A’isha’s Garden

A’isha’s Garden

There are weeds in A’isha’s garden. Strong, snaking weeds that choke the flowers and block out the light. The weeds trail along the hard earth, whispering doubts, confessions, shameful secrets. Whispering, whispering, their leaves and stems dart like forked tongues tipped with poison.

New flowers cannot grow in A’isha’s garden. They are too weak to fight the weeds, to small to reach the light. So they shrink back into the earth from whence they came, withered and exhausted.

A’isha tries. She tries to plant new seeds, seeds of faith and hope, but the earth is too hard now. She tries to moisten it with her tears, but they will not fall. So she sits and watches the weeds as they climb ever higher, grow ever stronger, whispering, whispering, until their poisoned words come to a crescendo in her mind, a concerto of denial, desperation and depression.

Until A’isha decides to save her garden. Until she calls out to her Lord, Al-Khaliq, to give her the strength to cut down the weeds that block out the light, that choke the flowers, that fill her heart with hypocrisy and malice. She will betray their whispers. They thought she was a convert to their way, a follower of their deen, a traveller on their path. But no. For A’isha knows the True Path.

And although it is covered with weeds and thorns, she will find it. She will find it. Though her hands ache from wielding the machete, she will find it. Bi’idhnillah.