I do pardah, but is it necessary that I do Sharai Pardah?

Ask Allah what you should do and He’ll guide you. As for me, I am author of this novel Jannat Kay Pattay that neither forces nor compels anyone to do anything. It just tells story of a girl who takes Hijab and then fights for it.

Is Sister’s husband a mehram? Or if no then why such a thing was written in JKP?

Firstly, I never wrote a behnui is a mehram. I neither wrote he is a non mehram. Let me clarify what was written in JKP first.

One scholar says that just because Hazrat Muhammad (pbuh) said to Asma (His wife’s sister) that when a girl reaches adolescence, she should be covered except for her this and this (pointing to face and hands), it means that face does not fall under face veil (or that the woman in those days did not cover their faces). The other scholar argues with her that she cannot deny this hadith because it is a Bukhari / Sahih hadith and no muslim in his right state of mind can ever ever refute a Sahih Hadith, but her point was that Rasul Allah said so to Asma Binte Abi Bakar because she was His sister in law. He was her behnui and the Raajih opinion in Islam (and among Muslim scholars of today) is that behnui is neem-mehram. No, he is not a mehram, but because as long as your sister is in his nikkah you cant marry him, so he is neither your non mehram. It makes him your semi mehram. Face covering with behnui, in reference to this hadith (that because Asma didn’t cover her face with Rasul Allah (sm),) is not necessary with your behnui. However all other measures of Pardah will be carried out. You can confirm it from scholars too. Some prefer face-covering with behnui, some don’t. Hope its clear now

Jail Torture part’s bits were missing in digest draft!?

Yes, composers drive you crazy at times. But no problem as it has been published in the book form

Jihan has seen to be drinking water in standing position mostly in the novel. Why?

I’m sorry but the specific reader who questioned this was the one to make me aware of it. I just didn’t see it from this angle. It was unintentional. But it should not have been so. A hero promotes habits in loyal readers. Such habits should not be as bad as drinking water in a standing position. Writers should be careful. I’m sorry for that!

Why should Haya be afraid of a dance video while she was the one who performed it once before the whole family? Why the sudden fear?

There are some things in this world that are ‘’logical’’. Others are ‘’illogical’’ or Norms. Logic says, if x = y and y = z then x must be equal to z. But that is not necessary. If x loves y, and y loves z, does that ever mean that x loves z? Never. This is called “society norms”. Logic says, if a girl wears hijab to cover herself from men, then she would wear it from all the men in the world. Norms tell us, however, that most of the hijaabi girls who wear hijaab from men in streets and offices and universities do NOT wear hijaab from the same men in a wedding function. That is illogical but it is exactly in accordance with society norms.

Logic says, if a girl dances on a mehndi fuction where some men are also present, she can dance before every men in the world. Norms tell us that this is not the real life scenario. The girls who dance on mehndis normally tolerate/ignore the presence of waiter/DJs and a few men thereby, but by no means they can dance before the whole world. This may sound illogical but this is exactly what happens in Pakistan. Girls dance on mehndis. But they usually forbid video making because they don’t want the video to reach the whole family, and to their fathers and brothers because if their fathers and brothers were present, they would have never danced.
Then if a video does get leaked, will a girl of Haya and Irum’s state of mind not be afraid of her father and brothers seeing it? Allowing your daughters to dance on mehndis is one thing, seeing their dance alongwith the whole world is another, and seeing their video and knowing that a boy like Waleed has brought it to them is a very very very ‘’another’’ thing. I might not have been logical in this scenario but I am pretty confident that I was 100 percent realistic here. Haya was in the beginning just scared and cautious, but after she reverts to her Deen, she was scared to death. Because a video like that one, brought in the family by Waleed, seen before everyone like her dad, brother, cousins, uncles was humiliating enough to make people doubt her pardah throughout her life. When she did that on the mehndi fuction, she was not a hijabi girl, but once became hijabi, people’s perspective changed. So did hers.

Can a girl be this genius like Haya?

She had been stupid at some times, smart at the others. A mixture of that is referred to as being genius. Yes, a girl can be so of course

Why did Ayeshe, when explaining Surah Al Ahzab to Haya, did repeatedly talk about difficulties one can face in journey of Hijaab?

Because she knew that Haya will soon come across harder times

Jihan did not have beard. If he had one, they could have been a perfect Islamic couple.

Correct. But my characters are never perfect. They can be anything, immature, stupid, smart, cunning, beautiful but perfect. What I showed, again, was ‘’norms’’. Most men who want their wives to wear Hijaab do not wear a beard themselves. Beard and Hijaab are a further level of Deen. Salat and honesty come before them. Jihaan , perhaps, was not on such an advancd level of Deen. Besides, he was a spy and he could not restrict himself to one dress code / hair style / beard.

