Chapter Six

Zahid lay on the sofa, blinking at his laptop screen. He had his mail opened and he was staring at the email forwarded to him by Harris.

The creases evident on his forehead, Zahid read the mail over and over again. The whole stance on the case had now shifted- Abdullah had changed his stance to being the plaintiff- making Zahid's client the defendant.

Since Zahid's client had demanded that Abdullah return his money- Zahid had successfully signed an agreement with the defendant, Abdullah, promising that if he returned the money, Zahid wouldn't take the case to court.

What he had thought was a simple case, solved over in a couple of days, had now taken a turn. Abdullah had suddenly declared that he owed Zahid's client no money and was facing blackmail and constant teasing from Zahid's client. Now, Abdullah had taken the role of the plaintiff- threatening that he would take the case to court.

A sigh escaped his lips and Zahid rested his head on the pillow, closing his eyes. Messed up- this was completely messed up, but the worst part was, it wasn't uncommon at all.

Feeling a cold hand on his forehead, Zahid opened his eyes- looking up at his aunt. She was reading the email opened on his laptop, and as she turned back to look at him- Zahid noticed the concern in her eyes.

"Is everything alright?" she asked, and Zahid sighed, sitting up and putting his laptop aside.

"Some problems came up with a case, khala," he said, sliding over to let Mrs. Ahmed take a seat.

"Is it serious?"

"I hope not. If it can be helped, I don't want to take this case to the court."

Mrs. Ahmed nodded, patting Zahid on the shoulder, "Everything will work out Insha'Allah," she said and Zahid nodded.

"This was supposed to be your break," Mrs. Ahmed said, after a pause, looking displeased, "You said you wouldn't be working."

Zahid smiled. " I expected I'd have to do this much work. When you're running a law firm, you can't get absolutely free anytime."

Mrs. Ahmed sighed, looking like she rather disliked that fact. "Anyways," she said, ruffling Zahid's hair, "I'm proud that my son is doing some great things. May Allah accept it and help you in this path."

~~~

Zahid was almost relieved when he failed to see Usman in the masjid. It wasn't prayer time yet but the volunteer group he had joined on WhatsApp had called for anyone who was free to help with the preparations of the upcoming events.

Zahid went right away. Working- it was the only way he knew how to sort out his thoughts, which, for the past couple of hours, has been troubling him due to the recent events. Unlike most people who relaxed when they rested, Zahid tended to put his effort and focus on something else momentarily. This technique always managed to ease him- especially when he was doing something for the sake of Allah.

Ticking down the last thing on the clipboard, Zahid nodded- done with work. Once he was sure that there was nothing else that needed to be done, he said his salams to all of the other volunteers and walked towards the exit.

'The masjid', Zahid thought to himself as he shoved his hands into his pocket and made his way towards the car, 'always calms you down somehow'. It didn't matter how troubled one was, but being at a masjid, a place of Allah's worship held the power to make a person feel at ease, inside and out.

Smiling as he muttered "Alhamdulillah", under his breath, Zahid neared his car. It was then that he noticed a woman leaning over the windscreen of his car.

His brows furrowed. What in the world was she doing?

"What are you doing?" 

The girl froze, turning around slowly. For a second, their eyes clashed before she lowered her gaze, reddening.

Zahid arched a brow when he spotted a sticky note attached to his car.

What in the world-

."I-" she began, fumbling with her words, "I'm sorry."

With that, she quickly got into her car and before Zahid could say anything, she had driven off.

Okay, that was weird.

Frowning, Zahid reached for the sticky note on his car. As he quickly read the sloppy handwriting, his eyes widened. He rushed to the side of the car, looked closely at the side, and at first glance, failed to spot anything strange.

His eyes narrowing, he looked closely and spotted a small scratch. Was she apologizing for this?

Glancing at his car again, his head tilted- it suddenly hit Zahid what had happened.

The girl had scratched his car, though only slightly. When she had come to check it, she might have thought that the larger scratch on his car (the one that had been there for ages and he didn't get the time to fix) had been her doing.

In spite of himself, Zahid chuckled, amused. Should've gotten it fixed, he thought, shaking his head as he put the note in his pocket and got into his car- driving home.

~~~

"Are you sure?"

"Of course," Zahid said with a nod, balancing his phone between his shoulder and ear as he put the files back in his bag, "Our client needs to know the details. Anyways," he added after a short pause, "He's the only one who can get himself out of this bind. Ask him if he has any written agreement... a video, a voice recording- anything! We need some solid proof to get Abdullah to reach an agreement with us."

Agreeing, Harris asked a couple more questions before he hung up. Putting down his phone, Zahid ran a hand over his face. He wasn't too worried, perhaps only slightly troubled. He had faith though- that, by the will of Allah, everything would turn out well.

Leaning back on the bed, Zahid put his arm behind his neck, his head resting against the headdress. His brows furrowed, then- thinking about an entirely different matter. Zahid was surprised that his aunt had not questioned him yet- though perhaps, he was almost glad that she hadn't.

As he had promised, Zahid had done istikhara over the past couple of days. He had prayed to Allah for guidance, for while his human self felt wary about such ideas about the future- it was He who knew what was best for Zahid. While doing istikhara, Zahid had given up his childish stubbornness, surrendering completely to Allah's plan.

While his limited brain could come up with excuses and reasons why he should reject, Allah knew what was best for him. Staying away from work for the past couple of days, his heart at ease- Zahid had reached this realization that humans were weak, that while humans could fret and worry about the future, the fact of the matter was, that Allah had a plan for them.

"They plan and Allah plans. Surely, Allah is the Best of planners." [8:30]

His heart at ease, Zahid decided- then and there, that he would meet whoever his aunt was talking about. If marriage was a part of Allah's plan for him- then so be it, and if not- then this meeting would be of no importance.

Anyways, it was just a meeting and Zahid had organized and attended countless of those.

Thinking about how pleased his aunt would be, Zahid smiled, turning around in bed. As he closed his eyes shut to get a short afternoon nap, the scene outside the masjid played in his head and he opened his eyes again, his brows furrowing.

Taking out the note from his pocket, Zahid tilted his head- reading it again. Would the girl be waiting for him to tell her how much money he needed to fix the scratch she thought she was responsible for? She must be in guilt- Zahid thought.

Frowning, Zahid sat up in bed, staring at the note. He thought over the matter for a bit before he decided that he would send her a text and inform her that she wasn't the one who had caused that scratch on his car.

Picking up his phone from the side-table, the note in his other hand- he began to type in the number. More than half of the digits were in when Zahid noticed that he had this number saved in his phone. He frowned- his eyes widening when he noticed that it was Usman's number.

Zahid did a double-take, checking again if both numbers were the same. Much to his horror- they were exactly the same and Zahid inhaled sharply, connecting the dots.

Wait- so was she, could she possibly be... Usman's sister? 

Assalamualaykum!

Another chapter I quite enjoyed writing. Let me know what you guys think!

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Jazakillah :)