A father wrote his daughter
10 letters before he dies.
LETTER 1
Dear Aishah,
Assalamualaikum, my love. I know u
do not expect this letter to come to you, now that I am not together with you
anymore. I told your uncle Jonathan to do this for me. I want to write you 10
letters, in shaa Allah, if I manage to finish these letters before I die, u
will get them. Each will be given to you every month. Like your monthly
subscription magazines. Hahaha. I am sorry. I will be more serious.
Aishah, I wrote this letter to you
because I want you to know more about me. I want to share my world with you. When I was young and healthy, I never had a
chance to do that. Now, I am old and weak, I never had a courage to do that. I
know I am a bad father. I do not blame you for what u did. It is because I did
not play my role as a father very well. I am so sorry.
In this letter, I want to tell you,
how your mother and I met. I know it may get weird, awkward and stuff because
it is your parent's love story, but honey, bear with it. I want you to know how
me and your mother met and fall in love. It may not be a romantic love story,
but I will never forget about it.
It was 22 years ago, when your
mother and I was still in college. My friend invited me to a party at Daytona
Beach. It was his physics class party and nearly 50 people were there. I am
sorry to tell you, but I was wild and crazy back in the nineties. Hahaha. I was
not a Muslim, I did not know about halal and haraam in Islam. Florida is a wild
place, honey. I drank beer and had a great night. Laughed and danced with my
friends.
Your mother was one of my friend's
classmates. She was this nice girl, did not want to get drunk and sat at the
beach alone. I saw her crying, alone at the beach. I do not know why I went to
her and sat beside her. I guess Allah wanted me to meet this awesome girl. So,
I sat next to her and said "I don't know why you are crying and who made u
cry, but if I could, I would make him cry too". Aishah, it was a corny
line but anyway, at least she smiled. There were lots of other small talks
following the conversation. She told me that she was a social misfit, physics
geek, nerd and did not know how to blend in with others. Aishah, for once in my
life, I felt peace and happiness resting and singing in my head when I talk to
a girl. I talked to hundreds of girls before, it was never the same. She was a
nice girl, such a sweetheart.
The next morning I woke up and the
first thing that made me smile while having my coffee was the picture of your
mother in my head. I kept on asking myself, "Who is that girl? and what has she done to me?".
Only a week later, I went to a diner
near our college to have some dinner with my friends. When I sat, I saw a
miracle happened right before my eyes. Your mother was the waitress. I saw her
walking to our table, and my heart just started beating faster. Your mother's
silky blonde hair, fair skin, silver blue eyes and gorgeous smile just made me
go nuts. She took our orders and left the table after she gave a very beautiful
smile to me that just took my breath away.
We both knew that we missed each
other, but I was with my friends. I got half the football team with me. Aishah,
your mother would never talk to me when I am with my friends, let alone my
football friends. Me on the other hand, was very stupid for not going to her
and make my move.
Since that wonderful day, I went to
the diner everyday for my dinner. What a desperate dude your father was. Haha.
Sometimes, I even waited for your mother to finish her shift and walk her home.
I was crazy about her, and do not get me wrong here, Aishah. I have met
hundreds of women, but this one, is just plain awesome. She was pure and
innocent.
There was this morning, I followed
your mother on a bus, disguised myself, and sat behind her. A crazy stalker am
I? Do not worry, Aishah, I am a changed man. Haha. So, I sat behind her and
this bus was a bit crowded, no empty seats. A few stops later, an old guy, in
his sixties, dressed in his blue long sleeve top, black slack bottom in a jacket
and a flat cap, holding a bouquet of flowers entered the bus. His walk was
weak. The minute your mother saw him, she stood up and offered the man her
seat. She was such a nice girl, and when the man sat, she spent the next ten
minutes smiling at the old man. Just before he got off the bus, he gave the
flowers to your mother, and I still remember, he said, "I wanted to give
these to my wife, but you are very generous. I want you to have these,".
He got off on the very next stop outside the local cemetery, and headed in.
Aishah, I swear to Allah, that was
the moment I decided, with no doubt, that I want to spent my entire life
holding her hand, and counting days with her. Getting to know her life had changed
my life and the way I think.
Things do not always go as planned.
I did not know that your mother only treat me as a close friend. In your
language, it is called 'friendzone'. Yes, Aishah, I was 'friendzoned' by your
mother. I did not know this until this crazy day, when I took her out for a
lunch.
"So, what is the occasion,
David?"
