Rayan from Riyadh was obviously in love. That was why he wanted to marry the young woman at any cost. But marrying the girl he loved was not that simple. The young man wrote to me recently. “Sir, you always talk about love, but what about the price one has to pay for it? Sometimes the man will have to pay it with his life or at times with his freedom. And if he desires to marry the girl it means he has opted to be a pauper because her merciless relatives will consent for the marriage only if he is willing to part with all his money. If he has no money he will have to steal and most probably end up in jail. This means love demands a huge price.
“Love demands a greater price than wealth. It demands your emotions and feelings. A man in love keeps his very best — the most precious and the most beautiful in him to offer to his beloved. There is nothing sweeter and more tender than the feelings that a man develops and weaves around the person he loves.”
Then he went on compare love to a living organism with growth and change that varies from time to time and place to place. “The love of 21st century is different from the love of the 19th and 20th centuries. The love in Cairo is different from the Parisian love. The dictionary of love is larger than the New York Telephone Directory. Every city puts an imprint of its own on the love of that place. Love stories are not identical; the patterns are different and emotions are not the same.
“The tragic sufferings of the legendary Qais and Laila would not have happened if Laila had a mobile telephone, or e-mail and fax facility or at the least a tape recorder with the help of which he could have send her his messages. Or if the Arab lands had some effective mail system the lovers could have exchanged letters and their fate would have been different.
“Now the world has changed and along with it love, as well. What prompted me to note all these observations is the fact that I am in love up to my ears.
“I love a young woman who I want to marry, and I am very particular that our love should blossom through socially approved means. I desire to make her my legally wedded wife so that our love should not slip into sinful relations. It is her relatives with their nearly impossible conditions that stand in our way,” the youth concluded.
In my reply I congratulated him and pointed out that it was his love that made him write in such a beautiful style.
I agree with you that love has a price, but it is worth every riyal you are spending for it. In this situation what you should do is be persistent in your demand and be bold. You should never be disappointed or deterred by the obstacles because the effort is worth the pain and suffering.