Fighting Temptation
Word Count: 450 words
The image of her luscious curves was driving him crazy, popping into his mind the whole night, every night, calling to him. No matter what he did, he couldn’t get rid of it. “Think of something else,” he ordered himself. He tried reciting the Quran, praying Qiyam-ul-Layl, even fasting during the day, but as soon as he would lie down at night, the image of her, laughing and talking sweetly, throwing her head back, letting her long hair fall back, would pop into his mind.
Everyday, he saw her at work and he felt his resolve melting. Then one day, something strange happened. She appeared in his office and asked him out to the Christmas party to be held the next day after work.
“We’ll have fun,” she said. “Lots of it,” she smiled, then placed her hand on her chest. What was she indicating? he wondered, his mind going into overdrive.
She smiled again, her blue eyes gleaming. He hadn’t seen her from this close and her beauty stunned him even more, making his resolve melt even further. “I’ll think about it,” he heard himself say, when he should have said, “absolutely not.”
“But the beard must go,” she added. “Come to the office without the beard and we’ll go to the party together.” Then she left before he could reconsider.
The rest of the day he tried reasoning with himself. What harm would a single office party do?
That night, he stood in front of the mirror with a shave in his hand and stared at his reflection. What was he doing? Before reconsidering, he shaved his fist-length beard.
The whole night he struggled with himself, twisting and turning. He couldn’t do this. This was all wrong. He struggled but he knew his resolve was gone. There would be no way he could resist her if he continued to see her at the office.
The next day he went to work and she smiled at him. But he didn’t smile back. He went straight to his boss’s office and handed in his resignation.
“What’s this?” His boss asked.
“I can’t work here any more,” he replied.
His agony must have been apparent on his face because the boss gave him one glance and nodded, “I understand.”
Leaving the office, he reserved the next flight back home. He had to be with his family, get his eman back. He needed his family and Muslim brothers to help him fight shaytan and to strengthen his eman.
As be boarded the plane, he was glad he was able to leave the land of kufr without having compromised his faith, although it had been a close call.
The End.