The house of god brought us together

Mohammed Mortaza

Mohammed Mortaza was your ideal child. He graduated from the top university, comes from a well known family, listened to his family's wishes of studying Islam, and was steadfast in being the perfect muslim. He never wasted a day. He lived as though everyday was his last. He never cared about girls and would focus on Islam. As he got ready to leave the house for another speech, he couldn't help but think if there would be a day where he'd be married and his wife could join him on his trips to various masjids. Sighing, he got into his car and drove off to a new masjid that was four hours away from him. The masjid had asked him to do a speech and lead juma and they were willing to pay a huge amount for his presence. Driving over there while listening to quran was one of his favorite things to do. It helped calm his mind. He finally arrived at the masjid and walked in. Juma was starting so he was getting read to lead prayer and to the speech. He started his speech and was talking about the importance of finding community and being a part of larger group of muslims. Then he lead prayer and read some quran afterwards with everyone. After the prayers he started talking to people. The typical "salam how are you? How was your family?" His family was really well known among most muslims. They were the family that published many books and built many mosques in the country. But he, he wasn't like them, he just happened to be born into this family and now he's got this title. Knowing he had a long drive home he asked for the bathroom and walked in. After using the bathroom he received a text from someone, it was his mom, she had suggested he meet a nice girl she had found. Washing his hands and then doing his wudhu, he felt lost. Did he really deserve to be respected this much? After all, it's not like he went to study religion extensively in another country. He knew about religion and practiced it but one of the few reasons he'd get invited to masjids was because of his family's name. Drying his hands he walked out of bathroom and as he walked into the masjid, he stopped as he heard someone crying. It was a girl in a white prayer scarf crying. He couldn't make out her face because the scarf covered her entire body and face. So he decided to slowly and quietly find the exit and leave. He didn't want to intrude and be disrespectful. As he went to one of the doors to open, it wouldn't budge. He then went to another and it also wouldn't budge. As he continued to walk around and look, that's when he bumped into the girl he saw earlier. 

"Salam Walikum sister. Please forgive me for bumping into you but do you happen to know where the exit is?"

As she looked up from where she fell, he couldn't help but think how beautiful she was. Despite having under eyebags and eyes that looked like they had cried 1000 times, she had this pull that he couldn't explain. He wanted to continue looking into her eyes, realizing he had been staring at her face, he looked back onto the ground. 

"Yes, it's over here. Follow me."

He followed her to a door and she opened it. 

"Jazakallah, I was looking for this exit."

"Haha no worries."

Keeping his gaze lowered he walked to his car. She did the same. Why was she crying so much in that masjid? And why was the girl he saw in the light, crying, so different from the girl that smiled and laughed as she led him to the exit. Shrugging off his thoughts he drove home.