"The djinn are the mightiest of Allah's creations, save only the angels and the demons, but our powers are limited. We can not alter the destiny of the cosmos--that is Allah's power alone."
"So I can't wish for the devils to all be locked up in hell or the world to accept Islam." said the young girl.
"No, those things will happen when and if it is Allah's will." Abu Haj mentally rolled his eyes. Apparently, humans were as clueless as ever, even with the veil torn down. "I believe the phrase the westerners use is 'above my pay grade.'"
"Could I wish for endless youth and beauty?"
"I would not grant such a wish. To be eternally young while the world aged and died around you would drive you mad."
"Don't you have to grant my wishes?" Leila asked.
"Only the djinn locked under Solomon's seal 'have to' grant wishes. I was freed from the seal by an angel centuries ago. Now make your wish before I lose my patience!" The life of a djinn who had decided to devote himself, against the custom of his people, to helping mortals was a difficult one--Abu Haj had already seen and dismissed a dozen malicious ways of twisting Leila's statements.
"Alright!" shouted the girl, afraid of what would happen if the djinn lost his patience. "I wish I didn't have to get married!"
Abu Haj briefly considered all the possibilities that the girl low-specificity wish would offer to an evil djinn. Transformation into a eunuch was only the most obvious possibility--the wish was capable of far crueler interpretations.
"Before I grant this wish, why don't you want to get married?"
The story was a typical one, an arranged marriage undertaken with little regard for the girl's wishes, with a well-off but unattractive older man.
"Very well." Abu Haj sighed. "What do you want me to turn you into? The easiest would be just to turn you into a boy, but with the dropping of the veil there are a lot of other options, like foxgirl."
"Are you crazy?" the girl shouted. "I don't want to turn into anything!"
"But" Abu Haj began. "That is the standard way. I guess I could turn him into something, but your parents would just find someone else."
"Look." said Leila. "I appreciate the thought. But maybe you could just talk to my parents?"
+++++++++++
Something about having their daughter's point of view explained by a terrifying djinn opened Leila's parents to her concerns. The wedding was cancelled.
Well, Abu Haj thought, that was an unusual way of granting a wish.