“Mr. Gibson, I would appreciate if you will stop talking to my daughter. You will make it hard for her to accept another man,” Bari spits in a commanding tone.
“She cannot marry any other man, Mr. Bari. I know she loves me.” He cups her face in his hands. “Rania, please just look at me once.”
“Mr. Gibson, your presence in her life has already spoiled her name and mine. She has been sleeping with you, and—”
“For God’s sake, Mr. Bari, show some goddamn respect. She is your daughter,” Adam yells at the old man.
“I can’t afford to give her my name anymore. She has already spoiled my family name and pride. After so much trouble, I’ve finally found a family who will accept her. Her marriage is arranged with a highly respectable family with a good name.”
“If name is the issue, Mr. Bari...” Adam releases Rania’s face and stands up to face Bari. “I am ready to give my name to your daughter. I want to marry Rania.”
Rania opens her eyes and looks at Adam with bewilderment. She can’t believe what she just heard.
“Do you have any idea what you are saying, Mr. Gibson? It is not as easy as it sounds.” Bari is very casual, as if he knew this would happen. “You and she belong to totally different cultures. Keep in mind that our religion doesn’t allow a woman to marry a man outside her religious boundaries.”
“Is that the only reason you think I am not good enough for your daughter?”
“This is the main reason. I have a reputation here, Mr. Gibson. I don’t want to end up being a laughingstock, that my daughter married an atheist.”
“I had no religion, Mr. Bari. I don’t know in what faith I was born.” He takes a deep breath and looks at Rania. “She is my light. If I tell you that I am already a believer, then would you take my word for it?”
Bari rolls his eyes. “You have got to be kidding me, Gibson. You think it’s a joke? You cannot accept a religion just for marriage.” Bari chuckles sarcastically.
“I have already accepted God with all my senses.”
“What proof do you have?” Bari is concerned.
“What proof do you have, Mr. Bari, that you are His believer? Apart from being born in a Muslim family.”
“That is not the answer to my question,” Bari snaps.
“I accepted His Oneness at someone’s hand. If that’s what you want to know. I made a vow on the Oneness of God and that Muhammad is His last Prophet. Is that what you want to know?”
Bari is stunned and speechless.
Adam sits down facing Rania, and looks into her blurred eyes. “You are my light, Rania. Whatever I have learned about Him, I’ve learned from you. I know you will be my guide every step of the way. I just want you to trust that I will never ever back out. I promise. I promise I will not let Khaldun take you over. There will be no Jibran, no Khaldun, no curse between us. It will be just us, Rania. Please accept me. I can’t live without you. You are the sound that makes my heart beat. You are the voice to my soul. You are the strength that has made me a better man.”
Rania is not able to say anything. Instead, she starts crying. “I know you love me regardless of if you confess it or not. I know you do. You can’t marry a stranger when you know you will never be able to fall in love with that man. You told me God sent me as your soul mate. Please give me a chance to prove it. I will be your protector. Please trust me one more time.” She bursts into tears and Adam hugs her tightly.
Bari watches them for a moment, then speaks. “Rania, I have given my word to that family. You can’t just ruin my name like that.”
“Please, Mr. Bari, just once...just once put your goddamn name aside and sneak into your daughter’s heart.” Adam is holding Rania tightly, but he is glaring at her father. “Through all these years, never, even once, did you comfort your daughter in her pain. How could you abandon your only child?” Adam creates a space between them and wipes tears from her face.
“Just look at your daughter, Bari. You have only given her pain for five years. She lived with your curse, thinking she killed her own mother. How could you do that?” Rania shakes her head with fear, trying to make Adam shut his mouth.
“No, Rania. Let me speak. This man should know what damage he’s done.” He looks back to Bari. “You think you’re always right, Bari. The decisions you make, are they always right? NO! I know you were in pain when your wife died, but why didn’t you realize that Sarah had the life limit up till that moment? No one is responsible for anyone’s death. It’s all in God’s hands, as to who will go when. And you blamed your only child? Didn’t you see how hurt she was? She also needed a shoulder to cry on. And what did you do? You just gave her the cold shoulder and escaped from the misery, leaving your only child alone, wandering in the dark. If Sarah were alive, would you have done this? Do you think you’re making your wife’s soul happy by wounding her only child?”
