AsSalaamu alaykum wa rahmatullah wa barakatuhu.

Okay, so in shaa Allah, this will be my last update till after exams.

Hope you enjoy it.

***

"...No sage could understand His perfect grace,

Nor seer discern the beauty of His face.
His creatures strive to find a path to Him..."

[ The Conference of Birds ]

__________________________________

"The girls are going to win this round." Lady Zulaykha said this calmly as she espied Lady Maryam.

Lady Maryam who knew from the corner of her eye, that Lady Zulaykha was looking at her, just smiled, a calm expression on her face.

"Why do you say so, Elder sister? It's obvious Zak has the advantage of being personally trained by Sheikh Al Iskandarī himself. Are you implying the Sheikh did not teach his disciple well" Her lips turned up in a knowing smile.

"Of course Sheikh Al Iskandarī taught Zak well. But, - you personally trained Maryam. Even though her younger sister goes to Al Qamariyyah Halaqah for her Islamic studies, she has not yet reached Maryam's level when she was this young."

Lady Maryam smiled,"Elder sister praises me too much. I'm only one who learnt from my Mistress at the Veiled Sisters halaqah."

"Tsk tsk," Lady Zulaykha continued,"Don't play humble with me. The Veiled Sisters halaqah is certainly number one in the whole of Al Qalb-ul-Ard, for ladies. The Queen and the ladies of her household go there, and it's even on par with Sky Legacy Haven!"

"I'd never known that." Bibi Fatima exclaimed. One thing she knew was that her grandson's youngest wife was so learned in the Dîn, no one dared to raise objection over her presiding the Sunday's Taalim meetings for Ladies in the whole city Tâ Hâ.

"Mother, because you've retired from worldly matters for sometime now, you didn't know." Also that position was attained in the recent years through countless ventures undertaken. Bibi Fatima had retired from worldly affairs for a decade now.

"Younger sister Maryam here was not just any disciple of Veiled Sisters halaqah, she was a legacy apprentice of the Head Mistress herself!"

Hajj Ya'qûb smiled in pride. He'd known that all his first wife, Lady Zulaykha was saying was true. Afterall, this was one of the things that endeared him to the woman by his side, apart from her otherworldly beauty.

Acquiring her hand was just a grace bestowed by Allah, especially considering the fierce competition with others who had heard of her beauty.

It's said that, even the King wanted to add her as his second wife, but failed; some say because of the Queen's scheming, especially since he never had another wife after her. Others say, the Lady Maryam herself rejected his proposal.

Either way, in the end, he won her heart, and she didn't mind being his third wife. He smiled as he remembered the story of how he won over a lady whose heart was famed to be made of glass, emotionless. He smiled as he remembered a story of 'A locket and key'.

Lady Maryam was the Legacy student of the esteemed Veiled Sisters halaqah on the mainland. This halaqah was independent, to the extent that even the Royal family would find it not-so-simple in getting in. They'd also revered the halaqah that much.

The head Mistress of the esteemed Veiled Sisters halaqah had made sure that their halaqah become number one in the whole country for Ladies, of course with Allah's help. It was said that, within the halaqah, ladies focused on learning to the exclusion of everything else, such that some of them never even thought to marry.

In grading all the halaqât and Madaaris in the country, they weren't far behind the Number one, in the city Ya Sîn. In fact, they fell amongst the first ten!

"So Maryam, when will you be taking your daughter to the mainland, to join the Veiled Sisters. I'm sure, considering your former position among them, your Mistress would consider her. Even with Maryam's excellence over Qur'an, hadith and Seerah, she'd make a Legacy apprentice like you did."Bibi Fatima asked, now curious.

"Why didn't you send her to the halaqah like Hayaa, but decided to personally train her?" Lady Zulaykha suddenly asked, looking at the youthful generation engaged in the competition in front of her.

When the competition started, and the girls had requested Hayaa to stand for them, the silvery fair-skinned girl just yawned.

To her, this quiz was a joke, even facing someone to the level of Zak, a student of the famous Al Iskandarī!

It was therefore, no bragging on the side of ladies who went to that halaqah to show a sense of apathy for some of these sideshow quizzes.

Lady Zulaykha noticed the hesitancy on her co-wife's face. There was even a sad smile on her extraordinarily beautiful face, with her niqâb opened.

Lady Maryam turned to watch her daughter who was busy with putting her all into the quiz.

The Veiled Sisters halaqah have a prerequisite. Maryam has not yet attained that level.

"I think we'll let the little girl be the decider of that." Hajj Ya'qûb said finally, uplifting the sudden heaviness in the air around them, as they all turned their attention towards the last round of the quiz.

