The time for evening prayers had come and young Sharifa was doing her prayers to thank Allah.
As she prayed the sweet smell of chicken biryani hung in the air. Sharifa was very excited about having chicken biryani so she thought to do her prayers early.
The room was getting quite stuffy so Sharifa went to open the door, she didn’t open the door wide, and she just opened it slightly.
Then Sharifa’s aunty, Sakina walked out of the kitchen and said “Good girl Sharifa, it’s very good and important to say your prayers.”
Then Sharifa’s aunty walked into the dining room to lay the table and get some of her ingredients from the cupboard.
Now it was sunset and young Sharifa happily started praying. Sharifa was in the middle of her Surah, when the door creaked open a little wider. Sharifa started shaking and thought ‘it’s probably just the wind’. So then she started praying from where she was. The door opened a little wider and young Sharifa shook her head and said in her head there is nothing or nobody here, it’s probably just my imagination. Sharifa thought it was the aroma of the chicken biryani making her mind feel a bit funny. And once again young Sharifa started praying again.
Suddenly a snake slithered through the gap where the door was and went right onto the edge of Sharifa’s prayer mat. Sharifa did not know the snake was here and she stepped forward. The snake opened its wide jaws revealing fangs dripping with poisonous venom. Then Sharifa’s aunty came back out of the dining room and she commanded Sharifa to stay back.
Sharifa (still unaware of the snake) kept on questioning “Why, why, why? What’s wrong?”
Sharifa’s aunty grabbed her long wooden spoon and whacked the snake so many times. As Sharifa’s aunty beat the snake with the spoon, Sharifa realised why her aunt had called her away from the prayer mat. Sharifa’s breathing became heavy and she was shocked.
Sharifa screamed “Oh, my gosh! A venomous snake, be careful aunty.”
Hearing those words, Sharifa’s aunt gave the snake a really hard whack that made a BANG!
Sharifa’s other aunt came running in and saw the snake and said softly “Is everything alright?”
“It is now that the snake is injured,” said Aunt Sakina, still waving the spoon. She then picked up the snake from its tail and threw it into the bushes outside.
Now it was time for everyone to have dinner. Sharifa was so shocked and frightened she didn’t eat the starter meal.
So one of Sharifa’s aunties said “Tell you what, because you were so brave you can have first dibs in the chicken biryani.”
That really cheered up Sharifa and she tucked heartily into her meal.
As for the snake, she didn’t know where it went. But she has never liked snakes since that day and only rarely sees them in her nightmares.
