Sarah's Salah Issues( Novel)
For those reading this I wrote this in 2023
Chapter One
Life
Sarah was fourteen years old. She loved hanging out with her friends and watching movies and sleeping over. She has frizzy long black hair that she always ties in a bun and a fringe that goes up to her nose and she always puts it behind her ears. Her eyes are dark brown and her skin is a light golden colour. It goes very red when she’s hot. She lives with her Mum and Dad. She also has an identical twin sister and she has a younger sister who is Mischievous and her twin is sensible and well-behaved. Her twin sister’s name is Faatima. Her younger sister’s name is Saffiyah. Faatima likes to spend time with her family, go to school and write stories. She always has her long black hair in a bun like Sarah. Sarah and Faatima’s Personality are the complete opposite of each other. But there was one thing that is the same about them. They are both kind and caring girls. Saffiyah liked to annoy people until they exploded and always got in people’s way. But she is kind when she wants to be kind. One thing that Saffiyah finds annoying is that Sarah and Faatima are always arguing.
Chapter Two
Puberty begins
“Sarah, time to get up!” Mum shouts from downstairs. Sarah sits up exhausted. “Coming Mum.” Sarah yawned. Sarah drags herself out of bed and sleepily goes into the bathroom. She comes out ten minutes later,and gets dressed. She then carelessly brushes her hair and creams her face. She gets up, dragging her feet across the floor and walks downstairs almost tripping in the process. Too tired to pay much attention to the steps. She finds the rest of her family waiting for her at the dining table. She sits down next to Faatima. “Do you want to have a fun day out together?” Says Faatima. Sarah opens her mouth to reply but “SARAH,FAATIMA YOU KNOW THE RULE!” Mum shouted, folding her arms. “WHAT’S THE RULE?” Sarah and Faatima sigh. “No talking whilst eating as a family.” They both look at each other. “If we want to talk we say it to the whole family.” Mum stops folding her arms aggressively and looks down at her food. Everyone eats silently.They were all probably frightened they might get shouted at by Mum. A few minutes later, “SARAH AND FAATIMA ARE KEEPING SECRETS FROM THE FAMILY.” Saffiyah shouts for the whole world to hear. Mum and Dad look at Sarah and Fatima suspiciously. They give them a no more secrets look. Sarah and Faatima give Saffiyah a serious look and she stays quiet for the rest of the time they eat. Giving the twins mean stares every 2 mins.
After everyone finishes eating breakfast,Sarah and Faatima go up to their room stomping up the stairs so they can finish their conversation. They sit down on their beds making a boing sound and stay quiet for a moment. “Okay let's go out.”Sarah says. Faatima takes her bright pink phone out of her hoodie pocket and textes mum telling her that Sarah and Faatima are going out for the day. “Mum says Yes.”Faatima says. Faatima slips her phone back into her pocket not aware that it just hit her stomach in the process. The twins practically ran down the stairs to the front door as this was one of the very few times that Mum allowed them to go out. Sarah opens the front door excitedly and walks outside with Faatima behind her. “Where’s your hijab?” Faatima says, realising that her sister is not wearing it. “Why do I need to wear it?” Sarah says. Faatima looks at her, shocked. “Because you're a muslim and muslim girls wear hijabs.” Sarah rolls her eyes as she goes back in. One minute later, wearing her hijab. They start walking in silence. “What do you want to do?” Sarah says. Faatima puts her thinking face on. “Let's go to the cafe and get some snacks and then go to the cinema to watch a movie.” Sarah nods.
Sarah and Faatima walk into the cafe and sit down at a table. “I need the toilet."Sarah says, making a funny face without realising. Faatima looks at Sarah trying to hold in her laugh not realising that Sarah can tell she’s trying not to laugh. “So do I.” Faatima says. Sarah and Faatima run to the cafe bathroom and slam open the door. They ran inside. The first three cubicles were locked and the last four weren’t. Sarah runs into the fourth one and Faatima runs into the fifth one.Two minutes later, they both come out panicking in the process“I've started my period!” Sarah and Faatima run out of the cafe and go into the nearest shop they can find and look for pads. Once they find the pads, they just stare at all of them. “Which ones do we choose?” Sarah asks Faatima, staring at all the different colours. They varied from light pink to dark pink, light blue to dark blue and many more colours than Sarah and Fatima have ever seen at once.
