بِسْمِ اللّهِ الرَّحْمَنِ الرَّحِيمِ
وَقُلْ جَاءَ الحَقُّ وَزَهَقَ البَاطِلُ إِنَّ البَاطِلَ كَانَ زَهُوقًا
"And say: Truth has come, and falsehood has vanished. Indeed, falsehood Is bound to vanish." — Surah Al-Isra (17:81)
The city of Lumeira floated under an artificial sky, designed to mimic constellations long erased from memory. Nothing was real. Not the stars. Not the breeze that whispered through the Core Towers. Not even the people.
Every soul within the dome was encoded—memories shaped, emotions regulated, thoughts optimized for societal harmony. They called it The Algorithm of Light, a divine program said to bring peace and eliminate suffering.
But peace built on chains was still ImprIsonment.
Nova had never seen real stars. But in the Dust Zones, she'd once read of them In a forbidden scripture, wrapped in silk and hidden in the hollow of an abandoned minaret. Her mother had whispered their names like duaa: Sirius, Vega, Altair.
"They remember us," her mother had said, placing Nova's hand over the parchment. "Even when we forget them."
Now, Nova ran. Faster than her fear. Faster than the scanners that tracked her bio-signature. Behind her, red sirens howled like digital jinn.
She slipped between shattered pillars of what used to be a mosque—its mihrab half-dissolved by data erosion. The marble tiles beneath her feet flickered between code and stone.
In her fist, she clutched the shard of something ancient.
Not a weapon.
Not even a key.
A verse.
Encrypted. Fragmented. Alive.
Meanwhile...
Malaz stood at the edge of the ForbIdden Verse, where architecture hovered in the air like frozen birds. The ruins of the Old Faith. Towering minarets suspended mid-azaan, caught between dimensions.
He wore a robe woven from memory fibers, embroidered with ayat that shimmered with hidden code. He was GuardIan of the Lost Archive, a position erased from public record.
He felt It before he heard It.
A pulse.
A ripple.
A breach.
He turned toward the west wall—and there, emerging from the smog, came a girl who shouldn't exist.
Her face was streaked with ash. Her eyes held more questions than years. And in her hand glowed the verse Malaz had spent seventeen cycles searching for.
He stepped forward, voice low and reverent.
"Where did you find it?"
Nova blinked. "It found me."
The world had shifted.
Somewhere deep within the Algorithm, something awakened. A memory the system had tried to delete. A voice unfiltered.
A prayer.
"O Allah, if You know that this matter Is good for me In my religion, my livelihood, and my end, then decree it for me..."
It echoed through the code like thunder.
And the Algorithm trembled.