20 Quotes by Fatima Farheen Mirza

She has become the one to whom he confesses the fights with his father, the fights that make him want to leave, to forget that he ever came from this family, and she quiets his anger with a brief touch of her hand on his arm. She tries to tell him that what he feels is not all anger, that one day that anger will burn out and he will be left with what he can't see right now: a sadness, an ache.

It is not that we thought our way was better. It was that we did not know another way.

Are you happy," he asked. "I am." she said. And then she twisted again the row of bangles on her wrist. "I'm content. My parents are happy.

If ever they could resume, even just for an afternoon. If ever she called. A sin was not a sin, if it were for her. A risk was not a risk.

He must have said something because Baba pokes his shoulder and says, "Don't you know -- that's the thing -- everyone is not just good. Everyone is *trying* to be good. And everyone feels this way sometimes, that they are not good, and not good at trying either.

Her heart had swelled. How her son was good in a way that she wasn't, in a way that could instruct her. Layla had begun to think lately that there was no real way to quantify the goodness of a person -- that religion gave templates and guidelines but there were ways it missed the mark entirely. And everything a momin should be in his heart, Amar was,

The air between them was changed from what he remembered. There had always been tenderness but now there was a charge, too. He was aware of his body and hers alone.

I will wait by the gate until I see your face. I have waited a decade, haven't I, in this limited life? Waiting in the endless one would be no sacrifice. And Inshallah one day, I know I will see you approaching. You will look just as you did at twenty, that year you first left us, and I will also be as I was in my youth. We will look like brothers on that day. We will walk together, as equals.

As Amar watched the hall fill with guests arriving for his sister’s wedding, he promised himself he would stay.