ABSTRACT
If one were to name a relationship issue that has consistently fascinated people for a long time, it would probably be the topic of love. Songwriters, philosophers, poets, and even religious scholars have speculated on the antecedents, features, and consequences of love. Some have suggested that love is a many-splendored thing; others have offered that love hurts and stinks; and still others have focused on the nature of different types of
love, such as platonic love, brotherly love, and Christian love. For most Westerners, love is considered a necessary, but not sufficient, condition for marriage, whereas other cultures award it a more secondary consideration. For Waheed’s father, the idea of a marriage based on love is just as outrageous as the idea of a marriage arranged by one’s parents is for most of us.
