A Muslim's Romantic Journey

Chapter 51.

Yusuf’s POV

Javed and I had started getting on much better than before. He had finished taking his medication and his health was much better now. We met up from time to time. This time wasn’t as smooth as the others. We met up in a café near my workplace. It was much nicer than the café near the last place I worked but everything here was so overpriced.

“Asalamu’alaykum!” He said before I could. I told him about the hadith in which it was narrated that ‘Those who are nearest to Allah are they who are first to give a salutation.’ It delighted me that he was taking such an interest in the things I was saying and in Islam in general.

“Wa’alaykumsalaam. You have something important to talk about?” I asked. He had called me earlier in the day and said we had to meet to discuss some crucial matters.

“Yeah, we’ll get to that later. So, how are you? How’s the missus?” He asked sitting down with the tea he’d just bought himself.

“Do we have to do some small talk? Can’t we skip straight to the interesting part?” I whined like a kid.

“We’ll get to that later.”

“Fine. I’m okay, missus is good too alhamdulillah.” We spoke some more and he told me about his improvements with prayer. He was now performing most of his prayers but was struggling to wake up for Fajr. I let it slide that he didn’t look like he was too bothered about missing Fajr.

“Mostly I pray at home though. It’s too cold to go outside.” Javed told me. “Especially at night.”

“Night? Isha’s so early these days because of winter. Besides, if you keep going to the mosque to pray, you’ll slowly fall into that routine and it won’t be so hard anymore.” Javed grunted in response. “So now can you tell me what you wanted to talk about?”

“I want to get married.” That thought had crossed my mind but I was still a little surprised.

“That’s great! But what should I do?”

“Find me a wife. Someone like Safia.” Naturally I got a little bit defensive.

“What do you mean like Safia?” I hoped he didn’t ever think anything inappropriate about my wife.

“No, not Safia herself. No, she’s not nearly my type. She’s all yours. But someone like her as in, someone who’s quite religious and maybe even has traditional values.” That made more sense.

“Oh I see.” I thought for a while trying to remember if there was anyone like that. “There’s Hafsa, but I don’t think she’ll like you.” Hafsa was good friends with Amy now. It would be weird if Hafsa agreed to marry Javed being a close friend of Amy’s. It would be very unlikely for her to marry someone who her friend had such a rough past with.

“Hafsa, Safia’s sister right? Or cousin? That pretty one?”

“Er… Her cousin” I didn’t know how to reply. I guess she was pretty. I don’t know. I didn’t pay that much attention to her. “Yeah I suppose she’s pretty.” I said shrugging my shoulders.

“Yeah, she’s hot. But I don’t know. I’ve been thinking about Amy lately.” Oh no! I didn’t like where this was going. “You know, she was a really good girl. I feel bad for having messed around with her. I actually liked her but I wasn’t too sure. She was more of a safe option back then. If you speak to Safia about it, maybe you know… You could set us up.”

“Exactly what intention did you call me here by?” It seemed like he was already determined to get back together with Amy.

“That was the real reason to be honest. That find me a wife thing was just to get to this discussion about Amy. I’ve been with many girls but I was only ever serious about her. I don’t know why I didn’t marry her then. Commitment issues maybe? Or maybe it was because she was a little easy. Or that mum threw a huge fuss and I was too engrossed with the female species in general to care. Thinking about it now, I was an idiot. I want to apologise to her too.” I didn’t know what expression I had on my face but it must have been one of shock. “Close your mouth Yusuf, it isn’t that unexpected.” I closed my mouth and took a moment to comprehend what Javed was saying.