*Chapter 5 — Warning from Mentor* The mosque courtyard was quiet in the late afternoon, the shadows stretching across the tiled floor. Children’s laughter still echoed faintly from the classrooms, but most of them had gone home. Leilani sat with her back against a pillar, knees hugged to her chest, her hijab a little loose from the day’s heat. She had come here to find silence, but instead she found Ustaz Hamid watching her with his gentle, knowing eyes. “Your heart is heavy,” he said, not as a question, but as a fact. Leilani lowered her gaze. She had not confessed everything, not in detail. Yet somehow, Ustaz always seemed to sense what weighed her down. He didn’t pry; he simply waited, giving her space to speak—or not speak. Finally, in a voice barely louder than a whisper, she admitted, “Sometimes I feel like I’m failing Allah… even in secret.” The Ustaz leaned back, fingers tracing the prayer beads in his hand. “Do you know what our beloved Prophetﷺ told us?” His voice was ca...