Connect with us

#Culture

He Wants To Marry His Wife’s Best Friend?

Published

UZ Corner

When I first began writing what would eventually become the novel His Other Wife, it wasn’t about marriage or polygamy, or even romantic relationships. It was about emotional and spiritual abuse, and it started off as a single narrative blog inspired by a toxic friendship that I’d recently broken off after having endured it for several years.

Amidst suffering from being slandered and ostracized by Muslims from my childhood community who were infuriated that I wouldn’t follow their brand of Islam or give complete allegiance to their favored imam, I was in the company of a woman who couldn’t keep quiet about any and every thing that grated her nerves. She prided herself in her straightforwardness and “honesty” in telling people “the truth,” but much of what she said sounded like downright cruelty to me.

Keep supporting MuslimMatters for the sake of Allah

Alhamdulillah, we're at over 850 supporters. Help us get to 900 supporters this month. All it takes is a small gift from a reader like you to keep us going, for just $2 / month.

The Prophet (SAW) has taught us the best of deeds are those that done consistently, even if they are small. Click here to support MuslimMatters with a monthly donation of $2 per month. Set it and collect blessings from Allah (swt) for the khayr you're supporting without thinking about it.

Often she’d repeat what someone had said to her in confidence, revealing their identities and personal descriptions. Then she’d sit back with a smug grin on her face and say, “Can you believe it? You’d never guess it by looking at them.” Sometimes these people were her close friends, and other times they were respected imams and public figures who had trusted her with some of the most private details of their lives (She herself was pretty well-known for her inspirational work in helping others though she was not a professional counselor or life coach). Being in the presence of this destructive talk, I knew that I myself would be guilty of sin if I didn’t speak up.

So I’d often remind her to avoid mentioning names or personal descriptions if she felt the need to vent. Otherwise, we’re backbiting, I’d tell her. But she would roll her eyes and flip her hand dismissively at me. “There’s nothing wrong with mentioning names,” she’d say irritably. “Nobody’s backbiting.”

Because she was involved in so much charitable work and could talk for hours about the importance of prayer and staying connected to the Qur’an, it was easy to make excuses for her. I sometimes even forgot her faults altogether and just focused on the good. But her harshness and brutal character assassinations eventually became too much for me to bear. My final straw was a culmination of repeated disrespect toward me and my family, as I once shared regarding this experience:

For me, one of the many “light bulb moments” was when a toxic friend found out my daughter’s paternal grandmother was an immigrant. She laughed out loud as if it was the biggest “Aha!” moment of her life. She slapped her forehead and was like, “NOW it makes sense.” I was genuinely confused because I had no idea what she was talking about. For a moment, I figured she’d had some sort of epiphany completely unrelated to our conversation. “THAT’s why she’s so well-behaved and intelligent, maashaAllah,” she said to me. “This whole time I couldn’t figure it out.” She grinned, obviously pleased with herself for this remarkable discovery. “She has that ‘good blood’ in her,” she said. …Meaning, she doesn’t have only [my] Black American genes.

Snap Judgments and Sins of the Tongue

In addition to trying to wriggle out of an obviously toxic friendship, I was battling my own personal demons. As I began to honestly face the emotional pain I’d suffered due to enduring slander, public humiliation, and abandonment by Muslims I’d looked up to and trusted from childhood, I found myself making snap judgments of people myself. I’d hear about a situation someone was involved in or a troublesome statement someone had made, and I’d vent to my husband about how I vehemently disagreed with so-and-so. Till today, I’m not sure when venting in private to get advice and perspective crosses into sins of the tongue, but I remain afraid that a lot of my venting won’t be counted on my scale of good deeds.

This deeply personal struggle ultimately led me to explore a wider human struggle that I witnessed so many friends and loved ones facing: We know that labeling someone’s point of view or life choice as right and wrong is a prerogative that belongs only to Allah. Yet we still talk incessantly about how something is right or wrong according to our own personal convictions. And this was a tendency that I myself battled.

And I didn’t like it.

So it was with this honest self-reflection that I began writing a story about men and women suffering the repercussions of others’ snap judgments.

