Muslim Marriage Stories: Carry me in your ArmsImportance of Marriage in Islam

When I got home that night as my wife served dinner, I held her hand
and said, I've got something to tell you. She sat down and ate
quietly. Again I observed the hurt in her eyes.
Suddenly I didn't know how to say it. But I had tolet her know what I
was thinking. I want a divorce. I raised the topiccalmly. She didn't
seem to be annoyed by my words, instead she asked me softly, why? I
avoidedher question. This made her angry. She shouted atme, "you are
not a man!"
That night, we didn't talkto each other. She was weeping. I knew she
wanted to find out what had happened to our marriage. But I could
hardly give her a satisfactory answer; I hadlost my heart to a lovely
girl called Dew. I didn't love her anymore. I just pitied her!
With a deep sense of guilt, I drafted a divorce agreement which stated
that she could own our house, 30% shares of my company and the car.
Sheglanced at it and then tore it to pieces. The woman who had spent
ten years of her life with me had become a stranger. I felt sorry for
her wasted time, resources and energy butI could not take back what I
had said, for I loved Dew so dearly.
Finally she cried loudly in front of me, which was what I had expected
to see. To me, her cry was actually a kind of release.The idea of
divorce which had obsessed me for several weeks seemedto be firmer and
clearer now.
The next day, I came backhome very late and found her writing
something at the table. I didn't have supper but went straight to
sleep and fell fast asleep because I was tired after an eventful day
with Dew. When I woke up, she was still there at the table writing. I
just didn'tcare so I turned over and was asleep again.
In the morning she presented her divorce conditions: she didn't want
anything from me, but needed a month's notice before the divorce. She
requested that in that one month, we both struggle to live as normal a
life as possible. Her reasons were simple: our son hadhis exams in a
month's time and she didn't want to disrupt him with our broken
marriage.
This was agreeable to me. But she had something more, she asked me to
recall how I had carried her into out bridal room on our wedding day.
She requested that everyday for the month's duration I carry her out
of our bedroom to the front door ever morning. I thought she was going
crazy.
Just to make our last daystogether bearable I accepted her odd
request. I told Dew aboutmy wife's divorce conditions. She laughed
loudly and thought it wasabsurd. No matter what tricks she has, she
has to face the divorce, she said scornfully. My wife and I hadn't had
any body contact since my divorce intention was explicitly expressed.
So when I carried her out on the first day, we both appeared clumsy.
Our sonclapped behind us, daddyis holding mummy in his arms. His words
brought me a sense of pain. From the bedroom to the sitting room, then
to the door, I walked over ten meters with her in my arms. She closed
her eyesand said softly; don't tell our son about the divorce. I
nodded, feelingsomewhat upset. I put her down outside the door. She
went to wait for the bus to work. I drove alone to the office.
On the second day, both of us acted much more easily. She leaned on my
chest... I could smell the fragrance of her blouse. Irealized that I
hadn't looked at this woman carefully for a long time. Irealized she
was not young any more. There were fine wrinkles on her face, her hair
was graying! Our marriage had taken its toll on her. For a minute I
wondered what I had done to her.
On the fourth day, when Ilifted her up, I felt a sense of intimacy
returning. This was the woman who had given ten years of her life to
me. On the fifth and sixth day, I realized that our sense of intimacy
was growing again. I didn't tell Dew about this. It became easier to
carry her as the month slipped by. Perhaps the everyday workout made
me stronger.
She was choosing what to wear one morning. She tried on quite a few
dresses but could not find a suitable one. Then she sighed, all my
dresseshave grown bigger. I suddenly realized that she had grown so
thin, that was the reason why I could carry her more easily. Suddenly
it hit me;she had buried so much pain and bitterness in her heart.
Subconsciously I reached out and touched her head. Our son came in at
the moment and said, Dad, it's time to carry mum out. To him, seeing
his father carrying his mother out had become an essential part of his
life. My wife gestured to our son to come close and hugged him
tightly. Iturned my face away because I was afraid I might change my
mind atthis last minute. I then held her in my arms, walking from the
bedroom, through the sitting room, to the hallway. Her hand surrounded
my neck softly and naturally. I held her body tightly; it was just
like our wedding day.
But her much lighter weight made me sad. On the last day, when I held
her in my arms I could hardly move a step. Our son had gone to school.
I held her tightly and said, I hadn't noticed that our life lacked
intimacy. I drove to office... jumped out of the car swiftly without
locking the door.I was afraid any delay would make me change my
mind... I walked upstairs. Dew opened thedoor and I said to her,
Sorry, Dew, I do not wantthe divorce anymore.
She looked at me, astonished, then touchedmy forehead. Do you have a
fever? She said. I moved her hand off my head. Sorry, Dew, I said, I
won't divorce. My marriage life was boring probably because she and I
didn't value the details of our lives, not because we didn't love each
other any more. Now I realized that since I carried her into my home
on our wedding day I am supposed to hold her until one of us departs
this world.
Dew seemed to suddenly wake up. She gave me a loud slap and then
slammed the door and burst into tears. I walked downstairs and drove
away. At the floral shop on the way, I ordered a bouquet of flowers
for my wife. The sales girl asked me what to write on the card. I
smiled and wrote: I will carry you out every morning until we are old.
The small details of our lives are what really matter in a
relationship. It is not the mansion, the car, the property, the bank
balance that matters. These create an environment conducive for
happiness but cannot give happiness in themselves. So find time to be
your spouse's friend and do those little things for each other
thatbuild a relationship.

