"Ughh..."
Adam lay on the sand, his eyelids trembling, his vision trying to autofocus like a broken camera lens.
He blinked once and Twice then shot upright with the reflex of a student who realized he is late for the exam that decides his entire life.
"What!? Where!? The sun is setting! ALLAHU AKBAR, how long was I out!?"
His head throbbed as memories surged back in shattered flashes.
"That rune… that cursed rune… that EX-rank gacha… the doomsday glyph that looked like it wanted to delete my existence… then it entered my head like a missile, then information bombarded my already fried rotten potato brain as if a USB was shoved into my skull… and… and those enormous gates… and that voice…"
He grabbed his head with both hands from the splitting headache, his eyes were wide and his breathing was fast, the terror and the excitement of that moment is something he will never forget.
"THAT WASN'T A DREAM, RIGHT!? RIGHT!?!"
He slapped his own cheek.
SMACK THAT
"Ouch! Okay, Not a dream. YESS!!! Not a dream!"
His chest throbbed with a wild chaotic excitement, the type you get when your favorite anime character finally undergoes a transformation, or experience an intense emotional moment and unlocked a new power up… except you are the anime character this time.
"So… so the EX gacha… I actually… I ACTUALLY GOT A POWER, or a CURSE!? IT DOESN'T Mater, as long as it's supernatural, I'll take it! As they say, there's no righteous or evil power, only righteous or evil people. And I, Hantakour-Sama, will use this power for the greater good of humanity!"
He could barely sit still. His soul was vibrating. His legs were jittering.
Adam closed his eyes.
"Okay Hantakour-Sama… calm down...NO, DON'T CALM DOWN! THIS IS A SUPERPOWER!"
"BISMILLAH!"
He reached inward, toward that strange new "something" inside him.
Don't let your mind wander, he is talking about the power!!! you hear me, the power!!!
He didn't know how to summon it.
He didn't need to know.
Just like you don't know how your stomach digests food and dump it out, you just… do it.
His instincts pulled, His guts clenched.
And then...
A swirling, devouring ink-black darkness burst around his right hand. It swallowed it whole, making him look from a distance like someone missing a palm.
It's Not the darkness of shadow, But the darkness of complete absence of light, it doesn't reflect, it's pure black, darker than the dark, black than the black, nigger than the niggers.
"Ya(oh) Latif (The Gentle/Gracious One)...SUGOI!!!"
Adam's jaw dropped open.
His face broke into the most idiotic, joyful, proud grin a man has ever worn in human history.
"MOM LOOK AT YOUR SON!!! HE HAS A SUPERPOWER!!!"
Adam stared at his right hand, His heartbeat pounded in his ears in a symphony of joy, he swear he could hear it playing the overtaken ost of one piece!
He curled his fingers slowly, watching the inky black darkness shrink and expand at his will.
A laugh escaped him, A shaky, disbelieving, joy-drunk laugh.
"Heh Ha Ha...I… I FINALLY have a REAL SUPERPOWER!"
It burst out of him louder than he intended.
He fell backwards onto the sand, right hand raised, looking at it, then looking up at the sky with wide, wet eyes.
He felt like something inside his chest broke open, not painfully, but like an obsession that had formed a knot in his heart, finally that knot was opened.
"Ya Rab… after all this… after everything… Just when i thought it's impossible...I finally… I finally got one."
For a moment, he didn't move.
He just let the feeling wash over him.
A future suddenly grew in his mind, a life that wasn't pathetic, invisible, hopeless.
'With this power...A foothold… I Can have a foothold in this alien world…'
He could survive now.
Grow.
Become stronger, become richer, become a hero.
Not a nobody hiding in a junk filled coast.
Before He got the Hero system and This power, He tried hard to suppress the unease about the future, about how to survive, as a 15yo foreigner boy with no identity, homeless, poor, the future was dark, but now, he not only saw hope of surviving, but even hope of returning home.
And then...his imagination jumped straight off a cliff.
"…Wait… if I become strong… really strong…"
A slow grin spread.
"I could… I could have a halal harem, right?"
His brain immediately betrayed him.
Cat girl wife… dog girl wife… bunny girl wife…
All wearing hijab, of course.
All good Muslim alien girls.
The future Adam was imagining looked like someone fused My Hero Academia with Monster Musume and then added Islamic law to balance it.
"Bro… BRO...For some reason I don't want to return home."
His smile got stupidly wide.
"This world has so many species, I could..."
SLAP
He smacked himself so hard his cheek burned.
