I Actually Married A Muslim!

7: Culture VS Religion

Chapter 7: Culture VS Religion
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    For some unknown reason, I'd always thought that I, Adam White, would make a great author.

But that's before I started writing my story with Sarah. For I realized a few things while narrating the events of this captivating story.

1 : I totally suck at collecting my thoughts

2 : I probably leave my audience with many unanswered questions.

3 : I keep changing tenses all the time, my grammar just sucks.

In my defense though, I only change tenses because sometimes I'm engrossed in the events and I manage to travel so far down the memory lane; it almost feels like I'm there again.

Other times, I'm writing this while feeling detached from my past self, which results in me writing in a kind of third persons point of view.

And as for the unanswered questions , I'd like to tell you that I've certainly read somewhere that patience is a virtue.

I say that a lot, don't I?

But that's only because you guys don't listen.

Now, back to where we were.

After Jenny got Sarah back home with her, the only thing I did was pace around my room.

Back and forth, hands behind my back, eyebrows furrowed, and thinking hard.

No matter how hard I thought, I just couldn't seem to figure out how Jenny knows Sarah.

I mean, your sister marches out of your home in an angry fit, only to come back home with your coworker whom you also happen to have a whole lot of unrecruited feelings for.

Nothing out of norm. Just the usual.

As soon as I heard Sarah leave, I all but flew to the living room.

"What was that about?" I asked, out of breathe.

"What was what about?" Jenny answered my question with one of her own.

"How do you know Sarah?" I rephrased my question.

"Well as soon as I walked out of the apartment-" more like huffed and puffed out , I thought. "I saw her outside with a pair of binoculars. She saw me and told me that you're her long time obsession and she peeped on you every day." She smirked.

"No kidding Jenn." I let a bored, sarcastic look take over my facial expressions.

"Well I was at this park crying my heart out and she offered me a tissue and asked if I was okay and then we just... I don't know...ended up back here?" She paused. "We've met before, we just never managed to hang out more."

"Wow. Is that supposed to be fate? A sign from God?" I wondered out loud.

She scoffed. "What happened to you Adam?"

"Nothing really...why the sudden question?"

"Fate? Really?"

"Well what do you want me to say!"

"I think you've finally lost it...ha- fate!" She clutched her stomach and laughed wildly.

"Don't get me started Jenny." I warned.

"Oh whatever, whatever." She said , before rushing to the bathroom, still laughing wildly.

I shook my head silently.

Why did I have to have a sister like her?

*********

The next day, was an interesting one.

As usual, I slaved away at work. When I finally had a 15 minutes break, I decided to use the chance and fall in love with a provolone cheese and smoked Turkey sandwich, along with a cup of iced caramel coffee.

I sat eating and sipping my coffee while scrolling through my phone.

A certain article drew me towards it. I clicked on the headline and started reading.

It was a 20 something woman talking about her life. She was from North Carolina. She'd gotten married to a Muslim Arab man. Their marriage wasn't very long-lived. They were married for around 1 year and 6 months before filing for divorce.

According to the article, the lady made sure to state her reasons to the world, by going on weird TV shows and visiting certain biased radio shows.

My marriage failed so I have to tell the world it wasn't my fault!! 

She'd stated that ... "...he wouldn't let me work... He wouldn't let me go out if I didn't ask him first...I couldn't use the internet without him breathing over my neck, checking every single thing I scrolled through. He treated me like trash...like I didn't have an opinion. Didn't have any options or any control over my life whatsoever....if he came home and found no dinner... He'd yell at me, making sure to let me know what a good for nothing wife I was...."

I shut my phone and stared at nothing in particular, thinking deeply.

Where all Muslim men like that?

What the woman did was bad. It was stupid to let out your family life to the word. It was plain pointless.

But as usual, my overly curious nature wanted to know.

What, exactly, is the truth?

Is the man Sarah is fixing to marry like that too?

I picked up my phone once again and sent the link to Sarah.

She still didn't know I was the mystery texter.

I sent the link and sent a "what do you think? " After it.

She replied almost instantly.

Her words were short, but quite deep at the same time.

They made me feel dumb.

Was I really this close minded? This judgmental?

I mean, seriously. There were thousands of sexist idiotic people out there.

A good percentage of American women suffered from physical (and mental) abuse.

And none of them were even real Muslims.

Shamefully, I got up heading back towards my desk, stealing one last glance at what she'd sent a few minutes ago.

She'd sent : You , my friend , must learn to differentiate between culture, mindset, and religion.

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Minor Edits on 2/17/24

[A/N] hello beautiful people~ I just wanted to let you know that I absolutely love every single one of you. Even if you don't comment , or vote , or do anything at all , as long as you read my book and learn something from it (or enjoy it) then that's more than enough for me!

[ Muslim Fact Of The Day (MFD) : ]

The first word that was revealed of the Quran to Muhammad PBUH was Iqra'h . Which means "read" it shows just how important knowledge is in Islam.

NEXT UPDATE SHOULD BE ON :
March 10 , 2018
(Unless a miracle happens and I get some sort of powerful inspiration EL.OH.EL :^) ♡)

Kisses,
Tima E.