AsSalaamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh!

Okay, so I just led my very first EID SALAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:D

EID MUBARAK TO EVERYONE! TAQABBALALLAHU MINNAA WA MINKUM!!!!

So let's have a Recap of the story before we proceed into the world of Arkaan and the Five Quraa'!

Do read, because this is not just a recap, it contains a half-Crescent that might give you some important answers:)

The story so far..

Beginning

The story begins eight years ago, when a scholar meets a boy who's stolen a piece of bread. The anguish and sorrow from the child's eyes tell the scholar of the boy whose spirit is broken by the vicissitudes of life. The scholar takes pity on him. Instead of rebuking him or handing him over to be dealt with by the appropriate authorities, he guides him to choose a path – The Sâbiqûn, Those foremost in faith and nearest to Allah.

As long as he does not leave the scholar's tutorship, the scholar Al Iskandarî would become his stepping stone on that exalted path, in shaa Allah!

Eight years later, a boy is washed ashore the Isle of Tâ Hâ. Arkaan is rescued by Zak and Ukashah, and a lot of things happen :)))

He has two reasons for returning to his home island: To find his mother, and to revive his Teacher's Circle.

Arkaan goes on to live with Ukashah and Mother Ashyaa after leaving the Al Maghribi family. But not before personally meeting Maryam and answering her question as to why he wants to study the Qur'an.

He gives his reasons as; I want to know Allah, and have a character like Nabi SAWS was described by Aishah (R.A.): his character was the Qur'an.

Only by cultivating one's heart by the instructions of Al Qur'an can one develop good character, worthy of the Rabb's pleasure.

While in this neighbourhood, Arkaan meets new friends and old enemies. He meets the enigmatic Redbeard(who is later seen to be the world renowned Âyatullah Al Hamdy) and Juraij Silk Roads!

He defeats his pursuers from Eastern Waterfall Halaqah and meets Yasmin, the Beegirl! Their first halaqah meeting, he meets Rafik and the unwilling Arafat! Then Haru comes along, looking for his big bro, Sora —now Urwah.

Thursday presents with Arafat and his newfound minions bringing trouble to the budding halaqah. Old man Khidr swears that he would never come to a reconciliation with South district halaqah for what they unwittingly did to him two years ago at the GQRC.

Upon being asked what happened, he proceeds to narrate a story of his woes.

Well, Ukashah tells Arkaan the reason for their eviction from the tournament is the mysterious 'Saint Stone'. It's the reason why their famous benevolent Ustadh Inaayat disappeared too. Ultimately Ukashah keeps from Arkaan the fact that they were betrayed by their most trusted member among the five; Abdul Bâqi Al Aswâdi!

Friday begins with a dream, then prepare the home for a Welcome Party!!!

Arkaan is shocked by Redbeard's true identity but shocks the masses even further by a heartsundering adhaan. Arkaan recollects the name of his childhood friend was not Maryam, but Junnah!

Enter Little green and Shad. They tell us a heretic of a magician and a vile female jinni approach Tâ Hâ. They have two stone pieces of the Saint Stone, and seek the three on the island. Arkaan has one, apparently. He's in deep! Little green affirms.

What are these jinn up to?!!!

However, to Arkaan's surprise, Âyatullah wants him to find the stones, not for a genie wish but to destroy them!!! OMA!!!

Maryam has a question for him, but says they should maintain proper distance. Arkaan seems unwilling. May Allah guide him..

He enters the masjid to see new faces. Among them is a little jinn he thinks he remembers(although he knows not it's a jinn yet😥)..

Hâ Mîm Arc(2 years ago)
Two years ago, Tâ Hâ lost their chance to win the GQRC, and also their admirable Ustadh—Inaayat.

Two causes:
1. Because of a Saint Stone, which implicated their Ustadh. It apparently has connection with his daughter Hilya.

Arkaan later finds out why the Ustadh was implicated – the whispers of the jinns from Hidden Valley, their distasteful poetry..

2. They were supposedly betrayed by a friend. According to Ukashah(a secret to only us btw), Abdul Bâqi handed over their token in a deal with King Dhul Qarnayn, which ended up with the entire Al Aswâdi tribe relocating to the Capital City.

What happens next??

Tales of Rawdhātul Jannã Arc
Rawdhātul Jannã is a place on the mainland previously known as the Dark Meadows.

