The Embrace

بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمٰنِ الرَّحِيْمِ

He knew. In the instant their hands touched, he knew: This would not be a simple reunion. As wings unfurled from her back, with a playful grin she spoke but one word, "Come." Then, flying straight upward, she darted into the sky as if it were a thing she had known all her life, with skill innate as a bird born to know. 

He hesitated only for the second (or two, perhaps three...he was not certain how long) it took him to recoup his senses from his sparrow's touch, then crouched to position himself for the leap. How would he match her speed and grace? There was just one way, the only one he'd always had, "Oh Rabb, help me in this." And with his dua released, he coursed behind her, into the vast, endless skies that surrounded the Gardens they had not yet claimed as gifts from their Creator. 

~

So this was how flying truly felt! The wind and clouds cruising by her face joined forces in earnest with what she held inside, waves of feeling fully reinforcing each on top of the other, until she felt herself a speck at the brim of each newly forming crest, being carried aloft towards heights she had never imagined in ways that filled her chest far beyond full, till it seemed her heart became the size of the universe itself and she could relish every joy inside. 

As preoccupied with this experience as she was, she wasn't quite expecting him to close the gap so quickly. Perhaps time had slowed, or ceased to exist and there was no distance between them at all, or perhaps laws of physics disappeared when it came to matters like this, she hadn't a care as the invitation was his all along. Now, she simply needed to find the right place, the perfect setting to arrange where it would happen.

Not at all unexpected was where she found herself heading: the middle part of all the heavens, the highest-risen crème de la crème, of all the palaces and Gardens and rivers and sparkles and delights Her Creator made for His chosen ones, 

Al-Firdaus. 

Its glory was not for sight or minds to describe, but only to be held close by those given the gift of going inside, and so it was she soared straight for its opened Gates, knowing well the mercy of her Rabb Who planned for her this fate, and just as she entered, along her side he came.

~

As their gazes met and held, amidst the air and wind, so too were the final doors inside themselves, freed forever from their hinge.

~

At last he found again her hand, she held his tight to bring him close, while suspended in mid-flight, above the finest Bliss they rose, unawares of it all, except of the other in their arms...and the warmth of lips that had now tasted Home.







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