A Muslim's Romantic Journey

Chapter 3.

Safia's POV

"Safia!" Uncle Yahya, Hafsa's dad, called as Hafsa and I were acting out Rapunzel in my room. I had my long hair dangling down the side of the bed whilst Hafsa pretended to climb up. These were the kinds of things Hafsa and I did. At least it helped us refrain from backbiting. The first time uncle Yahya asked me about Abubakar and not Hafsa, I was really surprised. Hafsa was only a year younger than me. It was probably because Hafsa had made it clear that she didn't want to get married until I did. So far, only Hafsa, Aisha and I knew about uncle's suggestion of marrying Abubakar. That was about to change.

"Come in!" I said to my uncle while Hafsa and I quickly sat up on the bed and pretended to talk like normal adults should.

"Guess what?" He said looking very pleased. My uncle may have been my father's brother and best friend's dad, approaching the age of 40, but he felt more like a brother to me. Hamza walked in behind him. "I talked to Abubakar." He said. My eyes widened. Uncle had talked to Abubakar already? So he was really serious? "Well, Abubakar's family but same thing, right?" His family? That was even more serious. I froze trying to process what my uncle was saying. Although I had been fantasizing about this marriage suggestion, I thought my uncle was bluffing. I thought he was making plans that he wouldn't keep, like he always does.

"You spoke to Abubakar's family about what?" Hamza asked.

"About Safia's marriage. What do you think?"  

"Abubakar and Safia?” Hamza asked, astonished. “Uh oh.” That didn’t sound good. "Er, Safia... I need to talk to you." I looked over at Hafsa who looked very confused. Hamza motioned for me to follow him. I had a bad feeling. Maybe he was going to tell me something bad about Abubakar. I hope not. I followed him to his room.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"Why didn't anyone tell me about Abubakar?" He asked angrily.

"I'm sorry, I didn't even know it was this serious."

"I can't believe you didn't tell me." I could see Hamza was hurt. I felt guilty.

"I really wasn't hiding it or anything, I just didn't think it was worth mentioning."

"Oh so Uncle goes to speak to someone's family about marrying you off to their son and you think it's not worth mentioning?" Now I was getting a little frustrated.

"Look, I didn't think it was serious! You know what uncle's like. He said he was going to take me ice skating two weeks ago and now he's forgotten."

"Yeah, ice skating and marriage are the same thing." He said sarcastically. I glared at him.

"Whatever. Why did you say uh oh?" Hamza stood silent for a while. Then he smiled and I knew our argument was over.

"Okay, I'll tell you even though you didn't tell me about Abubakar." He pouted. I could tell he was just joking now. "You know that guy that came today... Mum’s friend’s son…"

"The guy with the brown beard?"

"Yeah. His name's Yusuf."

"Yeah?"

"And you know, ages ago, you told me to look for a husband for you..."

"Yeah...?" I think I knew where this conversation was leading to.

"He kinda expressed some interest in you..." What? Brown beard, I mean Yusuf, expressed interest in me? "And I gave him my number. I thought he'd be good for you." I was speechless. "I didn't know about Abubakar." He sounded defensive. "I'm sorry."

"Why?" I asked shocked that someone was interested in me. Me!

"I dunno. I... don't know."

"So you have no idea why he sounded interest in me."

"Oh that! I thought you were asking why I was sorry." I smiled a little. A lot of the time, I felt like I was older than Hamza's. "He was impressed by what you're studying and the uni you go to and he liked your food." I felt so flattered! I asked Hamza for every detail on what happened and every word he said.

"Is he cute?" I asked him when he finished.

"Didn't you see him?"

"No, I'm not a perv... Unless it's a celebrity..." I started to feel guilty about how in The Vampire Diaries, my eyes were always on Damon. Unless he was shirtless, then I closed my eyes to avoid the fitnah (temptation). I'm not that much of a pervert. Hamza gave me a suspicious look.

"Yeah, he's good looking, I guess."

"But does he know that?" I couldn't stand it when people were full of themselves.

"What about Abubakar?" Oh yeah, I'd forgotten about him.

"Erm... That's not final so... This is all too much! I need Hafsa." I ran into my room where Hafsa was waiting for me. Uncle had gone. I quickly shut the door.

"Hafsa! You won't believe it! You know brown beard guy? His name's Yusuf. Wait, we need a code name that's not too obvious." I thought for a while. We gave guys code names and referred to them as 'she' so our parents wouldn't suspect anything whilst we talked about them. Hafsa's parents were leniant because they were brought up the west but mine were more cultural. My dad was a lot older than Uncle Yahya and was brought up in an Asian country. They thought it was illegal for a young woman to mention a non-mahram man. "Pirate!" I suddenly shouted

"What? How does that even relate?"

"Brown beard... Black beard... Captain Blackbeard the pirate!" I said as if it was so obvious. Hafsa made an understanding face. "So pirate asked Hamza if he could get to know me to marry me." I said in one breath.

"What?! Oh my Lord! This is so exciting!" Hafsa squealed. I told her the whole story that Hamza had told me.

"Can you believe it! He's an alim!" That was one of my dreams, to marry an alim.

"That sounds amazing! But..." I knew she was about to bring up Abubakar again. "Dad said Cake's family are coming around on Sunday." We called Abubakar Cake because some people pronounced his name as Abu baker.

"Whoa! They must be eager to get him married." Sunday was only 4 days away. Now I felt torn. It would have been easy to say yes to Abubakar but I had so many doubts. 5 years we went to the same school and he never even saw me. It seemed that all of my friends had spoken to him, except me. He didn't like me. He barely knew me. But Yusuf didn't know me either. But at least I knew he actually liked something about me.

"Hafsa this is too hard. Shall I flip a coin?"

"It's not that hard. Safia, Abubakar's family are coming to see you on Sunday." Hafsa told me again. She used Abubakar's real name. That just emphasized how real this situation was.

"6 years I've been waiting for someone to propose," The idea of marriage entered my head when I was 14, I mentally matured very early. "And now two people on the same day." I smiled to myself. It felt kinda nice, like I was special. "I'll see how Sunday goes. I'll tell Hamza to just... I don't know... Not mention me? Besides, Pirate," I said smirking at the silly name he now had. "won't be heartbroken. He doesn't know me!" Hafsa nodded in agreement. "Hafsa, we're growing up." I wiped away a fake tear as Hafsa gave me a big hug.

"Don't worry, we'll sneak behind our husbands' backs and re-enact movies forever." She assured me. I felt so happy but a little sad at the same time. I knew now that things were starting to change.