A Muslim's Romantic Journey

Chapter 22.

Yusuf’s POV

When I wasn’t working or training, I was most likely talking to Safia through text. She wasn’t very good at holding phone conversations. I could feel myself changing as I spent more and more time with her. Although we didn’t talk about Islam in depth, her character was making me feel closer to Allah. It wasn’t just her character either; my feelings for her were also bringing me closer to my Lord. The stronger I felt for her, the more love and gratefulness I felt towards Allah.

Fridays was already my favourite day of the week. It was Jummah (Islamic holy day of the week) and the weekend started. To add to that, Fridays became the day I would see Safia. As soon as work finished, I had to restrain myself from running home. Safia knew the route from her university to our house now so I no longer had to leave work early to collect her. As much as I loved doing so, it was affecting my income. I was barely making any money to begin with and now I had Safia to take care of too. Not that Safia needed taking care of, but it was my responsibility to make sure she was happy and had everything she needed.

I texted Safia as I turned the street corner and came onto my road. I hadn’t reached my house yet when I saw the door open and Safia come out.

“Asalamu’alaykum.” She said with a shy smile on her face.

“Wa’alaykumsalaam.” I replied. She walked back inside as I got closer.

“Freshen up and be quick.” I think these days she wasn’t even shy anymore, she just liked to mess with my mind. I think she knew that I’d been waiting impatiently for the last five days to at least hold her. She was making me wait longer. I went and changed my clothes and redid my wudhu as fast as I could before making my way back to my wife. She was doing Maryam’s hair as she explained to Maryam about her interest in wearing the niqab (face veil).

“You want to wear a niqab?” She never mentioned this to me.

“I’ve been wanting to wear one for a while now. But it’s hard in this kind of society. You know, with the media bashing Islam and spreading lies every other day. It’s become so normal that it’s scary. I mean, nearly every day there’s an Islamophobic article in the newspaper. We can’t even do anything about it because they’re so sly and they justify it. They’ll have headlines like ‘Young Muslim Goes Syria For Jihad’ and then it shows how Muslims are violent.” There was a silence as we pondered upon this. Some people hated and spoke against Muslims with no consideration to how Muslims felt.

“But not everyone’s like that. In fact, most people are tolerant.” I told her.

“Yeah, you’re right. I will wear one in a few years when we move and have settled down in’sha’allah.”

“Why not now?” Maryam asked.

“Well, I don’t mind wearing an abaya and hijab at home but a niqab will be too much. If I’m going to cover, I should cover in front of all people that aren’t my mahrams.” I knew she was referring to covering in front of Javed. It made me feel so guilty. But I had been saving up for a while so I was hoping we would be able to move out after my training finished. That meant only one more year until I could buy us a place to live.

“Why do you want to cover your face anyway?” Maryam seemed intrigued by what Safia was saying.

“One, because we’re advised to do so in Islam. Two, I don’t like people staring. Not that many people stare anyway but when the odd few blind ones do, it makes me really uncomfortable. There’s only one person who I don’t mind staring at me and he’s doing so right now.” I chuckled knowing she was talking about me. “He does that a lot.” She added.

“He’s not the only one who stares.” Maryam wiggled an eyebrow at Safia.

“What do you mean?” Safia questioned. Maryam just continued to wiggle her eyebrows and I watched in amusement. “I do not stare at him!” Safia said putting a hand on her hip.