The Empty Seat

On the first day back after half-term, there was a new girl in Halima's class.

Her name was Elif. She had just moved to town, her school jumper was too big, and she looked at the floor a lot. When the teacher asked her a question, her voice came out tiny, like a mouse hiding in a shoebox.

At lunchtime, the hall was noisy and jolly. Halima sat with her best friend Khadija, right in the middle of all the giggles and chatter. But across the hall, at the end of a long table, Elif sat completely alone. She was eating slowly and pretending to be very interested in her water bottle.

Halima felt a little tug inside her chest.

"I might go and sit with the new girl," she said quietly.

Khadija wrinkled her nose. "But you always sit with us. And we don't even know her. She's so quiet."

Halima hesitated. What if her friends thought she was strange? What if Elif didn't even want company? It would be much easier — much comfier — to stay exactly where she was.

But the tug inside her chest tugged again. She remembered what her dad often said: "Anyone can be kind when it's comfy. Good akhlaq — beautiful character — means being kind even when it's a bit hard."

Halima picked up her lunch, took a big breath, and walked across the hall.

"Is this seat taken?" she asked.

Elif looked up, surprised. "No," she whispered.

Halima sat down. Next to Elif's lunchbox was a tiny star made of folded paper, sitting on a little stack of coloured paper squares. "I'm Halima. I like your paper star. Did you make it?"

And then something wonderful happened. Elif's whole face changed, like the sun coming out from behind a raincloud. "I folded it myself," she said. "I fold stars all the time. I can make them tiny, puffy, even ones that spin like a top."

"Stars that spin?!" Halima laughed. "You have to show me."

By the end of lunch, Elif had folded a whole row of twirling paper stars. Both girls were giggling so much that Khadija came over to see what was so funny — and stayed. Elif had just needed one person to open the door.

At bedtime, Halima told her mum everything — even the wobbly part, about being scared of what her friends would think.

Her mum tucked the duvet up under Halima's chin. "Do you know what the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ said? 'The best among you are the best in character.' That means the best people aren't the fastest runners or the ones with the most stickers — they're the ones with the most beautiful character. Today, in that big noisy hall, you chose to be the one who moved."

Halima smiled into her pillow. The tug in her chest was gone. In its place was something soft and bright, like a little lamp. She knew that Allah had seen the whole thing, and with that warm glow inside her, she drifted off to sleep.