THE KALASH - WHITE TRIBE OF PAKISTAN

Fascinating to say the least:-

The Kalash The White Tribe of Pakistan



In the mountains of the Hindu Kush in Pakistan, six thousand or so people live.  They claim to have lived in the area for thousands of years.





Many of the Kalash are blond haired and blue eyed!  Some believe that that they are descendants of Alexander the Great's army though their true ethnic origins are still unproven.





They have a significantly different outlook on life from the Muslims surrounding them they are polytheistic and have a completely different folklore.





DNA testing has not, however, produced any connection to Greek people.

Yet although there is no genetic support for a Greek origin, the tests on the Kalash also showed no detectable East or South Asian lineages.





Taking in to account genetic drift it was then thought that the Kalash blood line originated in Eastern Europe, the Middle East and the Caucasus. However, another series of tests suggested that perhaps the Kalash are in fact aboriginal to the area with only negligible contributions from external peoples. In other words, the jury is still out as to where they actually come from but it might well be exactly where they are right now.




They live in Kalasha Desh which translates as the three valleys of the Kalash and that is the limit of their people's range. There are only around five thousand speakers of the language, Kalasha, left which in terms of a language means that it is critically endangered. However, it is thought that the language probably never had more than a few tens of  thousands of speakers at any one time.






As their numbers are very small the culture of the people who

surround them have had an impact. Many of the Kalash in two of the valleys have converted to Islam, probably around fifty percent.

They still practice many of the traditional aspects of Kalash life though the non-converts call them sheiks.  A third valley, known as Birir, still clings to the traditional way of Kalash life.



By some standards the Kalash are very poor and it is true that they are subsistence farmers. Kalash houses are typically made from Deodar trunk to an ancient design. They appear singly or stacked up against each other up vertiginous hillsides.



Yet even though the houses often look precarious, they are built on solid stone foundations. Many have inbuilt beehives, given the villagers access to honey close by. Life is, however, hard. Outbreaks of cholera still happen regularly in these remote villages.



In stark contract to the culture of Pakistan the Kalash do not separate the sexes or disapprove of contact between men and women of different families.  However, there is the bashelini a house in the village where menstruating women are sent until they regain purity and rituals must be performed before she can return to her husband.





Elopement is regular in Kalash society and strangely it occurs often among married women.  The woman herself will write to the prospective groom and offer her hand, informing the new man how much her previous husband paid for her.

 

The Kalash have, for however long they have been in the Hindu Kush, made their livelihood by herding goats and farming. Yet tourism does not play a major part in their lives with many urban Pakistanis making the journey from the big cities to meet their light coloured rustic fellow citizens.

The Kalash are protected by the government of Pakistan. However, their relative isolation may well ensure the Kalash survive.

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Posted by Zaffar Iqbal Durrani

CRUEL

                Samareen and Amjad were cousins. They grew up together, passed their childhood & youth together and enter their adult age together. They were deeply in love with each other. They could not pass a day without meeting each other. They were one of the luckiest couple that their families never objected to their getting married and they were joined in the wedlock, to their hearts’ desire.

                Both were from mediocre families. However, Amjad worked very hard and having Samareen at his side become very successful businessman and in about 10 years, become a multimillionaire. However, their other family members/ relatives remained at the same mediocre level economically. It was only Amjad’s brilliance with Samareen at his support that elevated him from mediocre to multimillionaire.

                They were lost in each other’s love for almost 11 years but without having the grace of ALLAH in shape of a child. After mutual deliberations and understanding they decided to adopt a child. By visiting an orphanage, they adopted a baby girl. Happiness, in their life became full and with the new family member in their family, they were not bothered what is going around them in the world. Samareen and Amjad had only one world. They had their own world, where they were only three; Samareen, Amjad & their baby girl Anosha.

                ALLAH had been very kind to Amjad due to his good human nature. He was very caring and had a very kind heart. Both he & Samareen were always all out to help the needy. Nobody would ever go empty handed from his door.

