Writers 
The Question They Never Asked
Mary sounded really heartbroken when she called me last night. She was crying seriously, and I tried to calm her down, but she just couldn't stop. Even the tempo of her voice increased as she spoke. I had to book an Uber straight to her house. I didn't even care about how late it was. My friend's mental state mattered more to me at that moment.
I met her in a torrent of tears. She really looked a mess. She kept crying, and at some point, I stopped trying to make her feel better. Sometimes, you just have to let people cry. It's okay to let it all out. Personally, I feel better after shedding some tears too.
After about an hour, she became a little calmer, and that was when she started telling me what had happened.
Apparently, it had to do with her relationship with Ahmed.
They had been dating since our school days, despite their different religious beliefs. Mary had always worried about how things would turn out eventually, but Ahmed always seemed to find the right words to make her feel better.
I had told her before that, regardless of how much she loved Ahmed, the difference in their religions was something they couldn't just ignore. I understand that relationships require compromises sometimes, but compromising on something as important as one's faith and beliefs is a big deal.
She would always tell me that when they got to the point where they had to decide whether one of them would adopt the other's religion or whether they would find a way to accommodate both, they would figure it out.
But I didn't completely agree with that.
I felt that when something isn't clear from the beginning, especially in a relationship, it doesn't always magically become clear later. At some point, both people have to sit down and actually talk about it.
Mary and Ahmed continued dating anyway, and their relationship even became stronger.
They had fallen so deeply in love that some of the difficult questions didn't seem so important anymore.
Mary's parents were deacons in their church, and it was no secret that they would never agree to their daughter marrying someone from another religion. She knew this, but for some reason, she still went ahead with the relationship.
Ahmed proposed to her last month, but instead of being excited, she went into what I can only describe as a depressive mode. She knew the moment of truth had finally come, and she would have to face whatever came with it.
Eventually, she found the courage to tell her parents about Ahmed and his religion.
Surprisingly, they didn't react the way she expected. They were quite calm. They simply told her to bring Ahmed to the house after work yesterday.
That only made her more confused. She had no idea what they were thinking.
She told Ahmed about the invitation, and he was more than happy to come. In fact, he told her to get ready because he also wanted her to meet his family the following month.
She met him after work yesterday, and they drove to her house in silence, both of them wondering how everything was going to turn out.
When they got there, her parents were sitting in the living room with their pastor and his wife. After the usual greetings and pleasantries, the serious conversation began.
They were asked several questions, and both of them answered as best as they could.
Then a simple question was directed at Ahmed.
Would he allow his wife and children to practise a different religion?
His answer shocked Mary.
Ahmed said he could never allow another religion to be practised in his home. Not because he didn't respect other religions, but because he wanted oneness and peace in his home.
He said he didn't want a situation where he and his wife would be listening to different teachings and practising different religions under the same roof.
More importantly, he didn't want their children to grow up confused, especially when they eventually had to decide what religion they wanted to follow.
Everything he said made sense from his own point of view.
But Mary was shocked because they had never actually discussed this before. She genuinely thought he had no problem with her continuing to practise her own religion.
That was when it became obvious that they had failed to talk about some very important things. They were so in love that they had pushed the difficult conversations aside.
And that was where everything began to fall apart.