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Stitch by Stitch; Malik & Karim // Spence & Olivia
Topic Started: Mar 4 2010, 01:41 AM (310 Views)
tearsandroses
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The Sweet Transvestiiiite
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Olivia smiled and brushed her hair back. "Well that's good to know I'm not the only klutz around here. That's probobally qhy i quit going to dance classes." Olivia chuckled. She smiled nervously as her father left. Once he was in the bathroom she tried to think of a question.

"Like, arranged marriages. Before I was adopted I orignally had an arranged marriage. Is it supposed to be like to benefit the families, or something along that line?" Olivia asked him. "And out of curiosity, why is drinking not allowed? Like, did it have something to do with history?" she asked, continuously pouring out questions.

"And what else is against the religion of Muslims? Are there different types?"the girl added, curious about her former religion.
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Ammy
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Malik laughed, spinning his almost empty cup on its plate. Karim smiled a little and paused in her sewing. "My brother is being modest, actually. He can dance," she said. In response, Malik grinned and leant back on his chair, so it balanced on two legs. A habit his sister Farrah detested, but she wasn't here to glare at him. He'd only fallen once, and it hadn't been that bad. It was kind of fun for a split second, until he hit the ground.

"Yeah, I've got some moves..." he said, his grin becoming cheesy.

Karim giggled and reached over, hand touching the edge of his seat and forcing it down with a thump. Malik jerked forward, but caught himself before he dived nose-first into his tea. He was about to respond, when Olivia expanded on her previous question. Malik rested his elbows on the table, hands pressing on his lips.

"Like, arranged marriages. Before I was adopted I orignally had an arranged marriage. Is it supposed to be like to benefit the families, or something along that line?"

He raised an eyebrow. "Not so much nowadays," his grin faded a little bit, expression growing more serious. "It benefits the family in creating a happy family that raises healthy grandchildren and at the same time keeping the parents happy. My parents' marriage was arranged, they loved each other, perhaps more than most couples..." Malik glanced momentarily over at Karim.

"Drinking is haraam, forbidden, because it harms your body and others. As is smoking and eating pork. There are many others, but most of them are common sense. And yes, there are plenty of 'types' of Islam, the... two most common are the Sunni and the Shi'a." Malik looked to the bathroom door, wondering why her father never spoke of her with this sort of thing.
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tearsandroses
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Nodding in acknowledgement, Olivia continued to listen as Malik answered her questions. "Oh. Well...another question relating to that, do the families who's children marry usually know each other. Like, are the parents normally childhood friends or something along that line? And how do they actually arrange the marriages, and choose who marries their child?" she asked, still very curious about the marriage.

She decided t owait for the answer as she thought about his second explanation. "Oh, I see. It does sound like common sense, alcohol does nothing but kill your brain cells, and those cancer sticks are pretty useless period. I don't see why they were ever invented." she said.

Her dad used to smoke, but he finally quit about 3 years ago. Now if only he'd stop drinking. She didn't get why eating pork was bad but...everyone has different traditions, and she wouldn't question how it was bad either, afraid of possibly offending them or sounding stupid.

"Can I ask what's the difference between the two? Like, do they have different types of beliefs? Like how the Jewish believe Jesus was human, where as Christians believe he was God. Do they have any differences in beliefs like that?" she added to her shower of questions.
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Ammy
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Malik, now finished with his tea, spun it idly. He'd never really had to explain anything pertaining to his religion to anyone, before. Maybe to Darla once or twice, but other than that no one, either because they weren't interested or already knew. It was kind of fun, like he was an imam or something. Imam Malik, that had a nice ring to it. Why, he could be famous world-wide! That thought, Malik couldn't help but smirk a little at it.

Ah well, it was fun while it lasted, back to reality.

He shrugged at Olivia's question. "It's all relative, sometimes the families are so close the kids might as well be married, other times it might be to a family of great esteem." One thing most Westerners found strange was how they could wed someone they hardly knew, but to Malik it was just another facet of life. His mother was wiser than he was, surely she could better choose who he would lead a long successful life with.

That being said, now that he was no longer in India, he wasn't sure if he was getting an arranged marriage or not. At the moment romance and marriage were the last things on his mind.

"Marriages are chosen on compatibility, if the two children seem like they'd make a stable family." He leaned forward onto the table. "But they do get to meet before they marry, it's only fair. There are chances to turn down marriage." The Prophet had said it is unreasonable to expect two people to wed each other with next to no knowledge of one another.

Malik grinned. "That's it exactly, and pork is forbidden because the pig is a dirty animal, it eats whatever it can." He remembered learning in history something about pigs giving disease, nowadays that was less apt a description, but there was tradition. Malik didn't like the smell of pork anyway.

"The main differences between them are..." he held out his hands, as if ready to list off them, "Sunni believe there is no line of success from the Prophet, whereas Shi'a believe it was Ali, the fourth caliph, and his heirs who are the only legitimate ones." Malik stretched out two fingers. "Another is that we Sunni believe that the Mahdi has not appeared whereas Shi'a think he is in hiding."

Whoo, he was talking a lot today.
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tearsandroses
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Olivia nodded and continued to listen as Malik answered her questions. It was cool being able to learn all of this. It was like having her own personal teacher. Ah how she loved it. "Ah, I see. And thank you for explaining the pork thing to me." she said as she fooled with a strand of hair. "Muslim sounds like an interesting religion. I think my dad is christian but I know my real family was muslim." she explained.

Before long Spencer came out of the bathroom but rather than going over by the three kids, he went over by the counter and chatted up the waiter. Olivia sighed a breath of relief however. She didn't want her father to embarrass her more.
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Ammy
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Malik hoped he was doing a good job with this. Frankly, he wasn't used to this. People didn't care much about his religion, nothing wrong with that, really. He wasn't entirely interested in their beliefs, there was this idea that if someone was meant to convert they would, if they asked questions, answer them. Don't go seeking converts, it would only win you detractors. Malik knew he would be annoyed if someone came and tried to convert him, and you had to treat people the way you would want yourself to be treated. As pre-schoolish as that sounded.

"No problem, anytime," he said with a grin. He leaned back in his seat again. "My family has been Muslim for generations, probably as far back as anyone can remember." Farther, even. They were Muslim when they moved here, Muslim when his father's ancestors came to India. With the last of their chai downed, and Karim adding the finishing touches to his suit, Malik thought maybe he should be bowing out soon. He'd probably see Olivia at school.

"Hey... we need to get going, but we'll see you around, huh?" said the skinny Indian. nodding to her. "If you ever want to learn more, you could always come to our mosque. It's on the mainland, but we're always happy to have more members." Malik rose and bowed slightly, motioning for Karim to do the same.

"See you later, Olivia," Karim said. The two siblings gave Olivia a final smile, and a wave, before leaving the cafe.
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