Ayesha was sitting, dressed to the nines with nowhere to go, whilst Nana recited Qur’an in his melodious voice, but a little too loud as his hearing aid was once again left in on his side-table in his bedroom. All the same, it brought a sense of normalcy to the home.

I hoped that when I do marry, eventually, I have that “someone” who recited Qu’ran bringing peace and harmony to the soul and barakah and protection to the home.

As I paged through my own Qu’ran, I felt embarrassed as I struggled through the recitation. “Ayesha!” I whispered, “What is this word?” Hearing aid or not, Nana heard me and looked up, well more looked over his bifocals with a disapproving glance thrown my way.

He closed his Qu’ran, struggled to wake up from the plush sofa, and eventually walked toward me. I froze as I knew what was coming next.

“Behta Sofia, you know the old saying “practice makes perfect”?” I nodded my head, feeling my face go red. “Well, behta, you know it but you didn’t remember it and this is why you are battling to recite the Noble Qu’ran but you have realised your mistake today and be glad that you did.”

He shuffled off, but he wasn’t done, so he stopped, turned to me and with gentle persuasion said, “Ayesha has in kindness corrected you. You both should sit together each day and make it a point to recite a page of Qu’ran daily, both English and Arabic, so you learn to recite and you both learn the meaning as well.”

He left then, mumbling under his breath about the “children of this generation”, one of favourite phrases. My mind leapt to the myriad tasks and responsibility we both had with university, etc.  But then, it dawned on me that we also had to live a balanced life. Our Nabi, peace and blessings be upon him, did exactly that. Our Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, left us with an example of a perfect structure for day and night. I needed to dedicate some time to make some changes in my life.

Looking back I saw my Nana as being a man, steadfast in all he did, never missing a prayer and even taking on the challenge of memorizing the Qu’ran after he retired, and he still makes every effort to brush up when he can. What excuse did I have?

He had just set the bar for my future husband!

“Ayshoo, will you help me? Can we do this together, please?” After much cajoling, she agreed. Nana shuffled back into the room – I think he was eavesdropping! “Count me in too”, he said, smiling like the cat that got the cream.

Sometimes Allah’s mercy and love for us comes through in the most unexpected ways.