A Strange Message

Yesterday, late in the night, I received a strange message via my mobile phone from a girl I do not know. In fact, she had intended to send it to a female friend of hers, but she dialed the wrong number which turned out to be mine. This was how she explained her mistake when I wrote back to her, asking for a clarification. However, the content of the message was a real mystery to me in that I contemplated it for long before answering her for the second time. The message goes thus: " Hi, my sweetie! I hope you're great. I've been busy these days. The guests haven't left yet. You know what? May Allah grant me the right man to marry! Please, pray for me, " she wrote. To test her whether she was true to her own words or not, I sent her back, saying that I was the right man, but that I had a few conditions to impose, the two of which were that I had already decided to give only a 500-DH dowry to the one I would propose to and that I would not celebrate the wedding whatsoever. To my amazement, in her response, she said that she was ready to accept only ONE DIRHAM as a dowry and that she deemed celebrating marriage as superficial. I was so glad about this news. Reading her ensuing messages made me feel as though the girl had read every single piece I wrote about the issue of marriage, for she instantly agreed to whatever I imposed on her. I had no condition to impose anymore. Afterwards, I set to ask her a few more questions to find out whether she really meant her promises. Here is my question-and-answer conversation with her.

Me: Are you sure you will accept ONE dirham? Are you serious?
She: For sure, I will do. I can even accept less than one dirham.
Me: I'm simply honest with you from the very start.
She: What matters to me most are my husband's manners and his devotion to Allah. By the way, I'm now twenty-four.
Me: Alright! That's truly great.
She: You know I have never turned down a man's proposal, due to his poverty.

This must mean that no one had proposed to her yet, I said to myself. How come she made the latter claim without even putting it into practice in the first place, I wondered to myself. The truth being told, I am more than certain that the girl in question is among the ugliest. If she weren't ugly, she would not have had enough time looking for the right man via her phone. Suitors would have quickened their pace to ask for her hand before she even turned twenty-four. If she were beautiful, she would not even have proceeded to waste her valuable time the moment she knew that the number she was sending messages to was wrong. It was her extenuating circumstances, such her ugliness and absence of suitors, that in one way or another forced her to adopt the principle of frugality. If she weren't ugly, she would have demanded a large dowry for the reason that the majority if not all of beautiful girls enjoy dressing well. If she were beautiful, she wouldn't have racked her brains to talk to a cart drawer, the job I told her I had. If she weren't ugly, she would have imposed on me her own conditions. Couldn't you say that she said YES to everything I told her? The idea that came to my mind before falling fast asleep was that the end justified the means. The means was her ugliness and absence of suitors; the end was all that she said to me, ranging from a one-dirham dowry to one's manners being better than money.