"Husband started to say that I forgot to bring the zero power bulb tonight so again we will have to sleep in the dark. I said today the bulb will work. He said mockingly that are you the daughter of a saint for whom the bulb will turn on? I turned on the bulb and it lit.My husband stopped opposing me."
I am writing my story for Ubqari magazine which happened to me in reality. This is story of December 2006, it was the month of ZilHajj. My brother had gone off for Hajj, I was fasting and had become free after completing all my tasks in the morning. I had just lied down after reciting Quraan when my husband's phone call came that some lady among the relatives has died. All of a sudden i started thinking of my judgement time, when the angels will be asking me questions and when the time will come for asking about the veil, the angels will say that you did the veil of your choice and not the Islamic veil and so she will now be given the punishment for that. I trembled when i thought about this and I did repentance to Allah that in future I will take the proper shariah prescribed veil.
When my brother came back from hajj and all the relatives went to meet him, i observed the proper Islamic veil and i asked my brother to pray for my steadfastness on pardah. I did not know at that time that I will have to face difficult circumstances as first of all my husband and mother in law did strict opposition. For three days my husband did not eat anything and said that either leave this veil or leave me. The third day my husband said that leave every chore and let me drop you to your parent’s house. I came back to my father’s house. My father consulted an Islamic scholar and he said that she should not have left the house under any circumstances and said that she should recite Ayat Kareema all the time. Then the circumstances changed and both of their daughter-in-laws went to their own parents houses. One day my mother in law was cooking roti when the twigs in the stove caught fire, and people from the neighbourhood came and extinguished it. My husband then came and took me back. During winter days my sister in laws husband came to our house , my husband had a habit of sleeping with zero watt bulb on but I did not wanted to sleep in front of my brother in law in the light. I asked my husband not to turn on the bulb tonight as I feel suffocated inside the quilt, how will I be able to sleep? He verbally abused me a lot and fought and went to his aunt’s house. I kept crying and reciting Hasbun Allaho Wa Nniimal Wakeel. When they came back from aunt’s house, they kept talking till midnight. I had my face inside the quilt and kept reciting the same. When he turned on the zero watt bulb, It did not get turned on and he said that tonight we will have to sleep in the dark. At that time I remembered Hadith Qudsi "There is my will and there is your will....".I thanked Allah and slept soundly. The other night my brother in law was not there. My husband said that I forgot to bring the zero watt bulb; we will have to sleep in the dark again. I said that tonight the bulb will get lit.
He said mockingly “are you the daughter of some saint that the bulb will turn on for you?" I turned on the bulb and it turned on. Then my husband stopped opposing me. Then came summers; we do not have a kitchen in our house and we have to sit in the sun in the front yard, and burn thick wooden sticks but mostly thick keekar thorns in the stove, which if left alone for a while, extinguish and need constant survellaince.The I used to light the fire from within my ghoonghat (veil) then slowly day by day I used to start feeling suffocated in this.
One day I was sitting and started thinking that on one side there is death and on the other side there is obedience of Allah. I accepted death for myself and I decided with full conviction that I will not leave my veil and immediately my feeling of suffocation ended. Following me, my brother’s wife also started observing the veil. My sister used to say that once I start living independently, then I will observe veil. One day she read a story in a magazine that One girl thought that i will start praying after marriage and then she had children and got busy with them then she got old and went to the grave but her tomorrow never came. In the scorching heat, after reading this story my sister decided that from today I am going to start taking the veil. In 2008 she also started taking the veil. We then started inviting our elder sister to start taking the veil. Alhamdulillah she also started taking the veil. She has 6 daughters and one elder son. One son was just newly born. Once her husband beat the elder son for some issue and he left the house. Their house became filled with sorrow and Baji left the veil thinking that people come to our house often, there is a faucet in the front yard for ablution (wudu) and she has to do ablution in front of everyone frequently. Then i pacified her that I have done istikhara and i have seen that your son is safe and alive and he is at some shrine. Actually he was at Daata Darbaar. Then he returned home himself. When our younger brother died in the prime of his youth, it had only been 6 months since I had started taking the veil and at that time also Allah gave me steadfastness. Then my sister started taking the veil again. I want to tell my sisters that if there is a test from Allah and difficult times come then for those who remain steadfast, Allah's help also arrives.
