Finding Islam

26: Dad - Abu Bakr as Siddeeq RA

She was so great at conducting herself, allahumma barik, that my mum, one of the most closed off people I knew, had opened up to her, even if it was just a little bit.

I remember sitting and staring at the exchange that had taken place between them, my palms were practically dripping with sweat as I feared my mum would get up and leave or do something else that was terrible and would hurt A'ishah. She didn't though.

A'ishah, simply by being herself, had managed to crack open the walls my mother had built.

The memory of them exchanging their first words to one another would forever be engraved in my brain - a memory I would never forget. The most important woman in my life getting to know what would potentially be the second and final most important woman in my life.

There were absolutely no words that could even remotely describe how in awe I was of A'ishah's efforts, her soft speech, her encouraging smiles and the tear that left her eyes during my mother's most caring words to her.

I wasn't sure if in that moment I had fallen in love with her, but I knew it was something pretty damn close.

"And?" My dad muttered in a bored tone, bringing me back to reality. I cleared my throat and sat down on one of the leather couches in front of his desk, clearing my mind of the events of today.

"I went with A'ishah." I told him, watching his eyebrows furrow as he looked to be in confusion, asking me who A'ishah was, pronouncing her name much like how I had sounded when I'd first said it. I told him that was the name of the girl I could be marrying and recognition flooded his face.

"Ah, this girl." He muttered dryly, leaning back in his large leather swivel chair and taking off his spectacles, placing them on top of the binder.

"I'm going to invite her to meet you." The words I had spoken lingered in the air as he raised a single brow towards me, a smirk covering his lips.

"It has gotten serious now, has it?" He asked me and I held myself back from scowling at him and telling him it was serious from the very beginning and he was the one who had treated it as if it were anything less than that. I sufficed with a simple yes instead.

"Well, it is only right that we meet our bride." He spoke, making me lose my breath. I didn't like the way he said the statement. My mind reeled with thoughts of what he would say to her and how he would act. If I invited her for dinner, he would make it a nightmare for her. He could insult her. Mock her. Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if I invited her and then he left for a 'meeting' that had 'just come up' for the sole purpose of standing her up and embarrassing her. Ayman would be so angry.

I clenched my jaw. This wasn't going to end well, and this time, I knew it wouldn't take a surprising turn like the meeting with my mum had.

There was no way.

"Sunday evening. We will go to La Porchetta. I'll make reservations for seven pm." He told me. The fact that he had chosen to have dinner at one of the most high class restaurants in the city was both an extreme stressor as well as a relief.

I suppose in public he wouldn't be able to cause nearly as much problems as what he could in the comfort of his own house. He wouldn't be able to leave half way through as that would look bad on his part to all the other elites in the restaurant that knew him. However, he could mock and degrade both of them, comparing A'ishah and Ayman to the people in the room. Speak of his circle of people to make her feel less than worthy of marrying into my family.