Ghada Ezzeldin

As of the age of 21, I was very much interested in getting married and having a family. I was always dreaming of having six kids. And this journey of finding the right person was not easy. It had lots of ups and downs, hopes and frustrations. And it was not easy—especially in our culture, where there is a lot of pressure to marry at an early age, like between 20 and 22. If you’re already 25, you’re labeled as a spinster; there is something wrong with you. So you can imagine the pressures I’ve been through from family, friends, and so on. But I did not want to give up. I had a lot of opportunities. I did not want to get married just for the sake of getting married...getting the social acceptance from the society. So I was looking for someone very special.

But then a very strong thing happened to me, I remember it was the second week of December in 2001. I was in the Holy Land in Saudi Arabia. And I was inside the Great Mosque in Mecca. I was praying to God to help me find the right person. But then at a certain moment I felt that I surrendered my personal will to God’s will. And at this exact moment it was different. Because before that I was praying and asking God to help me find the right person. But at this point in time, I felt that I had no power. No matter what I want to do in terms of planning, thinking, and trying to make things happen, if I didn’t give my will to God’s will, it would not happen. And this thing gave me a lot of strength and it moved me spiritually very much.

Two weeks later, I met the man who would be my husband and one year later we got married. But I still remember this moment in Mecca. I was on the second floor of the Great Mosque looking at the Kaabah. And I was praying and I got this very strong feeling of ‘it’s all God’s will.’