Muslim Marriage Stories: Importance of Marriage in IslamSecrets of Happy Married Couples

A man and his fiance were married. It was a large celebration. All of
their friends and family came to see the lovely ceremony and to
partakeof the festivities and celebrations. A wonderfultime was had by
all.
The bride was gorgeous in her white wedding gown and the groom was
very dashing in his black tuxedo. Everyone could tell that the love
they had for each other was true.
A few months later, the wife comes to the husband with a proposal:"I
read in a magazine, a while ago, about how wecan strengthen our
marriage." She offered.
"Each of us will write a list of the things that we find a bit
annoying with the other person. Then, we can talk about how we can fix
them togetherand make our lives happier together."
The husband agreed. So each of them went to a separate room in the
house and thought of thethings that annoyed them about the other. They
thought about this question for the rest of the day and wrote down
what they came up with.
The next morning, at the breakfast table, they decided that they would
go over their lists.
"I'll start," offered the wife. She took out her list. It had many
items on it. Enough to fill 3 pages, in fact. As she started reading
the list of the little annoyances, she noticed that tears were
starting to appear in her husbands eyes.
"What's wrong?" she asked. "Nothing" the husband replied, "keep
reading your list."
The wife continued to read until she had read all three pages to her
husband. She neatly placed her list on the table and folded her hands
over top of it.
"Now, you read your list and then we'll talk about the things on both
of ourlists." She said happily.
Quietly the husband stated, "I don't have anything on my list. I think
that you are perfectthe way that you are. I don't want you to change
anything for me. You are lovely and wonderful and I wouldn'twant to
try and change anything about you."
The wife, touched by his honesty and the depth ofhis love for her and
his acceptance of her, turnedher head and wept.
IN LIFE, there are enough times when we are disappointed, depressed
and annoyed. We don't really have to go looking for them.
We have a wonderful world that is full of beauty, light and promise.
Why waste time in this world looking for the bad, disappointing or
annoying things when we can look around us, and see the wondrous
things before us?
I believe that WE ARE HAPPIEST when we see and praise the good and try
our best to forego themistakes of our spouse. Nobody's perfect but we
can find perfection in them to change the way we see them. It is
necessary to understand the difficulties and be a helping hand to each
other....THAT BRIGHTENS THE RELATIONSHIP.

