After eating sehri, Sana offered the Fajr prayer then headed towards her room to sleep. Suddenly she was stopped by her mother.

“Sana, did you recite the Holy Qur’an?” her mum inquired.

“Mum, there is a whole day remaining, I will recite the Qur’an later,” Sana said. Her mother frowned so, to assure her, she added, “Mum, I promise I will recite it after Zuhr or Asr prayer.”

Her mother nodded in reply. Sana snuggled down in her bed.

As the scorching sunlight hit her face through the open window of her room, Sana woke up. She wanted to rest some more, but the warm sun was disturbing her. Yawning, she went to the restroom to take a bath. When she stepped out of it, she found her little brother, Ahmed, lying on her bed, reading a children’s magazine. It was also Sana’s favourite magazine. She asked him to hand the magazine to her, but he refused.

“Sana, I am reading it. I will give it to you when I will solve these riddles,” he said while pointing to the riddles section of the magazine.

Sana got infuriated. She yelled at Ahmed and snatched it from his hands. Little Ahmed collapsed in a sobbing heap on the floor while his sister ignored his presence.

Ahmed was heartbroken so he left the room. On the other hand, Sana cherished her reading time. After an hour, she switched on her computer to play some games. Few minutes had passed when the sound of Zuhr Azaan was heard.

“I will pray after winning this game,” she thought as she continued playing. Time was tickling until the clock struck three. She hurriedly did ablution to offer prayer. Her eyes were getting heavy because of the lack of sleep so she lay down on her bed. Soon, she drifted into her dreamland.

“Sana, wake up, dear,” her mother said as she struggled to get her daughter out of the bed. “It’s 5pm. Come on, offer the Asr prayer and recite the Holy Quran.”

“Okay mum, two minutes more please,” Sana said sleepily. Her mother left the room. To Sana’s dismay, when she woke up, one hour had passed. Like she did with Zuhr prayer, she hastily offered the Asr prayer. She looked out from her window and saw a few kids playing with a cat outside. Sana was always attracted to cats and she requested her mother to go out to play.

Her mother reminded her, “Dear, you promised to recite the Holy Quran.”

“Yes mum, I will, later,” she said and without waiting for her mother’s response, she made her way to the area where kids were playing. She held the cat in her arms. It felt so lovely to hold the cat but she felt as though she was missing something. She tried to think what it could be, but could not reach any conclusion, so she shifted her interest back to the cat.

It was a small white, Persian cat with a collar on its neck. The kids pleaded with her to let them play with it, but their efforts were in vain. Sana did not listen to them. She began to pet the cat and began to talk to her.

The cat owner came looking for the cat and found it with Sana. He was a neighbourhood man who demanded that Sana give his cat back to him. Sana did as she was told.

What she then saw was embarrassing ­— the cat owner gave the cat to the kids to play with it. Her cheeks glowed red with the embarrassment that cat was taken from her and given to younger kids.

Her stomach groaned. She realised that she was fasting. She quickly rushed home. It was almost the time for Iftar, so she settled herself on the chair next to her brother’s chair. Ahmed did not look at her, instead he stood up to take a seat next to his mother. Sana was dumbfounded.

Her mother didn’t look happy either, so she looked at father who was busy in praying and making invocation. Soon, the Azaan was heard. Sana broke her fast with a small date fruit. She ate the Iftar until she felt that she could no longer eat.

After Maghrib prayer, she tried to sneak to her room since she did not want her mother to scold for breaking her promise. Unfortunately, her mother called her. She had no choice but to go to her mother. Her mother asked her to take a seat beside her on the table when her brother and father were in their rooms.

“Sorry mum, I won’t break my promise again,” Sana blurred out.

“It’s okay, dear. How was your fast?” her mother politely asked.

“It was good. I enjoyed it a lot,” Sana answered.

“Dear, do you really call it fasting?” her mother calmly inquired.

“What do you mean, mum? I did not eat or drink anything while fasting!” Sana protested.

Then her mother began to explain, “Dear, fasting is not only about not eating or drinking anything. It’s related to your conduct, mind, tongue and every part of your body.”

“What do you mean, mum?”

“It means that your behaviour should not hurt anyone, you should not think of doing any sinful activities like backbiting, you should not speak harshly, you should not use foul language and you should increase the remembrance of Allah. In short, your presence should not hurt anyone, you should not take any step towards any sin, instead increase remembrance of Allah and you should be a source of happiness for people around you. Dear, do you think you were able to practice any of these?” her mother questioned.

Sana looked down as guilt rose within her. She remembered she delayed her prayers for the sake of her game, she shouted at her brother, which hurt him, she did not listen to her mother and went out to play and she did not let the junior kids play with the cat, which made them sad. She even broke her promise. Sana, now comprehended the real meaning of fasting.

She asked for forgiveness from Allah in her prayer and decided that from now onwards, she would not only abstain from eating and drinking while fasting, but also be at her best behaviour and do good deeds. She made some juice for her family for hurting them and apologised to everyone. The next day, she even presented a football as a present to the kids for treating them wrongly the day before.

Published in Dawn, Young World, May 8th, 2021