"Hey." Lali

"Girlie Lali, I know you miss me, please, just half an hour, is that too much to ask?" Arafah

"What!? You aren’t SYRIA!! Thirty more minutes, its dead boring up here! Salim isn’t around..
And about me missing you, please check your temperature honey Arfey I think you got fever" Lali

"Well, am not serious, I was just JORDAN, its actually thirty five minutes.
My temp°C is 35.5°fine ♡" Arafah

"I hate you. So am dropping by your place and please tell me your mom isn’t around coz I don’t even know where my long scarf is" Lali

"I hate you more. Just come by, mom went shopping with Auntie" Arafah

"Pheew, catch you then" Lali

"And don’t knock, come straight INDIA I don’t want a crying Mukhtar, he is cuter when asleep" Arafah

"Cool" Lali
________________________

Arafah placed the phone with a smile on her face, she wondered if all best friends have this kind of chats or they especially broke the Guinness World record of being the weirdest ones ever.

She worked fast, cleaning the kitchen, washing utensils and finally setting the table ready for Iftar. Arafah’s mom has never hired a maid, its not that they were poor, No, Alhamdulillah they were well off, she just found it unnecessary since she was a stay-home mum plus they already had a washing machine.

Arafah and her younger sister knew how to manage their house well, as their mom emphasized, she says, "you never know, what if you get married to a poor family?" Arafah never understood that though, coz as far as she understood the Hadith "تنكح المرأة بأربع"

Which goes as:
هذا الحديث رواه البخاري (4802) ومسلم (1466) عَنْ أَبِي هُرَيْرَةَ رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُ عَنْ النَّبِيِّ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ قَالَ : ( تُنْكَحُ الْمَرْأَةُ لِأَرْبَعٍ : لِمَالِهَا ، وَلِحَسَبِهَا ، وَلِجَمَالِهَا ، وَلِدِينِهَا ، فَاظْفَرْ بِذَاتِ الدِّينِ تَرِبَتْ يَدَاكَ ) .
This hadeeth was narrated by al-Bukhaari (4802) and Muslim (1466) from Abu Hurayrah (may Allaah be pleased with him) from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) who said: “A woman may be married for four things: her wealth, her lineage, her beauty and her religious commitment. Seek the one who is religiously-committed, may your hands be rubbed with dust (i.e., may you prosper).”

Muslims, male and female, are allowed to consider the criteria of wealth. But since her mom wasn’t the type to easily lose in arguments. Here she was, done with all the chores.

She went to check on Mukhtaar, her one and a half years old brother and found the angel peacefully sleeping, with Mahya, her turning sixteen years old sister, on his side, reciting Qur-an. Arafah smiled, although they didn’t get along that much, Arafah loved and respected Mahya a lot, this girl was more like four years older than Arafah, when in reality she was four yrs. younger. Mahya was more mature and pretty closer to her Lord than her.

Arafah was satisfied, now she could go and take a bath, and get ready to go shopping with Lali. It was the day of Arafah, as usual she wasn’t done with her shopping. It was also her Hijri birthday which she secretly celebrated with her friend each year since her mom would never allow birthdays in her house.

“Birthdays are from the non-Muslims, and as Muslims we are strictly forbidden from following any of their traditions”, was Maimunah’s reply when Arafah tried convincing her once.

“But mom! Then at least allow me to celebrate my Islamic calendar birthday, besides, am not going to play any music! Just wear new clothes, cook new food and take a few pictures”, Arafah would protest. She didn’t mention ‘cakes’ so that her mom  doesn’t get the picture of the non-Muslims way of doing it.

“My darling, celebrating Islamic dates of birth is bid’ah, a clear innovation. None of the Prophet’s wives or companions did so. It has to pass like any other normal day. And yes, Rasul did consider his birthday and fasted every Mondays.

Hadrat Abu Qatadah (r.a.) reported: The Messenger of Allah (saws) was asked about fasting on Mondays. He (saws) said, "That is the day on which I was born and the day on which I received Revelation.''
Related by Muslim.

Still, if we claim we want to follow this sunnah then it means we fast his (peace be upon him)’s ‘day’ of birth and not ours because again the Companions would have done so if it was a noble act. I’ll never protest if you do the same on any other day but NOT on your birthday please.”

Arafah still had a lot to say but her mom using darling and please, in the same speech was equal to “this is the end of my politeness, say any other word and I welcome you to the other side of me”

Arafah wasn’t ready, so she resorted to pretending she agreed and went on celebrating secretly.

Some minutes later, she came out of the bathroom and found a startled Lali, on her bed, trying to wipe the light lip gloss she had applied. She didn’t like a startled Lali, at all, so that made her worried.

"What’s’ up?", Arafah asked, worried. "Auntie Maimunah" replied Lali. "My mom?? What happened to her?" Arafah asked much more worried, as she closely analyzed Lali, and silently convincing herself that her mom is fine since Lali is not crying.

"Well, I opened your door and found her sitting on the sofa unpacking her bags, Oh Allah, I just mumbled my salaam and left for your room"
"You nuts, you should have told me she’ll be back soon" added Lali.

"But how was I supposed to know?" Arafah asked her friend.

This was the dreaded situation, they had successfully avoided for the past eight months, after Arafah’s mom found them in a mall, where Lali had no Abaya and Arafah borrowed Lali’s, a shaped one full of colored flowers.

Arafah’s mom put it loud and clear that Arafah is only allowed near Lali if its in Arafah’s house, Arafah’s family trips or at college. Any other trips between the two should come to a halt, where the strictly forbidden line was a sleepover at Lali’s house, as Lali’s mom gave them too much freedom. Had it been any other girl it would have been a total ban, but since Lali’s late father, was a close friend of theirs, and Lali being like a daughter to her, she just couldn’t do that.

After that incident, Lali never dared to come to their house except after dressing up properly. She bought special long scarfs and loose abayahs, which she only wore while visiting them.

Now after all that effort, to be seen in a transparent tight abayah, with a short scarf, covering only half her hair, with light makeup on, wasn’t quite pleasant. They both sat there silently waiting for the storm to erupt, and so it did.

"Arafah!" called her mom.