"ASTAGHFIRULLAH! OI! YOU UNGRATEFUL THING, YOU DARE TO THINK OF SUCH SINFUL THINGS SO SOON? YOU HAD JUST ACQUIRED THIS POWER! DON'T LET THE POWER CORRUPT YOU! DON'T FAILL IN THE TEST! I SHOULD BE GRATEFUL TO GOD FOR GIVING ME THIS POWER AND THINK OF USING IT TO DO GOOD DEEDS NOT TO FULFIL MY DIRTY DESIRES! CONTROL YOURSELF!"
He shook his head violently kicking away all the dirty thoughts, his Focus came back.
"…I shouldn't be thinking about that...at least Not now."
If his mother saw him thinking about cat-girl wives right after receiving a miracle, she would smack him into the stratosphere.
"I can't… I can't disappoint them. Not like this."
He took a deep breath, grounding himself.
Then, slowly…
A calm, proud smile formed on his lips.
"Let's test it."
His excitement began creeping back in, stronger now, but clearer.
"This is my first superpower. My FIRST!!!"
"Nega-Kun, You took my superpower V card, Yamete kudasai Nega-kun...Ahh!!! I love you Nega-Kun!"
"GAY!!!"
A sound resounded through heaven and Earth waking him up from his hentai filled excitement.
His fingers trembled.
Not because he feared the power…
Because he had waited for this feeling his entire life.
Memories clawed up from the depths of his humiliating teenage years:
Hiding in his parents bedroom, the only room that has door that can be closed, at the day, when nobody in home.
not to do something dirty, just the usual Nen training.
Performing Nen water divination with a glass cup with leaf on it, hoping the water would overflow because maybe, just maybe, he had Nen.
Practicing breathing techniques from fake qigong masters on YouTube who promised "awaken your inner Qi in five days."
doing Naruto hand signs until his wrists cramped.
He rolled on the sand, covering his face with both hands.
"What kind of idiot was I…? Wallahi, the obsession was crazy…"
The obsession became even outrageous when he discovered xianxia novels.
He had spent nights imagining himself sensing Qi, Absorbing it through self made up breathing exercises and chaotic movements.
while real life stayed painfully normal.
He wasn't different.
He wasn't special.
He was just a guy who loved anime and novels a bit too much.
But now...
Adam sat up, wiping his face.
A soft, trembling smile.
The kind that comes from the soul.
"I'm… I'm really different now."
His hand ignited again in that impossible, ink-like darkness.
He stared at it with shining eyes, the eyes of someone who had finally, finally tasted the thing they chased since childhood.
for the first time in years…
He felt alive.
Adam Looked left and right, he was surrounded by sand, sea shells, pebbles, water, he was a little bit far away from the junks area which is in his opinion the best testing ground, but he was too lazy to go back.
He randomly grabbed a pebble.
"hmm...what properities i should try this power on, According to that Voice, i can only affect physical phenomenon, so i can't do crazy sttufs like affecting causality, time, etc...,"
"A Pebble had a small weight, smooth surface, it's hard to break, oh! i got it! hardness!!!"
Finding a suitable target, Adam held the pebble in his right hand.
Focusing on the property he targeted, Hardness, he said.
"This pebble isn't hard."
The power didn't rely on words, but speaking helped him enforce his will.
The blackness seeped into the pebble, coating it completely.
Then Adam felt something being extracted from him.
"dame un Grrrrrrr...."
His already empty stomach growled like a furious beast.
as if complaining : 'You didn't even feed me and now you're stealing my hidden energy!? take this!'
A dizzying wave of hunger hit him, the kind that makes a person feel faint and weak.
He hadn't felt this hungry except when he fasted without having suhoor (suhoor is the food you eat before Adhan al fajr (dawn prayer) in order to fast the whole day till adan al maghrib (sunset prayer))
"ugh..i feel like eating a whole cow... slurp "
He wiped his dripping saliva and forced himself to ignore the hunger.
"It's just a small pebble and it consumed this much?… Or is it because I was already hungry? Well, let's see the effect...please don't let me down."
The blackness around the pebble faded.
The pebble looked normal as if nothing had changed.
But when Adam pressed it gently between his thumb and index finger…
…the pebble simply... gave up!
It didn't crack, Nor it shattered, It Just simply… collapsed, like it forgot how to be solid.
It sagged like overcooked dough, squishing outward in slow motion, slumping between his fingers as though its insides had turned into grey pudding.
