By AbdulGafar Alabelewe
Our paths crossed about 13 years ago, by Allah’s perfect decree, when He destined that I would meet the woman who would become the coolness of my eyes. The first sign that our journey was going to be blessed was the way we met: at my elder brother’s house on Sierra Leone Street, Malali, where you and your siblings used to attend a home Islamic school with my nephews and niece.
It was love at first sight. I wasted no time in informing my elder brother, who went to your family home in Kaduna to seek your hand in marriage. The process began immediately, and on the 27th of April, 2013, we tied the knot. You were barely 21, a young undergraduate, while I was 10 years older. Yet the match was perfect. From that humble beginning, we became each other’s best friends. Allah blessed our union with four handsome and brilliant boys.
Over 12 years together, we both grew in remarkable ways. From a freelance reporter with The Sun Newspaper in 2013, Allah elevated me to a State Correspondent with The Nation Newspaper and eventually Chairman of NUJ, Kaduna State Council in 2024. You, who started as a 100-level student in 2013, blossomed into a dedicated security intelligence personnel by the time of your demise. Our journey was marked by unwavering love, loyalty, sacrifice, respect, friendship, and constant prayers for both our worldly life and the hereafter.
On the 24th of August 2025, around this very time, you breathed your last. That day, it felt as though the whole world collapsed on me. The beautiful journey we shared was cut short by death. Yet, by the remembrance of Allah, whom we always turned to together, the unbearable weight on my heart was lightened. In that moment of my greatest trial, Allah caused me to realize that He had simply answered one of our deepest and most consistent prayers: that He should take our lives only when He is most pleased with us and grant us Aljannah Firdaus.
I remember vividly how, after Fajr prayers, I would sometimes find you still on your prayer mat. I would sit beside you and together we would make du’a for our parents, our teachers, our children, our sustenance, our health, and for those in hardship. We would always conclude by asking Allah to end our lives at a time He is most pleased with us. Allah, in His infinite wisdom, accepted that prayer in your case.
Though your passing has left an unfillable vacuum in my heart, I am convinced beyond doubt that Allah does not make mistakes. I witnessed with my own eyes how you bade farewell to this world with Alhamdulillah on your lips, a testimony to your piety and a consolation to me. In line with Islamic belief, you saw glimpses of the hereafter and even hinted at them to me in words and actions I only came to fully understand after your departure. You sought to correct some things, gave me personal advice, demanded more companionship, and tried harder than ever to make me happy in those final days.
Oh, my dearest wife and friend, I was, and I remain pleased with you. Words cannot fully capture what an incredible partner you were, what a devoted mother you were to our boys, and what a dutiful daughter you were to your family. If friends, colleagues, classmates, and associates all speak of you with glowing words, then only Allah knows the greatness of what you were to me. You were truly a rare gem.
Beyond the many condolences and sermons I have received, your final act of praising your Lord until your last breath has been my greatest consolation. Like you did till your final moment, I too say Alhamdulillah to Allah, the Most Merciful, who has kept His promise never to burden a servant beyond what they can bear. The blow is heavy, but Allah has made this difficult journey without you more bearable than I imagined.
The children still struggle to grasp the full weight of your absence, but I trust in Allah’s mercy to fill the gap for them, for me, and for all of us.
May Allah, in His infinite mercy, grant you Aljannah Firdaus and reunite us there. Aamin.
