A Muslim's Romantic Journey

Chapter 53.

Yusuf’s POV

It was a small wedding. So small that my family weren’t even invited. Or maybe there was a different reason for that. Overall I enjoyed it though. I gave Hamza a little pep talk when I got a chance to speak to him.

“In my experience, what a woman wants most is to be cherished. Everyone’s different but I think women would like if their husband was head over heels for them. Not that I need to tell you, you’re already heads over heels for Amy.”

“No I’m not!” Hamza said, but I could tell he wasn’t entirely convinced himself.

“Sure.” I said sarcastically, and then continued. “From how Safia goes on and on about Amy, she sounds like a very different girl to Safia and, according to Safia, she’s different most girls. So don’t go to her thinking you know her. Learn about her a little. Having expectations and thinking you know what a person is like can be dangerous. Imagine getting married thinking, this person is so simple and innocent, only to find out they’re actually smart and cunning. It can cause problems because you already had an image of them which is being shattered.”

“I hope you’re not speaking from experience.”

“I’m not talking about my experience with Safia. But just people in general. You convince yourself they’re a certain way and they go and shatter the image you had of them.” Before, I was giving general advice, but slowly my mind was turning back to my mum. Regardless of anything that had happened before I got married, I was really convinced that my mum was not capable of being the reason for some of these problems in my life. I didn’t like the same thoughts whirling through my mind all the time but I couldn’t seem to shake them.

“I know. I don’t know how married life will be but I’ll try my best to make sure she’s happy. She deserves it after everything she’s been through.” I had faith that this was going to be a good marriage. I prayed that they stayed together in Jannah too.

A week or so later, I went to see my family. Maryam was really happy for Amy and Hamza even though she barely knew them. She kept asking me for the details of the wedding. I didn’t even know what she wanted me to tell her.

“They got married, we ate food. What more do you want to know?” I asked, fed up.

“How did the bride look?”

“Pretty I guess... I don’t know. I was trying not to look at her. My wife was present you know.”

“Oh so you would have looked at her if Safia wasn’t there?” She asked covering her mouth as if she was shocked.

“No! Allah is always present. I don’t lower my gaze for my wife, I do it for my Lord.”

“Ooh look at you Mr I-am-so-pious.”

“Well excuse me for trying to follow my religion. Have you got a problem with that?” That made her shut up. I loved winning these little arguments.

I had come to the conclusion that I could never completely fix things with mum. I could only fulfill my duties as a son. But that mother and son relationship Javed and mum had, I wouldn’t be able to achieve that. As much as it bugged me before, I was coming to terms with it. Somehow, after I’d spent nearly my whole life craving for it, Allah was giving me strength to deal with it.

I bought mum a little present to make her happy. It was earrings because mum loved jewelry. I knew I shouldn’t have been spending money but it was half price and it reminded me of mum. I had shown it to Safia and she thought it was a wonderful idea and gave me a little gift bag to put it in. I gave it to mum feeling like an excited child.