"Awh, come on, do I have to
have a reason to take my special lady to enjoy this nice spaghetti and these
half cooked, not tasty sandwiches. Katie, next time, we better not take these
sandwiches, it tastes like my cooking on weekends. U know how much I love my
bed on weekends."
"Hahaha, David, don't make me
laugh here, it will be embarrassing," she laughed and smiled.
"Okay, I will just tell you the
biggest hit of the afternoon. My song that I sent to the local radio station,
just got on-air! They said that they love my song!"
"Oh my god, David! Are you
kidding me? This is a very good news."
"I know, right? I have been
waiting so long for this to actually happen. Who knows, the next thing I know,
I will be singing together with Bon Jovi and have a dinner with Guns and Roses.
Katie, life is good."
"Oh David, I am so proud of
you. You are my most amazing best friend, but of course u know I don't have
many friends and I don't have..."
"I am sorry, what did u
say?"
"You are amazing."
"Yes, I am your amazing
what?"
"Oh, you are my most amazing
best friend."
"Best friend? I am your best
friend?"
"Yes, David, we have been
together for almost a year. You are very kind and nice. I really like you and u
are my best friend. Unless, if you think that I am just your ordinary friend."
"Oh, no, not ordinary, you are.
Sure, best friends, best friends sounds really good. So, do you like your
spaghetti?"
That moment, I felt really depressed
and sad. It broke my heart into thousands of pieces. I could not smile for the
whole day, the whole week. It was the first time ever, in my life, a girl made
me cry, and yet still madly in love with her.
I will tell you in another letter,
how I got your mother's heart.
LETTER
2
Assalamu'alaikum, Aishah, my
beautiful lovely princess, how are you? I know you do not like it when I call
you 'princess', but honey, that is who you are. You are, and always will be my
princess. Allah knows, how much I love you, and how much I care about you.
In this second letter, I will tell
you the story, how we converted to Islam, how we found this religion of peace
and love, how we found the way of life.
It was a year after I met your
mother, she moved in, lived with me. We were not married, but we lived
together, a very bad thing to do, Aishah. We did not know as we were not Muslims
back then.
The story goes like this. It was
your mother's 23rd birthday and I took her out for a lunch. I planned the lunch
to be a simple meal at Daytona Beach, the place where your mother and I first
met. Hoping that it will be a nice meal and a long conversation and an
unforgettable afternoon, but Allah did his job, very well.
"David, can u stop at the a
drugstore at North Atlantic Ave, I have to fill my prescription," said
your mother.
"Great, get me some aspirin, I
stayed up all night for my ledger."
Few minutes later, a man walking on
the right roadside, he tripped and fell on the side of the main road. I was
shocked and I steered my wheel left to not to roll over him, but I lost control
of my car and hit a car parked on the left side of the road. My head hit the
mirror on my left and bled a little, and your mother had small bleeding on her
head as she hit her head to the passenger dashboard. My chest hurt and I
quickly got out of the car as I saw the car the we hit was badly damaged. When
I got out, I saw a young girl was standing by the car, holding her ice-cream
screamed "Abi! Ummi!"
In a split second, a Caucasian man in
his early thirties, dashed towards the girl and grabbed her. He handed her to a
woman standing nearby. "Make her stay still! Call 911!" he shouted at
the crowd.
I did not know what to do, first
thing I said was to the man was "Take my car, it is still working. The nearest
hospital is the one at the Dunn Ave," straight away after that, we had the
two people in the car safely in my car with the help of bystanders.
"Katie, get the kid and meet us
at the hospital, call James, ask him to get you there, I will call you as soon
as I get to the hospital," I told your mother in a very hurry and panic
voice. Your mother was still shocked and she nodded.
On our way to the hospital, the man
kept on telling the injured couple at the back to recite the syahadah and
takbir. He took off the woman's hijab and press it on the wound to hold the
bleeding, I did not understand a word they said I just kept on driving.
In less than fifteen minutes later
we arrived at the Daytona Beach Va Outpatient, the couple were dashed to the
emergency room. Only Allah knows, how bad I felt about them. They were just normal
parents, waiting for their daughter and I hit them hard right in front of their
own daughter's eyes. I felt really terrible.
I signed all the papers and filled
the documents because I was too afraid to go to the man that was with me in the
car. He seemed really sad, and I did not know that he was the younger brother.
