Fazl-e-Umar — Page 215
Fazle Umar 215 quickly moved out of sight and even if he had seen her he would not have recognised her. Her husband had died in 1907 and this was the first time she had entered his thoughts after his demise. He began to enquire if there were any plans to get her married again. He states: “I was told that according to the family custom they can only marry this widow within the family of the Promised Messiah [as] , otherwise the girl will remain as she is. This was quite shocking to me. I tried very hard to get her married in different places but my efforts only met with failure. Finally, I approached my brothers in different ways to encourage one of them to marry Maryam so that the girl’s life is not wasted however their response was also negative. Therefore, in keeping with the dictates of the Promised Messiah [as] that one should not be the cause of the ruin of anyone’s life and also because I was very close to her two brothers, Syed Habibullah Shah sahib and Syed Mahmoodullah Shah sahib, I decided I would marry Maryam myself. “…Our marriage took place on 7 February 1921 in the Mubarak Mosque. Far from being a wedding, it was more like a house of mourning. Everyone’s crying, weeping and sobbing was audible during the prayers. On 21 February 1921 I brought her home. ” “…In the beginning she was extremely thin and gaunt and some imperfections in her features weighed heavy on my mind. Similarly, she spoke pure Punjabi and I could not bear anyone speaking Punjabi in the house. She had a cheerful disposition. She would deliberately add a few phrases of Punjabi when she spoke Urdu just to vex me…When I travelled to England I was a bit displeased with the late Amtul Hai and Maryam after their quarrel. However, on my return I learned that it was mostly the fault of Amtul Hai. Because of this displeasure I wrote a letter to Maryam in the first few days of the journey but Allah be praised,