The pebble's structure was still there, its atoms still together, but the rigidity, the thing that let a solid stay solid, was turned off by His negation power.
"This is… Dangerous" Adam gulped down his nervousness as he watched the shapeless blob ooze onto his palm.
He felt a chill at the thought of something like this happening to a human, it will be horrifying, disguisting, and ptsd inducing.
"that voice said, anything under the physical phenomenon i can negate it, although hardness look like an abstract concept, but it's within my authority, within my perception, touch, and understanding, that's why i can negate it."
hardness wasn't some mysterious idea. It was physical, Something you could touch and feel.
A pebble is hard because its tiny particles lock together tightly, forming a rigid structure, having Strong bonds means having Stronger resistance, That's all hardness is.
So when Adam negated "hardness,"
everything that made hardness real inside the pebble
every little force, every tiny bond, was turned off.
Like removing the beams from a house.
The house doesn't explode.
It just collapses.
And the pebble did exactly that.
"But I doubt if it gonna work on conceptual Hardness, Like Hard Times, Hard Heart, Hard feelings, or Hard Excalibur, NO... probably it will work, it is still physical! DAMN, don't think about it, just the thought about it sent chills running through my spin... but i doubt about the others, as they either fall under abstract concepts or spiritual phenomenon."
Adam flicked the mushy grey lump off his fingers.
"…well, I don't think i have the energy to do other experiments, let's go hunt for food now."
As much as he wanted to experiment more with his new power, Adam understood his priority. If he dared to use it again now, he would end up in a dire situation, no energy to hunt for food, and possibly dying from starvation.
"I remember seeing a fishing net… I hope it's still usable."
Adam stood up and walked toward the junk area.
"BANG!!!"
The sound of a huge explosion reached Adam's ears.
"Damn!!! Explosion? I just got a superpower and now they're gonna put a terrorist label on me if they catch me!"
Adam followed the direction of the explosion and saw a black cloud rising into the sky.
"This world isn't peaceful at all… as expected of this alien Japanese superpowered world. Almost like the anime I used to watch. Japan being the center of conflict as always. Well, it has nothing to do with me. I just want to eat something to fill my stomach, train my ability, and until I can deploy a defensive barrier that negates any damage around me, I won't leave this safe zone!"
Adam was about to continue on his way, only to notice something supernatural happening.
"Titan woman?! SO BIGGG!!!" Adam's eyes almost popped out of their sockets. He saw a female titan growing in size until she reached the height of buildings, running straight toward the explosion area.
Even from afar, he could hear the impact of her footsteps shaking the ground.
"Wait… why does she look familiar…"
Adam closed his left eye, it had astigmatism, and opening both reduced his sharpness. He used only his right eye and pressed his fingers around it to shrink the viewing area and increase clarity.
The titan woman had blonde hair and wore a purple, beige–white hero costume with a mask that covered her eyes and formed purple horns on her head.
Adam rubbed his eyes in disbelief.
"No… she can't be… no way… she's just in an anime… yeah, just a resemblance… no way I'm in an anime…"
Adam looked back at the junk area and recalled the familiar feeling he always had, that strange sense of déjà vu that bothered him but he could never pinpoint.
DING
[Incident requiring heroic intervention detected.
Collecting environmental data…
Scanning…
User's hero level too low for full analysis.
Cross-referencing user's interdimensional knowledge…
Match confirmed.
Issuing mission.]
{ MISSION : RESCUE BAKUGO KATSUKI }
Difficulty: E
Description:
Bakugo Katsuki, classified as a high-potential hero candidate with projected A-Rank ceiling. has been taken hostage by a villain possessing a sludge-based quirk. The villain is attempting to forcibly assimilate Bakugo and acquire his quirk.
If successful, projected threat scaling:
Short-term: District-level
Mid-term: City-level
Long-term: National-level
Your objective is to prevent this outcome by rescuing Bakugo.
Additional Data:
• Multiple Pro Heroes detected on-site.
• All Might, One Of The Strongest Heroes in this world is present, overall risk drastically reduced.
• User possesses an Ex rank ability with cross-level combat potential.
• User's physical condition: below average.
• User's current state: severe hunger, low energy reserves.
→Punishment exempted.
Reward: 1000 Merits — 1000 Exp
Punishment: None (user condition classified as critical).
As if to confirm his worst suspicion, the Hero System drove the final nail into doubt.
For a long moment, Adam simply existed, frozen in place, as if the world around him had been dunked into cold water.
"MT.LADY… Bakugo Katsuki… All Might…
These heroes… this place… this junk beach…"
Adam's voice cracked.
