[ ] My room is filled with glimmering light as if it were morning already. I open my eyes and what I see next totally confuses me. I am not in my room. I look around, everything is new to me. I freak out. I run out of the room and see that Its a strange house. I rush down a flight of stairs to see a man sitting at a breakfast table. He's much older than me, yet not too old. He has a pleasant smile on his face. He's wearing white clothes and a white cap, his long black beard is neat and well groomed like that of the kind hearted devoted muslims who never forget to give me some candies whenever i meet them in college. Immediately I feel at ease. I ask him, what is this place? "You look scared, come, sit here" He said as he pointed to the chair infront of him. I comply. "You're in a different universe young man, don't ask how you got here, even I don't know that. All i know is that you're here for one day, and that I have to be with you in all this time, as your guide and protector. I saw this in a dream and I've been waiting for you ever since.My name is afaaq. Like the sky. Now, there, its settled. have some tea now, Its still hot, no need to be scared". I look around, everything is normal, the sun is shining outside, the birds are chirping. Cars are passing in the street in front, and this man looks nothing like an alien or an interdimensional specie. I think to myself, "I have to get out of here". But he laughed and said No you don't. I was shocked.He then explained to me how this universe is different than the one I came from.
[ ] We went out for a walk, everything is same as it is on earth. He told me that the special thing about this universe is that we can read each other's thoughts. We can feel each other's true feelings and know whats in the heart. I ask him, "wow, life must be pretty chaotic here then, always knowing what the other person really thinks?". He said not at all. We are born with this ability, so we never learned to have contradictions between our words and our thoughts and feelings. We are honest with each other. Not being able to hide something makes us not having something to hide. We have no secrets, yes, but then, we have no SECRETS. We are not bothered by the burden of our lies, we don't have to pretend. While he was saying this, another man who seemed to know him, and who surprisingly also had the same pleasant aura about him, came to cross our path, and with all the pleasantness and kindness in the world, met afaaq. I had never seen such purity, such love in two people meeting each other. After spending a moment or two with this fellow, we continued our walk. He further told me that because of this special character of our universe, there is no crime here, since all crime results from need, from trauma, from pain. and we can't hide these from each other, so we help each other, with kind words, with hope, with compassion. Also, there is no hatred, since hate in the heart can't be hidden, so we learned to conquer hate with love, rather than keeping it within us and allowing it to consume all the good we have in our heart. Hearing this, I remembered my own world, where the heart is filled with jealousy, with hate and envy, but our words are carefully picked to deceive. How, no matter how much our hearts are broken, how sad and depressed we may be, yet our faces are masked by the facade of happiness. I thought to myself, how easy life must be in this universe. How pure. How light must the heart feel. Having no secrets. No ugly truths to cover. No one to deceive. I now understood, why my companion seemed so relaxed, so at peace. Why his smile was full of joy. Why his words had such an impact. Why his greeting was so lovely. It was pure. It was at one with his heart. What I initially considered this universe's flaw, I now saw as its power. I imagined, how beautiful life would be, if on my earth, the heart was not so hidden!
[ ] My eyes open to the sound of my phone's ring. After 3 missed alarms my phone finally had woken me up. It was just a dream. I close my eyes thinking back at this strange dream. My phone beeps. Its the daily ayah from my muslim pro app;
إِنَّه ُُ عَلِيم ٌ بِذَاتِ الصُّدُورِ
He knows what is in every heart.
