Clock turns 8:45 pm
I can hear Mullah’s Adhaan
I need to get ready
I’m in a rush
On the way to masjid,
I arrive and perform prayers in the beautiful masjid
The masjid has beautiful minarets
That attract people’s attention
And inspires them
To perform prayers before Allah
We perform Taraweeh prayers
in the masjid near our apartments
There is a separate place for women.
And then I see a girl
A beautiful little girl,
who looks to be the age of twelve
Who looks at me every day,
Every single day
Whenever I look back at her,
She doesn’t say anything,
But smiles.
That beautiful smile stuck
in my mind since then.
I can’t forget her smile
The innocent smile she has
The purity of her smile has taken
My calmness
Every night,
Every single night
When performing Taraweeh,
a prayer performed during Ramadhan,
she looks toward me and smiles.
One day, during the last of the Taraweeh prayers,
She came and sat with me,
Her beautiful blue eyes looked at me
I felt like an angel had sat with me—
So pure
So innocent
So calm
She smiled again, and
Then I knew something that I hadn’t known for weeks
We had some kind of connection,
She loved Allah,
I loved Allah,
We both were in a masjid.
We both were worshipping Allah
We both were here to thank Allah.
Still, she was like a mystery to me
I did not know her yet I thought knew everything about her.
She inspired me with her fine smile.
I had never met a person smiling so bright.
By seeing her, I can say that in this world of violence, goodness also exists.
I did not know what her name was,
what she was doing,
which school she was going
But I knew we had a connection.
Even after a thousand, thousand years have passed,
We will understand one another.
I felt like she was my sister
My angel,
My younger sister.
Who I found after a long, long time,
After a thousand, thousand splendid moons.
Author: Sveto Muhammad Ishoq
CHADARI 