Khula by Anabiya Khan

About this novel

Khula by Anabiya Khan is a short spiritual Urdu novel about Haale Noor, a modern, carefree girl haunted by one nightmare. She keeps having the same dream until she finally asks someone what it means, and the PDF titles the story emptiness.

In the dream she’s running down a deserted road at night, gasping for breath, with no idea where she is. Masked men are close behind her. She runs into a graveyard and stops at a grave with her own name on its headstone. Someone is digging it. “I’m alive, so who’s in my grave?” A shrouded body sits up, and she screams herself awake to find her mother shaking her: “Haale Noor, have you had that dream again?”

ایک بار بار آنے والا خواب، اور زندگی کے خالی پن کا احساس۔

By day, life is ordinary and comfortable. Breakfast with her Daddy, Mama, Agha Jan and Ahmad Hassan, a glance at the newspaper as always, then a dash for the college van. In the college ground she tells her friend Fatima about the dream. Fatima shivers, tells her such dreams have nothing to do with real life, and says if she’s so worried she should ask someone.

So Haale Noor goes to Madam Nuzhat. Madam listens and explains gently. A shroud in a dream is a sign of long life, but running down unknown roads means running after life without any purpose. She talks about parda, quoting Surah Al-Ahzab, and about people who make their faith into a game, quoting Surah Al-A’raf. Haale Noor breaks down: nobody ever told her any of this. Will Allah forgive her?

Anabiya Khan’s story is about a young woman’s turn towards faith, written for readers who enjoy islahi novels. At 111 pages it’s a quick read.

You can read Khula online here or download the complete PDF for free. More by Anabiya Khan: Umeed e Wafa and her other novels on the Anabiya Khan novels page.