According to popular knowledge, jinns used to live there, till the first humans settled. Hayaa tells her younger sister of a romantic tale of love and betrayal, all in relation to a possessed locket whose jinn stole five years of her life, and identity!

Question: Is Junnah evil or good???

We proceed..

•••

Crescent 27 and 3/4

Lady Frieda sat in the masjid with a letter in hand. She smiled looking at old and slightly crumpled but well-kept hoary paper.

Both sides of it had written words.

She chuckled softly at his frugality. He was always the one to talk managing everything, and had his eyes always shining with every hard-earned money; he rejected her father's money when he married her. She had enough to take care of them both without his tribe's or her father's support.

When she first arrived on the island, her first interest was to build a high school on the island. Until then, the middle schoolers had to move to the mainland for their secondary education. Iqra Complex, she called it, and was the proprietess.

But soon he seemed to be upset at something, she thought it was because she was taking care of them both, because at that time his tribe and family had rejected him for failing to honour the marriage they arranged for him. So she stepped down from her position and stayed an obedient housewife. That was when Arkaan was born, and suddenly the tribe seemed to want to make up. Arkaan thus grew never knowing his mother headed the premier school in their whole island.

But even when the tribe tried to patch up with him, he rejected spending their wealth. He was so stubborn, he wanted to earn by his own strength for his family. He was silly and stubborn in that way, —to not have seen that all those were blessings of his Rabb.

Even as she thought this, she read the front page again for the umpteenth time. She had him write these very words for her, after he had said them on their first night together. She had tears in her eyes that time. When he left, it was these same words that she had read that made her pain worse, but now they were a balm to her soul..

"They say you're a slave to whom you love.. All my life, I sold myself to my Allah, just to earn for you and I the greatest treasure of His treasury.

When I first met you, you wrote a 1000 tales and feigned 10000 smiles
You concealed your heart in ice,
And sealed our fond memories.

You asked me, what was the greatest treasure of living?
If I could find it for you, you'd accompany me, through every encounter in life.
You knew I was just a labourer, how could I ever fetch you the greatest treasure?

So I went to the gates of the Rabb on my knees,
Gates I had not seen in many years gone by..

At the holy doors, I knocked, humbling myself to ask for the treasure you sought most.

I asked for your guidance, Qurrat 'Ayn.

For growing up, I was taught no treasure I could find on Earth would stand in comparison to that one gift of Ar-Rahmân.

Heaven answers the earnest heart.

For we not only both found Him in the end, but
He united us, and blessed us with love from Him.

Our Rabb opened both our hearts to Himself.

And so we found that greatest treasure..

I thank Him with every breath, for writing our fate so well we couldn't do without the other—perfect halves, being each other's guidance to Rabbul 'Aalamîn.
At least in this lifetime, me meeting you has been the moment I've lived for..

There no better gift than you, from Allah to me,

Yaa Qurrat 'Ayn."

Lady Frieda looked up, her eyes welled up gazing into that far past. Their first meeting was a happy accident. That time, he had intrigued her, and after that he did not cease but to follow her, fearing nothing of her dad. In time she secretly fell for him, but concealed her emotions and played hard to get. She told him to bring her the greatest treasure the world ever had to offer, then she'd accompany him in this life, her heart would be all his.

That day, he returned with a thoughtful look to his face. And for some time, he didn't approach her. She fell so sad she was thought sick, due to her frail profile. But during those times, he sent her flowers and small messages. Instead of love letters, they were always single lines, each one mentioned a quality of his Lord. She recovered, knowing that he still thought of her.

She retreated to her father's library, where she could always fantasize about him, whilst reading. Sometimes, she'd get a book on his religion to secretly stydy: Why were his love letters always about his Lord?She would reminisce his youthful smile and his playful quirks. Then Allah kept the love of Him and Al Islam and the Nabi, alayhis salaam in her heart.

It didn't take long for truth to dawn on her. He had been praying for her all along. He had become a better Muslim so his Allah would hear his cries for her Hidayah. That was the greatest treasure he had obtained for her. She understood this from his words on that night which she had him write.

