Falling Innocently

Chapter 21 -Patience

Chapter 21 -Patience

"Women impure are for men impure, and men impure are for women impure, and women of purity are for men of purity, and men of purity are for women of purity; these are not affected by what people say, for them is forgiveness and a provision honourable."

-Surah An-Nur, verse 26.

It had taken Aahil two full weeks to get Waliya back into her normal happy self. During that time, he was worried that she might never trust him the same way she did before. He was worried that perhaps, she would remain in that reserved state for a long time. It worried him that maybe she was starting to withdraw into herself since she was alone at home all day. He made sure that while she was still in the uncertainty mode, he would send her random messages just to tell her that he was thinking about her.

He wanted to make it up to her for leaving her worried about him and he wanted to let her know how he felt about her. But he was scared for him to hear her rejection. Rejection. It was the bitterest pill to swallow. Every single human feared rejection in some form or the other. It was the single most crushing experience. Facing and being subjected to rejection made you have to swallow the feeling that no one wanted you, that you were unwanted. Aahil could handle anyone else rejecting him, but not his Waliya. For the last few years, he had prayed and begged Allah to allow the bond to form in Waliya's heart. He made sincere dua that since Allah knew what was in his heart, to allow that if it were what was best for him, to bring the same feelings to grow in Waliya's heart.

His father had often told him that Allah had written down his future wife's name down for him and that when the time was right, she would come. Aahil would smile indulgently at his father, knowing that while he was correct, it would also take a lot of patience on his part. Looking back at it now, it all made sense to him, especially one other piece of advice that his father would usually add afterwards.

"It is not always about finding the right woman, Aahil. It is about being the right husband. So before you can even think of finding the right woman, focus on being the right type of man."

It was a valuable piece of advice, which had shaped Aahil's life in tremendous ways. Hearing that at eighteen, had caused him to rather focus on his Deen and himself and mould him into a man able to withstand nearly everything, just by him placing his trust in Allah.

He knew that the only way five and a half months had passed was because of his sabr and his trust in Allah. The past five and a half months were the most difficult time in his life. He was a newly married man and yet he had not had any time with his wife. He was irritable and short tempered since he could not be with her. Each day closer to him going home, meant a lot more paper work had to be done, and a lot less things that needed designing on his laptop. Instead, he was busy with heaps of paper work which annoyed him since it ate away his patience.

He grabbed his cell phone and looked at the time. 21:07 in South Africa, he thought. He knew that this meant that Waliya would have been done for the day and already in bed, doing whatever it was that she does in bed. Without a second to waste, he dialled her.