Pearls Of Deen

Tainted 'Izzah

She was a girl with morals, she was a respected girl, she adorned niqaab and she took it to great lengths, she was careful about where she stepped. She sat alone whilst others enjoyed themselves just to maintain purdah.

She was like a pearl, protected. No man ever sat his eyes on her. Then one day when she was 20, a proposal came from an aalim and her heart was filled with joy and happiness. It was her dream. A big step she was finally about to take.

"You're too young!" Her parents objected.

"Salma's daughter got divorced because she got married at 20; 24 is right," They said.

And so the innocent girl was forced to say no, against her will, she was robbed of the halaal opportunity because 20 was too young.

The proposal had put some excitement in her and she started wanting a marriage, she craved companionship - a natural need of humans - but boy, 4 years did seem long. Besides, the prospect was deeni and just what she wanted, but no one listened to her needs, it was a no. It had to be a no!

She explained to her parents that it was just a samoosa run and she wanted to consider but they were stubborn. She was too young.

More prospects were found and came forth but it was always a no!

And then in desperation, she didn't even understand how, when, what and why, in desperation the young girl succumbed to her nafs and Shaytaan. She fell in love the haraam way.

He was the opposite of her with macho styled hair and non Islamic ideologies but she fell for him. In her moment of weakness, he seemed perfect. Shaytaan made him look amazing in her eyes.

Suddenly she abandoned purdah for him and became his trophy girlfriend, parading the movies with him and his friends with jeans and tucked in tops. Her scarf flew off her head and suddenly she was part of his circle of 'mixed' friends.

It came to a point when her parents had to find out. Anger coursed through them, was this really their princess doing so much wrong?

With anger they snatched away her cellphone. That was it, the cellphone made her do haraam, they concluded.

But they always say where there's a will there's a way and so she tried to run away with him, she finally was going to have her 'Happily Ever After'.

For a week they went together with Shaytaan as their only company.

Of course, the unspeakable happened but soon enough he grew tired and showed her his wayward ways. He was deep into drugs and although she wanted it to work, he didn't want to and so he chased her away.

She went back home but she was no longer the innocent girl, now she was a girl with a tainted 'izzah. Now the good boys would never come back and propose because of course, her story floated around town.

She reflected and abandoned her old ways. She took the plunge and wore her niqaab once more, she made taubah but her life was never the same again.

To people, she was always the behayaa girl who ran away and it all boiled down to her parents decision of not allowing her to get married, despite her need.

Dear readers and dear parents the above story is no fiction or fairytale. It's a true story, a story of a young girl who succumbed, a story that can happen to anyone if the correct steps aren't taken.

If there is really anything a parent can do to save their children, it's allowing them to get married when they say they want it, and look for a suitable match. Too many times, parents are aware that their daughters want to get married but they sit back and relax, as if waiting for proposals to fall from the sky, or rejecting any because they feel their daughter isn't ready.