What Nobody Tells You About Muslim Marriage
Our first year nearly ended because of where to live. What saved us was an imam who understood honest communication.
It sounds absurd. It was absurd. But the where to live was never really about money.
Omar's mother-in-law had a specific way of running the household. When we married, the expectation was that I would cook the same way. When I did things differently, things went cold.
What saved us was an imam who understood marriage counselling. He made us list every unspoken expectation. Omar's list was 17 items long. Mine was 25. We'd married each other but expected to live in our parents' marriages.
The Quran says spouses are garments for one another — they cover, protect, and complement. We weren't garments. We were polite acquaintances.
It took six months of honest, painful conversations. Of learning that compromise doesn't mean surrender. Of understanding that my Turkish traditions and British traditions could coexist in the same kitchen.
We've been married 11 years now. We found our own rhythm. We still disagree about the thermostat. But we do the dishes together.
Nobody tells you that marriage isn't about finding the right person. It's about becoming the right person. Every single day. Over and over. With patience, with prayer, and occasionally with raised voices that eventually soften into laughter.