"This is…
This is..."
The words tore themselves out of his throat:
"MY HERO ACADEMIA!!!"
It hit him like a bolt of divine punishment, sudden, merciless, impossible to dodge.
His mind was trying and failing to process a truth too big to fit inside a normal human brain.
He stared at the shoreline, at the trail of debris.
Names he had only ever heard through a screen pressed into his consciousness with a weight he wasn't ready for.
They weren't drawings or pixels or lines of dialogue anymore. They were real, breathing, shouting, casting shadows under a blood-orange sky.
His chest tightened, For a heartbeat he was convinced something in him had cracked, like a thin glass wall that had protected his understanding of reality his entire life had finally shattered.
"Nothing...nothing...made sense..."
This was a fictional work. an anime he watched and liked. Characters he loved and desired to become like them or have their ability, Fanfictions about them he made at night. Not a place you could wake up in, barefoot on a beach that smelled of rust and salt and sour garbage.
And yet… here it stood around him, Solid, Unyielding.
"Ya Rab, What's happening to me?!!"
His stomach twisted sharply. He felt off-balance, as if the world had tilted a few degrees and left him scrambling for footing.
"How is this happening? How can they be real? What does that make everything I knew? My world? My life? Was any of it… less real than this?"
The thought hit him so hard he staggered. His heart pounded in his chest, too fast, too loud, like it wanted to punch a hole through his ribs. A hot pressure gathered behind his eyes, not quite tears, not quite panic, but something raw.
He ran a trembling hand through his hair. His scalp tingled. His whole body felt too light, too fragile, as if a strong breeze might blow him right out of existence.
"Am I dreaming?"
"Am I in a coma somewhere? Lying in a hospital bed while my brain cooks up the most ridiculous fantasy possible?"
His thoughts began to run wild, too fast, too tangled to sort, like horses bolting in every direction at once.
"There has to be an explanation. There must be. Things don't just… turn fictional worlds real."
But every theory that rose in his mind felt more ridiculous than the last, and yet, because of the sand beneath his toes, the weight of the air in his lungs, they also felt terrifyingly plausible.
"Maybe this is a test," he muttered under his breath, pacing a shaky half-step in the sand. "Some kind of trial…?"
"Could it be… the antichrist trial? but could he create a world like this? One with physics, hunger, wind, people, smoke… everything!! Could I really be walking inside an illusion built to trap me? some kind of simulation? could it be that vaccine probably ingested something that tampered with my brain?"
The idea scared him more because it had an answer he didn't like:
Yes, Possibly.
He squeezed his eyes shut, but the moment he opened them again, the skyline still looked like one lifted straight out of an anime.
His chest tightened further.
"Or… maybe the scientific theories are right. Parallel worlds. Infinite branches of reality. Maybe the so-called 'fictional' worlds are just echoes, signals bleeding through from worlds running parallel to ours."
He swallowed hard. The thought tasted wrong, Frightening, Too big to sum up in the sentence he said.
"What if anime isn't fiction at all? What if it's… information leaking from one universe to another? Maybe artists are just tuning into those worlds without realizing. Maybe we_are the fiction to someone else. Maybe…" His voice cracked. "Maybe my whole life, my struggles, my prayers, my hopes for the future, are just… a story someone else is consuming. A way for another world to pass time."
His pulse thudded in his ears.
"And what if I'm not even real?" he whispered. "Just a character someone made up to fulfill a wish. Just like how I wrote fanfictions for fun… "
The possibility hollowed him out from the inside.
A cold, sinking weight filled his stomach, heavier than any fear he'd felt in his life.
The more he tried to make sense of it, the worse it became.
Reality twisted into shapes that hurt just to hold in his head.
He pressed a hand to his chest as if steadying himself against the pressure building beneath his ribs.
"No… don't do this," he breathed shakily. "Don't fall apart, Don't lose yourself!!!"
But his mind kept spinning, refusing to grant him solid ground, it kept generating possibilities that made him feel smaller and smaller in a universe that suddenly seemed too large, too strange, too indifferent.
He forced his eyes shut. Dug his heels deeper into the sand as if anchoring himself physically could anchor him mentally too.
"No," he breathed. "No. Adam! Don't go there! Don't lose yourself!"
'Home.'
The thought rose like a hand reaching through dark water.
Morocco, His neighborhood, His mother's cooking, The warmth of his real bed, The world he lived in, cried in, laughed in.
"That's real. It has to be real. I refuse to believe otherwise."
