Trust in Divine Destiny (Qadr) in Huda Fahmy’s That Can Be Arranged
Defining the Thematic Claim of Qadr
In That Can Be Arranged, Huda Fahmy presents a lived example of trust in divine destiny (qadr). The book’s glossary defines qadr as “destiny that was decreed for us before we were even born but can sometimes be changed by appealing to God through worship, prayer, and good deeds.” This definition already introduces a subtle tension: destiny is fixed yet malleable through spiritual effort. Huda’s narrative dramatizes this tension. The core thematic claim is that placing one’s trust in God’s plan, even when it means refusing a seemingly last-chance suitor, opens the path to a marriage that feels preordained. Meeting Gehad is presented not as luck or coincidence, but as qadr — the inevitable intersection of two souls whose connection existed before this earthly life.
Tracing Qadr Through Three Key Plot Stages
1. Rejecting the First Suitor and Choosing Trust
After college, Huda receives her first proposal from a coworker who displays controlling behavior, dishonesty, and a history of watching her without her knowledge. Despite red flags and her father’s disapproval, she agonizes: “Would I ever get another chance at marriage?” (Chapter 6). Turning him down feels like a gamble with her future. Yet she makes what she calls “one of the hardest decisions” — listening to her gut and deciding she deserves better.
Chapter 7 explains her reasoning: “I could’ve just said, ‘Screw it!’ to the whole system and dated guys on my own. So why didn’t I? … More importantly, I put my trust in God.” This is the first major act of qadr-based faith. Instead of chasing a relationship through forbidden means or settling for a toxic match, she redirects her energy into self-love and religious study. She stops asking “What’s wrong with me?” and begins to define what she truly wants in a partner. This period of waiting — four years of friends marrying, sisters marrying, even her parents divorcing — tests her trust. She admits loneliness, yet she does not abandon the path.
Character connection: Huda’s father functions as an earthly proxy for discernment. His intense screening (Chapter 6) mirrors a form of qadr — filtering out prospects who are not meant for her. Huda’s mother, while more encouraging, does not override Huda’s own instincts. The first suitor himself embodies the opposite of qadr: a forced fit, a person Huda was ready to mold herself for until her self-worth intervened.
2. The Conference as Qadr’s Stage
Four years later, Huda signs up for a weeklong Islamic studies conference. She explicitly states her priorities: “It wasn’t exactly a pickup scene, and I sure as shay wasn’t there to meet anyone” (Chapter 7). Yet on day one, she sees Gehad. The narrative’s punctuation is decisive: “It was qadr.”
This moment crystallizes the theme. Huda did not seek him; the environment was designed for religious learning, not romance. Yet the timing and setting feel authored by a higher hand. Her initial response is to resist distraction — she “was not about to let some guy become the center of what was supposed to be my week of religious self-improvement” (Chapter 8). But a friend gathers Gehad’s name, and Huda eventually consults Sheikh Z, the conference’s religious leader. She initially withholds Gehad’s name out of self-protection, but the sheikh’s advice becomes pivotal.
Symbol connection: The conference itself symbolizes ilm (religious knowledge), which the glossary defines as “religious pursuits of knowledge.” By investing in ilm, Huda aligns herself with the very sphere where qadr can meet human effort. Sheikh Z represents the human intermediary — a trusted authority who, in Islamic tradition, can facilitate qadr through prayer and counsel. His question about Huda’s fear of marrying someone spiritually above her reveals an inner barrier she had not named. Once she admits that fear, “a weight I never even knew I carried had been lifted” (Chapter 8). This clearing of her own resistance is part of the qadr process.
Complexity: Huda’s skepticism remains. She tells herself not to expect anything because “almost every other woman at the conference had lined up behind me” to request the sheikh’s help. Yet the follow-up happens anyway — reinforcing that qadr is not dependent on odds or human logistics.
3. Soul Meets, Kitab, and Walima — Fulfilling the Destiny
Chapter 10 directly invokes the Islamic concept of pre-earthly souls meeting: “Did you know that souls meet each other in a pre-earthly life? … With Gehad, I knew almost instantly that our souls had met before. It was undeniable.” This belief reframes their entire courtship as a rediscovery rather than a beginning. Their chaperoned calls, emails CC’d to Huda’s mother, and gradual family introductions are not merely cultural steps; they are the procedural unfolding of what was already written.
Character connections: Gehad appears only through Huda’s perspective, but his patience and commitment are implied by the structured courtship. Huda’s hypervigilant sister, assigned to read emails, adds a comic layer while reinforcing the family’s protective role — a reminder that qadr does not eliminate human safeguards.