Bari’s eyes fill with tears. He doesn’t reply, and Adam keeps bombarding him with the truth.
“You kicked her out of your life, and at that vulnerable age, what would you expect from her? She ran away to hide her misery and married the wrong man. She lived with that monster for almost a year, and never once, in those months, did you have the courage to face her. You didn’t even bother asking her how she was. If she were alive or not!” Adam stands up and grabs Bari by his collar.
“Do you have any bloody idea what she’s gone through? That asshole burned her body with cigarettes! And you kept your eyes closed all the time. You didn’t even notice a single wound? He used to beat her and sexually assault her every single fucking night! Do you have any idea how she feels, Bari? She lost her baby, she almost lost her life, and all you could do was to bring her back home and send her off to a new country to live and die on her own? And now that she wants to live on her own, you come to her and try to be her father? Do you think you’re playing fair? Don’t you have any fear of God, Bari? You didn’t even hug her once, or comfort her. You could have said, ‘it’s all right, Rania, you made a mistake but I’m your father and your guardian, and I won’t let anyone harm you in the future.’ That was the promise you were supposed to make, Bari. Not leave her in some strange country to wander alone in the darkness. You have no bloody right to be her father anymore. I’m taking her with me. We are both adults, our religion gives us the right to marry, and I will see how you stop me.”
Bari falls on his knees as if someone has punched him in the gut. Rania rushes to her father and holds him tightly.
“Baba!” She looks at Adam with anger. “What have you done to my father? I will never forgive you if anything happens to him!”
Adam looks at her in shock. “You still care for this man, Rania? After all he has done to you?”
“He’s my father, Adam. My only living relative. I have already lost my mother. I can’t afford to lose him.” She looks at her father with concern. “Baba, please, I apologize on his behalf. I...”
“I am sorry, my princess…” Bari finally speaks, opening his eyes and looking at his daughter in pain. “I am sorry I acted like a coward.”
“No, Baba, please don’t say sorry. Please don’t overburden my soul by apologizing.”
“No, I am sorry, my princess.” He holds his daughter’s face in his hands and kisses her forehead. “In my grief, I forgot to look at you. I am sorry I didn’t realize you were in pain too. I should have been there to comfort you. I am the worst father.”
“No, Baba! Please don’t say that. You are the best thing that has ever happened to me. You are my greatest blessing from Allah.”
“Why didn’t you tell me he burned you?” There is so much regret in Bari’s eyes.
“It’s over, Baba. It’s history.”
Both daughter and father cry in each other’s arms, remembering Sarah. Adam backs off and settles into the corner of the couch. He watches them walking down memory lane and talking about Sarah. They are freeing their chained sorrows, after five years. Adam is glad that Rania has finally eased her pain a
t her mother’s death. He is just wondering if Bari will consider what he said about marrying his daughter. He knows Rania would never go against her father, even if she loves Adam dearly.
After their mourning, Rania leaves the room to wash her face, and Bari walks toward Adam and sits beside him.
“Thank you for opening my eyes.” Adam smiles and nods in silence. “The asshole she married could still be alive.” Bari speaks in almost a whisper, so that Rania doesn’t hear him. Adam looks at Bari pensively, and wants to say something, but he lets Bari continue with the truth.
“I want to get him out of my daughter’s life. I have told her he is dead, so let him be dead.” Bari looks at Adam. “The reason I am telling you this is because after me, I think you are the only one who can protect my daughter. I have seen truth in your eyes.” He looks down at the floor. “So later in life, if he ever finds her, at least you should know that he was alive.”
“But how did you get the death certificate if he’s alive? Rania told me she couldn’t marry anyone unless Jibran gives her a divorce, according to Islamic law?”
