Heart Lamp: Selected Stories

“[M]y grandmother used to say that when a wife dies, it’s like an elbow injury for the husband. Do you know, Zeenat, if the elbow gets injured, the pain is extreme for one instant—it is intolerable. But it lasts only a few seconds, and after that one does not feel anything. There is no wound, no blood, no scar, no pain.”

The discussion of spousal death foreshadows Shaista’s fate at the end of the story, as well as Iftikhar’s reaction to it. This passage highlights The Problem of Gendered Violence in the Family by suggesting that men view even their wives as interchangeable and not particularly worthy in their own right—instead, they can easily move on after their wives’ deaths as if it were a short but minor inconvenience. This passage foreshadows how Iftikhar will quickly replace Shaista with a new wife after she dies.

“Asifa is not my daughter; she is like my mother. Not just now—ever since she left school, she has been managing all the household chores and looking after all the children.”

Shaista compares Asifa to her mother to underscore the cyclical nature of the problem of gendered violence in the family. The longer Asifa remains trapped in Iftikhar’s domestic expectations, the more likely she is to suffer Shaista’s fate and give birth to daughters who will experience the same cycle of repression and violence.

“If the one who has rights is displeased, a rain of fire will fall.”

This passage is Mushtaq’s way of saying that the world will always bend toward justice, favoring those who are entitled to their rights. In the story, the mutawalli Usman Saheb uses his office to escape from his obligations to his family. Later, the discovery that Nisar is still alive is one facet of Usman’s punishment, undermining his authority as a leader of the religious of the community and fulfilling the insight behind this passage.

“He had cheated hundreds of people by taking advances to paint their houses and then disappearing. He would drink away the money and totter about. He had once even eaten the jama’at’s money, saying he would paint the masjid. Now giving him a proper burial seemed like the holiest of duties for the same people he had cheated. His corpse began to attain a martyr’s status.”

The irony of Nisar’s story is that his reputation as a cheating, disreputable person is swiftly ignored to fulfill Usman’s agenda, speaking to The Importance of Reforming Religion for a Modern Society. This passage draws a contrast between Nisar’s criminal actions and the noble status he gains once Usman endorses his reburial, reinforcing the sense that Usman is not acting in accordance with true faith.

“He is langoti yaar, after all, a man, everybody’s best friend. His past does not rise up to dance in public. The present doesn’t touch him. The future doesn’t move him, nor is it a mystery. He does not have to remain shyly in the shadows. He does not have to say who he belongs to. He does not need to seek forgiveness, not ever at all, because nothing he does is a mistake.”

This passage underscores the double standard with which society treats men like Yakub, who can easily abandon his responsibility to his family because of his reputation. This shows how the problem of gendered violence in the family is systemic, giving men the license to escape judgment simply because it has become entrenched as a cultural value.

“[I]n some corner of her heart there was a thread of quiet peace. There was no happiness for Munni here, no reason for her to have stayed back. Munni is free from pain, and has freed me from pain too; now I don’t have to go behind Yakub begging; I don’t have to chase this mutawalli, begging; I don’t have to answer inhumane questions; there is me, and my two children; but still, poor Munni, she didn’t wear new clothes even once, she didn’t hold a doll in her hands to play. From the time she was born, she only got injections and bitter medicines to swallow.”

The tragedy of Munni’s death elicits complex feelings from Aashraf, who finds relief that Munni no longer has to suffer the cruelty of the world. This says less about the nature of life than it does about the inequality that leads to such transgression; Munni did not need to suffer all her life, yet she did because so much of the world decided to treat her in inhumane ways.

“Widowed at a young age, his mother had spat fire on anyone suggesting she remarry, had carried her only son Yusuf on her back, and raised him with a lot of love. There was no struggle she had not gone through; there was no job she had not done.”

This early detail about Yusuf’s relationship with Mehaboob Bi speaks volumes about his motives in trying to keep her close to him in the marital home, despite the tensions it causes with his wife. Raised by a doting mother, Yusuf feels indebted to her and thus can only think of how he might return the kindness she showed him as he grew up. Yusuf’s valorization of his mother speaks to the limited roles available to women in his society, as he honors his mother but still marries her off behind her back later in the story.

