**~~My story~~**

“Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar…” I could here my brother’s voice ring out from downstairs. I just groaned and pulled the blankets over my head to muffle the sound.
“Haya Ala As-Salah...” he kept on going. A wave of guilt swept over me and I tried to ignore it but a voice from inside me started nagging, “Get up! How could you sleep when someone is calling you to Salat?” I couldn’t get back to sleep no matter how hard I tried. Angrily I jumped of my bed and went to the bathroom to make Wudu’. I collided with Khawla on my way.
“Well. Look who got up for Fajr!” she exclaimed the surprise clearly visible on her face.
“Just leave me alone ok?” I grumbled.
“Why are you so grumpy, I’m just complimenting you?!”
I pushed past her and went to the bathroom and made Wudu’. At first I just wanted to get over with it and I started performing it improperly. But the same voice started nagging again.
“What’s the use of getting up if you’re not going to do it right?”
So I started all over again making sure the water reached everyplace. When I finished I went downstairs into the living room where my family were just getting ready to pray. My father called the Iqamah then started.
“Allahu Akbar!” he said raising his hands. I stood behind my father next to Khalid, my brother. My mom and two sisters stood behind us.
“Alhamdulillahi Rabil Alamin…” My father recited from the Quran, his voice pleasant and melodious.
“…Assalamu Alaykum Wa Rahmatullahi Wabarakatuh.” My dad turned his face to his right then his left. We followed suite. Then they all turned to face me a smile on their faces.
“MashaAllah Khalil. I’m so happy to see you praying again.” My mom started hugging me and making everything into a big deal.
My dad slapped me on the back. “I hope Allah will guide you my son.”
“Big deal! Why do you guys care so much about what I do? I’m not a kid anymore you know!”
“Khalil I just…” my mom began.
I just rolled my eyes and got up to go back to my room. Suddenly I saw a look of hurt on my mom’s face and I felt filled with regret. I hurried away and heard the voice again.
“You hurt your mother by rolling your eyes in front of her. Especially after she praised you! You better go back and make it up to her!”
What I couldn’t do that! I would just look like some sort of fool and besides Mom will just get over it. Soon Khalid comes back into the room.
“Hey man what’s wrong?” he asked.
Khalid and I are twins, identical twins to be exact. The only thing that people use to distinguish between us was that he has a scar near his eye. I remember he got it when we were younger when he fell off his bike. But even though we looked alike, we were as different as night and day. He was all religious and stuff while I was more of a ‘’bad boy’’. And he took it upon himself to make sure I didn’t get myself into the really “bad” things. But to Khalid almost everything was bad.

But even with all these differences, Khalid and I somehow got along together really well. And right now I could tell he was angry.
“Why? What did I do?” I asked innocently.
“What do you mean ‘why’? You just shout at mom then you say ‘what did I do?’.”
“I just don’t see why they make such a big deal over everything I do. I’m totally sick and tired of this man!”
“Come on, that does not give you any right to shout at her and hurt her feelings. I seriously think they were just trying to boost up your confidence and be nice so you can pray a bit more like you should be.”
“Khalid, you know I’ve always prayed my Salah.”
“Yeah except, you didn’t use to pray the Fajr Salah which is like the most important.”
“Use to. I pray now thanks to your screeching voice waking me up every morning. Man, you sound like a witch. Actually I think witches have nicer voices.” I joked.
“What!!! That’s it! You asked for it you…”
“Watch it you’re not supposed to say bad words. Do I have to remind you ‘bout that, Sheikh Khalid?”

We started wrestling and laughing our heads off ‘till mom yelled to stop goofing ‘round.
“Come on boys. Breakfast is almost ready! Get dressed and come down. And stop acting like clowns!”
We were soon all sitting around the dining room table eating what would fill up an army. Mom always liked to cook a lot even though we were only six people.
“Your Aunt and Uncle are coming over today sometime after Dhuhr. So I want all of you to be on your best behavior.” My dad announced. He was always about behavior and manners.
“Are Aisha and Ahmed coming with them?” Khawla asked.
“Yes.” Came the answer.
Aisha and Ahmed were our cousins. Ahmed was our age. We always had a great time together. We would usually play jokes and pranks on the girls who would always have something for a pay back. Aisha was his sister and was eight years old. She was a natural comedian and got away with everything probably because she was “Mommy’s Baby”. Also our Uncle was like the best guy my brother and I know. He always has some sort of gift for us. And they weren’t those lame ones that people usually give hoping that you’ll like them when they probably don’t cost more than a dollar. But then again that’s probably why they get them those kinds of lousy gifts.

So at Dhuhr time my brother and I go with my dad to the Masjid. After we prayed, we goofed around on the parking lot with some other boys from school while we all waited for our fathers to stop chit chatting with each other. Which Khalid thinks is weird. He thinks that only girls should do that. It’s not “cool for a guy to spend all his time talking” he says. I disagree with him but I don’t argue with him. (I learned not to argue with him. You’ll never win. And even when you do win he won’t admit to what ever it was that we were arguing about.)
“Khalid, Khalil, lets go.” My dad called.
As we were about to leave another guy comes up to my dad and they get into another long conversation. Khalil rolled his eyes.
“You seem to have mastered the art of rolling you eyes Khalil.” I joked with him. “Just last week you were saying only girls roll their eyes. So either you were wrong back then or you turned into a girl.”
That was all it took to get him running after me threatening to “get back” at me. We laughed as we chased each other around the parking lot which was filled with men.
After a while I turned around and saw that Khalil wasn’t chasing me anymore. So I went to go see where he went. Knowing Khalil he was never too far away from trouble. I saw his head poke out from behind a car so I ran up to him. As I got close I saw he had a branch he probably chopped down from a tree. It was as tall as him and had a diameter of about seven inches. I didn’t care how big it was, I knew I wasn’t gona stick around to see how much damage it could cause to the human being. With a hideous battle cry he charged toward me and I dashed away wondering if he’d really use it. I ran and hid behind dad knowing he wouldn’t dare use it on me in front of dad. I was right as he came closer he threw it down far away. I smirked as he came closer. He just ignored me.
“Dad can we leave now? You know we’re gona have guests coming over.” He asked impatiently.
“Ok, ok we’ll leave soon Inshallah. Bear with me for a couple of minutes son.”
Khalid came over to me.
“Baby.” He smirked. I poked him in the ribs and he retuned the favor. Dad saw and scolded us with his eyes as he spoke to yet another man.
“Don’t worry Khalid. I’ll get you back for calling me a girl. And next time you won’t be able to run behind dad so he can protect you. You’ll be long gone before that.” He made a big show about how “strong” he was by flexing his muscles.
“Oohh I’m so scared.” I mocked. “Anyways that was payback for calling me a witch this morning.”
“I thought that you’re supposed to be forgiving everyone Sheikh Khalid. Besides I didn’t call you a witch. I said “Even a witch sounds better then you.” I think you need some hearing aids. I’ll remember to remind Dad about that. You’ll probably thank me later when you can hear well. Wait did you just hear everything I just said or did I just waste my time talking to the ‘witch’.”
“I don’t know all I heard was a couple of mumbles.
“What Ever! You’re just jealous that I can hear better than you. ”
“I can hear perfectly well Khalid.” And our argument ended at that.
He sighed. “By the time we leave here it will be Asr.”
“Don’t worry Khalil we’re leaving now.” My dad said.