After a long stare of filling her eyes with his face, Mary stopped gazing at him. The lab ended. It was a free lecture now. She usually spent it alone in the cafeteria or somewhere silent but today Mary felt like having a walk. After saying goodbye to Raheel she went to the ground.
This one man, she was trying to forget was not leaving her in any possible scenario. Mary located Aaryan on the ground, and unwillingly, she walked to the neighboring one. "I am sorry, Guys. Dr. Sarah took so long to finish the lab," He said to Taha and another guy who she hadn't seen before. He looked younger than them and appeared like an immigrant. But the real question was what were the three guys even doing? "I am done but Haroon waited for you. You guys can go on. I have a lecture to attend," Taha said, putting his shoes on, and he sounded suspicious to Mary.
"Okay, Phi Taha. You can leave," said the boy with black hair, and Taha went to the other ground.
Mary was looking at the two of them with full focus, trying to figure out what they were doing. Aaryan removed his shoes and they stood with each other side by side. The two of them raised their hands, saying "Allah Hu Akbar," and then she knew why Aaryan ran from the lab daily. It was to offer a prayer. So, was Aaryan that involved with his religion now?
"What are you doing?" Someone asked and that someone sounded like a familiar voice. In a second, Mary realized that the other ground where Taha just walked to, was the same where she was standing. She jerked her body and stood straight "What?" Mary asked back as if she was doing absolutely nothing. "Were you spying on us?"
"No! I was not spying on you all." She was just looking at Aaryan– She was not spying at all. "Then, were you admiring the grass?" Said the boy who was actually looking at the grass while talking to her. "Like you?" Okay, she asked him the question she was dying to know the answer to
"What did you just say?" Taha asked while doing the exact thing all over again "Why are you looking at the ground while talking to me? Are women that disgusting to your religion that you can't even look at them?" Mary was once again angry while talking about that religion "Who said this to you?" Internet. "Everyone knows it," She said instead "You are highly misunderstanding this, Mary," Taha said, Mary didn't expect herself to respond to this controversial thing so she kept her mouth closed "If I tell you the reason you will say I am telling a fairy tale" he was lying like what fairy tail will tell you about a violent man oppressing Innocent women? "Tell me the reason," said Mary and after a moment of thinking, Taha responded, "Do you think everyone is allowed to just shake hands, touch, or even look into the eyes of a Queen?" He asked, Mary shook her head to the sides as a no "In Islam we treat women like Queens. No one is allowed to just go and touch them or stare at them" It was indeed a fairy tail and there was no way Mary was going to believe a thing that made he feel so respected
"So foolish of you to say that Muslims care about women" she said but Taha was not stopping anytime soon
"Muslim respect and care about women more than any other religion"
One thing that was making Mary scrap her teeth was how calm Taha was. She knew if she didn't have that slightest control over herself, she would have just punched Taha for talking so calmly in an argument.
"Explain!" She wailed "Okay, I will give you an example from an order of Allah Subhanu Wa Ta'ala to Muslims on protecting women. I will read it from the Holy Quran. An-Nisa: 34 'Men are the protectors and maintainers of women because Allah has given the one more (strength) than the other, and because they support them from their means' What do you think about it?" It was The Quran over and over again.
Mary was well aware of the fact that men are way more powerful than women, and they were actually supposed to be the protectors, but why was it the Quran that was supporting her thoughts? Whenever she needed an explanation why was it all mentioned in the Quran? This was all crazy. That religion and that Book were all so clear– crazy and Mary just threw the conversation between the two of them in the trash and decided something.
•••
Mary entered the office of Dr. Sarah. Without any cold or warm greeting, she threw her hands at her table hard. "Tell me why everything about this Islam just makes sense?" She yelled at the professor in anger. Dr. Sarah just stared at her for a moment. Mary could have thought that Dr. Sarah would tell her to behave or to get out of her office but she knew that she wasn't the type of person everyone thinks her as "Sit down" Dr. Sarah said to Mary and she responded accordingly "Drink it" The professor glided a glass of water towards her end of the table. She probably had seen her altered state. "Thank you," Mary said, still angry, and drank the whole glass in a minute. But she didn't forget the rule of sitting, looking in the water, and drinking in three sips. Dr. Sarah was beaming at her when she saw her drinking water in the Islamic way. She might have thought she wasn't seeing it right so the professor didn't comment
"What do you want to know?" She asked calmly
"Anything that would make me believe that Islam is the right path because either I am losing my mind or getting distracted from my religion. So, tell me what makes Islam so great?" Mary's breaths were now echoing in the office. She doesn't remember when was the last time she felt this furious. "Okay, Mary," said Dr. Sarah, and Mary was afraid because of how confident she looked. "I will recite some verses of the Holy Quran," and again, That One Book. She was done with it. Mary was still afraid of the Book. She engulfed the air hard and nodded her head up and down
When Dr. Sarah started to read The Quran, she felt the peace, and in an instant, Mary recognized it. This was something similar to what Taha had been reading. It was the Quran that felt so relaxing to her and the voice of Dr. Sarah was as magical as his. Maybe it was just because of the words. The way she was making an effort to say each letter was nothing but beautiful. After she said those lines in Arabic, she started to translate them "We have created every living thing from water - Will you not then believe?" Mary knew those words. This was her first encounter with the Quran. Then, instead of explaining or answering, Dr. Sarah started to read more "Chapter 24: 40 'Or ˹their deeds are˺ like the darkness in a deep sea, covered by waves upon waves, topped by ˹dark˺ clouds. Darkness upon darkness! If one stretches out their hand, they can hardly see it" and again "24:43 'Do you not see that Allāh drives clouds? Then He brings them together; then He makes them into a mass, and you see the rain emerge from within it. And He sends down from the sky, mountains [of clouds] within which is hail"
After that, she stopped speaking. Those words felt so true to her heart but what was the point of saying it? Mary didn't ask her about any of these things.
