Zaynub Khalid

I woke up to birds chirping. Allah's warmth brought a smile to my cheeks. Today was the day. The day I always dreamed of. The day I patiently waited for my entire life. The day where I would get married. Today was the Nikkah.

I got out of bed and took a nice hot shower. After my shower I brushed my hair and prayed Fajr (first prayer Muslims pray). Then I recited some of the Quran (Holy Book of Islam). It was really early in the morning, so not many were awake. I sat there and read the Quran for an hour and a half, until Noorah came into my room, her swollen stomach prodding out of her dress.

"Assalamualaikum. Did you rest?" she asked as she took a seat next to me.

"Walaikumasalaam. Yeah," I answered while closing my Quran and placing it on my nightstand.

"Are you nervous?" she asked.

"Yeah, I'm really nervous. I keep thinking about if this marriage will work out," I said truthfully.

I was crazy nervous. I mean you would be to if you were engaged to your old friend who bullied you. Plus, there was going to be a lot of people there. I had a slight fear of big crowds.

"Don't be nervous. Getting married was one of the best things that ever happened to me. I mean look at me now. I'm pregnant with a child," she said while pointing to her stomach.

"Yeah," I smiled.

"I just wanted to say that you are really lucky for this day. You're a beautiful and religious young girl. Living here with you has been a blessing and I'll miss you," she said while hugging me. "I love you like my own sister, Zaynub," she whispered.

"I love you too," I hugged back.

Noorah let me go and stared at my face.

"You might want to comfort your mother now. She's happy for you, but sad that her daughter is getting married. She doesn't want to let you go," she laughed.

I nodded and walked out of my room and headed to Amu's room.

"Amu?" I asked into the room.

"Oh Zaynub," she sighed.

She was looking at a picture of Baba. I walked over to her and embraced her in a hug. She returned the gesture.

"I wish he were here for this day," she said while letting me go. "He always talked about how he would get you married to a wonderful man. He loved you so much, Zaynub," she smiled.

"I miss him," I said with tears threatening to fall.

Every time I think of Baba I get emotional. It's still a sore subject to talk about.

"I do too," she sighed. "Zaynub, you have to understand something," she said while looking deep into my eyes.

"What is it?" I asked.

Amu took a deep breath before she began to speak. "For a mother it's very hard to let a child who you have protected and sheltered for many years go. Seeing you get married is something that I am proud to see especially with a young man like Zakir. But, it's also painful. A mother's bond to their child is so strong it-," tears started to fall from the corners of her eyes. "It just hurts to watch your kids go," she cried.

"Oh Amu," I went to hug her.

Amu had been through alot lately. It must be really hard for her to see me get married. I got where she's coming from. I was the eldest daughter and one of her kids. I was not a mother, so I won't exactly know what it's like, but I knew that Amu loved me a lot.

We stayed like that with me embracing her and her heavy breathing. We stayed like this for fifteen minutes until she calmed down a bit.

"You should go get ready. Noorah, and I will help you," she said while wiping her eyes.

"Okay," I sighed.

I was not really a girl for makeup, but it is my wedding day.

* * * *

I must say that Amu and Noorah did an amazing job on my make up. Hajar did really nice red lips and henna on me. I must say I was impressed. I was wearing a red lehenga with silver elegant designs going up the skirt. The red lehenga top had silver and gold flowers on it. The top also hugged my curves in a modest manner, so it wasn't tight or too loose.

My red lehenga skirt had swirls of silver at the bottom that left elegant lines at the top of the skirt. The skirt had silver circles with gold in the middle all around it. Then, my head piece was on top of my red Hijab. It was also red, but only with some specks of silver around it. Hajar did my henna and she made the most difficult wedding design. Lastly, I had diamond earrings that went with my diamond ring. I had beautiful red sparkly bangles on both hands.

"Wow," Hajar breathed.

"You look breath-taking," Noorah said in awe.

I blushed. "You really think so?" I asked.

"Yes, like no joke you look like a model right now," Hajar said.

"My little baby is growing up," Amu said while wiping a tear off her face.

"Do you think Zakir will like it?" I asked slightly nervous.

"Of course! He probably will be standing there with his jaw on the floor at the sight of you," Noorah laughed.

We all joined in.

"Well come on, kids. We only have two hours left and we need to head to the mosque. The one we reserved is one hour from here, so let's move it," Amu said while pushing us out the door.

"Wait, what about Amir bhai?" I asked coming to a stop.

"He's downstairs now hurry up," she pushed.

Time for the Nikkah. Why am I so nervous?

* * * *

Ya Allah. There was so many people here. My palms started to get sweaty. I was panicking. What if I look stupid out there? What if I'm not good enough for Zakir? Allah, please let me be able to stay calm and control.

