14th Nov, 2019

"You just sleep, we'll discuss in the morning in sha a Allah", Ahmed texted her.

"Why can't you tell me now?", Ridha asked like a child.

"Bye, don't reply", Ahmed left online. She begins to worry more about his secretive moves regarding his career. He just said that his previous manager contacted all of a sudden to ask his resume for HR managerial position during his lunch break. That manager is currently working abroad in some other company.

Ridha asked him from the evening whether he received any updates from her. He is just hiding some big thing from her but she wants to know badly. He assures her that he will come near her office in the early morning and tell her every thing.

Ridha couldn't close her eyes as well as her mind to get a proper sleep. She was thinking various possibilities of what he is going to reveal tomorrow. The more she worried is that it will definitely impact her the most because Ahmed won't come this long way to tell her a simple thing. She hopes that everything should be fine.

Later in the morning, she stopped on the way to her office near beach. On time, he arrived at the place she just parked her scooter. She just lean on her scooter and he came with a white cover in his one hand and a sweet box in the other. She guessed right it was his offer letter from the company where his old manager suggested.

"Assalamu alaikum, Ridhu", he smiled little. He is not the type to show his inner feelings. But the way he speaks to her is not usual, it hides many hidden feelings.

"Have you sleep well yesterday night?"

"Yeah, Don't you?"

"No", he lowers his head.

"Are you going to part from me because of this white cover?", She guessed teasingly.

"Mmm", he slowly looked into her eyes.

"Which place?", She asked in the same playing tone and she hides the feeling of something being stuck in her throat.

"Open this envelope", he hands over her and she opens it and it was the thing she guessed few minutes ago. It's his offer letter for the position of HR manager with the very good package in Qatar.

Ridha just smiles at him and she doesn't want to upset him because he really deserves this job. 'Alhamdhulillah!!! My dua has been answered so quickly. I can't see him worrying for not doing anything for his parents. He can pay off the debts, he can take his mother to anywhere in the world she likes, he can settle in his life as he and his family expected. And he really deserves this offer after his much pain...'

"Sorry, Ridhu", Ahmed said worriedly by thinking the contract period of two years. Ridha already read from the offer letter.

"But I have more chances to come India often, My previous manager, Sudha itself said that she'll come to India many times for any kind of business discussions or for conducting any interviews"

"Mmm", she just replied.

"If you want to cry, cry... Please don't hold it inside your heart. I couldn't get sleep from the time she sent my offer letter. I don't want to disturb your sleep. That's why I itself came to show you first.", He said by looking into her eyes.

"I'm happy for you, I won't cry, if I cry also, it'll be only a tears of joy..", she doesn't know when she'll burst into her ocean of tears. But she assured her heart not to cry infront of him.

"Okay, feed me sweets, why are you just having with yourself?", Ridha asked to lighten each other.

Both of their eyes met with each other when she is leaning on her byke and he is just a inch away from her. He wants to read her mind thoughts to know how much pain she is undergoing in. Whereas her mind is trying to capture his image to save for the whole two years. It's quite hard for her to believe that he'll be over seas apart from her for about two whole years.

"Okay, I'm getting late, in sha a Allah. How long will you stay here?", She wanted him to say that he'll go there after Ramadan but he said that he'll leave after a week. Her eyes couldn't have energy to hold its tears. Soon after she realises that her eyes got wet, she casually put on her helmet and made a short u-turn.

Without meeting his eyes, she just bid salam and said "Go safe, Fee amanullah" with a very low energetic voice.

By the time, he walked near her scooter and hold the steering from moving further.

"Ridhu", he called.

She avoids to look at him.

"Ridhu, look at me", he called again.

She again avoids to face him. This time she quickly pulls the helmet glass to cover her face, not from dust, but from his intense gaze.

He just left her calling due to her avoidance and went to start his byke. She waited for him to give company till the street ends. Before starting the ignition, both looked at each other for a second with a tearful eyes and a playful smile. They departed from the place when the souls are ready to depart from each other.