                Many more years passed until one day, when Anosha turned 18 that suddenly Samareen died, nobody knew what happened. She slept alright at night but did not wake up the next morning.

                The world crashed infront of Amjad and Anosha. If it was not of Anosha, Amjad would not have bared the loss and the shock. It was their mutual love of Amjad & Anosha that they supported each other and survived.

                04 month after the death of Samareen, a strange and unfortunate issue was raised by the relatives of Amjad. Of course it was evident that their evil mind was behind that. As Amjad and late Samareen never had their child so greed over took the minds of their relative and they intrigued. They had their eyes on the wealth of Amjad, which was in shape of priceless real estate, two Sugar Mills & a large business of import/ export of readymade garments. To their mind they were the rightful kin of Amjad.

                The very wisely raised issue was that under the Islamic Laws, an adult man cannot live with an adult woman under one roof unless they have a permissible relationship. So, an adopted adult young girl cannot live with an adult man, may it be the adopted father.

This really perplexed and flabbergasted Amjad. He had virtually raised the girl from the age when even her eyes were not opened to the stage where now she was a beautiful young lady.   

                He was literally, together with her wife, raised her on his chest, and at times even changed her diapers. He has been taking care of her in all her sickness and had literally remained awake many nights. He taught her how to talk, how to walk, how to eat and has been walking her to school.

                In desperation, he consulted the renowned learned Islamic Scholars for a solution but all had one answer. He cannot live together with his adopted adult daughter under one roof. He was to part from her immediately. He cried the whole night and also shared his pain with his girl.

                So, he found a solution himself. He found a young lad for his girl and married them and after a while, gifted all his property to his girl Anosha.

                Those all his evil minded relatives challenged his transfer of property decisions in the court but failed. The court decided in favour of Amjad.

                This stress however took its toll and Amjad could not survive parting of Anosha and died within months of her marriage and left this cruel world and joined Samareen.   

                Another such case came before me but only with the change of characters. In that the Couple adopted a baby boy and raised him. The father died when the adopted boy became a young lad of 15 years. Now again the same problem came up. A woman may it be her adopted mother, cannot live with him under the same roof as she did not have any permissible relationship with the boy. The end of that story was very sad and tragic. As the mother was poor and she did not had any bread winner and only had his 15 years son on her side who himself was still studying in his school, but still the mother had to part with the adopted son............

                

Posted by Zaffar Iqbal Durrani

Height of Hatred

                  I was on an official trip to another city that I got an emergency call from my wife. She asked me to return immediately as there is something wrong in the neighborhood and that she cannot tell me on the telephone. There was a tint of fear and shock in her voice. I was four hours away in the adjacent city.

                I drove back home. By around dusk I was able to reach my house. I could spell an atmosphere of fear and terror when I entered the block, where my house was situated. Women and children were standing in their door of the houses and their eyes were filled with fears.

            When I entered my house, my wife asked me to look over the wall in the neighbors’ house. I refused, as it was beyond decency but she was crying profusely and trembling with fear and begging me to look. So I looked.

                Oh my ALLAH. What did I see?

            My neighbor was a Pathan from tribal area. I learnt later that he has gone to another city on a business trip. His name was Faheem Afridi. He was 42/45 years old. Few months back he had married again to a 19 years old girl. His first wife was issue less and was 38/40 years of age.

            I saw that Faheem’s first wife had hang the 19 year old girl, the second wife, naked, upside down by tying her from ankles and was removing her skin through a very sharp knife. She would make a cut on the skin and then hold it with her hand and tear the skin with force by pulling it down. She was doing it strip by strip. This was height of Barbarism. I shrugged and taken aback myself. It was very difficult to even watch that. One can’t imagine as to what the poor girl under went

The poor girl was bleeding and not in her senses. My wife told me that earlier she was crying in pain at the top of her voice and begging the senior wife to have mercy on her and leave her but the senior wife was not moved at all and gave her a deaf ear. The woman of the area also tried to calm her down and begged her to leave the young girl alone but she attacked the women who were trying to stop her.

