Chapter Twenty One – What she needed the most

The fear in Alaya’s heart grew, as she stood where she did, not being able to move an inch. What just happened? Has she just been left all alone in the middle of a road twice tonight? And this time perhaps for good?

Alaya’s heart whispered ‘yes’ as she sensed nothing except for the cold breeze of the night. She looked at the car and thought of getting into it. But what would she do in the car? She’d never driven a car before. And God knows if the psychotic driver left the key for her. Why would he do that if she wanted to leave her? He wouldn’t! Alaya thought as she peeked through the window of the car just to realize that her assumption was right. The key wasn’t there. So she couldn’t even attempt to drive the car.

Alaya looked around her. There was no light on that highway except for the light from the full moon. She looked side to side and saw no vehicles at all. Neither did she hear the sound of any. She knew she had to do something so she took out her phone from her handbag. She unlocked her phone and at once found herself dialing a number. Within seconds, she paused because of the name that popped up through her contacts.

“Mom…” Alaya read it through her breath. Her eyes became teary as she did. When she realized how far away she was from her mom right now. At this time of need. Her mother was the one she always turned to, in times of need. But today, she can’t even bring herself to call her because of her own actions. How wicked can she be to be stuck in a situation like this? Was she being punished by the God that everyone talks about? Was Allah punishing her for not praying at all in the past few days? Was she being left alone because she betrayed and left her own family?

The questions that came to Alaya’s mind built up the tears in her eyes and they rolled down her cheeks. What would she do? Without her mother? Without her family? Without Raphael who was supposed to help her? Perhaps this was exactly what Asma was trying to tell her before it was too late. Life wasn’t a frigging movie. Only this time, those words hit her hard. She dropped to her knees being sick and tired of this long night. And not knowing what to do next. She looked up at the sky where she saw the stars in a black background. At that moment, for some unknown reason, she thought of Allah. She remembered how her sister Asma told her that Allah is way up High where we cannot see Him, but He is in full view of our situation. If what Asma said was true, Allah must be Seeing her. If He was Seeing her, why was she putting her through this difficulty. Allah could have made everything easy for her if He Willed. So why is He doing this? Is it because she doesn’t know many Arabic duas? Because she doesn’t recite Quran? Because she watches filthy movies and isn’t as pious as her sister? What can she do to undo all the bad she did? It would take a lot of course, Alaya thought.

Just then, Alaya remembered one thing that Asma said.

“Remember Alaya, everyone else gets made when we frequently ask them for things. It’s only Allah, Who loves us more when we ask from Him. So ask from Him. Even if its for something as simple as to fix a broken shoe lace. Ask from Him and do your best to achieve what you asked for.” Asma had advised and Alaya had rolled her eyes. But now she was in desperate need of that advice.

She thought of making dua to Allah, as she looked up. As weird as it felt she raised two hands and thought of calling onto Him. She thought of not saying anything multiple times but her heart won over those voices. What had she got to lose by calling on Allah? She thought and she started the dua.

“Ya Allah, guide me for I am utterly lost.” she said. And a strange feeling crept into her heart. She felt a shiver down her spine as she felt a peacefulness engulfing her heart. She had no idea as to what those feelings were about. She just asked Allah to help her find a way out of that dark highway into a city. But little had she known, that she’d asked for more than that. And that Allah knew exactly what she needed the most.