MUZAFFARABAD: In a heart-rending yet profoundly moving scene, the nikah of a young lawyer was solemnised in the pulmonology ward of a hospital in Azad Jammu and Kashmir’s capital on Thursday night to fulfil the final wish of his ailing mother, who passed away only hours later after a prolonged battle with cancer. The ceremony took place shortly after Maghrib prayers in the ward where 60-year-old Robina Bibi, a widow and mother of advocate Sardar Faiz, had been admitted after her condition deteriorated critically earlier this week.

According to family members, Robina Bibi had been battling ovarian cancer with remarkable courage and determination for nearly three years. However, on Sunday, her health worsened sharply and she was shifted to the Abbas Institute of Medical Sciences (AIMS), where doctors kept her under constant observation.

A day before she was taken to the hospital, she told Sardar Adnan, one of her son’s cousins, that arrangements should be made for Mr Faiz’s wedding with his maternal cousin within two weeks.

“When she was admitted to hospital, she told me that since her life was on a bonus, the nikah should be solemnised under any circumstances on the second or third day of Eid,” Mr Adnan told Dawn. On Wednesday evening, the first day of Eidul Azha, she lost consciousness and never regained it. By Thursday noon, doctors had virtually lost hope for her survival. Faced with the grim reality, the family decided to fulfil her wish without delay.

Some family members rushed to the bride’s home to formally seek her hand for Mr Faiz and requested that the nikah be solemnised the same evening — a proposal her family agreed to.

Thus, amid the quiet corridors of the hospital and the subdued sobs of relatives, the nikah ceremony was held in the ward itself.

A cousin brought a new white suit for the 26-year-old groom, while another arranged a traditional turban. The bride arrived at the hospital along with her parents and siblings.

In the 10-bed ward, the ceremony was attended not only by close relatives but also by several patients and their attendants, besides a female doctor and supporting staff.

“I saw something like this happening in a hospital ward for the first time. It was an intensely emotional scene and many people were struggling to hold back tears,” said the doctor, identified only as Javeria. A video clip recorded during the ceremony captured perhaps its most moving moment: the groom sitting beside his unconscious mother, holding her hand as the clergyman solemnising the nikah continued to offer supplications. “It seemed as though she was waiting only for this moment,” said Shiraz Khaliq, a cousin who was also among the attendees. “After the nikah, aunty’s face looked calm and peaceful for the first time in many days.”

Family members said Robina Bibi appeared peaceful following the ceremony and breathed her last at around 4am on Friday. She was later laid to rest in a local graveyard in Gojra before Friday prayers.

“But little did I imagine that the nikah would take place in such extraordinary circumstances and with such haste,” Mr Faiz said quietly while receiving mourners at his residence.

The young advocate’s life itself had been shaped by tragedy and resilience. He was barely three years old when his father died in flash floods in Muscat, Oman, where he had been working to support the family. Since then, Robina Bibi had single-handedly raised her son through years of hardship, dedicating her life to his upbringing and education.

“My mother was both my mother and father,” Mr Faiz said. “Everything I am today is because of her sacrifices.” “Even in her final moments, her only concern was my future,” he added quietly. Many of those who attended the unusual ceremony said it was not merely a nikah, but the completion of a mother’s final prayer and a son’s ultimate act of love and obedience.

Published in Dawn, May 30th, 2026