Wali, Ijab, and Kabul

It was my second experience watching the akad nikah which happened a few nights ago. The first one is a few years ago.Well, this time, a young man from Kudat wish to marry my cousin which I dun even know her existence until that night! The ceremony was held after the Isya' prayer at Kuala Terengganu in a mosque painted with green and white colours, clearly potrayed which party my aunt cast her vote in the previous general election.

That young man from Sabah was only accompanied by his parents and his brother. Since we spoke in different tounge, his old parents only nodded his head, agreed with whatever we said without really understood it. None of us also understood what they were saying and yet, we manage to communicate well as the groom act as a translator. Quite funny actually. From the physical appearance of his father, he was not born with silver spoon in his mouth. Well, love is not about money. People from different background unites because of love and thats what making it so interesting and undefined.

The process went on as the Wali talked about how marriage is encouraged in Islam as marriage is one of the Prophet's sunnah. He kept on talking for nearly 30 minutes while my backside started to cramp which I started to curse slowly under my breath. He then talked about how a husband must treat his wife with love and respect while the wife should have full loyalty to her husband, serve him with love and respect. How important it is to maintain the happiness inside a marriage to spawn a good and happy family with Islam as the core of marriage. I yawned several times.

The Wali then begin to hold the groom's hand in form of a handshake to perform the ijab (saying that he will have the bridegroom to marry the bride, also stating the dowry) before the bridegroom replies with kabul (saying that he accept it and also state the dowry), with everybody there as witnesses including me who somehow was throbbing , before the ceremony was ended with a prayer by the Wali . The couple is now righteously married under the Islam Syariah Law. The groom's face seems glooming after the longest 40 minutes he had ever experienced.

After smiling each other, everybody there headed to my aunt's house for dinner. While my stomach started making weird sound, my mother then told me, that the groom was not accompanied by his parents. His parents had passed away and those people who accompanied him is his grandparents and his brother. I was stunned and speechless for the rest of the journey.