Maan Jee; a Masterpiece Urdu Short Story by Qudratullah Shahab

Qudratullah Shahab

Qudrat Ullah Shahab (or Qudratullah Shahab; February 26, 1917– July 24, 1986) (Urdu: قدرت الله شهاب) was an eminent Urdu writer and civil servant from Pakistan. He is best known for his autobiography Shahabnama.

He is best known for his autobiography Shahab Nama. In the first chapter, Shahab mentioned how the idea of writing a memoir occurred to him when he paid a visit to Ibn-e-Insha in London. While they were discussing the philosophy of life, it inspired him to pen his own experiences. The complete work was published after his death in 1986, and then soon became a cult favorite among the Urdu knowing circles of the Indian sub-continent.

I feel privileged to share Maan Jee, the most famous and masterpiece Urdu Short Story by Qudratullah Shahab. I am sure you will definitely like the story. Here you go!! 

Ya Khuda, A Book Which Make You Cry

Q.A. Shahab

Qudrat Ullah Shahab (or Qudratullah Shahab; 1917– July 24 1986) (Urdu: قدرت اللہ شہاب) was an eminent Urdu writer and civil servant from Pakistan. Though he was a well known bureaucrat of Pakistan but he has written some very popular and fantastic books which have a wide readership in Pakistan and across the globe.

Ya- Khuda is one his popular books. The book is about the situation of the people who migrated from India to Pakistan at the time of partition. One can know what exactly had happened to migrant people that time.

Qudrat Ullah Shahab describes that he was looking for his cousin and best friend Niamat Ullah and his beautiful wife at the Muhajir Camp. When he saw them he was unable to recognize them as they were very sick as they had drunk water which was mixed with copper vitriol by Sikhs and then they died.

Ya Khuda, Tilte

Qudrat Ullah Shahab, then, narrates a story of a girl Dilshad, who was a Muslim girl and daughter of Mulla Ali Baksh, the Imam of the Masjid in Chamkor, India. Her father was killed by Sikhs and she was kept in the Masjid. Sikhs men kept rapping her one after other and after some days she became pregnant.

Sikhs decided to hand her over to the police station and another bad time for her started. She once again became a sexual toy in hands of police and when she reached at a Muhajir camp in India she were about to give birth to the child.

While travelling to Pakistan she gave birth to a girl in the train. She expected that her Muslim brothers will welcome here and she would be able to forget all what happened to her and her father. When she heard the names Anwar and Rasheed from to Pakistani boys in Lahore Railway Station she thought that the black night has over and now she has to start a new life in a newly Islamic state in an ideal Islamic brotherhood but all her dreams broke at once and she realized that there is nothing different in India and Pakistan.

Afterward the story of Dilshad is so sad. I would recommend everyone, who wants to know the real history of Pakistan, to read the books of Qudrat Ullah Shahab, especially Shahab Nama and Ya Khuda. Ya Khuda is very short book one can finish it in only one hour as it has only 94 pages.

Click here to Download Ya Khuda, and please note that you will have to have PDF reader to reader after having downloaded it. So enjoy reading the book and do let me know what do think about it. Thanks!!!

A Review on "Ya Khuda"

Title cover of Ya Khuda

Ya Khuda as the name would suggest is an acronym of how the reader might feel after reading this book. Since the days of yore we have been told of the glory of Partition. Some textbooks and stories will eventually hint at the genocide that took place on the fleeing refugees from both sides. But there is a comfortable numbness about Partition in our perceptions. As Pakistanis our history begins from the Mughals and Peaks at the formation of Pakistan. That in a nutshell is enough we are told, we do not need to know anymore. I remember quite vividly as a child asking my grandmother to tell me the stories of her childhood in Ujjain, India. I can remember the sheer ecstasy in her voice as she took me on that journey to her childhood and enacted the Haveli that still stands in all its ruinous glory. I can also remember how she would smile as she would talk about her brothers, sisters, cousins and hundreds of close knit families that lived together in that haveli. And then she would talk about Pakistan and the hardships of the early years in Karachi. Only once had I ever asked her about the Journey to Pakistan. I remember quite vividly her expressions to this day. I loved her and love her to death and thus even a hint of trepidation on her face on my account would move me to tears. I can remember how she remained quite and asked me to go to sleep. I can also remember her sobbing which I accounted to be my fault and thus slept in fear of the morning when I will be reprimanded for whatever I had done. I had forgotten everything by the morning.

