"I loved looking beautiful: all women do, it is part of being a woman. But in public I wore the headscarf and more modest clothing because I did not want my looks to be what defined me."
[pg 129]
"Human beings were made up of all the same qualities, we just needed to uncover them and develop them in ourselves in order to become better individuals and get closer to the Divine."
[pg 130]
"Khadijah was a woman who found a man she believed would make her ideal partner...But instead of waiting the man to propose, Khadijah took the first step to approach this potential husband and sent a proposal to him herself through an envoy. This is hailed as very liberated and empowered by many Muslim men and women. I agreed with them, but I found myself asking, if this is such a wonderful thing for a Muslim women to do, why it is considered so shameful for the girl's family to approach the boy's family to talk about marriage?"
[pg 133]
"By introducing modest behaviour and clothing into the public space, the aim was to make life easier, less tense and less judgemental for everyone. If I wanted to make society a happier place to live, I was willing to spend a little more time and care on choosing my clothes and wearing headscarf. For me, it was a matter of faith and a contribution to making the community we live in better."
[pg 159]
"I explained that even though a woman may have taken the huge step to dress modestly and wear the headscarf, it didn't mean that she was perfect or pious in every, or even in any, way. She was just as human as everyone else."
[pg 167]
"Even if I am married, the love between a mother and a daughter will always be different from and irreplaceable by the love of a partner. As mother and daughter, we have shared a journey through the joys and pains of living in this world as women and sharing in the most intimate moments of our lives."
[pg 172]
"Ummah was the one of the fundamental concepts that Muslims believed in. It meant being part of a single nation of people who shared a sense of community and togetherness, wherever you were in this world. What we shared was a journey towards the Divine, and a desire to make the world a better place."
[pg 182]
"Many others who were born Muslims had not done so, and saw being Muslim only as part of their culture and heritage. We had chosen Islam because we felt it made us free as human beings. We had chosen Muslims, not blindly, but because to us it made sense."
[pg 192]
"The two searches - for the love of a partner and for the love of the Sublime - these two loves ran intertwined. This is why romantic love seems so fulfilling to start with, because it reaches for another, deeper love. And that is why romantic love feels so empty as it runs its course unless it is replaced by a more profound long-lasting love. I wanted a soulmate who tapped into my spirit and through whom my soul would grow, would learn about Love, with capital L, and be part of that Love. I had sat through innumerable lectures and seminars at the mosque, as well as countless weddings where the theme was always about romantic human love being part of the love for the Creator..."
[pg 196]
~berdoa dan terus mengharapkan redha Illahi...~
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