Seher Hone Tak By Mehwish Bint e Zahid

About this novel

Seher Hone Tak (Urdu: سحر ہونے تک) by Mehwish Bint E Zahid is a short Urdu cousin-marriage story about Busra, who has loved Usama since childhood. On her nikah day she finds that he was forced into the marriage and already has a secret wife.

The story opens on Busra’s happiest day. She looks into the mirror and blushes at how beautiful she looks as a bride. Her biggest childhood wish is finally coming true: she is marrying Usama, her Taya’s son. She has loved him since she was little, though she never expressed it, and Usama never once looked at her that way.

The nikah khwan and close relatives are present, and Usama’s face shows clear signs of worry. Busra signs the nikah papers happily; Usama signs only on his father’s orders and quickly walks away. The rukhsati is still pending when Usama suddenly disappears, and no one knows where he has gone. Busra has no brothers, only sisters; she is the youngest, still waiting for her own wedding while her elder sisters are already married with grown children. Busra slowly realises Usama wasn’t happy with the marriage, but his family covered it up, telling everyone that a friend of his had been in an accident, and the rukhsati went ahead without him.

بچپن کی محبت، نکاح کا دن، اور ایک تلخ سچ۔

Sitting in her room in her bridal clothes, Busra hears her Taya shouting outside: “This is all because of your pampering – if you hadn’t given him so much freedom, I wouldn’t have been shamed today.” Then the truth comes out. “Abba Ji, I can’t do this marriage – I’m already married. How can I deceive your niece?” Usama had said. “If you don’t marry Busra today, you’ll see me dead,” his father had replied. Under pressure, Usama married Busra, then fled from the wedding to his wife in Islamabad. Meanwhile, Busra’s nephew Ahad – her elder sister Anbreen’s son, doing his MBA at a university in Islamabad – is close to his uncle Usama, and is one of the few who knows about Usama’s secret marriage, having kept it hidden for the sake of the family’s honour.

Mehwish Bint E Zahid writes about family pressure, honour and a woman caught in a decision she never made. The title – “until dawn breaks” – offers hope that Busra’s dark night will end.

You can read Seher Hone Tak online here or download the complete PDF for free. More by Mehwish Bint E Zahid: Wisaal E Yaar, Wajood E Laraib and Ujra Diyar, or see all Mehwish Bint E Zahid novels.