On the way to her office, her face becomes wet due to her falling tears. Her mind started imagining her a lone life from his departure after a week to his arrival after two years.

'Will this be possible for them to live over seas apart?'

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Ridha's past starts:

After closing her biology book, she wanted to inhale a fresh air in the early morning. So she went to her terrace and leaned near the third floor balcony. She saw her dad entering to his house after praying his Fajr at Masjid. She still holds his dad phone in her hand. She looked in it for a while and typed a text message to him,
"Assalamu alaikum"

After few seconds, a message peeped without any notification sound, that she changed into silent mode last night.

"Wa alaikum salam, Ridhu"

"What did you say?", Ridha somewhat managed to type faster than previous night.

"Just reply to your Salam, Anything wrong?"

"Nothing, I just texted to convey my thanks and I ll pay you the amount for the recharge soon", her heart wondered why he called her, Ridhu. 'Only Sadhia will call me like this, How he knows that I like when she used to call me, Ridhu. He might be seeing her calling me, Ridhu' was her inner thought.

"Thank you for giving me a chance"

"It's not like chance, I just wanted to make you know what I feel"

"What do you feel, Ridhu?"

(Why is he getting closer to my heart when he calls me that way)

"Feel in the sense, it will not work out, this is not islamic practice, and main thing is my parents won't accept such kind of things"

"I feel to have a future with you, I just want you to be my wife"

"Say In sha a Allah"

"What?"

"If you refer to future, you need to say In sha a Allah", she started her first teaching.

"Oh, In sha a Allah, Accept my love and be my partner In sha a Allah", But Ahmed understood her teaching the other way.

"Listen Ah'med bro.., it won't happen"

"You can call me by my name, no need of respect, especially don't call me bro or brother, please"

"Okay, it's time to get ready to school"

"Will meet you there"

"What?"

"Nothing"

"Assalamu alaikum"

"Wa alaikum salam"

'How sweet she is, her way of texting is bit rude but something attracts me more, it's new for me to start or end a conversation with Salam, but I like it and 'In sha a Allah... You will be mine, Ridhu'...', he thought and marched to his home from masjid happily... It's a very pleasant start of my life...

"Ridha, I have kept the school fees in your bag. Pay for both of you", Mohamed instructed his daughter when she is all set ready to go to her school.

"Okay, I ll pay In sha a Allah, Abu, byeeee... Assalamu alaikum", she waved her hands and marched to school with a bright face.

On reaching the school, her eyes traced the second floor for knowing his presence unknowingly. But she found the corridor empty, a little disappointment formed her heart that she doesn't know why she was feeling that way. She wanted to score good marks in her X board exam that will alone bring happiness for her parents. She doesn't want her heart rule her mind with useless feelings. 'Stay brave, Ridhu'
Yes! she also likes herself to call that way, :-)

Seeing him doing wudhu or passing her corridor or when he plays volleyball with his friends on the ground; it will be visible from her class window. She started noticing his activities secretly when he is up to something. If she comes to know that he found her watching, she'll suddenly act normal like she doesn't stare him at all.

Before going to sleep every night, their conversation generally raised from a bit formal to casual, from few minutes to an hour, etc... She doesn't know she is falling a little by little as she gets completely comfortable in talking to him. He doesn't force her to love and she doesn't get the need to make him understand when he is enjoying her daily talks with him and he feels this is more than enough for him.

She slowly recognised the one who followed her that night during her IX Grade Annual day was him, the one who passed by her house when she was dancing in enjoyment that same night was him, the one who secretly watched her in her sister school function was him, the one whose presence disturbed her in that holy night when she walks out from Masjid was him and that was the night Ridha wore saree herself for the first time. And all the thejavu was true. It's not illusion, it happened for real.

When he revealed that he doesn't start his love on the first day when Shabana sister confronts his love to Ridha. He started falling for her on the very first day when he saw her roaming innocently across the staff room. Then he started getting details about her little by little. When she comes to know all the things through his daily texts, Ridha couldn't digest the fact Ah'med is the person were behind in all her thejavu moments. She felt like it is all happening for a reason; but she was not sure what the reason will be.

