{"id":683,"date":"2021-10-10T17:51:03","date_gmt":"2021-10-10T12:21:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thetoad.in\/?p=683"},"modified":"2021-10-10T17:52:21","modified_gmt":"2021-10-10T12:22:21","slug":"hasan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thetoad.in\/index.php\/2021\/10\/10\/hasan\/","title":{"rendered":"Hasan"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mrs. Shahid wakes up before dawn, with the first call by a Muezzin from the green masjid her modest house shares its fence with.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

This is her routine.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

She freshens up, lays out her prayer rug, and facing west, the direction of the holy Kaa\u2019ba, begins her morning prayer.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Hassan tiptoes out of the bed after his mother and sits quietly watching her pray and recite the Holy Qur\u2019an.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
Illustration by: Neha Kumari<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cWhat does it say, Ammi?\u201d he asks.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

His question brings Mrs. Shahid a smile.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt asks us to be kind,\u201d she answers, without shifting her focus from the holy book.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Hasan says nothing, his silence that of a man trying to absorb what he just heard, not of the 4-year-old he is.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

When Hasan leaves for his school later in the morning, he sees a dog with her four newborn pups. The same stray dog his mother used to feed their family\u2019s food leftovers.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The dogs hide behind a box by the fence of Hasan\u2019s house.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

But when he returns from school in the afternoon, he sees only three bitterly crying pups.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

He rushes inside to tell Mrs. Shahid.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhere do you think the dog and the fourth pup go?\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Mrs. Shahid looks outside the window.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHere,\u201d she calls Hasan.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe dog is returning to the pups. But there is no sign of the fourth.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

As they watch and wonder, the dog takes one more of her pups in mouth and walks away.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI think she is taking them somewhere safer,\u201d says Mrs. Shahid.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cLet us go play now.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Hasan doesn\u2019t move an inch.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

He stays there, his eyes fixated on the box, watching the dog return every fifteen minutes to take her pups one by one to safety.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAmmi, I want to see where she took them. Will you take me?\u201d Hasan tells his mother.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSurely.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Happy, Hasan embraces his mother.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThank you.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

He takes her hand, as she leads him to the spot where they find the dog with her four pups safe inside a hollow log on a barren piece of land.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

They see no houses in close proximity to the dogs\u2019 new shelter, so, obviously, there shall be less food for them.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The dog recognises Mrs. Shahid, who understands the look in her eyes.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cShall we go now?\u201d she says.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYes, mother.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

They merrily walk back home.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Hasan gets busy playing and doing his homework.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Mrs. Khalid cooks supper and calls everyone to eat.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Hasan narrates the tale of the dog and her pups to his father, while they eat.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

After they are done, Mrs. Shahid packs the leftover band bones read in a steel box.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cLet us go, Hasan,\u201d she says.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhere?\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cTo be kind to the dogs hiding in that log.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Hasan smiles, as they walk hand in hand towards the barren land.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mrs. Shahid wakes up before dawn, with the first call by a Muezzin from the green masjid her modest house shares its fence with. This is her routine. She freshens up, lays out her prayer rug, and facing west, the direction of the holy Kaa\u2019ba, begins her morning prayer. Hassan tiptoes out of the bed…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":611,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[16,205,202,12,11,8,36,203,204,206],"class_list":["post-683","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stories","tag-amusing","tag-dog","tag-hasan","tag-inspiring-tales","tag-kashmir","tag-kids-stories","tag-kindness","tag-koran","tag-muslim","tag-pup","enable-dropcap"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetoad.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/683"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetoad.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetoad.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetoad.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetoad.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=683"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thetoad.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/683\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetoad.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/611"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetoad.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetoad.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetoad.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}