            Surprisingly, there was not a single adult male member of any neighbor family present.

         I called the police. Took four women, including my wife, and went to the neighbors and with quite some difficulty, got hold of the senior wife, who was adamant to use the sharp knife against us. The poor girl was shifted to hospital.

            Mr Faheem Afridi was informed, who came rushing the next day.

           Mrs Faheem senior was sentenced to seven years in jail. The poor Mrs Faheem junior lost her mind due to shock.

She is still in the mental hospital and it is almost 29 years. 

Posted by Zaffar Iqbal Durrani

This is love

This is a very strange story. It has love and it has betrayal. This is a story of two love birds, a boy and a girl. They were deeply in love. Ultimately they decided to get married. They were living married together for ten years that the girl fell seriously ill. Doctor’s lost their hope and told as such to the husband, the boy. The girl’s name was Raheela and the boy was Farhan. Despite the serious illness of Raheela, Farhan never lost hope and daily remained beside her bed.

            Somehow, Raheela despite being very sick and very weak remained in her senses. She day and night used to ask Farhan that whether he marry again, if she died and Farhan used to assure her that he is very much in Love with her and he after her death will never marry again. But she would not believe him. She kept insisting him that he should give her his words that he will not marry again. Farhan promised her and gave her his words. But still, she would not believe and she could keep pressing him and giving his promise to her. She would rather say that as Farhan is still young and therefore he will be requiring the need of a woman so, he is going to marry again and that’s why she will not believe him. She was constantly demanding Farhan to do such an act which will make her believe him

            The pressure of Raheela on Farhan was such that one day out of desperations; he brought a knife and in front of her eyes, cut his penis off.

           He fainted and was evacuated to the hospital. Farhan went into critical condition due to excessive bleeding. However, he survived.

            On the other side, after this incident, Raheela showed miraculous recovery and in a month or so recovered fully. The days passed.

            After about six/seven months of her recovery, she filed divorce papers in the court. Reason: That her husband was not physically fit to meet her sexual requirements/desires.

            She filed medical papers in the court in support of her claim. However, earlier to that her husband accepted her claim before the court.

            The court decided in her favor and she was divorced.

            End of the Love story.

Posted by Zaffar Iqbal Durrani

Love

What is Love

Love is our Nature

Truly loving another meaning letting go of all expectations. It means full acceptance, even celebration of another person hood.  We came to love not by finding a perfect person, but by learning to see an imperfect person perfectly.

Love is like a garden, though beautiful, but you still have to weed it to make it loveable.To get the full Value of joy, you must have someone to divide it with.

Love is not blind. It sees more and not less, but because it sees more, it is willing to see less.

To love someone is to see a miracle invisible to others.

Love does not begin the way we seem to think it does. Love is a battle, love is a war; love is growing up.

Love is like playing a piano. First you must learn to play by the rules, and then you must forget the rules and play from your heart.

Love recognises no barriers. It jumps hurdle, penetrates walls to arrive at its destination, full of hope.

If you express love in a way your partner doesn't understand, he will not realise that you have expressed your love at all.

Every one needs someone. People need people and friends need friends. And we all need love for a dull life depends. Not on vast riches or great acclaim, not on success or on worldly fame. But just in knowing that someone cares and holds us close in their thoughts and prayers. For only the knowledge that we're understood makes everyday living feel wonderfully good. And we rob ourselves of life's greatest need when we "lock up our hearts" and fail to heed.

Put your most treasured dreams and values into action right now. Here is what you can really do what you have always been longing to do.Now is when you can let yourself feel the way you truly wish to feel. See that there is nothing standing in the way of filling the world with your own special joy.

The out stretched hand reaching to find a kindred spirit whose heart and mind are lonely and longing to somehow share our joys and sorrows and to make us aware. That life’s completeness and richness depends on the things we share with our loved ones and friends.

Live This Day. Do not merely, someday, somehow. Open yourself to the beauty and goodness of this moment and live this day. Hope to live.