“Aiyoo, my son, what will I do holding on to this old life? If not for your happiness, what other use does this life have? This heart—take it without any worry—take this heart.”

Mushtaq uses a story-within-a-story to foreshadow Mehaboob Bi’s acceptance of her new life in marriage. Key to this passage is the story’s focus on the mother’s heart, which is a recurring symbol throughout the collection. Applying this passage to Mehaboob’s actions later on, the story communicates her understanding that to live for Yusuf is to will for his peace and joy, even if it entails self-sacrifice.

“Razia cut cloth for lungi after lungi. Only the children at home got to have sequins and zari on their lungis; the others were plain red.”

This simple contrast between the two types of lungis underscores the gap between the upper and working classes. Razia takes time to adorn her children’s lungis with markers of her wealth, even though they will serve no purpose other than to signal their family’s status. By contrast, the other lungis are cut plainly, though it is only through Razia’s charity that they are able to acquire these cloths. Even then, her charity is not motivated by sympathy for the working class, but the fear of wasting her surplus cloth.

“When there was so much poverty and misery around, was there a need to be inhumane too?”

This passage reflects The Inextricable Link Between Patriarchy and Capitalism by highlighting the needless cruelty the bystanders show toward the lone mother at the khatna. Latif Ahmad feels bad about this moment because he enabled it by bringing the bystanders together with his charity. This drives the question of whether Latif Ahmad’s charity really addresses social problems. Alternately, it is possible that it merely perpetuates the social conditions that allow such inhumane community dynamics to arise.

“I fell at your feet, saying that I didn’t want to get married…None of you listened to me. Many of my classmates aren’t even married, and yet I have become an old woman. I have the burden of five children on me. Their father is roaming around, and I don’t have a life. When a man is doing such a haram thing, are none of you able to ask him why he is doing this?”

Mehrun’s lament resonates with Aashraf’s anger toward Yakub in “Black Cobras.” In this passage, Mushtaq focuses on the sacrifice that Mehrun has had to endure for the sake of her marriage. Despite the expectation that Mehrun has had to give up her education and the potential to work, Inayat acts as though he is still a bachelor, underscoring the fact that he has given up nothing for Mehrun’s sake. This passage speaks to the problem of gendered violence in the family.

“Her brothers’ words rang in her ears: ‘If you had the sense to uphold our family honour, you would have set yourself on fire and died. You should not have come here.’”

This passage marks the loss of Mehrun’s hope in her family as she registers with shock their failure to understand her cry for help. What makes this passage especially devastating is the implication that her family would rather see her dead than speak to her problems in her marriage. This shows how the problem of gendered violence in the family doesn’t just limit itself to spouses, but extends across all familial relations.

“As evening started to lose its light, lamps were lit around the house. But the lamp in Mehrun’s heart had been extinguished a long time ago. Who should she live for? What was the point?”

This passage deploys the title of the story, which Mushtaq and Bhasthi use to represent the collection as a whole. This transforms the meaning of the title into a thesis statement for the collection, suggesting that all the stories are about characters who are trying to find a sense of meaning once their previous reasons for living have failed. The heart is an important symbol of hope in the collection.

“His thoughts painfully oscillated between wondering whether he should pat his younger brother’s back for all the things he had done, or insult him for building a tomb over his memories. He began to feel that it was not his house at all, like he was a stranger there, like an unexpected, unwanted guest.”

This passage drives the idea that displays of wealth and power satisfy nothing but one’s own vanity, adding another dimension to the inextricable link between patriarchy and capitalism. Nayaz renovated his childhood home to impress Mehaboob with his wealth, but all Mehaboob can feel is resentment for Nayaz’s erasure of their childhood memories. Nayaz acts without thinking of others’ feelings, which extends to his relationship with Arifa.

“When he opened his eyes to this distant call, she was standing in front of him. Like a fruit-laden mango tree with expansive branches, like an abundant harvest of ripe mangoes, like the deep dark leaves of such trees; like a rich, blooming flower bouquet; like a tender mango filled with the promise of life; a prominent forehead, a mix of love and respect in her eyes.”

Mushtaq compares Arifa to the mango tree of Mehaboob’s childhood to transform her into an anchor for the resolution of Mehaboob’s bad feelings. Since Arifa is the one aspect of Nayaz’s life that he has failed to completely remake according to his wishes, Mehaboob looks to her with relief and feels that he is finally home again in her presence.