---*---

"Please help me write the Arabic words in English so that it will be easy for memorising", Ridha asked her best friend's help.

"First You tell me for whom you are writing this", Hamza asked.

"To the person who wanted to seek Islamic knowledge", Ridha said casually by dictating the Ayathul kursi word by word.

"Almost completed!!!", She kept his pen aside and showed the paper to Hamza.

"Atleast check whether I made mistakes in pronunciation", Ridha pleased and Hamza took the paper hesitantly because of not knowing to whom his friend concerned for.

Ridha doesn't enclose the matter to any of her friends that she is contacting Ahmed every night. She wanted to inform them once Ahmed and Ridha end up on a common ground understanding each other without any regrets. She hopes she can handle all by herself. She doesn't even tell this to her close friends Afeera and Sadhia. After picking the paper from Hamza, she returned the thankful smile and left home with her friends.

Whatever Ridha tells him to follow Islamically from praying five times prayer to reading Qur'an daily, Ahmed found it new to take up in his life. But he is taking into his day to day practice by understanding it wholeheartedly. He also admires when she says lot about his mother Nisa, how she brought up her two daughters with Islamic teachings. He also felt bad that he didn't get such things from his childhood.

"Thank you for guiding me in a good way. I don't know how my way of life will be without you", Ahmed spoke suddenly in the middle of their phone call. She got opportunity to speak over to him through her mother's phone that weekend.

"It's not like that, we also didn't practice Islam until my mom joins the Islamic school. When she is the one who guides my life with Islamic values, I m just sharing a part of it to you", Ridha confronted her thoughts.

"Is it easy for you to read the Ayathul kursi?", Ridha diverted the topic.

"Thank you, I'm reading for this past five days before going to bed. I think I ll memorise it soon, In sha a Allah"

"In sha a Allah", Ridha affirmed.

A silence fills the gap for half a minute when no one uttered any thing from other end. Ridha felt uncomfortable but she doesn't know what to talk further. When she thought to bid salam, his voice interrupted with a question,
"Ridhu, Shall I ask you one thing?"

"Yes", she replied hesitantly.

"Will you guide me like this throughout my lifetime?", Ahmed expelled his thoughts more like a wish.

"Okay bye, Assalamu alaikum", Ridha ignored his question and ended up the call after receiving the reply for salam from the other side.

Ridha's past ends...
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Sadhia's marriage happened all of the sudden. Ridha and Afeera surprised her with a silver bracelet and set of matching earrings and rings in her nikkah. Really Sadhia overwhelmed at their gift. The nikkah followed by valima has gone well, both the friends admired the beauty of their close friend Sadhia standing near the groom in her wedding dress.

بارَكَ اللّهُ لَك، وَبارَكَ عَلَـيْك، وَجَمَعَ بَيْـنَكُما في خَـيْر

Baarakallaahu laka, wa baaraka 'alayka, wa jama'a baynakumaa fee khayrin

"May Allah bless you, and shower His blessings upon you, and join you together in goodness."

With their wholehearted dua for their lovely friends, they managed to spend her valima(Reception) without Sadhia's company since she need to accompany the groom the whole night and the rest of the life too. Ridha worried that their friendship needs to survive even after their life partner steps into their life. She begin to think how will she roam in Afeera's marriage all alone because she also got engaged few months before.

Everytime what Ridha experience in her life, the same will be happening for Ahmed or vice versa. It's not a surprising thing when Ridha came to know that Ahmed's close friend Aiyesha's marriage also happened at the same time and their in law's place also same as Sadhia's one.

Unfortunately Ahmed couldn't attend his close friend Aiyesha's wedding when it happened in her in-laws place. Ahmed gave her a word that he'll come to meet her with his spouse one day. After a month, Aiyesha called Ahmed and his parents to her home for Dawath as she invited some of her relations too.