“I don’t know.” Faatima replies. “Shall we call Mum?” Sarah nods. “Shall I call her or…?”
“You call her.” Faatima says. Sarah takes her phone out of her pocket and clicks mum on the contacts list. She almost clicked her aunty’s number because her fingers kept shaking. Bring Bring Bring. “Yes.”Mum says once she answers the phone. Sarah thinks about what to say. “Me and Faatima started our periods so we came into the shops to find some pads but there’s so many that we don’t know which ones to choose from.” Sarah and mum stay quiet for a few moments and then. “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!” Screams Mum. “You've started your period?” Mum screams again. “Stay right there I’m coming.” Mum puts the phone down. “What did she say?” Faatima asks. Sarah puts her phone away. “She said to stay here because she’s coming and also she freaked out.” “Will this end well?” Sarah thought.
“SARAH,FAATIMA!”Screams Mum a few minutes later as she runs across the shop towards Sarah and Faatima. “Get the blue ones.” She says catching her breath. Sarah and Faatima grab a packet of pads each. “Come on, let's go and pay and make sure you don’t drop them. We don't want dirty pads.” “Aren’t they in a packet? How could they get dirty if they are in a packet?” Sarah thought.
Later on, they all sat down at the table to eat dinner. “Have you got your pads on?” Asks Mum loudly. Saffiyah stops eating. “Aww Sarah and Faatima are big girls now.” Saffiyah puts some mash on her spoon and throws it at Faatima but misses. She then throws it at Sarah but misses again. “SAFFIYAH WHAT IS RULE NUMBER TWO?” Mum Screams. Saffiyah puts her spoon down and stares at her lap. “No throwing or playing with food whilst eating as a family.” Mum then looks at Sarah and Faatima waiting for an answer. “What are pads?” Asks Dad looking confused. “It’s a girl thing!” Mum says quickly, embarrassed to explain. Dad looks down at his food and continues eating. "No one ever tells me anything in this family.”
“What Was that?” Asks Mum. “Nothing?” Dad says Quickly. Sarah tries her best not to laugh. Awkwardest question to ask a girl ever! Out of all people the question was asked to Mum. Sarah added it to the top of her funniest things she has seen list mentally in her head.
Chapter Three
Distractions
A few weeks later
Sarah and Faatima wake earlier than usual the next morning and Mum bangs the door open. “Now that you started your period you must do your salahs and wear your hijab.” Mum comes in and sits down on the carpet. “Can’t we just pray one or two salahs and wear a hijab sometimes?” Sarah asks. Mum sighs. “Sarah, you are a muslim so that means you must do all of your salahs not one or two Salahs. All five.” Mum stands up. “Get ready for school and make sure you pray duhul at lunchtime.” Mum walks out of the room and slams the door shut. “Are you ready to start year 10?” Faatima says. Sarah nods. “Do you think we will get the same timetable?” Sarah asks Faatima. Faatima shrugs.
Sarah and Faatima arrive at school dreading it as soon as they see the miserable looking building and walk to their form room A223 taking their sweet time as they didn’t care if they got a detention. They walk up a white,shiny staircase and shiny,clean corridors. When they arrived they opened the door slowly and sat down. When everyone was sitting down, the teacher walked around the room with a miserable face, (maybe she dreaded school too)giving everyone their timetables and planners. Sarah and Faatima compare their timetables. “They are the same.” Sarah and Faatima say together happily. The teacher walks to the front of the classroom and says “Faatima Uddin?” Faatima sits straight and replies “Here sir.” KNOCK KNOCK! “Come in.” Shouts the teacher. The whole class looks at the door. Sarah smiles. It was her best friend Sophie Strange. She comes in and sits down. “Why are you late?” The teacher asks. Sophie doesn’t say anything. After a few minutes she says “I was delayed by a monkey in the bathroom.” Everyone laughs. “Sophie, I'm not going to have any of your silly stories this year.” The teacher marks Sophie late. Sophie rolls her eyes and mutters “Whatever.” She turns around and waves at Sarah. She then takes her phone out of her pocket and hides it under her blazer and then scrolls on it. The teacher didn’t notice or didn’t care.