Are you planning another army based novel?

Not yet Can’t say about future

Your favourite character in JKP?

Haya of course. She always lost the JKP-Page Elections but still I would vote for her ((

Was JKP’s end pre-decided or changed according to reader’s wishes?

Readers’ wishes are never as important to the writer as their own novel is to them. Moreover, in this case, readers were divided in two categories. One wanted Jihan to live. Other wanted him dead to make the character more memorable (though I believe that a character must have more in him to become a legend other than his sad death). I did what I had in mind before I penned down the first word of the novel. I wanted it to end on hope. Why should every army guy be martyred in the end? Why do not we give an impression that there are countless soldiers of ours still working somewhere in the world for our better tomorrow? JKP’s ending gave exactly the same message

If JKP had another title name, what would it be?

When I started it back in 2011, it had another title. I changed it very later in the first draft. That was “Tabarraj ul Jahilyaah”(Jahiliyat ka tabarruj). The reason I didn’t name it so was these brackets in which you have to tell the meaning. Names’ appearance should atleast be common to all common readers, even if the meaning is difficult. Secondly, Tabbarj ul Jahiliyah was a ‘’negative’’ (that means, it is something we should NOT do), while Jannat Kay Pattay is something “positive” (that means, we SHOULD do it), so I wanted it to be positive because Amr bi Al Maaroof always comes BEFORE nahi An al munkir.

Do you intend to write about more solved riddles of Qur’an in any other novel?

Of course In sha’Allah

When Dolly gave Haya an orange doppatta while hers slipped in Waleed’s car, why did no one notice her different coloured dopatta?

Yeah right, I wonder the same.

(Weird fashion trends might have saved her, No ??!! )

The last scene of JKP showed 4 years later thoughts of Haya only, why not Jihan’s were shown?

The novel started from Haya’s perspective, and ended on hers. Jihan’s part came in the middle. Its narration was very different from Haya’s. It was to the point, did not go in minute details and ended once and for all. Just because Jihan will not spend whole his life justifying and explaining what he does, his part never came again. We had to imagine ourselves how he got into Haya’s room in Asiyana Cave house Cappadocia, how he swapped the videos etc. Because Jihan’s story gave us the intro to the kind of man he was. Once reader understands that, he can imagine the rest himself

What was the purpose of Jihan’s promise to Bahare if he was not to die in the end?

Prolongation of suspense and picturing what a spy feels about his death (especially due to the effect of the burial he had seen of pak spy in his childhood)

Jihan intended to revenge the Indian double agent who got him in the custody but never was shown avenging him?

Like every spy feels about those who double crossed them, Jihan felt about that guy, but it is impossible to find such people later in life whose name or identity you do not know.

In the end, when Haya mentioned Ayeshe, Jihan boht ulajh kr bola Kaun Ayeshe? Usko Anjan prentend krna chahea tha, ulajh kr kyun bola?

The reason was, he was not pretending. He was acting. And he was a very good actor. I had very deliberately showed it like this. Because if I had shown him to have said, “Kaun Ayeshe?” with a calm or surprising tone while his eyes warning Haya, it would have signaled “We cannot talk about her in public like this” but he said with a very genuine surprise “Kaun Ayeshe?” which meant I do not even remember who she was so never ever mention her before me. Not in public, not in private.

(I’m glad that my reader picked the point )

Purpose of DJ’s death?

Her departure portrayed ‘’death’’ and the burn-scene portrayed ‘’fire penalty after death” which was important for someone like Haya to think about life after life.


How can I find and solve riddles of Quran?

If you have a niyyat, you will find someone or some place from whom/where you can learn how to do this. Just have a pure niyyat and Allah will make a way for you.

Not even a single part of this novel was reality based?

I will not comment on this question. Just remain assured that Haya and Jihan’s story was fictional but that doesn’t mean that such and such thing never happened to any human being. Even as I write it might be happening with someone somewhere

Were Haya and Jihaan real characters?

No. They were created by me! You are welcome (

In which language did Haya and Jihan talk?

Was mentioned in the novel. English in the start and in the ending part, in Urdu.\

Why Suleman Sahib did not tell Haya that Jihan’s an army man?

He was reluctant and confused himself. He told his son but not to his daughter because he did not want her to be perplexed. Besides, if he had told Haya in the start, tou phir JKP ki 12/13 iqsaat tu bekar jateen na

If you co-relate Ghazwa Ehzaab with Pardah, then Haya did not spend days in starvation as people did in Khandaq??