His breathing slowed, just slightly, Enough to stop the freefall.
"Even if this is a dream," he murmured, "even if it's a coma, a hallucination, a test, I'm not letting it rewrite me. I'm Adam Al Hantakour. I come from my world. And I'm going back to it."
The words steadied him. Not perfectly, his hands still shook, but they planted something firm inside him. A line he wouldn't let this world cross.
"I'll treat this place as real for now," he said, lifting his head. "But I'm not staying. I'm not becoming someone else. I'll find a way home."
And though the chaos of the city continued unabated, the storm inside him calmed just enough for him to stand without swaying, frightened, shaken, but still himself.
Adam dragged the back of a hand across his forehead, and the gesture felt heavy, a confession of how little strength he had left.
Deep in his core, the earlier, paralyzing fear, the one that asked what is real, still lurked, a cold, sunken weight pressing against his ribs.
He felt it, recognized it, then ruthlessly shoved it down.
He layered denial over it, blanketed that with forced optimism, and cemented the whole messy pile with the pure, driven cement of desperation.
'Focus.'
The voice in his head was tight and sharp.
'One step. Just the next step! don't overthink!'
If this world is actually real, then the only option was to grab the cards he'd been dealt and play the hand.
He inhaled a shaky, deliberate lungful of the grimy air.
A thin, utterly unconvincing smile split his cracked, dry lips. The sight probably looked pathetic, but it felt like a tiny victory.
"Okay… okay, look at the bright side," he rasped, the words catching in his throat. He forced his body forward, into a shuffle that he desperately pretended was a run. It was a stubborn, hungry fast-walk, but his mind clung to the lie.
"I've seen the anime. Read the manga. I know the villains, the storylines, the major disasters. Meta-knowledge equals meta-advantage!"
Even as exhaustion tried to drag him into the pavement, his brain spun like a runaway engine, processing data.
'One for All. All for One, Future incidents, Those are all precious intelligence, If I prepare for the future now, I can clear heroic missions like a speedster!'
BOOOOOOMMMMMM
The sound of explosions resounded again. Bakugo was still resisting assimilation by the Sludge Villain with all his might. Due to nervousness, anxiety, and the life-threatening situation, his body was secreting sweat like never before, which only made his explosions more dangerous.
A cruel curl of black smoke, sharp and undeniable, spiked into the blue distance.
"Explodo-Boy, keep struggling! I'm coming! I need you alive so All Might notices my heroism and gives me a house! I swear you will be my hero, you will save me from sleeping inside the fridge!"
Adam pushed harder, ignoring the fiery protest in his ribs.
'This mission… if I nail this, it's my breakthrough, My foothold in this world.'
'I need All Might's favor. That's the only legitimate key to practice heroism in this whole damned society.'
His mind continued its frantic calculation, building towering plans upon dreams that were piled high over the bedrock of stark fear.
'The Hero System will issue me missions that needs heroic acts. Defeating Villains, nullifying dangers, saving people from incidents, etc...But the problem is, using 'quirks' without a license is a one-way ticket to prison. Vigilantes get hunted by authorities and heroes, what a waste of resources.'
'Self-defense here is just a crime in disguise.'
'So, the only path is to get a Pro Hero license.'
'To get that, I need to join a Hero Academy.'
'To get into the hero Academy, I need an identity.'
And right now? He was the ghost of Uchiha. No passport, no records, no family.
If he walked into a police station and told them: konishowa minasan, I'm Adamo Al Hantakouro-sama, Niceoo to meeto yoo, ore wa Amnesia-kun, and foundo myselfo hereow without knowing how...giveo me wader please!
there is 90% he would be arrested and interrogated, 9% to be deported back to The Morocco of this world, 1% to get sliced up on a lab table. or worse, Maybe all four!
He shivered at this possibility.
'I need a backer, A real one, A colossal, untouchable umbrella! Someone whose name alone makes the storm clouds panic and run.'
In his mind, the umbrella shimmered… then sprouted muscles… then turned blond… then flexed.
A towering All Might appeared inside his imagination, teeth sparkling, cape billowing despite there being no wind.
"Fear not, Adam-shōnen! You ask 'why?'
Because… I! AM! HERE!"
Adam's heart surged with hope.
'All Mightooo… my walking, talking government-paperwork-deleting umbrella!'
'The Symbol of Peace, His reputation alone could erase my identity problem. And if I impress him… he could put a word in for me at U.A.'