He sighs for a moment. “I searched for that fucking gold digger for such a long time, so he could divorce my daughter, but I don’t know under what layer of earth he is hiding. But, I have made sure he doesn’t find a job anywhere, at least in the Middle East. I have sent out his death certificate to all the government departments. I want to make sure his life is miserable, like he did to my daughter. My only regret is that I couldn’t find him on my own. If I knew how he had tortured my daughter, I would have killed him.”
“Do you think he would know where Rania is now?”
“I don’t know. The reason I reacted to your news coverage was because Rania was coming into the limelight due to your fame. If I can see the news, he can too, and he would know by now that she is in Toronto, dating someone.” He looks directly into Adam’s eyes. “I know, Adam, that he is going to find her one day. Promise me you will protect her so well that he doesn’t even chase her shadow.”
“I will use all my powers to protect her, Mr. Bari. She is my life.”
Bari smiles and shakes his head. “Everyone thinks I sent her to Toronto because I kicked her out of my life. But the truth was that I couldn’t protect her here. He would have found her. I wanted Rania to get out of Jibran’s evil sight. I am glad she found you.” He takes a deep breath. “I can now die in peace and meet my Sarah.”
Rania comes back into the room and sits beside her father. Bari tucks her in his arms like a baby and she rests her head on his shoulder. For so many years, she has craved her father’s touch. She was all alone for all those years. Adam moves to another couch to give father and daughter their own private space. Bari kisses her on her forehead and begins running his fingers through her hair.
“You know, Rania, when you were four, you started demanding a bike. Since you used to see Mike riding his own bike in the neighborhood, you wanted to copy him.” He smiles at the old memory. “I had no other option than buying a pink Barbie bike for you, with all the glitter and flowers, and you wanted desperately to learn to ride it.” Rania looks at her father, smiles, and cuddles back to him again.
“I warned you so many times that you were too young to ride on your own, but you were quite stubborn like your father, and wanted to try your two-wheeler for the first time.” He chuckles at the memory again. “Perhaps it’s in our blood. So I started giving you lessons. Every evening you used to wait for me to come home, and then I would give you riding lessons.” He pauses for a moment, thinking.
“You fell from the bike one day, and injured your knee. Though it was just a scratch, you cried so much that almost all the neighbors knew what happened. To ease your pain, I had to scratch my knee too, and we both went to the doctor together to get them fixed.” He moves his head and looks at his daughter. “It made you feel a lot better, seeing me in pain. You forgot your pain and focused on my knee.”
Rania hugs her father tightly. “I am sorry, Baba, for troubling you. I know I shouldn’t have married Jibran.”
“Let’s not talk about him. Okay?”
“Hmm…”
“What about this guy sitting in front of you? You want to marry him?” Bari cocks his head toward Adam and smiles at Rania.
“Baba?” Her father has taken her by surprise.
“I know it’s hard for you to admit in front of him, but you can tell the truth to your Baba. Don’t act like your mom.” He winks at his daughter. Adam looks at both of them, agape.
“I will let you decide, Baba. Anyone you choose for me...”
“No, I want you to tell me if you love him or not. Do you think he is going to be your soul mate? He claims he is.” Bari shrugs his shoulders.
Adam looks at Rania for her response. She remains silent for a moment, glances at Adam, and then tucks back into her father’s embrace.
“You remember, Baba, when we went to Istanbul and that sorcerer warned us not to go to Egypt?” Bari moves his daughter and looks at her with concern. “I thought it wasn’t true, and Jibran took me there after our marriage.”
“You went to Egypt?” Bari gasps.
“I thought the fortuneteller was faking. That place changed my fate, Baba.”
“Why didn’t you tell me you were going there?” He glares at his daughter.
“You were not—”
“Did you meet Fadil?”
“You know him, Baba?” She looks totally shocked. Adam has his full attention on both of them. He is also surprised to know that Bari knew about the Jinn.
“He was your mom’s friend. Did you meet him?”
“I met Khaldun.” Rania speaks in a very low tone. Bari closes his eyes, not sure what to say, but seeing him like this, Rania assumes that if her mother knew about Fadil, she had known about Khaldun too.