She also got to understand that the guidance wasn't because she read from the scriptures. For how many were those who'd read from them, but never gained guidance, only increasing in more aversion from the truth. So Allah SWT had said:

۞.. يُضِلُّ بِهِۦ كَثِيرٗا وَيَهۡدِي بِهِۦ كَثِيرٗاۚ وَمَا يُضِلُّ بِهِۦٓ إِلَّا ٱلۡفَٰسِقِينَ

He misleads many thereby and guides many thereby. And He misleads not except the defiantly disobedient,

(Surah Al-Baqarah, Ayah 26)

Her guidance to read about Islam, and her guidance to accept the truth present in it, was because that young man who was always jesting with her ever since he saw her and later started avoiding her, spent his nights in tears, asking for her hidaayah. Lady Frieda turned the white sheet to the back. This was his last message before he left. She never saw it until she recovered from that grief, and it put her heart to rest. It read:

Sighing Over The Clouds

Below it was an apology:

"Qurrat 'Ayn, do forgive me for this. I told you I was going on a trip to better our lot. However, it's a task Baba has set me to, to redeem myself. I know not when Allah will permit my return, or whether He would not.

I was in so much stress and worry about this that I just couldn't know what to write to you. So I found this lyric I once heard from an Asian friend of mine from my youthful unprincipled days.
I thought it spelt exactly what I wanted to say, every heartfelt word of my Qalb to my Qurrat 'Ayn. So as you read, take it that I'm right there with you, whispering these sweet nothings into your ears. Because for me you're always in my Qalb, and I know it's the same for you. So hear me out, Frieda.."

That was rare for him, to call her by her name. It always meant he was overly serious in what he was saying, or going to say. She knew because, he proposed to her with it.
So as she read, she thought about that day when he proposed, these wordings spoken by one heart to another..

Sighing Over The Clouds

If this world withers, I will stay by your side,
Using my silence to resolutely stand off against others' innumberable words.

If everything in this world is breaking apart mercilessly,
I will use the string in [my] hand to sew [everything] back into [its] original state for you.

 
[I] accompany you in watching the sun rise and the moon submerge.

[I] accompany you in watching the transformations of the world and the vicissitudes of life.

[I] accompany you in composing poems of remembrance
Word by word.

 
[I] accompany you in revising the plot.
[I] accompany you in traveling all over the entire world.
Because only you are able to understand me
And you are, inevitably, my heart's blood.

This is fate;
[It] is also the most beautiful encounter in life.

Don't hate the heavens.
Your face is better suited to smiling.

One more time,
Recall [every] little detail of the past.
Don't resent [the fact] that I am not by [your] side.
Remember that I will be inside your heart.

[It is] when our destinies overlap that [I] suddenly realize,
Actually, in this world, perfection can be imperfect.

Time does not stop to rest, as if it is solutionless like falling leaves and flying flowers.
Yet you being here makes everything soft and tender.

[I] accompany you in gazing at the moon of Meihai.
[I] accompany you in strolling down the streets of Tianning.
[I] accompany you in writing down what I think of often
Into the last medicinal memo.

Those years through which [I] have kept you company
Will ultimately turn into forever.

Remember that I never backed away.

[I'm] in your heart, accompanying you [through] every night.
Between lips and teeth,
What [I'm] loath to part with is [my] nostalgia of you.

[I] sigh over [the fact that] separation
Always [happens] right before what should be a perfect [happy ending].

My wish
Is not to hold hands [with you], gazing at one another, eyes brimming with tears,
But rather that you press on forward courageously,
Picking back up the smile that you'd once had because of me.

If the story repeats itself,
I believe I will still use my everything
To trade for tomorrow, even if I am not within it.

But you will understand how [the way] I [feel] about you will never change.

I will be inside your heart;
[I will] be your heart's blood.

Tears littered the floor. Paper in hand, Lady Frieda got up, walking to the exit of the masjid, and into the chaotic world outside, to live another day for her Allah..another day without her two treasures. But her heart was firm with hope and fervent prayer for her two invaluable treasures, for her Hayati.. and even more importantly, for her Ruknii.. whom she had named Arkaan.

It was as someone said:

I'll not cease this prayer coming from my lips..

Someone please show this child what love is.

She would pray for all hearts to love him, especially her Rabb..

____________________________________

NB: Sighing Over The Clouds is a work by one Chinese artiste. I came across the words a long time ago and wrote them down because they were beautiful. Whilst I was writing this part on the relationship between Yahya and Lady Frieda - Arkaan's parents, it came to me that the words perfectly and deeply conveyed the feelings of Yahya, and the relationship between the two of them. So I added it for the reader to really relish the sentiments of their feelings in shaa Allah..