Yet that thinking did not apply to all followers of Islam. Polygamy, some Muslims came to realize, could by used to create an added note of humor at an unexpected time. Such humor invites laughter from people from all cultures. Differences in race, religion or social status never seem to detract from the unifying force of humor. The following story illustrates that fact.
In the spring of 1976, a young couple in Houston, Texas went to one of the many area department stores. The wife was pregnant, and she was planning to try on some maternity clothes. While she was in the dressing room, she overheard her husband talking with the sales lady.
The woman who hoped to make a sale asked, “Is this your first baby?” The husband already had a five-year old daughter, but he also had a sense of humor.
The husband, a man who had grown-up in the Middle East, knew that he had a distinctive accent. He counted on that accent to make his joking response sound more plausible. The husband said, “Yes, by this wife.”
The wife in the dressing room listened for a reply. Would the sales lady seek more information about their polygamy, marriage or other related topics? The wife heard no comment from the sales lady.
The husband had not mentioned anything about Islam. Polygamy had gotten only an oblique reference. Still the situation made quite clear what the husband meant to imply. The man’s wife appreciated his sense of humor. She recalled again why she had never worried about polygamy. Marriage had given her a life with an honest and funny man.
Later she shared that incident with some associates at work, people who knew almost nothing about Islam. Polygamy, too, remained a “foreign” subject to her associates. Still, they all appreciated the humor in the remark made by the pregnant woman’s husband.
At that time, the woman and her associates did not realize how the world’s view of Islam would change over the next thirty years. Neither did they know that the joking husband would one day provide material to a writer who had copied her one-time associate. That writer had married a gentleman from a country in the Middle East.
That writer, however, seldom sought an answer to questions that related to Islam, polygamy or similar topics. Neither did she hear repeated jokes about the aforementioned topics. The writer had chosen to marry a man who belonged to a religious minority.
That writer had agreed to the marriage because she had met a man who could make her laugh. Perhaps it is for that reason that the writer retained a lot of respect for the woman who had gone along with the crazy dressing-room joke. The writer hopes that her contact with others in the medical field has relayed to Houston news of her Middle Eastern name.