Launin Fata Book Three Complete Hausa Novel

Almost jokingly, he asked me, “What are their names?”

I told him the names of the Alhaji, the Hajiya and the other members of the family whose names I still remembered.

Suddenly, he covered his mouth in astonishment and said, “Subhanallah! These are exactly the people I am travelling to visit.”

“The Alhaji Abdulkarim you are talking about is currently ill, and I am going there to visit him. More surprisingly, he is the younger brother of the father of your son-in-law, Mujahid, the husband of your daughter Nabila.”

“Alhaji Abdulkarim and Mujahid’s father, Muhammadu Nuraddin, were born to the same mother and father.”

“Business was what took Mujahid’s father to Egypt. While there, he married Mujahid’s mother and eventually settled there while continuing to manage his businesses, just as Alhaji Abdulkarim came to Kano because of business and later settled here.”

I was so stunned by the revelation that I could not speak.

I remembered all those years I had spent desperately searching for a way to find Rabi’a, not knowing that I had been living so close to people connected to her all along.

That was the reason I wasted no time before travelling here together with Alhaji Mukhtar.

Baba Muhammad turned toward Hajiya Rabi’a, Nabila’s mother, around whom the entire story revolved. Her head was lowered as she quietly wiped tears from her eyes.

He said, “Rabi’a, please, for the sake of Allah, forgive me…”

She raised her head and interrupted him.

“I forgave you a long time ago,” she said. “You are not worth carrying hatred for in my heart anymore. From the morning you arrived in this house until this very moment, there has been nothing between us except prayers for goodness.”

“Thank you, Rabi’a,” Baba Muhammad replied. “Today is the day I will finally find peace of mind.”

He then looked at Nabila, who was seated beside him.

“This is your mother, Rabi’a. Go and greet her.”

Nabila immediately refused.

“I am not going, Baba. You know very well that I did not enter this house willingly. Please do not force me to do something that will hurt my heart.”

She stood up and began pulling his hand.

“Get up. Let us leave this house. I do not want to stay here.”

Baba Muhammad said, “Be patient, Nabila. Listen to your mother.”

“A mother holds the highest position in the life of the child she gives birth to. Even if a woman gave birth to her child and abandoned that child immediately without breastfeeding or caring for them, the child would still owe her respect because of her position as a mother.”

“Do not hurt your mother over something that was not even her fault. And even if she had been at fault, you should still listen to what she has to say.”

Nabila’s resistance weakened.

She sat back down, placed her head on Baba Muhammad’s lap and began to cry. She was overwhelmed by pity for herself and everything she had endured.

Everyone in the living room was deeply affected by Nabila’s crying, but no one was more disturbed than Mujahid.

His heart was already filled with pain, yet he still did not fully understand where the entire story was leading because he had never heard Nabila’s complete history.

Most importantly, he still did not understand why Nabila had told him that their relationship was over.

Rabi’a stood up and approached them. She knelt beside Nabila, gently pulled her into her arms and hugged her tightly.

“Please forgive me, Nabila,” she said.

“I know you must be deeply hurt by me. You probably believe that I deliberately refused to come and visit you all these years, but that is not what happened.”

“Even though you have never given birth yourself, I believe you understand that no mother carries a child inside her womb and then willingly chooses to hate that child.”

“Even if the child had been born outside marriage, a mother would still feel something for that child, let alone a child born legitimately within marriage.”

“My father was the one who ordered me to return you to your father’s family. His reason was that he could no longer allow me to remain in his house while keeping you with me.”

“I handed you over because I believed I had to obey him, not because my heart wanted to give you away.”

“I prayed to Allah to place you in the hands of people who would protect you, show you mercy and take care of your life.”

“I made that prayer sincerely between myself and Allah because I knew that nothing happens outside the will of the Almighty.”

“Despite the hatred your father’s family had for me, despite the painful way we separated, and despite everything that happened between me and Baba Muhammad, Allah still accepted my prayer.”

“Allah placed love and compassion for you in Baba Muhammad’s heart.”

“Even the women in that house, whom I feared might transfer their hatred for me onto you and make your life miserable, were unable to harm you because they feared the man who eventually became like a father to you — Muhammad.”

“Nobody dared to touch you because of him.”

“Even if your biological father and I had both been there with you, we might not have been able to give you the kind of protection he gave you because we did not have the strength or influence to stand against those people.”

“So I thank Allah for allowing things to happen that way. Even for that reason alone, I have no choice but to forgive Muhammad.”

“After we left Kano and came to this country, there was a reason I still did not come back to see you.”

“I knew that I might not find you living under the kind of conditions I wanted for you.”

“I feared that if I came and found you suffering, it would push me into even greater emotional pain than the suffering I was already carrying.”

“Wallahi, Nabila, only I truly know the terrible pain I went through because I could not see you throughout all those years.”

“I also knew that no matter what condition I found you in, I would still have to force myself to leave you there.”

“Because if I had brought you back with me, my father would never have allowed me to continue living with you in his house.”

“That was the reason I forced myself to stay away and refused to come and see you.”

“But there was never a single day you disappeared from my heart.”

“You were always in my dreams, and you were always inside my heart.”