That fine day, Ahmed planned to go shopping with Ridha for his travel to Qatar after three days. Ridha wanted to be with him as much as she can; And her love will flew away to the other part of the world soon. It's hard for her to digest his departure whenever she wakes from her nightmare from the day he got to know about his job in abroad.

On the shopping mall, Ahmed bought couple of formal shirts and a normal pant. Ridha wanted to see Ahmed in a full sleeve white shirt and dark blue jeans pant that shows his handsomeness and a black coolers covers his eyes and a black metal watch over his left hand and a thick brown shoes for his feet. By imagining his picture in her mind, she left Ahmed alone in one shop and her eyes on a full sleeve white shirt drove to the place where it hangs.

"Ridha, what are you doing here?", Ahmed shooked her shoulder from the back. Meanwhile, she picked the white shirt along the hanger and placed above his chest. After reimagining the picture in her mind, she told him to get it changed from the trial room. Ahmed went inside the trial room without refusing to his beloved one's order.

"Its what I imagined, Just the same. But???", She paused by memorising his entire view.

"But?", Ahmed picked up the line and she explained him what she imagines to see him in a white shirt....etc...etc...

After paying the bill, Ahmed said that he'll be going for the Dawath in the evening after leaving her at her place. He also asked Ridha to suggest some gift to present for Aiyesha. When they return towards the exit of the mall, a beautiful emerald green party wear caught her eyes. Her mind suddenly came with a idea,
"Hey, wait", Ridha pulled Ahmed's hand and brought him inside the boutique.

"You can gift this to your friend", Ridha pointed that beautiful dress and Ahmed just looked at the every detail of the dress by imagining her.

He disturbed from his imagination by hearing his name calling aloud, 'Ahmed'

"Shall I tell you one thing?", Ahmed asked.

"Haan", Ridha said in a irritated tone.

"Can you wear and show me how it will look?", Ahmed pleased her.

"Okay", she said by picking the dress from the service lady after several refuses to her brain.

Suddenly, when their favourite song 'Teri Galiyan' reached his ears,

his eyes caught her attention by preventing his hands to search for the source,
'Her white tone beats this elegant emerald green colored dress and shows her every curves in a perfect way and a pearl-golden chained beads draws a line across her waist and her heart pendent comes out from the little opening of her front neck '

"Can you check the caller ID? ", Ridha's words made him to realise that it was not a BGM, it's a caller tone. After couple of minutes, Ridha asked blushingly,
"How is it?"

She have never showed him wearing any colorful dresses and hide her beauty inside her black Abhaya. But she couldn't deny his last words or last wish. 'Astagfirullah! He'll return soon from his job, don't assume that he will leave you all alone, He will come to you soon' her conscience assured her fear.

"My inner conscience told me that it will fit for you perfectly and here it is", Ahmed came with some words finally.

"What?", Ridha asked trying to get his mind.

"Don't refuse to buy this dress", Ahmed ordered her.

"I suggested for your friend, And I don't have the thoughts to buy for me and there is no special occasion too", Ridha explained and debated her heart against buying that beautiful dress.

"It suits you perfectly dear", the service lady commented.

"Please, Ah'med. Let me buy another time, we can buy for that sister", Ridha came up with her mind words.

"This Color suits you well, And we can buy that red one for Aiyesha", He pointed the dress hanging behind the green.

"Red suits her well, and she is pretty white too", Ahmed commented his friend and it annoyed a little for this possessive girl.

"Okay", she convinced at his equal judgement. And she is happy inside that Ahmed selected the dress for her for the first time.

Later, they stopped at a perfume shop on the way. Ridha has been asking for his usual scent that she get from him in their school days. She missed that scent when they got separated by distance but still she feels the smell in her mind. Ahmed forgot what scent he used those days but he used only selected perfumes. So he took her to the shop where he usually purchase.

When the shopkeeper shows every of his usual perfumes to her, Ridha nodded her head in disapproval by inhaling each and every perfumes that Ahmed suggested.

