AL-JOUF: This story is not fiction nor straight from a television soap, but a real account that happened in the village of Al-Ridaifah, 60 km west of Sakaka.
The main character in this drama is 45-year-old Naif bin Mitair bin Miraied Al-Ramali Al-Shammari who did not know that this was his real name until a few days ago. He was previously known as Naif bin Muhammad bin Ali Al-Qifaie.
His story was told by his real biological father, Sheikh Mitair bin Miraied Al-Ramali, 70, the mayor of the village of Al-Ramal in Ridaifah. “I was in Kuwait in 1964 when a woman who was married to a man from the village of Um Al-Qalban in the region of Hail also came to Kuwait to visit her relatives,” said Al-Ramali, adding that the woman was a distant relative.
This woman in fact later became his wife for three days and gave birth to a son, Naif. “At that time, a man called Abdullah bin Jazza bin Harbi told the woman’s relatives in a family gathering that her husband, Muhammad ibn Ali Al-Qifaie, had said that if his wife went to Kuwait then she was divorced,” he added.
According to Islamic law, such conditional utterances when fulfilled actually lead to a talaq or divorce. Al-Ramali said that he knew the woman’s brother, Hilal, who was a colleague. “Five months later, Hilal came to Kuwait and so I took the opportunity to ask their father if I could marry the woman. The family, subsequently, accepted and Majli bin Falih, a marriage official, married us. Another man by the name of Humaidan bin Saeed testified that she was no longer the wife of her first husband and so the marriage was completed,” he said. He added that after a few days, Abdullah bin Jazza bin Harbi, the man who initially claimed that the woman’s husband had divorced her, came and said he was joking and that she was still married. “Her father was present and so was her brother Hilal. We were all shocked to learn that I had married her while she was still married. Her father then called for the marriage official and the witnesses, and I divorced the woman and we all agreed to keep this a secret. Three days later, the woman returned to her husband in Saudi Arabia,” said Al-Ramali.
Continuing his story, Al-Ramali said that a week later he told his story to the grand mufti of Kuwait. “He told me that I had made no mistake in what I did but said that the woman should not have returned to her husband without checking whether she was carrying a baby,” he said.
He added that the mufti made it clear that if she was pregnant, then the baby would be mine and that she could still return to her husband. “A year later I ran into the woman who was with her brother, Hilal. She was carrying a three-month-old baby and indicated to me that the baby was mine. I felt ashamed listening to this and asked her to keep quiet,” he said.
Al-Ramli said he has, over the years, been checking how Naif is. “The woman, her husband and all of the people who witnessed my marriage are dead. I have been overwhelmed by guilt and fear of God and so I went to Naif and told him the entire story. I asked him to go with me to Jordan to run a DNA test, which proved that he was my biological son. Before the DNA test I was certain that he was my son because I loved him dearly. I waited long for the moment that he would come to know that he was my own flesh and blood,” he said.
On his part, Naif said he always felt attracted to Al-Ramali feeling that he was his real father. Al-Qifaie, the first husband, never had any other children from Naif’s mother.
