ESRD & I - Temporary Reprieve

My birthday had come and gone peacefully; the only surprise being my diagnosis of pending renal failure by Dr. Tarsh. The CAT scan was performed with inconclusive results. But definitely there was something wrong as my headaches progressively worsened.
It was the end of the year. Christmas was around the corner. Every Brit I would say was in a merry holiday mood. The weather was getting really cold; it had to snow soon. And so, with the joyful “ho ho ho” cheerful feeling all around, my date of admission into the Salford Royal Hospital for a renal biopsy was postponed to the following year, 1984.
And so it was a quiet Christmas for me. I don’t celebrate Christmas. I am not a Christian anyway. But I recall the time when the first Muslim pilgrims who migrated to Ethiopia (Habsyah) to seek asylum from the persecuting disbelievers of Quraish. Someone had forewarned the then Emperor of Ethiopia, Negus who was a Christian, that the Muslims looked down upon the Christians and proclaimed Jesus not as a son of God but as a mortal and a prophet of God. Upon arrival, Negus wanted to know of this view that the Muslims hold of Isa (Jesus) and Maryam (Mary). Jaafar bin Abi Talib the Prophet’s cousin who was one of the pilgrims then recited Surah Maryam (Chapter 19) of the Holy Quran which explains explicitly and clearly of Islam’s point of view on Isa and Maryam’s miraculous birth. His divine guided answer impressed Negus so much that the muslims were allowed freedom to stay.
I remember too in that particular surah, Maryam’s desperate cry as her moment of childbirth drew nigh.
“And the pains of childbirth drove her to the trunk of a date-palm. She said: "Would that I had died before this, and had been forgotten and out of sight!" 19:23

What trials and tribulations the mother of Isa had to go through – the utter humiliation of being accused of having a child out of wedlock, the loneliness she had to bear of having to go through a pregnancy in hiding; all alone... and to suffer the ultimate pain of labour alone at so young an age. But she had endured; and Allah had rewarded her so generously.
I looked into myself. What are my hardships compared to that suffered by the Holy Virgin Maryam? I only had to contend to my physical problems; but the blessed mother of Isa had to face abuse of her dignity, her chastity and the impending birth of a son at such a young age.
Who am I to complain then? I was determined to pull through this. My body may be diseased, but as long as I believe that God is only testing me, my spirits will hold on.
Strangely enough, it was at this time that a friend of mine confided in me that someone was interested in me, and “would I be interested enough in him to consider marriage?”
Oh God! As if I haven’t enough headaches of my own already???

(c)Norhafizah Manaf