harun finally decided to giggle along with the Aunt Sarah's happiness, and I released a stressed sigh that I was holding in before loosening my grip on my elder son that I had from the begginning of the chaos. With the command of my voice, I turned the TV on and let the boys watch cartoons for a while. I didn't know what I'd do without my aunt if she weren't here by my side. 

When Musa calmed down, Safoora placed him down on his playmat, and slumped on the sofa with her Quran sprawled open. Her eyes scanned the words before she bit her lips and let out a wild scream. Harun glanced at her with fear momentarily, while Musa decided to giggle and clap his hands finding it really amusing.

"What's wrong?" I asked her, craning my head to glance at her.

"Why does the Quran look s-so foreign to me?" She stuttered, glancing at me with terror in her eyes.

"What do you mean?"

"I c-can't remember a single line... except 30th and first juz (chapters). No, no, no!" She cried frantically, her eyes wildly scanning the lines of the Quran as she flipped through the pages.

"Well, you weren't practicing for six whole months--"

"That's not helping at all, Hawa!" She sobbed, tears trickling down her eyes as she tried to wipe them off immediately. 

"Hey, hey, hey," I tried to soothe, getting up and sitting next to her, pulling her in for a side hug. "It's okay, don't worry--"

"Don't worry?" She cried. "I forgot the Quran, and you are telling me not to worry? Are you out of your mind?"

"We can start slowly." 

"It'll take few more years--"

"No silly it won't," I smiled convincingly. "The words are still deeply engraved somewhere in there in your heart because you've read each chapter thousands of times in your lifetime. It won't erase that easily since you were gone only for six months. Try, pray, and Allah will help you. Let's start by fixing a quarter-- read each quarter a few times, you'll see you'll know it by the end of time."

She reluctantly nodded, and started reciting softly.

I let her be, giving her the time she needed and helping her from time to time. Even though it would be a little hard to revive her Quran back to ignition in her heart, but in the end it would be all worth it.

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"All student's must be wearing their goggles and lab coats in the procession of this lab experiment." Dr. Adila announced strictly with a file in hand as she paced around the lab authoritatively. I had resumed university since the twins were six months and old enough to stay at home with their grandma, and because of them, Aunt Sarah is having second thoughts of being a permanent resident in this country. I guess she couldn't bear the thought of leaving them anytime soon due to the growing attachment between them.