When fate trumps hope

I rushed into the sitting room in total alarm, wondering why any visitor could come to my house and just bust into tears, not minding the fact that the house help was there to see and report it. The lady waiting for me had her head down, her two palms partially covering her face, so I couldn’t tell who she was at first glance. I walked on a few feet nearer but she still seemed oblivious to my presence. It was at this point that I said the ‘salam’ just to alert her. She raised her head immediately and said:

‘Wa alaikis salam Hajiya Bint.’ And I immediately recognised the visitor as my friend and former schoolmate Abida.

‘Ma shaa Allah, you are welcome Abida. What a pleasant surprise. I just had no clue it would be you here. You know we haven’t seen in a long while and you didn’t exactly call to say you were coming. Anyway how are you doing?’ I asked, coming close enough to shake her hand.

‘I’m fine alhamdulillah’ she replied and burst into tears immediately after.

‘No no, you are obviously not fine Abida. How can you be when you are busy crying your heart out?’ I queried.

‘Well what can I say? I obviously caused this on myself. I have no one to blame but myself Bint. This is why it pains so much. I can’t believe I played a huge role in my own doom. It’s truly hard to believe.’  She explained, wiping the tears off her face.

‘But what doom are you talking about? What did you do to yourself? Please stop crying and tell me everything Abida. It’s the only way I can help you.’ I said, consolingly.

‘I doubt if anyone can help me Bint. I mean it’s too late to change anything. But I can tell you what the problem is. Indeed that’s the reason I came. I’m here to share it with you and at least get some of the pain off my heart. You see Ado is getting married tomorrow, but as hurtful as that is, it is not the problem. The problem is he is marrying my next door neighbour, the widow I told you we now live close to.’ She declared.

‘Ayya, I’m truly sorry to hear this Abida. It’s indeed a painful thing to see your husband all set to bring another woman into his life, especially after spending over two decades together, through thick and thing. But like I always say at times like this, the first thing to remember is that he is not doing anything unlawful. Since taking another wife is not a sin or a crime, we have no choice but to accept what our religion permits.’ I replied.

‘Yes Bint, I said that to myself too, countless times. But what makes this particularly painful is, like I said, because I caused it all on myself. You see when we first moved next door to this lady Ado was away. He travelled the very next day we arrived in that area. I was the one who went to introduce us and to tell her that my husband had travelled but will be coming to meet hers when he returned, in sha Allah. She expressed her appreciation and added that her husband was very ill but would still appreciate my husband’s visit whenever he came. I commiserated with her over his illness and prayed for his speedy recovery. As fate would have it, he never recovered and died even before Ado was back from his trip. Like a good neighbour, I joined her and her relatives to receive condolences for the first three days. When he eventually returned, after the 7th day prayer, I urged Ado to go and condole her. He tried to resist by saying that he knew neither her nor her husband so he was not under obligation to visit her. But I insisted that it was part of good neighbourliness to go and pay his condolences. He argued that I had done what was necessary by mourning with them for three days and he didn’t need to do anything extra. Still I insisted by saying that she would know that he was back in town and it wouldn’t be polite not to go and condole her. Finally he agreed, I can’t remembe what I was doing that prevented me from accompanying him that day. Maybe if I had, I would have found a clue as to what would happen next. So he went alone and came back to say he had done what I wanted. I thanked him for it and our lives continued normally.

I never noticed anything and never thought I had any reason to be suspicious. Suddenly, last week, which is just three months since her mourning period ended, he walked into my room and said he had decided to marry our neighbouring widow. I was astounded, to say the least. And naturally, I asked why and how this came about. He simply said that he took pity on her and her three young children so he decided to propose to her. And she accepted. So he felt it was now my turn to know. In other words he was just informing me because it was by now a forgone conclusion.’ She stopped for breath.

‘Inna lillahi wa inna ilaihi raji’un’ was all I could say as I left my seat and went to kneel near her on the carpet. I held her hand as the tears rolled from her eyes and couldn’t say anything more.

‘Yes Bint, this du’a has become my lifeline since Ado dropped his bombshell on me last week. Apparently the house helps and guards had all noticed something but didn’t bother to tell me because they thought she was doing it out of friendship with me. It so happened that whenever I was away visiting the children, our dear widow was in the habit of sending delicious meals to my husband. He sometimes even told our cook not to bother because he had meal to eat. Our children were all in school so no one could have found it a curious thing that the neighbour was feeding their dad.’ Abida observed.

To be continued.