The marriage itself, detailed in Chapter 11, blends the sacred and the celebratory. The kitab (religious ceremony) and walima (reception) bookend the legal and social dimensions of union. Huda’s defiant zaghrouta (ululation) as she enters — “much to the embarrassment of my mother” — shows her ownership of the moment. This loud self-expression contrasts with the “shy, demure bride” stereotype. It echoes the self-love she cultivated after rejecting the first suitor. The zaghrouta, a symbol in the book, becomes an auditory signature of qadr fulfilled: joy that does not need to be quiet.
Symbol connections:
- Penny the doll (Chapter 3): Her voice box was broken by Huda’s first crush at age five. That early break taught Huda that romantic fantasies can shatter. It forms the foundation of her rule‑awareness and her later willingness to trust God rather than fairy tales.
- Hijab: While the memoir does not treat hijab as a direct symbol of qadr, Huda’s choice to never draw herself without it (stated in “Dear Reader”) is an act of submission to God’s commands — a daily trust in divine decree.
- Kitab and Walima: The two-part wedding mirrors the two-stage nature of qadr: the invisible contract (kitab) and the visible celebration (walima). The month-long gap between them echoes the waiting period Huda endured.
Addressing Complexity and Contradiction
The glossary’s note that qadr “can sometimes be changed by appealing to God through worship, prayer, and good deeds” introduces a paradox. If destiny is fixed, how can it change? Huda’s story does not resolve this theologically; instead, it shows qadr as dynamic. She prayed, studied, and improved herself — and in doing so, she may have altered her own trajectory. The first suitor was rejected; that rejection was itself part of the qadr that led to Gehad. One could argue that qadr includes human agency as its mechanism.
Another contradiction: Huda initially believed she would rather be single than miserable in marriage (Chapter 3). Yet she admits loneliness during her waiting years. This emotional tension does not undermine her trust; it deepens it. Trust in qadr is not the absence of pain but the choice to proceed despite it.
A final layer of complexity comes from Huda’s parents’ divorce occurring during her waiting period. That event could have shattered her model of marriage, but it does not shake her faith in qadr. Instead, it reminds readers that divine destiny includes suffering, not only romantic success.
Study Questions and Answers
1. How does Huda’s definition of qadr in the glossary differ from the way she experiences it in the narrative?
The glossary presents qadr as decreed before birth yet alterable through worship. In practice, Huda experiences qadr as a gradual unveiling: she trusts God after a painful rejection, and the meeting with Gehad feels inevitable. She never tries to “change” her destiny; rather, she aligns her actions (prayer, self-improvement, consulting a sheikh) with what she hopes is God’s plan. The narrative emphasizes human effort within a framework of divine sovereignty.
2. What role does Sheikh Z play in Huda’s understanding of qadr?
Sheikh Z serves as a spiritual guide who helps Huda identify an internal obstacle — her fear of marrying someone “at a much higher spiritual level.” By naming that fear and receiving his advice, Huda clears a psychological barrier that might have blocked her from accepting Gehad. In this way, the sheikh becomes an instrument through which qadr is realized, not by forcing events but by preparing Huda’s heart.
3. Why is the doll Penny’s broken voice box significant to the theme of trust?
Penny’s breakage at age five represents Huda’s first experience of romantic disappointment. The doll could no longer speak, symbolizing the silence of unrealistic expectations. That childhood lesson — that crushes can hurt — conditions Huda to approach love with caution. Later, when she puts her trust in God instead of in fantasy, she repeats the pattern of loss that leads to growth. Penny teaches her that even cherished plans can break, and that is okay.
4. How does the zaghrouta challenge or reinforce the idea of qadr?
The zaghrouta is a loud, celebratory ululation often performed by women at weddings. Huda performs her own entrance ululation, defying expectations of a demure bride. This act of joyful self-assertion reinforces qadr because it shows she is fully present in the destiny God has provided — not passively accepting it but actively celebrating it. It challenges any notion that qadr requires quiet submission.
5. What evidence from the text suggests that Huda’s trust in qadr was tested between the first rejection and meeting Gehad?
Several lines in Chapter 7 show her loneliness: “Friends got married. Friends got divorced. My sisters got married. My parents got divorced. … I couldn’t deny I was lonely.” She also signed up for the conference partly to “cure my loneliness” by throwing herself into books. These details reveal that trust did not mean she felt no pain. The test of qadr was the four-year gap — a space where no obvious new prospect appeared, and where her resolve could have wavered. It did not.
Conclusion
That Can Be Arranged teaches that trust in divine destiny is not passive fatalism but an active, often difficult, alignment of one’s choices with faith. Huda’s journey — from rejecting a controlling suitor to meeting Gehad at a religious conference, to celebrating her marriage with a defiant ululation — demonstrates that qadr works through human agency. The symbols of Penny, hijab, zaghrouta, and kitab/walima each enrich the theme, while the contradictions (changeable yet fixed, lonely yet trusting) make the story feel honest rather than didactic. For readers, the memoir offers a model of how to hold hope open while also letting go.