THE BALCONY ROMANCE

CHAPTER 11

'Hello' I said rather abrasively

'You seem flustered, something bothering you'

'ugh' I shook my head hopelessly, 'it's about all these ridiculous hurtful comments made against Muslims by ignorant people and then the terrible careless defending by Muslims who are ignorant or too rigid'

'hmm' he looked understandingly

'Please bear with me but I need to speak'

'I understand, go on'

'well so many of them accuse Prophet Muhammad of rape and of being rather promiscuous because he had several wives' I made a pained face, 'even associating such words with him makes me feel sick. The fact is only very few people understand but there comes a point when you transcend the ordinary boundaries and learn to see beyond them. today a marriage between a 40 year old woman and 25 year old man would seem absurd and condemned becoming the target of ridicule; but his wife Khadija and him were on a level beyond the ordinary. They were spiritual, deep, intelligent feeling people who loved one anothers hearts. While she was alive he took no other woman as his wife. And this misconception islam being oppressive to women is wrong. In fact Khadija worked and there was a time when the Prophet Muhammad worked for her and I cant remember but even one of his wives fought in battle! And inintially Allah had only allowed one man one wife but many women lost their husbands in battles and therefore in the Arabian society of that time became helpless therefore Allah revealed another verse allowing a man upto 4 wives but strictly on the condition that all 4 must be treated absolutely equally. Now we all know few men are capable of treating 4 women equally and so it is understood that unless necessary do not take more than one wife. I know the prophet had more than 4 wives but that man was the most perfect men and he excelled any other human and so Allah allowed him to take wives in order to protect them.'

I huffed and looked at Danish, 'sorrryim not done yet'

'and its so annoying when all Muslims talk about is reading their 5 prayers, growing long unkempt beards, wearing religious caps, hijabs and niqabs, showing their ankle etc when everyone forgets the basics, and I mean the real core of Islam. First of all Islam means peace. We should be tolerable as was the Prophet towards other religions, we should intend to do good, speak up against wrong actions, and believe in Allah, have faith and trust in Him. It is when our lives come to an end that we look back and everything makes sense because everything happens for a reason, nothing is left to chance though we might perceive it is. Also I wonder if the west knows that the last things Prophet Muhammad said was that the best among you is those who treats his wife well. That just shows the significance of good treatment to women. The fault is not with out religion, it is with its poor and incorrect interpretation and the ignorance of the masses. Eg somebody posted a status that had a translation of a verse saying something like wipe out all the non muslims. Perplexed I thought why would my peaceful God say such a thing. Then the answer came, you see the simple mind thinks of killing the non muslims but the developed mind will understand that what Allah means is be good Muslims, be so good that people (as in the earlier days) impressed by Islam convert of their own free will.'

'Impressive.' He looked alertly into my eyes.

Feeling proud I continued, 'just goes to show that everything depends upon our perception and a more philosophical or spiritual minded person finds the true meaning or intended meaning. It almost reminds me of that saying where you can choose to see the glass as half empty or half full.

He smiled a little wryly a little purely, 'you should be a politician or a human rights activist'

Startled I was left speechless for a few seconds, 'ho-how did you know?'