The Mahdi Will Eliminate the Despair into Which People Have Fallen

It is the fact that people have turned their backs on the moral values
of the Qur'an and on the holy Sunnah of our Prophet (saas) that lies
at the root of the great troubles they will be subjected to during the
End Times. People will experience enormous suffering in the End Times
since the love, affection, honesty, justice, tolerance, moderation,
patience and love of peace required by religious moral values will
have been replaced by selfishness, ruthlessness, aggression, injustice
andself-interest propagated by atheistic ideologies. One hadith
reports how people will have departed from religious virtues in the
End Times:
With one of my descendants, the Mahdi, Allah REANIMATES THE SUNNAH
when they weaken due to the disappearance of the Sunnah, appearance of
bi'dat ( false judgment and practices not sanctioned by the Qur'an),
and disappearance of the opportunities of enjoining the good and
forbidding the evil. 7
As we are informed in the hadiths and in the works of Islamic
scholars, the Mahdi will engage in a major intellectual struggle in
order to overcome atheistic ideologies, to teach people about
religious moral values and the essence of the faith, and to lead them
in the direction of belief in Allah and moral virtue. Our Lord will
make the Mahdi and his great intellectual struggle a means whereby the
troubles of the End Times are eradicated. This attribute of the Mahdi
is revealed in these terms:
THE PERSONAGE, the mostauspicious of Muhammad's ummah and YOUR
GUARDIAN ELIMINATING YOUR DIFFICULTIES… He is the Mahdi.. 8
In another hadith, we are told that corruption will be brought to an
end through the Mahdi, and that with this peace and security will take
their place in the world:
Allah WILL RESOLVE BLINDFITNAH THROUGH HIM (the Mahdi) Everywhere
will becomesecure... 9
According to the information contained in the hadiths, people
suffering pain, difficulties and want willseek shelter behind the
justice, compassion, loveand generosity of the Mahdi. In one hadith it
isreported that:
In the same way that bees gather round the queen, so people will
gather round the Mahdi.He will fill the world, once filled with
oppression, with justice instead.... 10
When the Mahdi causes Islamic moral values to prevail on Earth, want,
hunger, suffering and troubles will come to an end, the flow of blood
will cease, and people will find the true happiness, peace and
security for which they have been searching for so many years. This
climate of abundance and plenty, filled with love and peace, is
described as follows in hadiths:
Once the Earth is full of cruelty and enmity, one of my line will
emerge. He will fill the Earth withequity and justice, just as it was
previously filled with oppression and tyranny. 11
He fills the Earth with justice and excellence. The Earth gives out
its plants, the heavens pours its rain. My ummah attains
unprecedented blessings. 12
At that time the heavens will hold not a single drop of rain and the
Earth will attain abundance. 13
In his time, such justice prevails that the dead envies the alive. 14

Disorder and Strife in the End Times Will Place People in a Difficult Position

According to what our Prophet (saas) tells us in the hadiths, the
period prior to the appearance of the Mahdi will be a difficult one of
widespread strife and disorder, when people suffer pain and trouble,
of much want and of pitiless wars. Some hadiths on this subject read
as follows:
BEFORE THE APPEARANCE OF MAHDI, COMMERCE WILL BE TERMINATED, ROADS
WILL BE CUT among nations, FITNAH WILL MULTIPLY.... 4
WHEN DISORDER REIGNS ON EARTH, FITNAH APPEAR, the elderly do not feel
compassion for the young ones, the young ones do not respect the
elderly, Allah will SEND SOMEONE (the Mahdi) who will eradicate enmity
from them, conquer the fortresses of perversion, who will uphold the
religion in the End Times, just as how I did in the past and who will
fill the Earth with justice which was formerly full of cruelty. 5
The information contained in the hadiths shows that in the End Times
there will be greatbloodshed, widespread attacks, increased violence,
massacres, wars and conflicts, justice replaced by injustice and
oppression,greater hunger and poverty, mutual distrust and fraud,
lying will begin being regarded asa legitimate form of behavior among
a large section of society, and there will be terrible moral
degeneration. Accordingly, people will be subjected to a succession of
disasters and woes, and trouble and suffering will be unending. In one
hadith we are told that:
QUITE DIPLORABLE AND MISERABLE SITUATIONS, AND PAINFUL VIEWS ARE SEEN.
Fitnah appear in succession…Among themappear FITNAH,
VIOLENCE,DESTRUCTIONS AND VIOLATIONS. When people think they are over,
they persist to continue. These events reach to such severity that no
house entered, no Muslim being hurt remains left. 6
Our Prophet (saas) has imparted the glad tidings that it is the Mahdi
who will be a means whereby people emerge into the light out of this
dark environment, who will show them solutions, and will bring about
the peace and security they long for.