The ring pictured above is fashioned from yellow agate stone, known as “aqeeq” in Islamic tradition, and has long been a sense of religious identity for Muslims around the world. However, I chose to share this ring for a reason beyond religion, heritage.

My father’s family has long struggled with a history of heart disease, which was worsened by multi-generational poverty in Pakistan. While my father was a recent immigrant still in the prime of his bachelor life in New York City, he received the news that his father suddenly passed away. It’s a tragedy for anyone to lose a parent, but this death was 7000 miles too far, and a wedding and three births too soon.

We’re naturally very curious about our lineage, but all that I know of my grandfather is a few stories, a picture, and this ring. The stories reveal his religious devotion and comedic personality, the picture shows his hefty mustache and his spick and span dress code, but the ring tells me nothing about him. Yet, there’s something awfully powerful about such a memento that makes it more meaningful than these other remembrances. Its striking beauty is upraised by its strong religious value and pop culture’s fascination with the power of rings. The color itself is reminiscent of my grandfather’s hazel eyes, which partially survived with me, and strengthens its purpose of embodying lineage. I never knew my grandfather, but he left behind something to hold on to.

 

-Hussain