For me, it was like at first sight. According to collective wisdom, we should then have dated for several years, until like blossomed into love. Only at that point should I have proposed to her, however many years later, making way for a great big wedding. We did everything backwards, apparently, marrying quickly, before we …
Unusually for me, this evening I find myself with what we might call “certainty.” In this case, certainty that the world is nothing but an illusion. A framed wedding photo on a shelf has me reflecting on a teenage crush. One of many. This one for the American actress Julia Roberts. Just as I was graduating …
It’s funny that the way I was introduced to my wife is derided by society. For if we had met on a nightclub dance-floor, while completely inebriated, and had immediately jumped into bed together, society would have given us a pat on the back and wheezed, “Way to go!” Of course, the latter would not …
My paternal grandmother was my greatest ally in the early days of my journey along this path. Perhaps she thought I was also hers, for she was a strict Methodist who saw similarities in my way of life to hers. In any case, she was my advocate and defender then, while my relationship with the …
To the question, “How do Muslims treat women?” you will not get a definitive answer, because it all depends on the individual, their personal circumstances, their family culture and the environment in which they exist.
If I speak a lot about marriage and my beloved, it is out of gratitude and in awe. It’s not easy to find a companion and soulmate, and even if you do, there are always others who will place obstacles in your way. The half a decade before we met was a real test for …
Second thoughts on engagement, post party. I confess to be confused the following morning, because what we experienced was basically a wedding, without the marriage. There were the vast numbers of guests, the dancing, the photographs. The only thing missing was the nikah. Which begs the question: why not just get married?
You say I proposed to you, down on one knee, at the traffic lights opposite the park on West Ealing Broadway, waiting for the traffic to come to a halt. As you were thinking about it, the green man said “Go!” and you agreed with him. “Yes,” you said, and there we crossed to the …
I wish I had been — or had been able to be — more assertive years ago when others were busy dissecting my life, explaining my decisions based on mere assumptions and prejudice. It’s my fault in some sense for merely taking everything for granted. If something seems bloody obvious to me, I’m not going …
The day my middle brother learned from me that I was a Muslim, he quipped, “I look forward to meeting your four wives.” Hilarious. But I preferred my beloved’s take on that joke three years later, when she insisted on marrying me four times.
Probably in common with many people, one of my family’s hypotheses when I took up this path was that there was a girl. In their mind’s eye, I had fallen in love with a Muslim girl and had thus converted to placate her family. An amusing theory, I must say, because there was no girl …
“And among His signs is that He created for you from yourselves mates that you may find tranquility in them; and He placed between you affection and mercy. Indeed in that are signs for a people who give thought.” Quran 30:21
