Dear Editors 

Marriage 

When I say marriage what is the first thing that comes to your mind? Hold on to that thought, perhaps we need to broaden the horizon when it comes to marriage.  While reading an article the other day I cam across a sentence that really impressed me and really made me think.  It said ‘Allah has made marriage a blessing for mankind yet mankind makes it a prison for himself’.  When thinking deeper I was able to come to the conclusion that marriage really is a blessing, why would Allah provide anything other than that?  This is one of his signs, that he has created ‘mates from among yourselves and placed love and mercy between you’.  A sign of Allah would not be a burden for mankind so why make it a burden? Perhaps we have misunderstood the meaning of marriage.  Marriage is actually a journey shared by two people.  A journey of spiritual development between two people who have the goal of getting closer to Allah.  Marriage is a means to achieve perfection, after all a husband and wife have been created from one soul, until they unite they can’t achieve the spiritual level that Allah has given them the capability of doing because they are not a completed soul until they unite in the union of marriage.  Isn’t it beautiful that Allah has created human beings in such a way that they can’t function alone, so what are our duties in actually achieving what Allah wants us to.  There are many elements of marriage but no one concentrates on the aspect of spiritual development.  Ultimately our children should be those who have the qualities and the faith to be in the army of our 12th Imam.  What an honour it would be to have children who will be of those to answer the call of our Imam.  Marriage is beauty in itself; our marriage will be what we make it.  It is about the efforts of both husband and wife to make life pleasant for each other.  It requires much effort and patience on both sides but inshallah if our efforts are there and we actually make a goal of achieving a high spiritual level than Allah will help us.  We need to view the blessing of marriage as a gift from Allah rather than looking at it negatively.  Our partner completes us and we should be thankful to Allah that we have been blessed with them.  Those who are unmarried and looking for spouses, may Allah bless them with pious spouses who will help them to develop spiritually and become closer to our Creator.