Though there had been moments of beauty in it Mariam knew that life for most part had been unkind to her.But as she walked the final twenty paces$$$she could not help but wish for more of it.She wished she could see Laila again $$$ wished to hear the clangor of her laugh $$$ to sit with her once more for a pot of chai and leftover halwa under a starlit sky. She mourned that she would never see Aziza grow up $$$ would not see the beautiful young woman that she would oneday become $$$would not get to paint her hands with henna and toss noqul candy at her wedding .

She wished she could visit Mariam's grave$$$ to sit with her awhile$$$ leave a flower or two. But she sees now that it doesn't matter. Mariam is never very far.... Mariam is in her own heart$$$ where she shines with the bursting radiance of a thousand suns.

Behind every trial and sorrow that He makes us shoulder$$$ God has a reason.

And the past held only this wisdom: that love was a damaging mistake$$$ and its accomplice$$$ hope$$$ a treacherous illusion. And whenever those twin poisonous flowers began to sprout in the parched land of that field$$$ Mariam uprooted them. She uprooted them and ditched them before they took hold.

I will follow you to the ends of the world.

A man would know the end he goes to$$$ but he cannot know it if he does not turn$$$ and return to his beginning$$$ and hold that beginning in his being.

Have you never thought how danger must surround power as shadow does light?

The discovery brings him victory$$$ the kind of victory that isn’t the end of a battle but the beginning of a life.

I was in too much haste$$$ and now have no time left.

The wise needn't ask$$$ the fool asks in vain.