She suspected the coming of another queen in the palace. Swiftly, the imam’s door was knocked for a complaint, explaining how their union was still on the grass, crawling assiduously to ascend to grace – the reason her husband should never think of a thaaniyah for a minute. Added was the perturbing claim that her bride price hadn’t been paid too.
The man finally opened up to the imam chronicling how the action was discreetly taken to avoid envisaged fracas that might emanate from the existing wife. The imam therefore advised that the balloon be burst even if hell would let loose. Keeping it secret was rather more harmful than the good it temporarily portended.
A meeting of the man and the suspicious wife was conveyed few days after. The imam helped the effeminate man break the news like the bereaved would be reluctantly informed of the deceased. The woman could not help bursting into tears of pain and grief. She gazed at her husband with an eye of a cheated lion. But the husband’s sight was rather fixed to the ground in guilt.
The aggrieved woman furiously explained why the nikaah was an injury to her. She narrated how they were still eating from hand to mouth; how the husband was hugely indebted to her from her meagre earnings; and how her bride price hadn’t been paid till then.
On inquiry into the veracity or the mendacity of the aforementioned claims, in the affirmative was the husband’s response to the imam, confirming that he was truly indebted to her and had not paid her bride price. “What!” exclaimed the imam.
The husband seemed to have another version to the rationale behind his marrying a second wife at that material time. He conceded that he was truly financially incapable, but his wife was rather attitudinally bankrupt. “She is disrespectful, dirty, verbose etc. And all efforts to make her a better person have proved abortive. So rather than send her packing, I chose to bring in another woman for succor,” he said.
Like the husband, the very honest woman confirmed all allegations levelled against her. She said she would change. “How long will it take to change since our marriage a few years ago?” asked the husband, rhetorically. He told the imam of the frantic efforts he had made to make her have a positive shift from the aforementioned, but she seemed fixated to the defects. According to him, seeking a second woman is not only about sexual desire but about tranquility.
At that point, the woman faced the imam with the following questions:
1. would it not amount to injustice if the thaaniyah’s bride price was paid without mine paid?
2. would it not amount to injustice if my father could grant his request of no waleematun-nikaah (due to his financial impotence then) whereas same would be enjoyed by the thaaniyah?
“I have done none of the aforementioned,” the husband helped the imam out.
The imam sermonized the couple accordingly. He implored them to fear Allah in their doings. He frankly urged the man to pay up his debts to the woman with emphasis on the bride price. He told the man to be remorseful that he hadn’t done well for his wife, and that his hussle be upped with prayers.
He implored the wife to take fate in the new status of her husband as a possessor of two women. “Regardless of whatever you think of your husband, what has happened has happened. She is happily married to another woman, and you have to accept her. All you need do now is pray to Allah to increase his provisions to be able to cater for the two of you. If you curse him, you will have a share in it, that is if he deserves it.” he admonished
The imam asked the man to beg his wife for his misdeeds and promise her he would make her happy. He did as urged.
Another meeting of the man and his two wives was conveyed. The imam talked to the queens to be tolerant of each other’s excesses and make reports to him should they become unbearable.
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