Partners

Digging through some old stuff and I found a letter (no we didn’t use email then ;) lol) from one of my good friends and a dear sister; Ammara.

Just re- reading her letter brings back so many memories and makes me realise how much I miss not having her around. We were literally glued at the hip as kids and we were partners in crime, lol. What made it even easier was that she got on so well my little sister and had no problems with Aishi hanging around with us. The three of us got on well mashAllah and I remember our mums used to dress us in identical outfits, lol. I was equally fond of her younger brothers Moeed (or Abdul as Aishi called him) and Muneeb and have many vivid memories of the things we all used to get up to.

Anyhow I found a few extracts from the stuff that Ammara sent me a while ago and just wanted to share them with everybody else. Also a backup in case anything should happen to the original paper copies...

• “The more civil and kind a muslim is to his wife, the more perfect in faith he is”
• “She has the perfect liberty to choose her own husband. ‘It is true that liberty is precious – so precious that is must be rationed’ – “
• “Unlike other religions, which regarded women as being possessed on inherent sin and wickedness and men as being possessed of inherent virtue and nobility, Islam regards men and women as being of the same essence created from a single soul. That single soul that will return to Allah as one
• “A good woman, by marrying a man, helps him keep to the path of rectitude in his life. Women are the beautiful half of men, let them deny it or not, they know they cannot live without our care and guidance.
  Your wives are your garment. And you are garment for them”

And a final extract, which is my favourite and I can relate to (Sorry, slightly longer than the others...)

“...A woman’s urge to be independent is up to her but not to exceed out of her limits. A woman to stand on her own two feet is a proud and exhilarating moment to be cherished, as we obtain our education we become more experienced in new developing world today. For we all know the great saying from Malcom X. ‘Education is our passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to the people who prepare for it today...’
In society today, it is becoming increasingly difficult to choose between the street or the religion we are brought up with. Especially in western countries, muslim girls are torn at school, at home and outside, where they are consistently changing from different roles to the next. They are forced to fit in and sometimes the outcome can become severe. So an easier outlook and approach is needed. If each and every one of us is brought up with a purpose and we are continually taught our purpose, the day we feel inadequate doing wrong is the day we realise our true meaning. The true meaning of ourselves, after all we are human beings, neither one of us are perfect but unique, it is our uniqueness that lets us adapt at different times in our lives to the reality of the moment. We are all searching for ourselves a lot of the times, some of us feel confident enough to find love and some wait for it to knock on the door, sometimes this door is not stable enough to withhold the pressure... and we break. This is when we remember Allah, like I said we need an event to bring us back to the reality of the moment – otherwise we cases to understand the significance of etiquette and modesty in our religion... we slowly recognise ourselves and then our womanhood is complete.”

There are loads more, but this post is getting rather long :P

Though I may not see Ammara very regularly, I do feel I can rely on her certain issues. Although she’s only a couple of years older than me, I have trust in her not to get too heavy on the Islamic aspect and just give me sound advice, which makes a nice change. So I guess this post is to say...

Thank you Ammara for being a “very together” baji, a wonderful person and for being a part of my life. Love you always :)