Dr. Sarah calmly rested her hands on the table. "Listen to everything I am about to say with concentration." Mary nodded.
"Arabia is a desert. There is no sea there. Imagine, a man opening his eyes in the middle of the desert and telling people that living things were made of water, the depth of the ocean is dark and there are layers of clouds that look like mountains, when all of this was not discovered till the 17th century" Her heart started to beat in the throat. Mary was unable to proceed, and she didn't even hear herself asking, "What do you mean?"
"You are a student of science so you may understand these things more than any other person. Life originated from water as you may already know. If someone travels down to the ocean, they will see how dark it is, and you could not see your own self. The people who travel by air, when they go above and look at the clouds beneath, clouds appear as mountain masses. Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) told this 1400 years ago" Mary's eyes were stretched open. She was sweating, ants were crawling on her body and she was never ready to believe whatever the professor was saying
"This is not possible" She shook her head to sides in disbelief and then Dr. Sarah said something that made her stand up as a bolt
"The people who say that The Holy Quran is not the words of God and it was written by Prophet Muhammad (SAW) then The Holy Quran and all of this knowledge was revealed over a man who didn't know how to read or write" Mary was blown away by the words. It was all clear yet Mary was struggling with the words to respond
"If by any chance you have changed your mind then try to read the Quran because everything that I just told you is nothing" Her mind was racing, the beats were quickening as she felt chills running up and down her body
"I am never going to read it!" Mary exclaimed. She tried to breathe and tried to spot herself with the table, but it was all useless, and then Mary ran from her office.
This time Mary knew that she was running away from the truth
•••
It's been weeks since Dr. Sarah said those perfect– words to her.
They did something.
Mary started to think less untruly about that religion. She began to read her father's diary and her journey towards the tru– that religion. The budget diary wasn't only about money and donations, but it held so many things.
There were more lines from the Quran. She remembered Dr. Sarah saying that Jesus was mentioned in the Quran and she found a false statement about her lord in that diary 'Jesus declared, "I am truly a servant of Allah. He has destined me to be given the Scripture and to be a prophet. He has made me a blessing wherever I go, and bid me to establish prayer and give alms-tax as long as I live, and to be kind to my mother. He has not made me arrogant or defiant. Peace be upon me the day I was born, the day I die, and the day I will be raised back to life!'
This was absurd but this was way more respectful than worshiping Jesus on a cross– it was all wrong and then there was one thing hitting her brain so hard. Everything Mary had read from the Quran was true, and there was a huge possibility of it being true– she retained herself from thinking that way. Skipping all those lines from the Quran, she began to read her father's journey. Mary read about how his father met this man who would do anything to not miss his Salah- that was a would for prayer. This man was Yusuf and he was a friend of his father. He wrote about how he was so impressed by Yusuf's character that he could not help but get curious about that religion.
Mary's father had a case he needed help with, and all the other officers were asking for a bribe that he did not want to give. Some days later he asked his neighbor for help. Not only did Yusuf help John with it without taking a single penny, but told him to come to me whenever you needed any help. His father was then so confused about this Muslim man helping him as if he was related to him in some way, and in the end, he discovered that it was because of the teaching of Isla– that religion. Soon John took his Shahada- the words you have to believe, to become a Muslim. His father changed his name to Yahya and he wrote about how he felt like he was born again. The story of her father was touching to her but Mary knew that Islam could be for anyone but not for her.
Days passed by and she was unable to fetch herself away from this religion. The university was okay, but everyone around her was changing. Even Raheel became a little serious and thoughtful, but he didn't lose that humor. Raheel told her that they were not going to do that handshake anymore and when she asked him the reason he replied "Because I got some of that COVID" Mary laughed and it was okay as long as she had this only friendship.
Getting to know this new religion was doing something to her as well. Mary no longer found peace in the Church. The only reason she was going there was Matthew. She didn't want to get her bones broken because of missing the prayer.
In the church, she would just look around at people and all the glass paintings. They weren't appealing to her anymore because every moment she spent in the Church, Mary felt more puzzled, and when it was the time to read the Holy Bible, she would not find it as interesting as those lines from the Quran.
Something was happening to her and she knew she should do anything to keep herself from falling for that religion