Reading Ya Khuda for the first time, reminded me of my grandmother’s tears. I could understand for the first time, the actual horror of migration and the pandemonium that ensued. Qudrat Ullah Shahab challenges the limitations and numbness that we have impressed upon ourselves as a society, especially in the context of History. And there are many, may it be the horrors of partition, or the 1971 war. Ya Khuda is an eye opener mostly because the author abstains from any form of Pretensions. This is Shahab at his best, constructing a narrative based on reality. A reality that as a nation we have always hid from and have never really come to terms with. This story is a painful journey through the masses of decrepit humanity, sick by the nausea of nationalism, hate, lust and barbarity. This book is certainly not an incrimination of either side. But reminds us that there are beasts on both sides of the border, only the names change, sometimes it is Balbir Singh and in some places its Abdul Rauf.

The most painful thing the reader is reminded of is the fact that all this was true. As recounted by the millions who had gone through the morass of Muhajir camps. This is essentially the zenith of QA Shahab’s literary career. Never before had a story teller described as vividly the horrors of our history. The Filthy paths travelled to achieve this glory we so proudly call Pakistan. I would recommend this story to all who can shake away from their natural slumber to wake and come to terms with our past. Maybe through these ghosts we will find the Pakistan that we never understood. Understand the pains of those women and children and men who fell and were never recounted. Of those women who sell their bodies to the infernos of lust and the paying beasts to feed their hungry children. In short this is an important book. Important because it will let us realise the pains of the creation of the country, if only to stand back from our crestfallen outlook on the state of this country.

Shahab Nama; The cream of Urdu Adab

Shahab Namah

Shahab Nama is the autobiography of Qudrat Ullah Shahab. It was finished in 1986 just before his death. It was published the same year and soon he became a household name in Pakistan.

Qudrat Ullah Shahab (or Qudratullah Shahab; 1917– July 24 1986) was an eminent Urdu writer and civil servant from Pakistan. Qudrat Ullah Shahab was a well known bureaucrat of Pakistan. He was from Jammu Kashmir and initially got into civil service by passing the Indian civil service exam some years prior to the independence of Pakistan. He served on several high offices including being Ambassador of Pakistan to Netherlands. He got well known to people after his book Shahab Nama got published, which portrays his life experiences.

His early childhood was full of adventures, some of which are mentioned in his book Shahab Nama. The book has become a cult favourite in Pakistan. His personality reflected mysticism, something which he describes as a gift from an out-of-world personality which he named as ‘Ninety’ in his book SHAHAB NAMA, this mysticism belongs to Owaisiah chain of Sufism. Mumtaz Mufti and Ashfaq Ahmed, both well known writers of Pakistan, were close friends of Q.U.Shahab and were deeply inspired by him.

Shahab Nama has sixty chapters and 893 pages (Sang-e-Meel Publications, Lahore, 2005). The first chapter entitled “Iqbal-e-Jurm” (confession) is about the author’s motivation for writing an autobiography. The next seven “Jammu main plague” (Plague in Jammu), “Nanda Bus Service”, “Chamkor Sahib”, “Raj keroo ga khalisa baqi rahey na ko” (No one else but the Khalsa shall reign), “Maharaja Hari Singh kay sath chahay” (Tea with Maharaja Hari Singh), “Chandravati”, and “ICS main dakhla” (Entry to ICS)chronicle his early life up to entry into Indian Civil Service. Chapter nine to fifteen describe author’s experiences during his initial postings to different parts of India and creation of Pakistan in 1947. Four chapters are devoted to Mr. Shahab’s writings and critics’ comments on them. (Chapter 16 to 19). Chapter 20 is on the new state of Kashmir (“Azad Kashmir”) and 21 on assassination of the first Prime Minister of Pakistan, Liaquat Ali Khan (“Sila-e-Shaheed”). Chapter 22 to 34 are devoted to author’s experiences as Deputy Commissioner of Jhang District in Punjab.

