Khuwabo Ka Shehzada By Hafsa Malik

About this novel

Khuwabo Ka Shehzada (Urdu: خوابوں کا شہزادہ) by Hafsa Malik is a short, complete Urdu romance that opens the night before a bride’s mehndi. She ends the evening with a prayer for the prince of her dreams, and the story follows what fate has written for her.

It’s the last part of the night and Hania has been crying for hours. Not because she is unhappy – the boy chosen for her is her mother’s choice, and she has no one else in her heart – but because the change ahead feels overwhelming. When she sees it’s time for Tahajjud, she gets up, does wuzu, prays nawafil and, crying, asks Allah to give her peace: may the man who is about to become her mehram prove to be just like the dreams she has seen, someone who respects her and her Ammi and has a heart full of love for her. Then she lies down again and finally falls asleep.

In the morning her mother, Bushra Begum, tries again and again to wake her – she missed Fajr, and the mehndi is today! Soon her friends Iram and Dua arrive. We learn that it’s just Hania and her mother now; her father passed away years ago when she was still in school. They are a simple middle-class family, and with no brother or sister, Hania often misses her Abbu at night.

تہجد کی دعا میں مانگا ہوا ہمسفر، اور اگلے دن کی مہندی۔

The groom, Hassan, is sitting with his friends Rayyan and Ali, and he is troubled. Hania knows nothing about his past, and he isn’t sure he can give her the full place she deserves. Rayyan tells him not to let a past that’s finished ruin his future, Ali agrees, and both promise to stand by him. Then they’re off to decorate the house for the wedding. That evening Hania is dressed in a beautiful green lehnga and pink kameez, her light make-up making her glow. Iram and Dua tease her that she’s forgotten her friends already, the mehndi rasam is done, and tomorrow is the baraat.

Hafsa Malik writes with sweetness and faith, and Hassan’s hidden past gives the story its tension. It’s a quick, light read for anyone who loves wedding romances.

You can read Khuwabo Ka Shehzada online here or download the complete PDF for free. More by Hafsa Malik: Pher Wohi Ishq and Anokhi Mohabbat, or see all Hafsa Malik novels.