“Material things had become priceless, and human beings worthless. Behind those material possessions, people’s feelings were on sale. Things decided the relationships between small people with big shadows.”

This passage represents Mushtaq’s critique of luxury and materialism, which Nayaz espouses. Nayaz values material objects more than anything because they project the illusion of power, which Mushtaq communicates in the idea that “feelings” are really what are on sale. By owning things like a renovated house and Arifa’s shoes, Nayaz can feel like he is more powerful than he really is.

“Would he be as rough as he was as a boy, would he have acquired a holy glow, or would he have a deceitful look on his face?”

The tension of “Soft Whispers” arises from Safiya’s desire to know the essence of Abid, a boy from her youth. In the extended flashback, Mushtaq focuses heavily on the purity and innocence of the heart and how Abid violated her idea of purity through his violence and harassment. She wonders if his adult religious status reflects a true change in his nature, or is merely a form of “deceit.”

“After drinking the aab-e-kausar, many of Bi Dadi’s problems vanished. What issues can the residents of heaven have?”

Saadat’s children find resolution to their family conflict when they convince Bi Dadi that she is in heaven. When Bi Dadi’s prayer mat gets ruined, she becomes distraught because she assumes that the path to heaven is closed off to her. No one in the family really understands that she tries to be good just so she can secure her place in the afterlife. By accident, Saadat’s children become the only people who address that desire, suggesting that the feeling of achieving a goal may be just as, if not more, satisfying than reaching the goal itself.

“Money from the pockets of poor people was, just like them, broken, shattered, crumpled, wrinkly, diminished in essence and form. She had at times felt that even if the poor were given crisp notes, the money would turn into something strange and ugly; now she became sure of it.”

This passage demonstrates the contempt Shaziya has for the poor, which she projects onto their handling of wealth. Even though handling has no impact on the value of money, Bua’s money turns worthless in Shaziya’s eyes because they do not align with the sheen she associates with wealth.

“If this poor woman were to hold out her seragu and beg Allah for justice on Judgement Day, even if I poured out all my good deeds, I will still be at fault, Shaziya thought, alarmed. It became clear to her that she was poorer than Bua, more unfortunate too.”

Shaziya’s downfall comes with the recognition of her spiritual bankruptcy, invoking the importance of reforming religion for a modern society. Unlike Bua, who sincerely believed in Shaziya’s capacity for mercy and generosity, Shaziya does not realize that her moral character is being tested until it is too late. This passage sets up the end of the story, in which Shaziya mourns for herself because she understands there is no way to redeem her soul.

“People behave in strange and illogical ways when they’re afraid they may have to take responsibility.”

The opening insight of this story hints at what will follow, signaling to readers to pay attention to any strange behavior that transpires. While this applies to the Arabic teacher, it also quietly rings true for the narrator, who refuses to act on the teacher’s behavior because she doesn’t want to take responsibility for him. This drives the moral quandary of the story, asking where people should limit their involvement in the lives of others.

“Perhaps this is the working mothers’ solution: trying to make up for the guilt of not being able to spend time with their children by giving them money and gifts. But it is impossible to avoid guilt in impossible situations, and in the strange relationships and problems that ensue. Only God can save us working mothers!”

In this passage, the narrator admits that absence is the emotional cost of her job, as she must both support the family and do all the parenting herself. The impossibility of her situation underscores the unfair dynamic she has with her husband, who shoulders none of the responsibility of parenting, even though he has the capacity to do so. Like the narrator in “Be a Woman Once, Oh Lord!” the narrator of this story is left to pray for a solution, which reflects the problem of gendered violence in the family.

“I had nothing left that was just my own. I had to set down roots in another’s front yard, grow new shoots there, bloom there. He was getting attached, while my identity was melting away. Even my name got lost. Do you know what my new name was? His wife. My body, my mind were not my own.”

This passage resonates with the earlier passage from “Stone Slabs for Shaista Mahal,” where Zeenat was reflecting upon the implications of her relationship to Mujahid. In this passage, Mushtaq takes the idea of spousal relation to a dark extreme, indicating that it redefines the narrator’s identity so that she is no longer known as her own person, but as someone’s wife.