His Other Wife novel

Judging By the Cover: More on Snap Judgments

As an author, I’m used to snap judgments. In fact, on a professional level, I’ve been consistently taught to embrace them. “We’re told not to judge a book by its cover,” writing advisors say. “But when it comes to publishing, that’s pretty much the only way your book will be judged.” Though it’s something I continue to work on, this lesson is one I strive to embrace with each book I release. But I admit, there remain moments that I’m taken aback by just how far these snap judgments go.

When I chose the title His Other Wife for my short story series (and now novel) and based the premise on a man wanting to marry his wife’s best friend, I expected some raised eyebrows. I expected some curiosity, and I even expected some heated debates. After all, that’s what a story of this nature (real or hypothetical) incites. But what I wasn’t prepared for were the attacks on me.

“Why are Muslims so disrespectful?” a friend asked me once. She’d converted to Islam after living years as a Christian entrepreneur and had dissolved her business to cater to the Muslim market. But she kept hitting a dead wall. From public criticism of her clothes when she was at a speaking engagement to Muslims grumbling about paying anything to buy her products or attend her events, she was at her wit’s end.

It was something she hadn’t experienced professionally prior to accepting Islam. Yes, she’d encountered disrespect, as this was inevitable, but she was unaccustomed to an entire culture of disrespect. Things had gotten so bad that she began questioning whether or not it had been wise to focus on the Muslim market at all. Her business decision was costing her so much (literally) that she found herself wondering if she’d be able to even pay her bills. Meanwhile, the Muslim market remained quite lucrative in the non-Muslim business world.

“What is wrong with us?” she vented.

I had mixed feelings when she asked me this. But I couldn’t deny she had a point.

For years, I made no profit in my own business while I dealt with constant criticism of everything from the covers of my book (which many Muslims deemed “inappropriate” or haraam) to the characters and stories themselves (which also were sometimes deemed “inappropriate” or haraam). Then I’d encounter Muslims who liked my books but refused to buy them because “they’re too pricey” (though I was often making very little to nothing with each sale, sometimes even taking a loss for the sake of the customer after the high costs of printing, distribution, and marketing).

Yes, there were always those gentle souls who’d insist on supporting my work, no matter what; and they wouldn’t even accept a standard discount, wanting to make sure I was compensated greatly for what I did. But these experiences and people were (and remain) very, very rare.

So I settled on telling my friend the truth: “I understand what you mean, and it hurts. I wish things were different. But they’re not. So I just try to focus on doing what I can to make my books and events worth whatever they cost.”

He Wants To Marry His Wife’s Best Friend?

“What kind of foolishness is this?!” This is often the response I get to the plot of the novel His Other Wife: Jacob and Deanna are a power couple. Aliyah is Deanna’s best friend…whom Jacob wants to marry.

Without reading the book themselves, many Muslims declare it’s sinful or a waste of time to read novels like this. Or they demand to know why a respectable Muslim author would delve into such an “inappropriate” topic. But by far, the strongest objections are to the concept of polygamy being presented at all.

Ironically, the book isn’t about polygamy so much as it is about Muslim men and women struggling with the long term effects of having faced emotional, spiritual, and sexual abuse at some point in their lives. And the context of Jacob’s interest in his wife’s friend brings a lot of uncomfortable and painful realities to light for each character. As is the case in real life, complicated and painful situations often force us to face personal demons that would have otherwise been left festering, and dangerously so.

However, I do find it profound that our tendency to judge fiction books and plots so harshly (often without even reading them) mirrors our tendency to do the same with actual people we encounter in life. We hear one troublesome statement or controversial scenario from their lives, and we immediately pass judgment and assume the worst. Ironically, it is this very tendency that the story sheds light on.

But for those who are sincerely dedicated to continual self-improvement, what better context to examine our judgmental tendencies than in one of the most difficult scenarios to not judge harshly? A man seeking to marry his wife’s best friend.

 His Other Wife novel

Umm Zakiyyah is the internationally acclaimed author of the If I Should Speak trilogy. Her latest novel His Other Wife is now available. Read HIS OTHER WIFE novel now: CLICK HERE.

To learn more about the author, visit ummzakiyyah.com or subscribe to her YouTube channel.

 

Keep supporting MuslimMatters for the sake of Allah

Alhamdulillah, we're at over 850 supporters. Help us get to 900 supporters this month. All it takes is a small gift from a reader like you to keep us going, for just $2 / month.

The Prophet (SAW) has taught us the best of deeds are those that done consistently, even if they are small. Click here to support MuslimMatters with a monthly donation of $2 per month. Set it and collect blessings from Allah (swt) for the khayr you're supporting without thinking about it.