After a year in Jhang, Mr. Shahab left for the Netherlands on a scholarship to attend a six-month course at the Institute of Social Studies in The Hague. Two chapters, 35 and 36 are on his impressions of the Netherlands and his decision to proceed to Hajj. Chapter 37 and 38 are a pilgrim’s tale. “Jhoot, fraud aur hirs ki daldal” (The quagmire of lies, fraud and greed), chapter 39, details author’s time at the Ministry of Industries as Director. For the next 200 pages, chapter 40 to 50, Mr. Shahab delves into politics of his time as observed by him as the Principal Secretary to Governor General Malik Ghulam Muhammad, President Iskander Mirza and General Ayub Khan. The last ten chapters of Shahab Nama deal with a variety of topics such as death of his mother (“Maa ji ki wafaat”), life of an Ambassador (“Rozgar-e-safeer”), the future of Pakistan (“Pakistan ka mustaqbil)” and so on. There is a chapter titled “Iffat” dedicated to his late wife. The last chapter is about his mystical experiences.

To Download Urdu eBook Shahab Nama by Qudratullah Shahab, Click Here

Please note that Shahab Nama has been divided in to 10 parts for better downloading at slower or load-shedding affected connections. If you are unable to download this book, kindly let me know.

The book must be read be they people who want to know about the real history of Pakistan. One can find the real and actual history of Pakistan, regarding Pakistan’s rulers and their behavior and psychology and Pakistan’s relations with other countries. One cannot find these informations in other books of Pakistan study. So must read Shahab Namah and please do let me know your comments about the book.

Qudrat Ullah Shahab; The famous Urdu Writer

Qudrat Ullah Shahab

Qudrat Ullah Shahab (or Qudratullah Shahab; 1917– July 24 1986) (Urdu: قدرت اللہ شہاب) was an eminent Urdu writer and civil servant from Pakistan.

Qudrat Ullah Shahab was a well known bureaucrat of Pakistan. He was from Jammu Kashmir and initially got into civil service by passing the Indian civil service exam some years prior to the independence of Pakistan. He served on several high offices including being Ambassador of Pakistan to Netherlands. He got well known to people after his book Shahab Nama got published, which portrays his life experiences.

His early childhood was full of adventures, some of which are mentioned in his book Shahab Nama. The book has become a cult favourite in Pakistan.

His personality reflected mysticism, something which he describes as a gift from an out-of-world personality which he named as ‘Ninety’ in his book SHAHAB NAMA, this mysticism belongs to Owaisiah chain of Spiritualism.

Mumtaz Mufti and Ashfaq Ahmed, both well known writers of Pakistan, were close friends of Q.U.Shahab and were deeply inspired by him.

After his death in 1986, Q.U.Shahab is resting in a grave in Islamabad Graveyard.

Gilgit, The birth place of Shahab

He was born in Gilgit in an Arain family, where his father Abdullah Sahib was Governor during Dogra rule. Most of his schooling was in Kashmir, and there he excelled both in Urdu and English languages. Without telling anyone he wrote an essay and won the world competition by Reader's Digest, a rare achievement for any Indian Muslim in those days. Then he came to Government College Lahore for his college education.

He was selected for Indian Civil Service and later volunteered to serve in Bengal during the famine of 1943 where he served as magistrate at Nandigram. He came under heavy fire from the authorities when he distributed part of the strategic rice reserves to starving local community.

After coming to Pakistan he was first posted in the ministry of commerce a as a Deputy Secretary then to Azad Kashmir at Muzaffarabad as chief secretary of the new state. From there he came to Jhang, Punjab, as Deputy Commissioner. He then served as Director of Industries of Punjab and had to deal mostly with settlement issues concerning migration. He was first appointed by Ghulam Muhammad as his Principal Secretary. He remained there during Iskander Mirza and Ayub Khan’s time. He later went to Holland as ambassador and also served as Secretary Information and Secretary Education.

Title cover of Shahab Namah

His masterpiece, Shahab Nama, was finished but not yet unpublished at the time of his death in 1986. The book immediately made him a household name in Pakistan. Its idea came when he was visiting his friend Ibn-e-Insha in England and they were talking about the philosophy of life. He then started writing chapters and read them in reading circles. Some were published in newspapers and magazines.

He has authored many books and the most famous books of him are mentioned below.

• Shahab Nama
• Maan Ji
• Surkh Feeta
• Ya Khuda

Really, he was a great person in the history of Pakistan. He played a great role in the growth, development and progress of Pakistan. May his soul rest in peace. Aameen!!