Pious Or Profane | ✔

#1 - The New Beginnings

In the morning, I told my parents that I don't want a divorce. I felt at peace and thought maybe I got my answer from last night. They were shocked to hear that since I was never interested in religion that much. But instead of that, my mom called my in-laws and started preparations. They said that they have waited long enough and arranged the wedding in two weeks.

My whole family was busy with preparations. My in-laws came to see me. It was only his parents and him and his little sister.

"Appi, you are so beautiful, Maa Shaa Allah." Ahmad's little sister Sana, who was an age fellow of my sister Zara, said to me.

"Thank you." I replied smiling. She looked at me oddly for a second and then quickly recomposed herself.

We were sitting in my room waiting for my mother to call me to come downstairs. She started talking about her hobbies and asked about mine.

"You know, Ahmad bhai was really excited to come." My eyes filled with happiness at that moment.

"Really?" I asked, taking an interest.

"Yeah, he got dressed in his favorite Kurta Shalwar. He was the first one ready. I even said to him we are just going to see her not bring her back with us." She chuckled at her own joke. It felt nice. She was going to say something when my mom interrupted.

"Zaina, come on downstairs." She said from the door and went back. Sana stood up with a big smile on her face. I was wearing my Kurta Shalwar with the shawl loosely wrapped around my neck. As I started walking downstairs, I could feel Sana's odd stare. I realized what it was about. She herself was wearing hijab wrapped nicely around her head, covering her hair and all whereas my hair was tied in a simple ponytail. I thought about spreading the shawl on my head, then shook off the thought. I am not going to change myself for someone to like me. They have to like me for who I am.

As I entered the room, I saw quickly scanned the room and saw Ahmad sitting with my brother. I greeted Ahmad's parents with a salaam.

"Walaikumusalam, be happy my child." His father offered me his wish and put his hand on my head in supplication.

His mother also returned my salaam, but I could feel the same look in her eyes that I saw in Sana a moment ago. Nonetheless, she started talking to me. I felt eyes on me and looked up to see Ahmad looking at me. He smiled at me before looking away from me again. But I kept looking. He was handsome. Allah surely blessed him with beautiful features. The one thing that kept me in a trance was his beard. His beard made his face more beautiful, I thought. The strange thing was I was never the fan of beards. My brother once didn't shave because of the lazy weekend he was having and I made him shave the little hair that had grown on his face forcefully.

They stayed for a while. Ahmad never asked my parents to see me alone or even talk to me and neither did I. I was disappointed, I felt neglected at first, but then I thought I was going to be his forever. He can talk to me after the wedding. Everything was finalized and I was feeling happy and looking forward to getting married instead of being nervous like the most girls.

~***~

'The Wedding Day'

I was wearing a red A-line gown with a lavishly embroidered red blouse. The beautician had set my hair in an elegant bun that looked out from under my heavily embroidered dopatta [shawl] on my head. My face was caked up with makeup. I was wearing a heavy gold jewelry set. My ears weighed down because of my heavy gold earrings. My arms were full of bangles. I was feeling like a mannequin. When I looked at the mirror in front of me, I saw a pretty face; guess I don't look that bad. I was waiting in the bride's room. My sister and cousins and other family members visited me frequently. But I was getting impatient.