ناصر بغدادی کا افسانہ ’’آدھا گناہ آدھی عبادت‘‘کا نفسیاتی مطالعہ

Nasir Baghdadi’s Short Story “Aadha Gunah, Aadhi Ibadat”: A Psychological Study

Abstract

Nasir Baghdadi's short story “Adha Gunah Adhi Ibadat” is a psychoanalytic study of religious hypocrisy centered on Hafiz Ji, a devout man who buys a house next to that of Akhtari, a professional sex worker, intending to purify himself through worship. His compulsive rituals and fear of nocturnal sounds function as reaction formation, masking a repressed fascination he cannot acknowledge. Rather than avoiding the “sin” next door, he obsessively monitors Akhtari's clients through his disciples, projecting his own suppressed preoccupation onto her as “satanic interference” in his devotion. Secondary figures reveal this hypocrisy further: Mukhtar, one such client, self-medicates through alcohol and Akhtari after being betrayed by his own beloved, while Dino, a taxi driver secretly in love with Akhtari, is humiliated when he proposes marriage yet compulsively returns, illustrating repetition compulsion.

      Reference in Roman Urdu

1. Nasir Baghdadi se interview, Dr. Ghazanfar Iqbal, mashmoola: Jadeed Urdu Adab ki Tanqeed az Nasir Baghdadi, Karachi, Rang-e-Adab Publications, 2025.
2. Nasir Baghdadi ka Dr. Khurram Sohail ko Channel GTV ke zair-e-ehtimam program “Chai Khana” mein interview, 6 February 2021.
3. Nasir Baghdadi, Be-Shanakht, Karachi: Nida Publications, 1990, P: 22.
4. Ibid, p. 21
5. Ibid, p. 26
6. Ibid, p. 26, 27
7. Ibid, p. 28