Starving symbolizes economic de-stability. And that exactly was shown when Haya’s source of ‘’food’’ family business was in crisis. They did not have enough money to continue some projects so she cut some funds etc. Remember that part? It was a symbolic representation of starving. While “winters’’ of Ahzaab Battle was symbolized as “coldness in relatives’ behavior”.

What became of Waleed and Irum?

Waleed must have never dared contacting a person of Irum’s family because Jehan did threaten him of exposing him before his future in-laws. Irum thought that Waleed has deliberately showed everyone their intimate pictures (she never knew that it was Jehan who swapped the videos) so she must have given up on Waleed. She was already engaged so it was evident that she’ll get married to her fiancé as decided. But of course with a lesser degree of honour.

Ayeshe and Bahare…What happened with them?

It was summarized in last lines. “Ayeshe was still the same while Bahare turned into a beautiful girl of fourteen or fifteen which showed she did not adopt her sister’s Hijaab, and she was like what was Haya like in the start. And that they both lived in Egypt.” If I ever write a JKP part two, it would focus on Bahare’s story (means I would refrain myself from writing it ) Yes, there is no part two coming. But if, I ever, IF I write it, it will portray Bihare as a beautiful, non-islamic teen-ager and her life(but honestly, I don’t want to. I wont say for sure because you never know how life turns out, but I am busy with my upcoming project so….forget part two. Lets move one!)

Jihan was a liar. Did it never occur to him that lying is a sin?

Above has been an oft-repeated question for past whole year. Jihan did lie and cheated and betrayed people whenever he wanted, but his lying was not a sin. In Islam, lying is considered a sin unless in three conditions (we usually misuse and misquote this hadith though). One is for Sulah, and second is during battle/war. (For third , you can search it on the web. It is about a spouse who tells their spouse that they are beautiful. Sorry to wives and husbands (; ). Lying during a battle, cheating people, lagain bujhai kerna, idher ki udher lagana, ye sab kam wesey haram mgr jang me halal hoty hain because a Muslim only fights for Allah’s Deen. A spy is fighting even in peace so his lies are legal. Remember the hadith where Aap (saww) sent a newly reverted Muslim to trick the non muslims into something so that un me photo parr jae? Ye normally prohibited hai, chughli kerney waly ko qabar ka azab hota hai, magar as a battle strategy, it is allowed. And as spies say, “We lie for a living”. So Jehan’s lies were pretty much truthful ((

How come Jehan never knew that Haya and Ayeshe are still in contact?

Did I say he didn’t? How can you even expect from Jihan not to know such a thing? Perhaps Haya think herself to be smart enough to keep the contact hidden but my readers are smarter than her, I know (

I find Bihare’s character strange. Why so?

For me, no she wasn’t strange. Neither was she an extra-ordinary intelligent girl. She was as smart as a European child can be at the age of 9. I was a little taken aback by a number of readers popping in to express their bewilderment about Bihare’s ‘smarter-than-her-age’ talks. Have you ever looked around yourself for 9 year old girls? Even in our country, 9 year olds , even 6 and 7 years old are way smarter than Bihare. I will not throw any justification for her character as it doesn’t need any. Just take a closer look at a nine year old the next time you see one and you’ll realize that when we grow up, we forget how we were in this age

Her love for Jihan was , not logical, not traditional, but ‘humane’ love. Bihare was a human character and a human at the age of 9 if sees a man for a lot of hours everyday, talks to him, watches him do little and big things for him/her, likes his habits, even more likes his over-all personality, then he/she does start feeling for that person. This feeling is called “attachment” that transforms into “love”. After they fall apart, it depends upon the intensity of this feeling about how much time she’ll take to forget him. Bihare loved him a great deal to forget him so early though. As for her dream desire of getting married, it was a human emotion at this age. Marriage seems like a fantasy to young kids, like the only thing that can keep an adult attached to them for the rest of their lives. Bihare’s thought for getting married with Jihaan was not of an unethical nature, but was due to her dire desire of living with him forever. She did not want to marry him; she wanted to keep him near her all her life. When you write a character, you have to get in their shoes and think and react like they would have done, so this was the most natural behavior, not of a 9 year old perhaps (if you argue) but of the 9 year old girl called Bahare Gul.

Almost every Turkish character in the novel was very fluent in English. Is that so in reality as well?

They are as good in speaking English as Pakistanis are, if not better than us. As for the children, a girl of Bihare’s background might not be as fluent as shown in novel, but because she lived with ARP, he made them learn English because deep down he knew that one day they’ll have to leave the country and live under some cover identity somewhere else, so he wanted them to learn English and Arabic so that they can take advantage of it in related countries. I did mention so in the first draft I think, but later edited such details in the final draft. Had to edit a lot. Thought my readers will not notice (;
(But they did!)