She left the hope that she will not get that scent again and asked him to buy a pocket Qur'an. It will be helpful for him to complete one full Quran during Ramadan. He refused by saying that he like to read in a big size one.

Later they left for a sweet shop where pal-kova hot puff is famous across the entire city. He bought some crispy snacks too for them. She told him to stop for sometime near the light house. Ahmed denied by saying that they can walk on the beach sand.

Ridha asked him to sit atfirst because she wanted to talk with him for few minutes. She doesn't know whether she'll get enough time during the send-off. Instead of accepting her offer, Ahmed teased her saying
"Don't stay lazy and you'll get fat, walk a little"

His words hurted her little and dumps her in having conversation further.
She got up and walked in silent when Ahmed keep on discussing about his departure after three days. When he noticed that Ridha is being silent throughout their conversation, he annoyed and asked,
"Why are you staying like this? Let me enjoy some good moments and go there"

"Yeah", she let out in a monosyllable

"Okay, come let's go", He called when he noticed her stagnant watery eyes.

"Tell me Frankly, what happened?", Ahmed asked her again.

"I called you to sit for few minutes not because I'm lazy to walk, but because to watch your face and have some conversations. But you teased me for being fat", she let out with her tears like a child.

"Ridhu", he called softly and his one word erased her tears. Later they enjoyed shooting balloons and had fun there. Ridha shooted 3 out of 5 baloons and Ahmed didn't shoot any of them. Ridha giggled at his no counter and enjoyed his company more. A minute anger turned the little hearts to dwell in love and happiness.

"I thought of telling you to convey our relationship with your parents and go", Ridha said by riding her scooter and he sat at the back.

"I too thought to come and speak to your mom to ask for your hand and go Qatar. But the things are happening all of a sudden. Let me relax with the new environment and new job there"

"For sure, we'll discuss things with our parents and marry you soon, In sha Allah", he said the last words by coming closer to her ears and also to her heart.

Before the sun sets, they reached Ridha's place. Both the hearts doesn't want to separate from each other. They wanted to extend the time a little more. By realising this, Ridha drove to the nearby beach to spend some few minutes.

"You'll get late, Ridha", he concerned.

"Yeah, but I don't know when I can see you again", she responded his question after stopping her scooter near the street that lead to the wide ocean.

The atmosphere was chill and no heads found at the beach and the darkness is covering all over the sky. Even the light of the moon didn't show up on the land. Only the street lights lit up and the sound of the waves hitting the shore is audible to their hearts.

They admired the sea by standing their hands interwined as if they wanted to escape from this world and sail to an island to start a new life together all alone. Their silence drove them crazy. Their gaze fighting with each other. Within a blink of an eye, Ahmed took her in his arms. Ridha encircled her hands tightly across his shoulder and showed him how she is missing her. They doesn't know how long they stood like there in a tight embrace. Her tears making his shirt go wet and his silent sobbing shaking his body.

"Will you come after 730 days?", She paused for him to nod and continued, "I'll be waiting for you..."

"I'll miss you too, Ridhu"
"Sorry for leaving you alone and go there", He murmured near her ears.

Suddenly a light flashes and disturbed them from their embrace. They unfolded their arms from each other. They saw a jeep and two police men came from it.
"What are you doing in this dark?", A men among the two inquired and got shocked by seeing their wet eyes.

"What have you done to this girl?" Another men enquired Ahmed and they assumed that he cheated on her. After showing the tickets and explaining his departure, the men ensured them not to come again and saying so that the place is not safe at night.

Later this couple asked the two police men's contacts to invite them for their marriage in future. They wanted to assure them their tears are true and worth for each other to wait for their big day.

After their separation towards their two different paths, she thought meanwhile, 'Will I cry this much if he cheats me?' by thinking the previous counter.Then she laughed by imagining that the police men misunderstood Ahmed for her tears.

"Take care of you, Ridhu...Fee amanullah"