Let go of worries and fantasies about what might or might not be. Focus the full energy of your spirit on what is real and what is not, and live this day.

A life of experience has perfectly prepared you for where you are right now. Live this day and fulfill the possibilities of your miraculous existence.

To love a person is to learn the song that is in their heart, and to sing it to them when they have forgotten.

This is the day that belongs to you. This is the time when you can do anything and make a difference.

Live this Day

Have a Nice day.

Posted by Zaffar Iqbal Durrani

AN EVENING OUT WITH JAVED BALOCH

        A very nice get together was arranged at the Creek Club Karachi by Wasif as usual for dinning in of Javed Baloch, who has again come to Karachi. Though he was sent off properly but still he returned so we have to arrange the dinning in again. He was however told that he can have as much dinning outs and dinning in as he like. It was a very beautiful evening of Karachi. The weather was splendid due to the recent rains. Families also joined as can be seen in the photographs. A very warm and heartiest welcome Javed Baloch and family. And a very heartiest thank you to Wasif for arranging such lovely functions. I wonder what will Karachi chapter do without, ALLAH forbid, Wasif and his lovely wife. Nobody other than him has the talent and initiative to arrange such marvellous gatherings other than Wasif.

          News about Shahid Qadir is that he is improving and now has started recognizing. When one goes to see him he smiles, shakes hand and press your hand warmly. He has been shifted to a special room. However, his family has imposed a ban on visitors like us. Only selected persons of their choice are allowed. Therefore the latest is difficult to get and update.

Posted by Zaffar Iqbal Durrani

Divorce1

CASE-2

This is the story of a very beautiful woman who approached the court for her divorce proceedings. A young girl of hardly 23 years old. She had two kids, a boy and a girl, four and three years old respectively. Let me confess that I was rather surprised to see her and on preparing her case I was feeling pain in my heart. She was not only beautiful but had manners and quite decent to talk. She was looking so dejected and hurt. My own feelings were that such girls are here in this world to be happy and to receive and enjoy all the blessings of Allah. A girl whose pinkish color was such as if she is made of milk with added honey in it. In Urdu it is said and I quote here translated, “she was such that mere touching her will make her dirty”. Very big almond color deep eyes. O Allah what has fallen on her. Her name was Fatima.

            Well, she was married to an engineer, who was well set and established. At the time of her marriage she was 18 years old and the engineer was 30 years of age. His name was Zulqarnain.

            On her arranged marriage, she had lots of romantic and emotional desires. When she reached her new home she was very excited with lots of dreams in her eyes. But alas! What she got.

The very first briefing and the treatment she got from her husband, Mr. Zulqarnain, was quite humiliating and thus her marriage ultimately culminated towards the divorce proceedings. The proceedings, which I believe, should have been initiated on the very next day of her married life. She in the hope of a change, waited five long years and had two children but to no veil. Mr. Zulqarnain remained the same without any changes in his behavior, which was beyond any set norms of life.

            On the very first night Mr. Zulqarnain briefed his wife that she will not form part of his life and will live in his house in a separate room. Mr, Zulqarnain has installed a call bell in her room, whose push button was beside Mr, Zulqarnain’s bed and whenever he desired her, he would ring the bell and Miss Fatima was to appear in his room and submit herself to him. Other than that she was not allowed to be seen with him and was not allowed even to have food with him. In Mr. Zulqarnain’s Novel beliefs, woman was only for sex, reproduction and domestic use. He was member of such families who do not allow their woman to eat earlier than all the male members have taken their food and also the woman folk are not to sit on any raised platform, may it be Bed, Sofa, Chair etc. It is only the prerogative of the men only. Even their mother, may they be very old, will have to sit on the ground besides their son or even grandson while he is sitting on the bed or chair.

            This was quite humiliating. I still don’t understand what made her take that humiliation that longer. Out of curiosity, I asked her. And she said that she wanted to make her marriage a success and kept praying and waiting that her love will change Mr, Zulqarnain. Moreover, she also had a traditional pressure on her of her parents and brothers to adjust and to carry on.

