Love in a Headscarf~

Currently, I'm reading Love in a Headscarf, a novel by Shelina Zahra JanMohamed. And below are few interesting parts which I think quite nice to be shared with others.

"I looked at my mum with adoring respect. She believed in the 'click'. This should have come as no suprise. One of her favourite stories from the Quran was that Safura and Moses..............I often wonder if she tells her father of this Johnny-come-lately because she has taken a shine to him. It seems she was open with her family and that in such a setting there was no embarrassment in a daughter suggesting to a father that she has a special interest in a particular man. Perhaps Safura conveys her 'click' to her father. Moses is invited round to meet her family so he can be properly evaluated. Fast forward, and Safura and Moses are married."

[pg 29]

"Love and relationships were everyone's business because they affected everyone."

[pg 30]

"Love was indeed a passionate human experience, of this Imam was no doubt. It could be transformative but it was a force to be tamed and channelled. Its righful place was inside a marriage, where its transcendent virtues could shine without complications. Only within this structure of commitment, which gave formal security to both husband and wife, and only with the formal consent given by both the man and the woman to begin the relationship could love fully fluorish. Marriage was an act of worship and love was the gift given in return."

[pg 53]

"Partners do not come made-to-measure. My parents's description of Prince Charming being off-the-peg was much more accurate. There would always be something on the list that he would lack....................The community liked pairing-up well-labelled people. When certain engagements were announced it was like drawing numbers at bingo."

[pg 71]

"Islam had quite a few rules. Every human being as their own rules. Once they are part of your life, you don't notice them anymore."

[pg 74]

"I needed a partner to accompany me on this journey, and if I was to have a travelling companion, he would need to share the same map as me. How else could we journey on the same path?........I often thought that this was why the Quran was composed of poetry and poetic prose. Poetry is designed to inspire love, and Islam is about falling in love with the Creator of the Universe."

[pg 75]

"I would have to be patient. The ability to wait, to hold yourself with dignity and thankfulness where you can't have what you want, or can't have it quite yet, is one of the hardest qualities to master."

[pg 91]

"My right was to be treated with courtesy. My culture had bellittled the self-respect I should have for myself. On the other hand I saw that my religion offer respect to me, telling me to trust that voice inside myself. I realised that my faith truly had something to offer me, and at that moment, I took out of the books and applied it to my life: I was a human being and I deserved to be treated with respect."

 [pg 98]

"I might find somebody completely unexpected, who doesn't match my imagination at all. They might be better than I imagined. But how can you know if you have such fixed ideas?"

[pg 101]

"From an Islamic perspective, both men and women were thought to be at their most complete when they were married. Besides, rightly or wrongly, it was believed that what women wanted most was to have their own home under their own control and then to have children."

[pg 106]

"You must look after your husband. I know people have different ideas today, but if you look after him, then he will look after you, remember that, even when it feels hard, even when you don't get what you want. Once you get married, then comes to difficult part. Remember to say sorry, even if it is not your fault. Men are different from women."

[pg 108]

p/s: I'm still on my way to finish on reading this novel, and InshaAllah, I will update more later.

~berdoa dan terus mengharapkan redha Illahi...~