Few minutes later, your mother
arrived with your Aunt Lisa and the daughter of the couple. That kid run
towards the man and hugged him, they cried.
"Hey, honey, how are they
doing? I had Lisa drove me, it will be scary for the children to be with
another stranger man, she just witnessed a terrible thing," your mother
said.
"It is okay, they are doing
fine, I guess. It has been half an hour. How was the kid?"
"She cried non-stop in the car
just now. Fortunately, she did not freak out. I hugged her all the way, her
body trembled and she kept on saying words in Arabic, repeatedly. They are Muslims."
"She is a good kid. Katie, I
feel terrible. This is my mistake, I hit them, they are innocent, and they are
badly injured."
"David, don't say that. This is
meant to happen today. You cannot put all the blame on you."
Silence entered, and few seconds
after that, I decided to talk to the man, he sat near the entrance of the
emergency room.
"Read Al-Fatihah to Abi and
Ummi 5 times, tell me when you are finished," I heard he said to the
little girl.
"Hey, umm... are you
okay?" I said to him.
"Yeah, I am." he answered
with a husky voice.
"My name is David."
"Omar Ryan, call me Omar"
"Omar, are you related to
them?"
"Yeah, the woman is my sister,
Zahrah. The man is her husband, Yusouf"
"Owh, look, I am really sorry
about this, about what happened just now. A man fall, I avoid, lost my grip, it
all happened really fast. I am really sorry about what happened to your sister
and her husband. It is definitely the last thing that I wanted to happen."
"Hey, it is okay, I am not mad
at you, I am not angry at all. There is nothing that you could have done to
stop this thing from happening. Allah arranged the events. He gives some
benefits from every bad things that happens to us."
"Are you sure that you are
okay? Just tell me if you guys need anything. I will give you my number. I
singed all the papers, everything is on me," and then I saw his face
changed. He showed guilt, like he was guilty for making me pay and be included
in to treatment. I really did not understand this man, his kindness was
unbelievable. My heart cried. I fall in love with that man and what he did.
"Please, Omar, it is the least
that I can do to your sister and her family. Please don't stop me."
Then, he hugged me and thanked me. I
cried and hugged him tightly because his kindness and acceptance to his fate
touched my heart and very rare.
On the next day, I got a call from
your Uncle Omar, he told me that his sister and her family wanted to meet me.
They were in a stable condition, fully conscious and wanted to have a talk with
me.
I was really nervous. On my way
there, I kept on working on my apology and finding the right words. As I
arrived there, opened the door to the room, I saw the whole family was there,
Uncle Omar, Uncle Yusouf and his family, and also his other two brother and
sister. Everyone smiled at me.
"Everyone, this is David.
David, meet my family." Omar said.
"Hey everyone, I guess you
heard about me. Nice to meet all of you."
"Nice to meet you too,
David," and the males in the family came to me and shake hands. I, then
went to Yusouf on the bed, and greet him. I sat on the chair next to his bed.
"Humaira, come, say 'hello' to
Mr. David here," Yusouf said to his daughter, Humaira, the kid I saw
crying the day before. She was hiding behind his Uncle Omar, holding her small
pillow. Never know that a little girl can look so cute in hijab.
"Go, give it to Mr.
David," Omar said to her. She then came to me slowly and hand me a candy.
She smiled a little and I can see her blue eyes sparks. I almost cry, but I
hold it, never a good idea to cry in front of sick people. We are suppose to be
the strong ones for them.
"David, before you say
anything, let me get this out first. I don't blame you for the accident that
happened yesterday. This is our fate. Allah, the God, is never cruel to his
servants. He did this to make sure that we can meet you and you can meet us.
Nothing in this world is a coincidence, David. From my heart, I don't know how
else can I stress this to you, I don't blame you for the event. These cuts are
not permanent, my wife told me that her muscle contusion is no biggie, but I am
grateful to Allah, that you and your wife is safe. you even willing to pay for
us. Our financial status at the moment is at a critical state, your help is
very big for us," Yusouf told me with a husky voice. Again, I want to cry
so bad, but I hold it. He was really generous.
He added, "David, please let us
pay you back."
That was the moment, I could not
hold it any longer, "Umm. I am sorry, I have to go to the washroom. Umm, I
will be back in a minute."
I burst into tears right after I
closed the door. I sat on floor and cried. I really did not know why I cried
too bad, but I do know one thing, that that was the moment I decided to learn
about Islam. Two months later, I became a Muslim. A proud and happy Muslim.