            The Court decided in favour of Ms. Fatima and granted her Divorce.

            Allah saves all girls from such humiliating behavior.

Posted by Zaffar Iqbal Durrani

Divorce

It has always been  a surprising factors for me and a non understood phenomenon as to why two people who very intimately and with lots of love and affection decide to marry each other and start living together, suddenly come to a stage where they think their co- existence is not possible. It was a mystery for me till I started my practice as a lawyer but, not anymore.

Today I thought that I shall pen down some of the cases which came into my knowledge due to my professional life as a Lawyer. Initially I shall take on cases in which the wife approached the court asking for separation. In this series of articles I shall print different cases. Here below is case number 1.

Case I

This is the case in which the woman approached the court after four years of her marriage. She was married to a lawyer, an advocate of the high court. This was an arranged marriage.

The woman was from an orthodox family where intermingling with the boys was considered bad and was prohibited. She had her basic religious education and then she attended a girl’s school and completed her junior school education. She was a very pretty lady rather she was extra ordinarily beautiful girl. When she got married she was almost 19 years of age. Her name was Ainy.

The man, Mr Advocate, was much older to the girl. When they got married, he was 40 years of age. His name was Fareed. He was also from an orthodox religious family and all his 4 brothers were clerics and his two sisters were working women. Mr Fareed was a graduate of law and was practicing law for the last 12 years. He had good practice. Initially, he was living with his parents but, after marriage he acquired a rented house and moved in there with his wife.

Apparently, they were living happily. The normal routine of an advocate is very tough. He will have to leave his house so as to reach and attend court which starts at 08.30 a.m and normally continues till 2 p.m. Then again he has to come back and attend his office from 5 pm to 10 pm or 11 pm. Then after having his dinner, he has to prepare for the next day court cases. Depending on the cases, normally it is almost 2a.m that he goes to bed. The only time he has for his family is on Sunday.

Mr Fareed and Ms Ainy remained married for four years and they had a very pretty baby girl of three years old, when Mrs Fareed i.e., Ms Ainy filed her papers for divorce.

Let me brief you a little about the family law and the family courts in Pakistan. Normally these are judges of the court who are nominated as family judges and have their separate courts and they hear the cases on priority. The family law of Pakistan is very comprehensive and mainly helps the girls. However, it is within the law and the court instructions to the judges that initially they try their utmost to save the marriage. Thus keeping that in view, it takes almost minimum 90 days to complete the proceedings.

Normally it is very difficult for the people to contest a case against an Advocate, not that he is more learned but, as per the set courtesy procedure of the courts, normally no other advocate takes the case when he learns that it is against a colleague advocate. This is the first hurdle which is faced by the persons who are contesting against an Advocate. Same happened with Ms Ainy. Initially she was not finding any lawyer who could contest her case. Only after the permission from Mr Fareed that a female lawyer Ms Anila Advocate appeared for Ms Ainy. I was requested by Mr Fareed to appear from his side.

After the initial formal appearances, the court as usual arranged meeting of the wife and husband in a separate room, in seclusion, with the instructions to both of them to talk to each other and remove whatever were their differences/ misunderstandings. It was initially with quite difficulty that they both agreed to sit together. After initial few appearances and with lot of pursuance from the court as well as from me and Ms Anila Advocate, that both agreed to patch up and live together again.

The court decided in their favour and dismissed the case.

However, I knew from the core of my heart that this marriage will not succeed and the lady will again come to the court for divorce. Why?

During the process of the proceeding, when we were trying the compromise deal, I happened to listen to the wife and I realised that whatever is happening in their house if continues, the wed lock will break. I actually developed my sympathies with the wife and exerted my weight to the maximum on the Husband and asked him to change his attitude if he wants his marriage life to succeed. I asked him to do it at least for his beautiful daughter.

