Chapter 1 — The Noise Within
By all visible measures, Salma was doing well.
Her routines were polished. Her work was steady. Her smile arrived exactly when expected. But the mind beneath that order had become a room she no longer wanted to enter.
Every quiet moment filled with noise: regrets replayed, future fears multiplied, old mistakes sharpened into accusations.
One night, after isha, she sat on the floor beside her bed and whispered the only honest dua she had left.
"Ya Allah, I am tired of fighting myself."
The admission did not fix anything. But it marked the first moment she stopped pretending she did not need peace.