"Would you relax?" Noorah said while shaking her head. "You don't have to say anything. All you have to do is sit there and look pretty. And I'm pretty sure Zakir is more nervous since he's doing the talking. Calm your pants down women!"

"I am calm," I retorted.

Noorah gave me an are-you-kidding-me look.

"What?" I asked.

"Calm. Down. Now," she said slowly.

We were currently in a room in the mosque waiting for everyone to arrive. I took deep breaths. I have never been this nervous. Bengali people are very judgmental. One wrong move and boom. They think you're a horrible person. Plus, they take so many pictures. Wait, pictures? Picture! They're going to take tons of pictures of me! I groaned. That's when Amir came in.

"Get up. It's time to make our grand entrance," Amir exclaimed.

I slowly stood up and linked my arms with my brother.

"Good luck!" yelled Noorah.

Boy, this was going to be a long day.

* * * *

After Zakir asked for my hand in marriage from my brother, and my brother agreed. It was time to eat. We all ate and tons of people were coming up to me and giving me their best regards. I blushed a lot. One of Zakir's cousins called me beautiful. I still couldn't believe we were actually married now.

Zakir and I already signed the papers, so now Zakir is a Mahram to me and my husband. Zakir walked in and started searching for me around the room. Have I mentioned that he still didn't see me yet? Well, the girls were in the girl's side of the mosque and the boys were on the boy's side. Basically, Zakir still hasn't seen me.

I looked up and saw that Zakir was standing a few feet from me. His mouth was slightly opened, taking in my sight. He then started looking me up and down before his eyes made contact with mine. He froze.

We just stood there, staring at each other. He looked mouth watering. His gaze was looking at me so intensively. Heat was rising in my cheeks. Then he smiled and came closer to me. He grabbed me by the waist and pulled me up so my ear was next to his mouth.

"You look so beautiful MashAllah (God has willed it)," he whispered.

"T-Thanks," I stuttered while looking down so he wouldn't see me blush.

He chuckled, "Don't hide your blush. I love it."

Thanks for making me red again, Zakir. I totally needed to embarrass myself more. Note the sarcasm.

"Let's go home. I have a surprise for you," he breathed.

That sounded promising.

* * * *

We finally arrived at Zakir's home. As soon as we got out of the car he dragged me upstairs to his room. No one else was home because they were all still at the mosque cleaning up. I wondered what his surprise could be.

When we got to his room he handed me some clothes.

"First change," he ordered.

I took the clothes and went into the bathroom to change. My brother had brought a bag of my clothes here earlier today. After I changed my clothes, I loosely wrapped a scarf around my head.

What? Even though we're married now and he can see my hair, I just feel uncomfortable about it. We'll just see how this goes, I thought before walking out.

Zakir was sitting on the bed. As soon as he heard the door open, his head snapped up. He patted a seat next to him. I walked over and sat down, but I kept my gaze on the floor.

"Zaynub, I want to see you," he said quietly.

"What?" I asked confused.

He then pointed to my scarf on my head. My mouth shaped an "o". I kind of didn't want to show my hair. I mean, my hair is beautiful Alhamdulillah (thanks to Allah). The problem was that I never showed my hair to a man that wasn't my brother or dad, but Zakir is my husband now. He was going to see it sooner or later.

I took a deep breath and slowly pulled my scarf off. I then undid my hair and let it fall past my shoulders. I had long silky black hair that fell to my waist. My hair was straight with some waves in it. It was also very thick and strong. What? I take good pride in my hair.

I turned to look at Zakir's expression and he was giving me his killer smile.

"Just when I thought you couldn't get anymore beautiful," he said, softly while tucking a piece of hair behind my ear.

"Yeah I guess," I breathed.

"Oh yeah your surprise," he said while turning around and grabbing something from the drawer. "It's this," he said as he handed me a box.

I opened the box and saw a progress report. I looked at it closely and saw that it was my Spanish grade. What? The report said that I had a B in the class now. How is that possible? Last time I checked I failed.

"H-How... what... when... huh?" I mumbled confused.

"I went to your university and talked to your teacher. He was shocked about your grade too, so I looked into it. There was an error in the machine used for grading. You got a B on the exam," he smiled.

I jumped on top of Zakir, hugging him.

"Thank you so much!" I exclaimed.

Zakir wrapped his arms around me and nuzzled his head in the crook of my neck.

"My pleasure now lets go to sleep," he whispered while putting me down.

He turned off the lights and climbed onto the bed. Then Zakir put his arm around my waist and brought me to his rock hard chest.

"Goodnight, princess," he said as he kissed my forehead.

Ya Allah, I truly am the lucky bride.

Assamualaikum!

Okay, so I'm sorry about the wait. I wasn't near a laptop in quite a while. Remember to comment, vote, and fan! Thanks :)