Seeking Unity in Marriage

Part I

To the Couple: 
Somehow we have gotten into the habit of thinking that the rules of good conduct, gentleness, mercy and forgiveness apply to all other Muslims but not to those within our own families.  Not to our husbands or our wives.  We should be treating each other as guests within our homes.  We should also realize that each of us is more vulnerable to the whispering of Shaitan when we have no place of support or of peace to return to each day.  In order to protect ourselves from Shaitan, we have to do our best to protect our spouses as well and not give Shaitan a foothold within our homes.

The Warrior

O you who believe! Seek help with patient perseverance and prayer; for Allah is with those who patiently persevere. (Quran 2:153)

I spoke to a man who said some thought of him as a war hero, and what he said was this:

When I was young, I made salat everyday.  I went far away to the war.  I fought the enemy.  I hid from the enemy.  I chased the enemy.  I killed the enemy.  I killed my salat.  I left the enemy behind and returned home and found salat was not dead; it had just returned home before me.  It was waiting for me.  There was also a young, fertile woman who gave me 6 sons in 10 years.  Everyday of that time I made salat.

A Ramadan Story

I spoke to a woman who told me this:

She wanted to divorce her husband.  He was not what you call a bad man, but he was irresponsible.  He’d abandoned his university education while she’d finished hers.  He was sometimes out of work.  He brought in money when he just had to.   But he loved her, though, and his children.  As the years passed it was her professional career that bought the house they lived in. As the years passed, she grew tired of his passivity and of his presence.