مريم منتصر’s Reviews > The Butterfly Mosque: A Young American Woman's Journey to Love and Islam > Status Update

Some unspoken part of me always assumed the Disney version of love was the truth. that falling in love removed all obstacles and patched up all broken things!
Love is not a benign thing!
No corner of my life remained unaltered by the consequences of what I loved. The most wonderful thing that had ever happened to me, brought me neither peace nor comfort. But it did bring me him. And this was more than enough!

The life of that dress, like my own, was the work of many hands.

It had been sunset, the only time of day when Cairo seems forgiving :)

The Prophet, his role model, never beat or belitted his wives. Omar took it very seriously.

To him, the old Islamic saying that Marriage is half of religion was absolute; his duty to love and protect me was part of his duty to Allah.

-Sometimes I am afraid of you. I said, surprising even my self
=No. (He looked hurt)No. No. Be angry at me, frustrated with me, but NEVER be afraid of me!

He'd never give me a reason to be afraid_ never lift his jand in anger, or call me a demeaning name, or even raise his voice. The Prophet, his role model, never beat or belitted his wives.

"We cannot leave the places in which we have suffered without regret; that these places become our second skins".


Cairo was mine.. It made me sick and dirty and endlessly hassled, and gotten me in trouble, and gotten me out of trouble. And it had given me Omar.

Coming from anyone else, it might be annoying, but love, if not blind, is certainly deaf!
_
He had the intellectual enthusiasm of self-taught, and it was infectious!
I learned more wandering around with Omar than I had in four years of college!