Khubsurat log kon hoty hain by Zukhruf bint-e-Nadeem Attariya

About this novel

Khubsurat Log Kon Hoty Hain (Urdu: خوبصورت لوگ کون ہوتے ہیں؟) by Zukhruf bint-e-Nadeem Attariya is a short essay on what really makes a person beautiful. The writer, a student of Jamia-tul-Madina Faizan-e-Abu Huraira, answers the question with an everyday example that sticks in the mind.

Imagine, she says, being handed an ugly, cracked, damp wall and asked to make it beautiful. You scrape off the old paint, plaster it smooth and give it a fresh coat of colour. For a while it looks lovely. But soon the paint starts peeling and the cracks return, because the real problem was never fixed: water is seeping in from somewhere, and the damp keeps rising. Until that is solved, no amount of paint will make the wall beautiful.

انسان کو اصل خوبصورت اس کی زبان اور اخلاق بناتے ہیں۔

Many of us, she writes, are like that wall. We wash our faces with expensive products, put on make-up before going out and try every way to look attractive. But does any of it earn us real respect in someone’s heart? The thing that truly makes a person beautiful, she argues, is their zubaan, their way of speaking. However much outward beauty we add, people won’t love us until our words are kind. Our speech shows our akhlaq, and our character is what people remember. She closes by pointing to the beloved Prophet ﷺ, whose excellent character still wins hearts fourteen and a half centuries later.

It’s a short, thoughtful piece of about a dozen pages, worth reading and sharing, especially with young readers.

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

More by the same writer: Azamat or Bulandi Waly Rab, Procrastination and Gehra Dost.

Looking for more short, thoughtful reads? Try Qurb-e-Ilahi, a one-page Urdu reflection on what we must give up to come closer to Allah, or Hidayat Ka Wasila by Pakeeza Tayyaba. You can also browse our Urdu afsana collection for short stories.