The Unfortunate One

A human being can fight everyone in the world, but not their fate. And sometimes, meaningless traditions destroy entire lives.

Ahmed Sahib was a highly respected and influential man in the area. He owned nearly half of the village’s land and had two large orchards filled with all kinds of fruit-bearing trees. Allah had blessed him with every worldly comfort. Vast fields stretched far and wide, producing abundant crops, and all necessities of life came easily to him. However, despite all this wealth, he had no male offspring.

This was the era of British rule. Muslims, especially villagers, did not favor English education. Educating girls was not common at all. Women were only taught to recite the Quran and perform prayers. The village was quite large, yet there was no school for boys and no medical facility. Even in severe illness, women were not taken to the city for treatment because there were no proper roads or transport. Traveling by bullock cart took so long that patients often died on the way.

Ahmed Sahib lived in this village with his family. He had only daughters. Six daughters were born to him, but four passed away at the tender ages of two or three. Only two daughters survived—one fifteen years old and the other nine. Like most people of his time, Ahmed Sahib believed educating girls was unnecessary, so they were taught only household skills.

When the time came to arrange the elder daughter’s marriage, proposals arrived, but most families preferred the younger daughter, even though she was only nine. As a result, those proposals were rejected. Eventually, a suitable proposal came from a nearby village, and the elder daughter was married.

The younger daughter, though only nine, also began receiving proposals. In the same village lived another wealthy landowning family. The father had passed away, leaving behind a widow and a single son, fifteen years old, who studied at a prestigious school in the city. The mother wished only to perform the nikah, delaying the farewell until the girl grew older. A proposal was sent to Ahmed Sahib.

The match was appropriate in every way. The boy was well-mannered, the sole heir to vast property, and suitable in age. The nikah was performed, while the rukhsati was postponed.

When the girl was eleven, tragedy struck. The young husband, who was studying in the city, suddenly fell seriously ill and passed away. Chaos engulfed both families. The boy’s mother could not bear the shock and soon passed away as well. Around the same time, the girl’s mother gave birth to another daughter amid this overwhelming grief.

The household was filled with mourning. The elder sister, now a mother of two, tried to manage everything. The greatest concern was the fate of the child widow. In their family, remarriage was considered shameful. The girl was too young to understand the depth of her loss. When she was dressed in white and her bangles were broken, she hid in a room, crying and screaming that she would not let her bangles be broken or wear a white dupatta. On that same day, her mother also broke her own bangles and gave up colorful clothes forever

Time passed, and the youngest sister grew up. Proposals were sought for her, and soon she was married into a highly educated and prestigious family. The groom’s father was a London-educated barrister, and the groom himself held a high-ranking government position.

As long as Ahmed Sahib lived, he did not allow the widowed daughter to visit her sister. She remained confined to the village. After his death, the younger sister took her with her. There, she spent her life raising her sister’s children.

Perhaps this was her destiny. She had wealth and comfort, but never the happiness of married life. Her sister’s husband and children treated her with immense respect. They loved her deeply and called her “Ammi,” loving her even more than their own mother.

She passed away at nearly ninety years of age in 1975, leaving this world from her sister’s home and journeying toward her eternal abode. May Allah grant her the highest place in His mercy. Ameen.