Gehra Dost by Zukhruf bint-e-Nadeem Attariya

About this novel

Gehra Dost (Urdu: گہرے دوست) by Zukhruf bint-e-Nadeem Attariya is a short Islamic essay on answering bad with good, as the Quran teaches. Built around that one beautiful piece of advice, it shows how a person who was your enemy can become like a close friend.

She opens with the meaning of the verse. Good and evil are not equal, so repel evil with what is better, and the one with whom you had enmity will become as if he were a gehra dost, a close and loyal friend. We all know good and bad are opposites, she writes: good never comes from bad, and bad only brings harm. If we answer even an enemy’s harshness kindly, his heart may soften. If someone dislikes you or holds a grudge, and you still treat him with good akhlaq, your respect will grow in his heart too, InshaAllah.

برائی کا جواب بھلائی سے دو — دشمن بھی دوست بن جاتا ہے۔

The verse also says that this blessing is given only to those who are patient and fortunate. So she turns to friendship itself. A true friend is a nemat: someone who answers your bad with good, stands by you in hard times and cares about your faith. But friends are human too. No one is perfect, every person is different, and in some things you will agree while in others you won’t. Some of your habits will bother them, and some of theirs will bother you. That is human nature. The answer, she says, is sabr: overlook the small things, because your friend may be bearing patiently with many of yours.

It’s a short, gentle read of under ten pages, a reminder worth keeping close in our relationships.

You can read it online here or download the PDF for free.

More by the same writer: Procrastination, Khubsurat Log Kon Hoty Hain and Azamat or Bulandi Waly Rab.