Road To Jannah

Chapter 21

"What runs down from the eyes is not water, but a soul which melts and drips."

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"What about this?" asked Rida as she held an abaya after choosing it from the respective section.

"Umm it is good." said Rehan as he looked up from his phone towards her.

"What about this?" asked Rida holding a simple dark grey colour abaya.

"It is too simple." said Rehan.

"But I like the simple ones. This is final, I am buying this." said Rida and Rehan threw up his hand in defeat. Women were a book which couldn't be understood by men. They would ask you your choice but then do the exact opposite of the advice given to them. Weird.

After billing, they walked out of the women section and marched towards the food section. The best thing about shopping was food, no matter what you buy or no matter you buy or do not even spend a penny, you would always end up eating something delightful.

"Oh my Allah." Rida screamed panicking.

"Whats wrong?" asked Rehan in concern.

"It's Maghrib from about ten minutes." said Rida after glancing at her watch.

"Ya Allah you scared me Rida. We are heading home now anyways." said Rehan as he pulled out his purse to pay off the bill.

"No we'll miss the Salah by then, our home is half an hour away and if there's jam, which is found often then we'll surely reach at isha."

"But we don't have any option. Come on we should hurry up then." said Rehan as he grabbed his keys from the table and stood up.

"I want to offer it now." said Rida.

"Where? We don't have women section in the near by mosque."

"Here in the mall."

"Stop being childish Rida, we live in a non Muslim country. How can you even think offering the Salah here. At once they'll stop us and throw us out of here plus the glares everyone will give us would be pathetic." Rehan said as he held her hand and took her towards the exit.

"Stop Rehan. I can't miss my Salah just because you feel ashamed in the public." cringed Rida as she halted in her way.

"I didn't mean that Rida. It's not safe and we do not know if the places are clean.. "

"What ever it is Rehan, we cannot leave our Salah just because we do not have proper place to offer it. Allah has made the entire earth as a place of prayer except the washrooms and graves so we cannot give it as an excuse of not offering Salah. Delaying the Salah and then offering it later (qadha) is only taken on the account of two occasion. First when we have missed it due to sleeping (not intentionally but by mistake) and offer it as soon as we get up and second is when we tend to really forget about Salah and then offer as soon as we regain our memory. If we delay due to laziness and delay it thinking that we would offer the Salah and combine it with the next Salah then know that our laziness had doomed our Salah." said Rida without any pause. She had been always punctual in her Salah and she couldn't take it when her husband asked her to delay it. How could he? Rehan stood there pondering on the lines of Rida while she interrupted him.

"You go to the nearby mosque and I'll handle my situation." said Rida as she left his hand and walked past him towards the ladies section.

It's a shame how some people are afraid to offer their Salah in front of public while our prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) used to offer his Salah between the kuffars and they did not delay to persecute him in every possible way. Covering him with filthy intestines of sheep and guts of the camel, they would laugh at him with a mock but he never backed off from the place of his prayer. Why?  Because his trust was on Allah, the one who has the power over everything. If we are doing something for his sake in whose hand is the earth and entire universe then we should be certain about him because he would never let our actions flee in vain without honouring us. It is Allah, our lord and him we shall put our trust.