“Husband and wife are the garments of each other”- Al-Quraan
In the holy Quran, Surah 2, verse 187, Almighty says that husband and wife are garments for each other. Now, it is quite simple to comprehend the function that clothing serves. With a little effort, one learns that clothing covers our bodies, keeps us warm, and enhances our appearance. In a similar way, husband and wife look out for one another and share happy and sad times. However, there is one aspect of God’s usage of the word “garment” to describe the relationship between men and women that should startle the human brain.
There are a few additional factors related to the clothing in addition to what was mentioned before. Anything that God compares to or metaphorically represents, or that He swears by, must be of the highest calibre, Same is the case with the word “garment.” If one puts a little effort into his creativity, he will definitely understand what a beautiful example the word “garment” is for husband-wife relations. On thoroughly understanding the philosophy of garments, one discovers new ways to look at his married life, which leads to a much happier life. One may wonder: What is the philosophy of garments? Everything that exists has a philosophy. Even we have a lengthy philosophy of zero.
To explain it better, I must start from the beginning. When we plan to buy new garments, we go to the shopkeeper. We ask him to show us clothes in our size. We don’t wear longer or shorter clothes, or too loose or too tight clothes. When we wear too much longer than our size we face criticism from people, which finally leads us to give up wearing that Shirt again. Similarly, in marriage, we must take time to choose a garment for ourselves (by garment, I mean wife or husband). We should choose what will suit us, what is on par with us. If you and your life partner are coherent in mindset, approach towards life, or other things, you surely qualify for the first stage.
Secondly, there is another quality of clothes: they get dirty. What do we do then? Do we throw dirty clothes away? No, we wash them and wear them again. Or maybe our shirt loses a button; do we throw it away? No, we attach a new button to it and wear it again. Garments getting dirty here means that either the husband or wife may make some mistake. And our approaches should be similar. That is, we should forgive each other if we believe men and women are garments for each other.Man is the only creature that has chosen clothing. We are taught about one thing that always accompanies a man, be it sorrow or happiness, and that is his shadow. But, there is actually a second thing, which are his clothes. Man breathes his last with clothes; man smiles with clothes; man weeps with clothes; he celebrates festivals with clothes. Then garments saw our true life partner. Similarly, in married life, both partners are supposed to play the same role for each other.
Clothes conceal our bodies and our secrets. The pockets of our clothes carry our secrets and our money. Husbands and wives are similar to each other. If a married couple takes each other as garments, I don’t think there will be any serious unpleasant moments between them. Human beings are sculptures of mistakes; at some point, one or the other partner may make a mistake, but this should not spoil the married life. It is much more necessary to approach the matter of marriage with a cold mind and take time to understand what kind of partner will be better for you. We reap what we sow. When I check my weight, I don’t check it alone; I check it with my garments. In math, 1 plus 1 equals 2, and in quotes, it equals 11 to stress the saying “unity is power.” But in marriage, one plus one equals one.
The writer can be reached at arbazbomai90@gmail.com