Daughter of American converts to Islam, Umm Zakiyyah, also known by her birth name Ruby Moore and her "Muslim" name Baiyinah Siddeeq, is the internationally acclaimed, award-winning author of more than twenty-five books, including novels, short stories, and self-help. Her books are used in high schools and universities in the United States and worldwide, and her work has been translated into multiple languages. Her work has earned praise from writers, professors, and filmmakers. Her novel His Other Wife is now a short film. Umm Zakiyyah has traveled the world training both first-time authors and published writers in story writing. Her clients include journalists, professional athletes, educators, and entertainers. Dr. Robert D. Crane, advisor to former US President Nixon, said of Umm Zakiyyah, “…no amount of training can bring a person without superb, natural talent to captivate the reader as she does and exert a permanent intellectual and emotional impact.” Professor K. Bryant of Howard University said of If I Should Speak, “The novel belongs to…a genre worthy of scholarly study.” Umm Zakiyyah has a BA degree in Elementary Education, an MA in English Language Learning, and Cambridge’s CELTA (Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults). She has more than fifteen years experience teaching writing in the United States and abroad and has worked as a consultant for Macmillan Education. Umm Zakiyyah studied Arabic, Qur’an, Islamic sciences, ‘aqeedah, and tafseer in America, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia for more than fifteen years. She currently teaches tajweed (rules of reciting Qur’an) and tafseer. In 2020, Umm Zakiyyah started the UZ Heart & Soul Care community in which she shares lessons she learned on her emotional and spiritual healing journey at uzhearthub.com Follow her online: Website: uzauthor.com Instagram: @uzauthor Twitter: @uzauthor YouTube: uzreflections

7 Comments

7 Comments

  1. John Howard

    February 3, 2016 at 1:27 AM

    Muslims do appreciate that this is illegal in every western nation? Here in the UK where it seems that it is allowed for those that are married overseas prior to coming here (and it shouldn’t be) we have seen extensive abuse of the welfare system for single parents and children. It also occurs in Australia I am told from family members

    • Muslimah

      February 6, 2016 at 6:43 PM

      Yes, we appreciate that its illegal to have more than one marriage license. And we also appreciate that abuse of the welfare system is wrong. Not sure what any of this has to do with private religious labels of a relationship though, or this post for that matter.

      But Muslim or not, two people are free to *call* their relationship what they want. Or do you support a tyrannical government that polices a person’s preference for certain religious vocabulary?

      • John Howard

        February 8, 2016 at 8:35 PM

        Polygamy is illegal regardless of what religion it is in There are good reasons for this that transcends ALL religions. There is nothing tyrannical about this. If you are saying that he intends to divorce his wife for her best friend then say so but you infer here that he wants his cake as well. Make yourself clear on what you are saying.

    • Uni-Studentarose

      February 11, 2016 at 7:55 AM

      Thank you for sharing your opinion.

      Practicing Muslims respect and follow the local law, and we openly speak against the abuse of the wellfare system — this is wrong and needs to stop. Besides, it is perfectly possible to be in a polygamous affair without breaking the local law. Just don’t get LEGALLY married to two women at the same time, and that’ll do. In eyes of the law it is thus considered an extramarital affair.

      Please tell me why cheating is legal and unpunished in western nations while polygamy so “horrible”. Whereas polygamy (although legal) is practiced very rarely even in the East, affairs outside of the boundaries of marriage are undeniably common in the west according to reliable statistics. Should Western law prohibit extramarital affairs only if a marriage contract is signed, i.e. polygamy?

      Peace,

  2. Pingback: How To Be Your Own Best Friend Book – Information

  3. mamud joof

    February 11, 2016 at 11:23 AM

    asalamu alaikum
    how can i contact the author.
    i want to share a story with you in shaa Allah

  4. hussein

    January 27, 2017 at 2:42 AM

    I am a Muslim and I find this article is very insightful. It validates my own experiences with other Muslims, particularly those from Pakistan and the Middle East. By and large, the cross-section of Muslims you describe in your article, are grim, narrow-minded, intolerant, quick-to-judge and cheap. It’s very sad indeed. Even your friend, who indulged in heavy charity, had a flawed character. You should e commended for approaching this taboo subject.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Trending