Sacrifice -A Story

"Sacrifice flows through our vein, my dear. You know what Allah tested Ibrahim's faith, not his courage. That's why He Himself replaced Ismael with a lamb afterward. Maybe He is testing my faith too. My creator is a little mystical but never unkind." These were the last words of his Ammi, Rehan got to hear before getting his vision back. 

Rehan was not an inborn blind but he became one after almost a week of his birth. Aisha and Rehan had no family but each other. Aisha tried hard to bring back her son's eyesight but doctors always said that his eyes would be replaced only when he became 10. But then for this, there was a need for a huge amount of money and someone who would be kind enough to donate both of his eyes. On this Eid, Allah chuckled at them as they could manage both.

"Ammi, ammi I can see everything now. Where are you Ammi?" Rehan cried aloud as the doctor removed his bandages. 

"Your mother has left before your operation. She's not here." As the doctor said, Rehan's happiness instantly had got vanished. Rehan waited for the entire day in the hospital but Aisha didn't come to get him back. The next morning, the hospital staff informed him that his bills had already been paid and so he could leave. They also accompanied him to the address, Aisha had given them. 

The place seemed quite unfamiliar to him. This was not the place he had been living for the last ten years although materially it was better than that. A big bungalow with multiple cars parked afore the same seemed to be a dream come true. The door was opened by a lady who was in her 30s. And from thereafter, Rehan was taken care of like a son of the family by the couple. He started calling her Ammi too although she never felt like the one he used to call when he was blind. Years later, Rehan Siddique became a well-known doctor but he always kept on searching for his identity, his real mother. 

Although he got name and fame at a very young age, he always had the kindest heart, Aisha equipped him with. A fixed percentage of his income went to old-age homes and orphanages and on Eids, he himself went to donate foods and clothes to the needy. On one such Eid, his fortune again chuckled at him.

"Don't curse my son he's never done anything wrong to me." Rehan overheard someone saying as he entered the gate of the oldage home. The voice seemed familiar in fact too close to his heart. When he chased the voice, he met an old lady, not old by age but by experience. 

As he asked the caretaker about her, he told," She's been staying here for long 11 years. She's nobody but a son about whom she talks every time but doesn't like others commenting on him. Her husband left him with nothing but a burden of stepson whose mother had died after his birth. She's the angel disguised in a human body for who lights up other's world by darkening her own, I mean for the one who is not even her own son ?"

"She's an angel. You're right. Please give her double packets from the gifts I've brought today." As Rehan said, the caretaker took his pen to write her name on the packets.

"Aisha Raza." He mumbled.

"What? What did you say?"

"Yes sir, her name is Aisha Raza." Rehan couldn't believe his ears but he had to. He asked the caretaker after a long pause, "Where is her son now?"

"I don't exactly know where he lives but she left him in a well-settled family after donating her eyes who adopted him and promised to provide him everything. And yes, they also gave her money for his operation." Rehan couldn't say anything but staring at Aisha sitting a little away from him, still smiling while talking about her son.