Well, let me share as to what was wrong, why I said above that the wife will again approach the court for the divorce and what was that which became unbearable for the wife to live anymore with her husband.

Mr Fareed was a very mistrustful person. When he used to go for his job, he used to lock her wife inside the house and she was not allowed to contact anyone in the meanwhile. So much so that he used to take the telephone instrument along with him and used to install back on his return. She was only allowed to use the telephone in her husband’s presence. Secondly, whenever Mr Fareed returned home, he would start searching the entire house, all bathrooms and even the garbage bin, as if looking for an evidence of somebody’s presence in the house that came in his absence. His initial 10 minutes on his return to the house in the afternoon and in the evening was spent on this stupid search which was very agonising for the wife. Then, quite randomly, whenever he used to get some spare time during the court hours he used to come for the surprise check.

Moreover, he was in habit of replacing the door lock after every week or so. Even then he never used to be satisfied and regularly interrogated his wife under suspicion. He was never satisfied with the answers and used to beat her by not believing her. Now everybody will agree with me that under these circumstances, it was very difficult for a woman to live. I don’t know how this poor lady survived these four years. Hats off to her. But once she called it a day and said enough is enough.

Under firm promise from Mr Fareed that he will leave his bad habits, the compromise deed was made effective and Ms Ainy willingly moved to her husband’s house. Normally Girls of our society tries their level best to make their marriage life a success.

The lady approached the court again within three months and the court separated them, as I expected. 

Posted by Zaffar Iqbal Durrani

The Husband Who Was Too Shy To Look At His Wife

This story was recounted by Prof. Khalid Al-Jubeir, consulting cardiovascular surgeon, in one of his lectures:

Once I operated on a two and a half year old child. It was Tuesday, and on Wednesday the child was in good health. On Thursday at 11:15 am – and I’ll never forget the time because of the shock I experienced – one of the nurses informed me that the heart and breathing of the child had stopped. I hurried to the child and performed cardiac massage for 45 minutes and during that entire time the heart would not work.

Then, ALLAH decreed for the heart to resume function and we thanked HIM. I went to inform the child’s family about his condition. As you know, it is very difficult to inform the patient’s family about his condition when it’s bad. This is one of the most difficult situations a doctor is subjected to but it is necessary. So I looked for the child’s father whom I couldn't find. Then I found his mother. I told her that the child’s cardiac arrest was due to bleeding in his throat; we don’t know the cause of this bleeding and fear that his brain is dead. So how do you think she responded? Did she cry? Did she blame me? No, nothing of the sort. Instead, she said “Alhamdulillah” (All Praise is due to ALLAH) and left me.

After 10 days, the child started moving. We thanked ALLAH and were happy that his brain condition was reasonable. After 12 days, the heart stopped again because of the same bleeding. We performed another cardiac massage for 45 minutes but this time his heart didn’t respond. I told his mother that there was no hope. So she said: “Alhamdulillah. O ALLAH, if there is good in his recovery, then cure him, O my Lord.”

With the grace of ALLAH, his heart started functioning again. He suffered six similar cardiac arrests till a trachea specialist was able to stop the bleeding and the heart started working properly. Now, three and a half months had passed and the child was recovering but did not move. Then just as he started moving, he was afflicted with a very large and strange pus-filled abscess in his head, the likes of which I had never seen. I informed his mother of the serious development. She said “Alhamdulillah” and left me.

We immediately turned him over to the surgical unit that deals with the brain and nervous system and they took over his treatment. Three weeks later, the boy recovered from this abscess but was still not moving. Two weeks passed and he suffered from a strange blood poisoning and his temperature reaches 41.2°C (106°F). I again informed his mother of the serious development and she said with patience and certainty: “Alhamdulillah. O ALLAH, if there is good in his recovery, then cure him.”