After form, Sarah and Faatima walk to their first class of the year. Sarah wished she could be at home.“I hate maths.” moans Sarah. She rolls her eyes as when she thinks about their maths teacher last year. “Are you okay?” Faatima asks, realising her sister looks worried.
“I’m okay?” Sarah says. “I’m just not so sure about this whole period thing.” Faatima looks at Sarah and smiles. Sarah smiles back. “Don’t worry we will go through it together step by step.” Sarah and Faatima hold hands. They walk into their maths class together side by side. Sarah still had her doubts. Not even her own twin sister could stop them. She kept feeling the pain of cramps. Bad ones.
Later, It was lunchtime and Sarah and Faatima lined up to get Nuggets and chips, their favourite thing to eat. “Faatima.” Says Sarah.
“Yes?” Faatima says.
“I can’t pray duhul today because I promised Sophie that we will go to the library as soon as I finish eating my lunch.You can come with us if you want?” The smile that was on Faatima’s face disappears. “You can’t do that.” Faatima almost shouts. “You're a muslim so you need to pray.”
“I don’t have to pray if I don't want to pray.” Sarah folds her arms.
“I’ll tell mum.” Faatima puts a serious face on.
“Fine, I'll pray.” Sarah rolls her eyes. She secretly planned to sneak off.
“Sarah!” Says Mum from downstairs. “Have you prayed Asr?” Sarah thinks about what to say. “Yes!” She lied.
“Faatima have you prayed?” Mum asks.
“Yes Mum!” Faatima says truthfully. Mum smiles.
“I’m so proud of my little twinsies.” Sarah and Faatima groan. “Mum, can you please stop calling us that?” Mum doesn’t say anything. She just walks into the kitchen.
“Sarah, you lied to mum!” Faatima says shocked.
“So?” Sarah says scrolling on her phone.
“What do you mean so?” Faatima folds her arms angrily.
“I mean it's no big deal that I lied to mum because she’ll never know.” Sarah puts gum in her mouth.
“Mum doesn’t know that you lied but who does?” Faatima looks at Sarah, hopeful that she knows the answer.
“You?” Sarah says, still scrolling on her phone.
“No!” Sarah thinks for a bit. “Allah?”
Faatima smiles “Yes and Allah hates it when we lie.” Faatima pauses. “Do you want to end up in hell fire?” Sarah looks at Faatima. “No!” Sarah puts her phone away and continues chewing the gum in her mouth. Faatima sighs. “Then you better do your prayers properly or you will end up in hell fire.” They stopped talking. Faatima hoped that Sarah would start doing her prayers properly. For her sake at least. She didn’t want her sister to be in trouble. Maybe there could be a way she can help her?
Chapter Four
Time to discipline the soul
On Saturday morning, When the twins come down to eat breakfast, Mum hands them a timetable each, Prayer Scarfs, Prayer mats and a copy of the Quran each. She gives them their breakfast and beacons them to follow her into the living room. They sit down on the blue carpet and lean against the wall. “Eat your breakfast and then we are going to have a little talk.” Mum scribbles some notes in a brown notebook. Sarah and Faatima consume all the pancakes on their plates and then wait in silence. Sarah almost daydreamed because of how long they waited.“I wrote down everything you should do in your day on your timetables and I also wrote the prayer times. You will use these timetables to become better muslims.” Mum puts her serious face on. She looks at Sarah knowingly. Did she know that Sarah hasn’t prayed since yesterday morning? “This is no time to mess around and pretend you have done your prayers. You shouldn’t lie in life. You should always tell the truth. Okay?” Sarah and faatima nod. Mum scribbles notes in her notebook and Sarah rolls her eyes. Mum looks up at them and smiles. “You may go now.” Sarah and Faatima get up and walk down the corridor towards the stairs.
A few hours later, Faatima prays Duhul and Sarah is sitting on her bed scrolling on her phone chewing some chocolate. When Faatima finishes she says “Sarah have you prayed?” Sarah nods. “What did I say about lying?” Faatima takes her hijab off and folds it. She folds her prayer mat and puts her hijab on top of her prayer mat and then puts it under her bed. “How is it that you find everything so easy and I don’t?” Asks Sarah not looking up from her phone. Faatima sits at the end of Sarah’s bed. “When we were ten I use to pray all the time and I just got use to it.” Faatima looks at Sarah and smiles. “I could help you if you want.” Sarah nods “Yes please.”
