23. TAWBAH

“They forgot Allah, so He forgot them.” (QURAN 9:67)

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I sat on the floor to the far end of the room, out of sight from everyone else and listened intently to Haadi's heart-rending Qirat; resonating throughout the room.

"—and said: Get down, both of you, (that is, man and Satan), and be out of it; each of you shall be an enemy to the other. Henceforth if there comes to you a guidance from Me, then whosoever follows My guidance shall neither go astray nor suffer misery—But whosoever turns away from this Admonition from Me shall have a straitened life; We shall raise him blind on the Day of Resurrection. (Quran 20:123-124)" She continued solemnly while sitting on the front of the room. Lifting up her eyes from the Quran in front of her, she took in the class filled with girls in headscarf; roughly around the age of Haadi, when she left Gulf. A small smile was gracing her features. A constant aspect of her apparel, since childhood.