The Ideal Husband

By Ayn Mawaddat (Zainab Shahzad)

"Your wife has a dirty past. Ask her to reveal the truth." Emaan's mother yelled in anger.

Emaan sat silently glancing at his wife who was spilling tears in embarrassment. His mother's words triggered bouts of pain like a whip lashing across his heart.

He turned to his mother and replied with utmost respect, "Ammy, I understand there must be an urgency for you to bring up this matter this way, but our wedding has been a tedious affair. And right now nothing's more important to me than your food, medicine and rest for the night."

Emaan's mother was boiling in anger. She'd already overworked herself to plan her son's perfect wedding. She couldn't contain her enthusiasm and excitement over her son's approval to her choice of daughter-in-law and ensured all the ceremonies be an extremely grand affair.

Now that the newly wedded bride had just stepped into the house she discovered she got her son married to a lady who's had an affair in the past. She immediately regretted her choice and accused her daughter-in-law of a blotted character.

"No son, this matter isn't petty enough to be adjourned until tomorrow. I arranged your marriage to her and now I entitle you to end it right away if you will because I don't want a woman of degraded character to be the mother of our lineage." Emaan's mother raged.

Iraya cried silently. She wanted to refute in defense but she knew the bitterness in her mother-in-law's tongue could incite anger in her tone which would aggravate the situation further. She looked at Emaan with a heavy heart, her eyes yielding guilt and pleading help.

Emaan took off his headdress, the flowers of which were still fresh and fragrant, went to his mother, held her hand and walked her to the couch. He made her comfortably seated and offered a glass of water.

He sat close to her feet, folded his hands and said softly, "Ammy as much as I love you, I've held in high regards your upbringing and never forgotten any of the lessons you've imparted so far. From among those moral values one of it I remember is to not judge anyone on the basis of accusations. My pretty Ammy jaan give me some time to fix this situation. Any haste that leads to a regretful outcome will hold me accountable to Allah on the day of judgement."

Emaan's mother was in tears witnessing her son's calm and maturity. Yet she claimed she had substantial evidence to back her up on her claim. She'd inadvertently answered the last call on Iraya's cell phone, in which the caller confessed his love for Iraya and his intentions to marry her.

Iraya'd had enough. She resisted for a very long time, accusations that ideally she had counterarguments to. Her silence and respect was being mistreated and she felt if not now she wouldn't ever be able to defend herself later. Besides, her ideology was her past was her business alone. What she endured and what she enjoyed wasn't anybody else's concern to put a question mark to.

Wiping her tears and moderating her anger, she exclaimed, "Maa you don't know the entire truth. With all the proof you hold against me, you've not heard my side of the story and I request you to not belittle me without knowing what I've to say."

She walked up to Emaan and sat facing him. She wiped her nose and sobbed out, "Emaan, do you recall I would try to meet you personally, I often tried to discreetly confess everything, my intention was to not to keep you in the dark but each time I tried, you know some intervention wouldn't let me bring it up. I still want you to know...."

Even before Iraya could complete her statement, Emaan interrupted immediately, "I know."

The two women stared intently at Emaan, his mother felt shocked to hear that her son already knew that she'd now known.

Iraaya turned red with fear and embarrassment. As much of a shock it was to her, she also felt an immediate wave of relief, knowing her husband was informed of her past.

Emaan continued to explain, "I know you tried and I even know you wanted to confess something that would rip my heart and hence I endeavoured to let your past stay in the past."

"Ammy jaan, I've respected your decisions and your choices always. And I'll continue to respect and be supportive of your upcoming decisions as well, but ammy now that I'm married, I'm divided between the responsibility of being a son and a husband and in order to be respectful of one I don't want to be unjust to another."

"I married Iraya at your will, but even long before you finalised her as my wife, I vowed to myself to never question her over a period of life that's already passed. I have no authority over her loyalty to me in the stage of life when I wasn't a part of it. Likewise, now that she represents my other half I will adore the loyalty she pledges to me.

And as long as she has the courage to not let her past affect her present, I'll by all means stand by her as her pillar of strength. She may not be the Iraya that she was in naivety, and what she's now is the Iraya that I will admire as the mother of my child.

The Iraya I know of possesses the strength of faith and her intensity of worship draws me towards the Divine. I don't know about her flaws or the sins she's committed since I'm not it's witness, what I've witnessed is the way she connects to God. In her company, I feel magnetically pulled towards the supremacy of our faith and perhaps escape materialism."

"My dear ammy jaan, as you say it's all about perspective. If I change my perspective I see the same person differently."

Emaan looked at his mother and gestured if she wanted to say something. She smiled all the while listening to her son, contemplating her success as a mother. It was time for her to accept her role of intervention and decision-making in her son's life needed to take a back seat.

She affectionately glided her hand across her son's hair, blessed him and stood up. She looked at her daughter-in-law who couldn't get her eyes off her son and said, "In Emaan I see the reflection of my father. Be loyal and loving to him always. Count on me to apologise tomorrow. I leave you two to enjoy the beginning of a new chapter of your life tonight.

Enthralled by the way her husband elevated her character in her own eyes, she didn't know how to respond to what her mother-in-law just said. She kept nodding not realising the statement of apology was a pun.

Now that it was only the two of them, she admired her husband like no other man in her life, not even her father. Her dilemma now, unlike before, wasn't if she would fall for him or no, it was if she would be able to repay the kindness with interest now that she felt indebted to him for life.

For all she knew, if she connected him to the divine sense of worship, he connecte

d her to the divine meaning of humanity.

By Ayn Mawaddat (Zainab Shahzad)