She crawls to the end of the bed to sit next to Faatima. “Okay so set your alarm for each salah and that will remind you when you need to pray.” Faatima fiddles with her fingers whilst smiling.
Sarah hugs Faatima and Faatima hugs her back. “Thank you.” Sarah whispers. Faatima lets go of Sarah and says “Your welcome.”
Over the next few days, Sarah found praying four of the prayers ok since she realised it wasn’t so hard if she actually put the effort into it. The only prayer that she wasn’t praying was fajr. She would always ignore her fajr alarm because she was so tired that she couldn’t be bothered to get up and because fajr is so early in the morning! In her precious sleep time.
Chapter Five
The Dua
It was a Saturday morning and Mum woke Sarah and Faatima early. “Follow me.” she says. Sarah almost went back to sleep but followed mum anyways whilst looking at her twin sister wondering how she never looks tired in the morning. “Sit down please.” Sarah and Faatima sit down. Sarah is feeling very exhausted. “I’m going to teach you a dua that you should always remember no matter what.” Faatima sat up waiting eagerly. Mum clears throat and was about to open her mouth to speak when Ding Dong! The doorbell rang. Mum got up and began to walk to the door but Dad got there first. At the door was a lady wearing a red helmet, a red cardigan and a red skirt with red ruby shoes. “Hi I have this delivery for Sarah Uddin.” She looks around. “Is she here?” Sarah runs to the door and says “I’m Sarah Uddin.” The lady gives the delivery to Sarah and walks across the street disappearing the further she goes. Sarah hugs the delivery as she runs back into the living room with dad walking behind her. “What’s that ?” Mum and dad both say as Sarah rips it open. “It’s my projector I ordered online.” Sarah smiles and hugs the projector really tight. “When did you order it?” Mum says looking furious. Sarah looks up at Mum and smiles but when she saw the look on Mum’s face her smile disappeared. “I got it last Friday.” Mum holds her hand out so Sarah can put the projector in her hand. “No!” Shouts Sarah.
“DON’T SHOUT AT YOUR MOTHER!” Dad Screams.
“Darling let me deal with this.” Mum says to Dad.
“Hand it over Sarah.” Mum says. Sarah shakes her head. Mum gets up and walks over to Sarah and then snatches it out of her hands. “You're grounded young lady for buying something without are permission.” Mum says in a serious voice. “How did you order it without a bank card?” Sarah sighs looking guilty.
“I used your bank card.” She fiddles with her fingers nervously.
“You are double grounded.” Mum says. Mum hands the Projector to Dad who puts it away. He almost drops it and Sarah jumps when it happens as though she’s the projector and not in her own body and Mum sits down and says “Where was I?”
“You were going to tell us a Dua.” Faatima says.
“Oh yes.” Mum says. “Y…” DING DONG.
The doorbell went again and this time Mum got there before Dad. “Hi.” Said the lady at the door. “I have this delivery from amazon for Sarah Uddin.”
Mum doesn’t say anything. The lady looks around the house to see if anyone else lives in the house. “Are you Sarah?” The lady looks down at her sparkly pink shoes to make sure that they are still sparkling and then she looks back up at Mum. “No, I'm not Sarah. I’m her mum but don’t worry I will be sure to give it to her.” The lady hands the delivery to Mum and smiles and then walks off skipping down the street. Popping gum into her mouth.
“Sarah, you're grounded for a month!” mum screams for the whole neighbourhood to hear. Sarah doesn’t say anything but looks down at her lap. “I should have ordered more copies.” Sarah thought.
“Now this is the dua.” Mum says in a calm voice. “ Ya muqallib Al- Qulcob Thabbit Qabili ala Deenik. Oh turner of hearts, Firm on your deen.” Everyone was silent for a moment. “What’s deen?” Sarah asks.
She fiddles with her fingers whilst she waits for a reply.
“Deen is your religion, Islam Sarah.” Mum says. “You should always do your deen properly no matter what and you shouldn’t change for anyone.”
For the next few days and everyday Sarah made sure that she did all her salahs and not one day did she hesitate and say “I’m not going to pray this salah today.” Although there were still some days where she didn’t wear a hijab. She was trying her best though. As for her amazon deliveries her mum never gave them to her thinking that she doesn’t deserve them.