Heart Lamp: Selected Stories

Various children rush home to tell their mothers that a woman named Aashraf and her three daughters are awaiting judgment at the mosque. 

The mutawalli, Abdul Khader Saheb, is reminded by his daughter Majida to attend to Aashraf’s matter because she and her family have been waiting all day through bad weather. Abdul distracts himself with thoughts of food before being confronted by his wife, Amina, who wants to pursue a certain medical procedure. Abdul is hesitant to indulge her request for fear of the scandal it will bring him as mutawalli.

Aashraf’s husband, Yakub, soon arrives at the mutawalli’s house, though he is in no rush to resolve the case with his wife. The case involves a dispute over Yakub’s marriage to a second wife, which he argues is validated by divine law and by Aashraf’s failure to give him any sons. Yakub asserts that he continues to treat Aashraf well despite her hostility to him. Eavesdropping from the other room, Amina despises the way Yakub spins the law to his advantage. Amina likewise resents Abdul’s indulgent behaviors, which are hypocritical in light of his religious office. Abdul and Yakub go out for dinner. Amina rushes to the mosque and finds Aashraf with her three daughters—Hasina, Habiba, and baby Munni—shivering in the cold.