Alfred, my father. I know Ahna misses him much more than I do. He was very smart and talented and an expert at many arts too. Like culinary, painting, astrology, biology, and much more. He also taught me everything he knew about them and I also became very skilled at them. But the best thing that my father taught me was not about cooking, or the stars. The best thing that my father taught me was about Islam, the only monotheistic Religion. The only way to be saved in this life and in the hereafter.
Indeed, he taught me many things about this great Religion. The thing that he was most adamant to me about was my Salah, my five daily prayers. Ever since I was like five he would order and command me to fulfill my prayers.
“Allah loves those actions that are consistent, even if it’s little.” He used to tell me. He would also tell me many stories of the Prophets and the pious predecessors who came before us. Such great stories, such amazing things those people used to do for the sake of Allah.
“There’s no way I can compare to those guys, they were the best.” I said to my father once when I was seven, after he finished telling me the story of Prophet Moses. He gripped my shoulder and turned me to face him.
“Hey, never undermine your ability to earn the pleasure of Allah.” He said.
At the end of the day that’s what it was all about, making Allah happy. Everything else is almost trivial compared to that bigger picture. I will have to make my Lord happy, and in order to do that I will have to stop making Cindy unhappy. And the only way to do that is... to seal it! I have to escape from this sinful relationship that I am in with her.
She’s not getting younger, and neither am I. The path is clear, the path is straight.
I knew what I had to do, then I began thinking about my father again. Such knowledge be bad, and be was very forgiving. His early death seems almost anticlimactic. In the sense that...
Ahna’s hands were still on my lap, and she was looking right at me. I gently lifted it up and walked to the door.
“Where are you going?” She asked me.
“To Cindy.” I replied without turning around.