'One Detroit Smash from him and boom, my problems? Solved. My future? Launched, My homelessness arc? Deleted!!!"
His feet, driven by pure possibility instead of actual energy, finally picked up speed.
'Midoriya did it quirkless, and i have a bug tier power, and I've got the script! I'll be the one to save Explodo-boy first!'
He visualized the moment: the Sludge Villain thrashing, Bakugo suffocating, the Pros frozen, the crowd screaming. And then, him... Adam Al Hantakour-sama. Leaping in, his own power unleashed, the negation-force tearing through the sludge like divine judgment.
He Will Strike A cool, silent pose. An utterly calm expression, News cameras will be capturing every single frame.
'All Might won't even need to transform'
a proud, tiny laugh escaping him.
'I'll finish the job quickly. Then I'll just… quietly walk away, AllMight will probably follow me, I'll Pretend it was pure instinct. Something like, 'My legs moved on their own.' Hehehe.'
The grin stretched wider, sharp with cunning.
'He'll be so shocked, he'll have no choice but to like me."
A dreamy glaze covered his eyes.
'Maybe he'll even offer me One for All…'
he shock his head at this idea.
'No. No, no, keep it with Midoriya. I'm not staying forever. If I vanish from this world, OFA might vanish with me. It needs to stay here.'
He stumbled back into motion.
'But even if All Might sticks to the original plot, even if he didn't follow me, it doesn't matter! I'll make an impression today. Later, when he meets Midoriya at the Beach, they'll find me, the Poor pathetic me. Hungry, homeless me, resting between piles of trash. They'll pity me. I'll play the amnesia card, 'I woke up here and remember nothing.' Boom! adopted, and everything solved! that's how it happens in most of the novels i read, it should also happen to me, probably...i hope nothing racist happen just because i'm Moroccan and Muslim Boy.'
His eyes sparkled with the sheer brilliance of the manipulation.
He clenched a weak, trembling fist.
'Let's go. I'm tired… starving… but I'll go Plus Ultra! For the sake of not sleeping inside the freezer! For my dreams! For U.A.! For my future!'
And then, with a jarring, manic energy that came from nowhere, his grand monologue completely derailed.
'For my crushes, Momo-shwan, Ashido-shwan, Jiro-shwan, Invisible Girl-shwan, Tsuyu-shwan, your Hantakour-sama is coming!'
He pumped that fist at the sky, a hero of his own mental landscape.
---
Sheikh SaikiKusu Time: A Reality Check from the Trenches
I know, I know. You just finished a chapter, and you're probably itching to click "Next" to see what happens to the protagonist. But before you do, I need to share something personal with you, something that's been keeping me up at night lately.
For the past few months, I've been living with this heavy, constant awareness of death. It sounds dark, I know, but it's been visceral. There have been nights where I've woken up suddenly, my heart racing, shouting "La ilaha illa Allah" at the top of my lungs because, in that split second, I felt like the end was here.
The truth is, guys... we aren't ready.
I'm going to be brutally honest with you. I've had moments where I tried to test my own endurance. I took a simple lighter and tried to touch the flame. I couldn't even bring myself to get close. Then, I tried to take a shower with the water just a little too hot, and I'm not even going to lie to you, I screamed like a girl.
It hit me then: If I can't stand a hot shower or a tiny flicker of a lighter for a single second, how on earth can I, or any of us, stand the Fire of the Hereafter for even a nano-second?
We spend so much time being "greedy" for Jannah, but we live like we've already secured our spot. We stack up sins like they're nothing, while our good deeds are few and far between. If we enter Jannah, let's be real: it won't be because we "earned" it with our efforts. It will be solely due to the overwhelming Mercy of Allah.
I'm not telling you this to be a buzzkill. I read these novels too, I love the escape. But we have to wake up to reality. We are living in a world of "escapism" while an eternal life is waiting for us just behind a very thin veil.
Read your stories. Have your fun. But have balance.
Don't let the fictional worlds make you forget the real one. Don't let your "Hassanat" (merits) be outweighed by the hours spent ignoring your purpose. We are wasting so much time, and the "Game Over" screen of this life doesn't give you a chance to restart.
Before you scroll to the next chapter, just stop. Look at your life for a minute. If you were to wake up tonight and it was the end, would you be okay with what you're leaving behind?
I'm only telling you this because I've been in your shoes, and I don't want you to fall into the same traps I did. I want to see all of you in Jannah, sharing stories better than any novel we've ever read here.
Take a breath. Acknowledge Him. Then, go ahead and read, but keep your heart awake