The quiz was in its final round on Seerah, and the contestants were putting in their very last effort to secure winning. As the saying goes, it's not over until the fat lady sings. Any slipups on any of the sides, would result in a loss, and thus losing the competition.

Maryam looked on and smiled as Ismaîl mentioned to them the question they were to answer to secure their spot at first position, at least till Zak and Arkaan also answered theirs correctly. It's high time she showed the boys who's boss.

According to Elder brother Ismaîl, in this final round, there's going to be one question for each group. If both groups get their questions perfectly correct, they get the full mark. In other words, these questions are going to require very detailed answers to secure their full marks. Elder brother is really in a hurry to end this quiz. From what I heard it was Sister Tasnîma who orchestrated the whole thing. Maryam was becoming suspicious, little by little.

When the thought came to mind, she couldn't help herself from looking over at Tasnîma's direction, who was intensely looking somewhere. Maryam traced her line of sight to glance at the comely boy on the front stage, facing her.

Upon looking at Arkaan, he seemed to sense it, and looked in her direction. Maryam turned her sight away, embarrassed. She felt like she had stared a lot at the boy lately.

Hayaa noticed her younger sister's behaviour and frowned. So far her younger sister had resisted her desperate attempts to get her to wear the niqâb. Since she couldn't force her, she left her at it. Now, she was busily staring at a non-mahram boy, what gall!

When they held the Taalim the night before, she had intentionally looked at Maryam with a sly smile when Arkaan was mentioned in order to see what her relation to him was. She already knew they'd earlier been in contact with each other in the Chinese market. She didn't know why, but she obviously had a dislike towards the guy from the onset. Call it her intuition, but she felt something wrong about him particularly, even though she enjoyed his preaching.

Maryam... She sighed. We do not want what happened to you that time, to repeat itself. By now, you should have already enrolled in Veiled Sisters halaqah, but you're still being stubborn. Hayaa thought about it. The Veiled Sisters halaqah had a program set particularly for students in secular schools. So when they were on vacation, they could come. The Head Mistress had asked her several times about her younger sister Maryam especially. Hayaa knew, if Maryam joined Veiled Sisters, it wouldn't take long for her to reach the level of Legacy apprentice! Maryam really had no excuse, except...

A certain someone smirked, seeing all the reactions going on about, and reading all the complex emotions. This person saw it as very interesting. Just like a game...which team should this person support?..

"Elder sister.." Aasiyah called out. Maryam was absentminded, but she thought it was because she was contemplating the question. "Would you give the answer or should I?"

"Elder brother Ismaîl, please repeat the question again." Maryam's clear voice rang out. There was no way she was going to lose!

Arkaan watched as Ismaîl repeated the question for the ladies a second time. It was a question pertaining to the Holy Prophet's life before the hijrah. If the girls got it correct, then the boys would have to answer a question on the Prophet's life after hijrah.

He had read the life of the prophet once when he was at his grandfather's. The library was the only place he was allowed to go and allowed solitude. He read many books that time. Among them, the Prophet's biography. But most of them were the orientalist's point of view, so he would perhaps lose the spiritual understanding provided by the Muslim scholar of Seerah.

The question was about the incident in the Prophet's life surrounding the revelation of the Surah Masad, the Chapter of Palm fibre.

Maryam began by stating the fact that, the Makkan phase of the call to Allah's message by the Holy Prophet, took place in three stages: the stage of the secret call, which was three years; the stage of open proclamation in Makkah, which occurred from the beginning of the fourth year of prophethood to almost the end of the tenth year; finally was the propagation beyond Makkah, which lasted from the end of the tenth year after prophethood till the hijrah to Madina.

Even as she continued, Arkaan could see the fervour with which Maryam spoke. It was almost like she were there, reliving the Seerah. Detailed answers without any faltering, and the confidence to back that up. She really is learned.

Arkaan understood how most at times, some girls wouldn't care much for learning these things. It always seemed as if the boys were the only ones who paid attention to learning. But there were girls who wouldn't sit back and watch, rather they championed the knowledge of the Dîn, and stood on par with their male counterparts. The pages depicting vividly, the centuries of Islamic history throughout time, was proof of that!

Once in a while, women would rise who would show that 'Being learned was not the monopoly of men'. There were many Muslimahs like that in history, the first most notable was the wife of the Prophet himself, the Mother of the Believers, Aisha, Allah be pleased with her.

She set the first example of a Muslimah scholar. Even the learned companions and the taabi'in who came after, sought out her knowledge, especially on Islamic jurisprudence.

It seemed to Arkaan that Maryam was one of those ladies, who would rather prize knowledge, over whiling away her time in girly pastimes.

This sudden realization created in him a new admiration for the girl.