“Khaldun came after your mother, too. You know she carried the same beauty, but her eyes spared her. Khaldun was looking for a black-eyed girl with that beauty. When that old lady mentioned Egypt, your mom was actually listening to what Fadil had to say. She told me no matter what, we would never let you visit the pyramids. If Khaldun was unaware of your existence, then it was our responsibility to protect you from him, but I guess that demons always attract demons. Jibran became the source of that.” He pulls Rania more closely to him, protectively. “Fadil told your mom that Khaldun would take you to his world from time to time, and if someone can reach in there for you, he would be your soul mate.”
Rania looks at her father in hope, glancing at Adam. “Adam tracked me down in his world, Baba. He always showed up from nowhere and…” She shakes her head, with no more words to say.
Bari shoots a glance at Adam and then at Rania. “He knows all this?” He points toward Adam.
“Yes, Mr. Bari. I know everything,” Adam says. “I saw one of them.”
“You saw him?” Bari is startled.
“I met Fadil. He invited me into his world.” Rania looks at Adam, speechless. “Although I had already started believing in God through your daughter, I guess I was too blinded to accept the light, due to my ignorance. It is unbelievable to say, but Fadil showed me how powerful God can be.”
“You accepted God’s presence through a Jinni?” This time, Bari’s jaw drops in surprise.
“Yes, Mr. Bari. I know it sounds implausible. Anyone other than you, who doesn’t know the truth, would never believe it. He mentioned how powerful Khaldun is. That immoral Jinni almost tried to kill her one night.” Adam shudders even to think about that horrible night.
“Rania?” Bari looks at his daughter with fear in his eyes. “He tried to kill you?”
Rania drops her gaze in remorse. “He wanted to kill Adam for getting close to me. He gave me the choice—”
“He cannot harm me, Rania,” Adam says, in a very powerful way. “My soul is not that weak, that I should listen to a Jinni.”
“I can’t take that risk for you, Adam. I just can’t.”
“I will not let any
thing happen to you or me. You will have to trust me.” Adam tries his best to make her believe.
“You still want to marry my daughter, knowing that she is cursed?” Bari speaks in between them, with concern.
“I can’t live without your daughter. And God has made us for each other. Do I have a choice, Mr. Bari?” He chuckles in a casual way, as if risking his life for her is not a big deal for him.
Adam looks at Rania lovingly. He is already elated with the fact that she will become his life partner soon. Bari laughs at Adam’s remarks and shakes his head.
“God and His ways of doing things. No one can ever predict that providence, not even angels, not even Jinn.” He looks at his daughter once again. “You didn’t tell me, princess. Do you want to marry this man?”
Rania smiles shyly. “If God has made him my soul mate, do I have a choice, Baba?” She speaks just as Adam spoke a moment ago. Adam looks at her with utter happiness.
HOLY MATRIMONY
“In the name of Allah, Most Gracious and Most Merciful. Dear friends and family, we have gathered here to share and celebrate the togetherness of Rania and Adam, the sacred act pleased by Allah through which He converts their love for one another into the holy and sacred state of marriage.” Mr. Kareem, a highly reputable Muslim scholar and cleric and a state-appointed Muslim judge, is here to join Rania and Adam in the sacred bond of marriage. He is the same man who had led Bari and Sarah’s ceremony, twenty-seven years ago.
“We are all pleased to attend Rania and Adam’s Nikah ceremony, with all the blessings of friends and families. As Allah says in the Holy Quran about this sacred relationship: They are clothing for you and you are clothing for them; it is my ultimate responsibility to guide these two young adults to understand that clothing not only means to protect each other physically, but that they are to protect each other’s identity. With this bond, they are lawfully bound to respect and love each other with complete trust and faith. As our Prophet Mohammad has said: Faithfulness and enduring friendship are a part of faith. In this holy bond, a husband and wife screen each other from falling into sin by fulfilling one another’s needs in a lawful manner.” Adam listens to him intently.
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