Guidance from Quran

Alaya could not help but think about that voice throughout the day. The voice inevitably kept echoing in her ears. Shivers go down her spine as she even imagines that voice. And she had an irritable urge to ask Laana who that could have been. But how obnoxious would she be if she did? For all she knew it could be her husband. She better stop daydreaming about other people’s spouses before she gets under someone’s skin. That night, Alaya went to sleep early for a couple of reasons. One was of course to experience sleep on her new comfy bed and another was to get away from the thoughts that was disturbing her. At this point, she wasn’t just thinking about the voice from Laana’s phone but also about her family. She looked at her phone as she remembered each and every one of them. She’d changed her number just on her way to the subway to get to Boston. Alaya didn’t regret doing that because if she hadn’t done so, her call list and inbox must have been flooded by now. And her mot

  “So where are you from?” Laana asked as the taxi drove away. “I’m from Egypt but my family lives in New York.” Alaya said. “Uh huh? What brings you to Boston?” asked Laana ever so curiously. “Um….its just…I graduated from high school just a few weeks ago and I’d like apply to a university away from home.” Alaya said, quickly making up a story. “Oh….so you are an undergraduate?” Laana said, somewhat disappointed. “Yeah but I….I don’t have a job as of yet but I’ve already applied for one somewhere in….Boston.” “Oh….nice! So you are staying in Boston only IF it works out?” “No….it will work out. I mean I have a pretty good resume.” “Oh...ok.” Laana said, as she crossed her legs arrogantly as she looked away purposely and started searching something from her handbag. Alaya immediately realized that Laana’s sense of pride heightened after knowing how ‘low’ she was. And that Laana was clearly trying to show off by checking her gold wrist watch and the

Alaya kept looking at the still body lying on the floor about 10 feet away from her until she lost sight of it because of the crowd that surrounded it. Her heart was still thumping against her chest as the scene of the accident kept replaying in the eyes of her mind. She could hear the people were talking about him. But she could not pay attention to what they were talking about. Until some men moved away all of a sudden. As Alaya looked carefully, she saw a pool of blood oozing out of the man’s head. She felt dizzy immediately though she saw it from far away. She stood up and turned to walk away from the scene. But just then, she heard two people having a conversation near her. “Who was that? Do you happen to know the guy?” an old man asked. “Yeah….I think he is that hotelier guy from the Lightspeed businesses.” another elderly man answered. Alaya did not look back at them until she heard the last words from the second man. Those two men were western and complete st

Chapter Eleven Mahmood and Waleeda waited anxiously for the future son-in-law to come and meet their daughter after the rough encounter they’d had. But a couple of weeks went by without any visit or call from them. Mahmood was too ashamed to call them on his own as he viewed what Alaya did as a total ‘disgrace.’ Alaya on the other hand was not sure how to feel about what was going on. She was actually quite busy with her final A level exams to be thinking about her future marriage. At times while studying, she’d think what kind of a mentality Layaan must have to marry her while she was still a school girl. Not the kind she’d like for sure. Nonetheless Alaya was worried about her parents. No matter how much she despised them for what they had planned for her it still bothered her to see them worried. She hated herself for feeling that way but she couldn’t help it. She secretly wished for Layaan to come back faster so that his father could pay her father’s debts and she could

                   Alaya could not believe what she was hearing. Layaan’s father fought against Raphael’s business? Because Raphael apparently ‘stole’ to grow his business?! “Is this all true?” Alaya asked, out of the blue as the men were shaking their heads as though to ‘sympathize’ the business they were talking about. “Well yes Alaya. All of it happened just a week ago. The hotelier who managed all hotels of the company was badly coning another company to eventually take over it. But thankfully the small company’s manager had a talk with me and we fought against them. The CEO of the Lightspeed businesses wouldn’t take the blame on himself and put the blame on the manager of the department. Nonetheless, he was fined handsomely despite the great mind tricks he attempted to play….” Ahmed explained. “Pfftt…...do you call them great mind tricks dad? He almost got himself in jail. And you would know him Alaya. He studied with us in the same school. Remember the guy who