After we had moved to Madeenah Munawwarah, all our trade and household
management was a joint arrangement between our families. Our mother had distributed household duties to each of her three daughters-in-law. All the meals would be prepared and
cooked in one place and then our mother would distribute to all our families. Each of the family women would fulfil their individual
roles and then would work together to complete any additional tasks. Naturally, two out of the three daughters in law began to feel a little discomfort with
this arrangement. The main reason was because Saeed Ahmad bhais’s wife was the niece
of our mother marhoom and the others were from non-related backgrounds. They preferred
that every family prepared their own meals, however, this was not possible at
the time as there were little or insufficient groceries, and it became a
necessity to remain patient or to teach yourself patience in these matters. When
I had travelled to Gangoh shareef with my elder brother, our mother had a dream;
In the hujrae mutahhara nabwiyyah (ala sahibihas salat wassalam) a wooden bed
was laid out over the qabar shareef and Janab Rasul
sallallahu alayhi wasallam was lying down taking rest. Our mother marhooma
was sitting behind pressing his blessed back. Suddenly, my elder brother’s wife
(the mother of Waheed marhoom) appeared. Thereafter, Janab Rasul sallallahu
alayhi wasallam addressed our mother and said, ’why don’t you keep them separate?’
The next morning our mother marhoom related this dream to our father sahib and on
that very day our father separated the arrangements for all our families. Saeed
Ahmad’s wife, however, still chose to remain with our mother as she felt there
were no issues and because of close family ties. All the grains that were
purchased, including meat and greens and other relevant purchases were all
equally distributed within each family. Even after the income gained from the
stipends, this arrangement continued for a good while. Much later this
arrangement changed as our father sahib told us all to spend our own income upon
our own family needs.