After seeing his mother who was with her child at Bed #5, I went to see another child at Bed #6. I found that child’s mother crying and screaming, “Doctor! Doctor! Do something! The boy’s temperature reached 37.6°C (99.68°F)! He’s going to die! He’s going to die!” I said with surprise, “Look at the mother of that child in Bed #5. Her child’s fever is over 41°C (106°F), yet she is patient and praises ALLAH.” So she replied: “That woman isn't conscious and has no senses”.
At that point, I remembered the great Hadith of the Prophet (Sallallaahu Alaihi Wa Sallam): “Blessed are the strangers.” Just two words… but indeed two words that shake a nation! In 23 years of hospital service, I have never seen the likes of this patient sister.

We continued to care for him. Now, six and a half months have passed and the boy finally came out of the recovery unit – not talking, not seeing, not hearing, not moving, not smiling, and with an open chest in which you can see his beating heart. The mother changed the dressing regularly and remained patient and hopeful. Do you know what happened after that? Before I inform you, what do you think are the prospects of a child who has passed through all these dangers, agonies, and diseases? And what do you expect this patient mother to do whose child is at the brink of the grave and who is unable to do anything except supplicate and beseech ALLAH? Do you know what happened two and a half months later? The boy was completely cured by the mercy of ALLAH and as a reward for this pious mother. He now races his mother with his feet as if nothing happened and he became sound and healthy as he was before.

The story doesn't end here. This is not what moved me and brought tears to my eyes. What filled my eyes with tears is what follows:

One and a half years after the child left the hospital, one of the brothers from the Operations Unit informed me that a man, his wife and two children wanted to see me. I asked who they were and he replied that he didn't know them. So I went to see them, and I found the parents of the same child whom I operated upon. He was now five years old and like a flower in good health – as if nothing happened to him. With them also was a four-month old newborn. I welcomed them kindly and then jokingly asked the father whether the newborn was the 13th or 14th child. He looked at me with an astonishing smile as if he pitied me. He then said, “This is the second child, and the child upon whom you operated is our first born, bestowed upon us after 17 years of infertility. And after being granted that child, he was afflicted with the conditions that you've seen.”

At hearing this, I couldn't control myself and my eyes filled with tears. I then involuntarily grabbed the man by the arm, and pulling him to my room, asked him about his wife: “Who is this wife of yours who after 17 years of infertility has this much patience with all the fatal conditions that afflict her first born?! Her heart cannot be barren! It must be fertile with EEMAAN!”
Do you know what he said? Listen carefully my dear brothers and sisters.
He said, “I was married to this woman for 19 years and for all these years she has never missed the [late] night prayers except due to an authorized excuse. I have never witnessed her back-biting, gossiping, or lying. Whenever I leave home or return, she opens the door, supplicates for me, and receives me hospitably. And in everything she does, she demonstrates the utmost love, care, courtesy, and compassion.”
The man completed by saying, “Indeed, doctor, because of all the noble manners and affection with which she treats me, I'm shy to lift up my eyes and look at her. So I said to him: “And the likes of her truly deserve that from you.”

The End…

ALLAH says: And We will surely test you with something of fear and hunger and a loss of wealth and lives and fruits, but give good tidings to the patient; Who, when calamity strikes them, say, “Indeed we belong to ALLAH, and indeed to HIM we will return.” Those are the ones upon whom are blessings from their Lord and mercy. And it is those who are the [rightly] guided. (Surah Al-Baqarah 155-157)

Umm Salamah (the wife of the Prophet) said: I heard the Messenger of ALLAH (Sallallaahu Alaihi Wa Sallam) saying: “There is no Muslim who is stricken by a calamity and says what ALLAH has commanded him – ‘Indeed we belong to ALLAH, and indeed to Him we will return; O ALLAH, reward me for my affliction and compensate me with that which is better’ – except that ALLAH will grant him something better in exchange.” When Abu Salamah [her former husband] passed away, I said to myself: “What Muslim is better than Abu Salamah?” I then said the words, and ALLAH gave me the Messenger of ALLAH (Sallallaahu Alaihi Wa Sallam) in exchange. (Sahih Muslim) 

By: Anonymous

Posted by Zaffar Iqbal Durrani