Rabail by Shanila Arman

About this novel

Rabail (Urdu: رابیل) by Shanila Arman is an Urdu novel that opens in a silent courtroom where a mother is sentenced to hang. She is accused of killing her own son and does not say a single word in her defence, and the novel slowly reveals why.

Bibi Rabail stands in the dock like a statue, her eyes fixed on nothing. Asked whether she has anything to say, she answers “Nahi.” Asked whether she accepts that she killed her son, Asad Soomro, she says “Haan.” On the evidence, the witnesses and her own iqrar, the judge sentences her to be hanged on 19 April, then breaks the nib of his pen. Even then she doesn’t move.

ایک ماں، جس نے عدالت میں اپنے دفاع میں ایک لفظ بھی نہ کہا۔

Then the novel cuts away to a house in Islamabad at three in the morning. Naghma is shaking Tabinda Baji awake, crying so hard she can barely get the words out: there has been a phone call. Within minutes Tabinda’s brother Arbab walks in, followed by men carrying the bodies of their parents, Asfand and Aliya. Tabinda had just finished her exams. Her world was a small, happy one: a five-room bungalow, a father and mother whose love was enough for her. In one night it is gone. She clings to her mother’s body, begging her not to leave, and faints.

For now Shanila Arman leaves the two scenes side by side and lets you wonder how they connect. Who is Rabail, how did she end up in that dock, and why won’t she defend herself? That question carries you through more than 500 pages. The writing is plain and heavy with gham and sabr, and the characters keep telling each other that everything is Allah ki raza. It suits readers who like serious family stories more than light romance.

You can read Rabail online here or download the complete PDF for free. If a mother’s hidden past is the kind of story that pulls you in, also try Khamoshiyan Season 2 by Sidra Sheikh, or browse more writers on our Urdu novel writers page.