More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
Read between
November 18, 2020 - May 1, 2022
His anger was possibly greater at the elements present in Yasin’s offense of challenge to his will, disdain for his existence, and distortion of the image he wanted to have of his children than at the offense itself.
Al-Sayyid Ahmad, concealing his fears for his son behind the virulence of his anger, shouted harshly, “God does not protect those who expose themselves to danger needlessly. He, may He be glorified, has commanded us not to put our lives in jeopardy.” The man would have liked to cite the verse of the Qur’an that dealt with this but had only memorized those short suras of the Qur’an he recited when he prayed. He was afraid that if he tried to quote it he might overlook a word or get it wrong and thus commit an unforgivable sin. He was content to cite the meaning and repeat it in order to make
...more
Afterward he could settle the other account with him in any manner he wished. God inspired him to say, “That’s struggle ‘for the sake of God.’ ” (Qur’an, 9:20.)
“We’re struggling for God’s sake too. Every honorable struggle advances God’s cause.”
He could rebel against the English and defy their bullets almost every day, but the English were a frightening and hated enemy, while his father was his father, a frightening and beloved man.
Living in their father’s shadow, none of them would have been able to enjoy any peace without the protection of a lie.
“Her beauty has a fatal attraction. I don’t understand its essence and I know nothing comparable. I often wonder if it’s not the shadow of a much greater magic concealed within her. Which of these two forms of enchantment makes me love her? They’re both puzzles. The third puzzle is my love. Although that moment fades farther into the past every day, its memories are eternally planted in my heart because of its associations with place, time, names, company, and remarks. My intoxicated heart circles through them until it imagines they are life itself, wondering somewhat skeptically whether any
...more
At times you were so ecstatically happy that you grieved over the barrenness of your past. At other times you were so stung by pain that you pined for the peace that had fled. Caught between these two emotions, your heart could find no repose. It proceeded to search for relief from various spiritual opiates, finding them at different times in nature, science, and art, but most frequently in worship. From the innermost reaches of your awakened heart there flared up a passionate desire for divine delights….‘People, you must love or die.’ That was what your situation seemed to imply as you
...more
These confined yo...
This highlight has been truncated due to consecutive passage length restrictions.
little self, your modest world, and the mortal lev...
This highlight has been truncated due to consecutive passage length restrictions.
“Oh Lord, how can a person re-create himself afresh? This love is a tyrant. It flies in the face of other values, but in its wake your beloved glistens. Normal virtues do not improve it and ordinary defects of character do not diminish it. Such contrast...
This highlight has been truncated due to consecutive passage length restrictions.
more demeaning if she had observed them. Occasionally you like to ask yourself: What is it you want from her love? I answer simply that I want to love her. When life is gushing through a soul, is it right to question what the point is? There’s no ulterior motive for it. It’s only tradition that has linked the two words: ‘love’ and ‘marriage.’ It is not merely the differences of age and class that make marriage an impossible goal for someone in my situation. It
marriage itself, for it seeks to bring love down from its heaven to the earth of contractual relationships and sweaty exertion.
“That happened before love, or B.L., and this took place after love: A.L.”
This vegetation besieged his heart with clusters of memories like fruit on a tree. They whispered to him of ecstasy, pain, and devotion. They
were a shadow of the beloved, a breath from her spirit, and a reflection of her features.
True cultural
development depends on the man, not the school.”
Here was the original of the portrait that filled his spirit and body during his waking and sleeping moments. Here she was, standing before him, bearing witness to the fact that the limitless pain, the indescribable happiness, the searing periods of wakefulness, and the dreams spinning him through the skies could, in the final analysis, all be traced back to a charming human being whose feet left prints in the garden.
Thus his senses and his faculties were transported to a semiconscious state approaching annihilation.
Why did not people commit suicide to attempt to hold on to happiness just as they killed themselves to escape from suffering?
Fahmy gave up a promising life in return for a magnificent death. Will
“You won’t be an author until you master French. Read Balzac, George Sand, Madame de Staël, and Pierre Loti. After that write your story.”
What is love? What are hatred, beauty, ugliness, woman, and man? You must learn about all of these too. The ultimate stage of damnation reaches up to the first level of salvation. Laugh as you remember or remember as you laugh that you were about to reveal your secret to her. Recall, as you weep, that the hunchback of Notre Dame terrified his beloved when he leaned over to comfort her.
hunchback, never elicited her sincere affection until he was breathing his last. ‘Don’t
course, his intellect, but not his emotions, had occasionally allowed for that possibility, but in the way it accepted death – as an abstract thought, not a cold reality affecting his own body or that of a loved one.
“No. Your accusation caused the least of my pains, and your disappearance the greatest. Each hour out of the past three months has witnessed some moment of pain. The way I’ve lived, I could easily have been considered insane. So I mean and know what I’m saying when I pray that God will not test you with pain. I’ve learned from my own experience. What a cruel time it’s been! It’s convinced me that if you’re destined to disappear from my life, I might as well search for another existence. It was like a long, odious curse. Don’t make fun of me. I’m always afraid you will. But pain’s too exalted
...more
“Be firm, my soul. I promise we’ll return to all this later. We’ll suffer together until we perish. We’ll think through everything until we go insane. It will be a satisfying moment in the still of the night, with no eye to observe or ear to eavesdrop, when pain, delirium, and tears are unveiled…far from any critic or scold. Then there’s the old well. I’ll remove the cover, scream down it to the resident demons, and confide my woes to the tears collected in the belly of the earth there from sad people everywhere. Don’t capitulate. Beware, for the world seems as
fiery red to you now as the pit of hell.”
“Each of us will go his own way, but first I want to tell you bluntly what I think of you. I don’t deny it was my idea to pursue you – perhaps because the soul occasionally feels a desperate craving for filthy things.
“I’ve experienced enough torment and deception,” Kamal reflected. “From now on I won’t be taken in by fantasies. Light’s light. Our father Adam! He wasn’t my father. Let my father be an ape, if that’s what truth wants. It’s better than being one of countless descendants of Adam. If I really were descended from a prophet like Adam, reality wouldn’t have made such a fool of me.”
would consecrate his life to spreading God’s light. Were not light and truth identical? Certainly! By freeing himself from religion he would be nearer to God than he was when he believed. For what was true religion except science? It was the key to the secrets of existence and to everything really exalted. If the prophets were sent back today, they would surely choose science as their divine message.
Thus Kamal would awake from the dream of legends to confront the naked truth, leaving behind him this storm in which ignorance had fought to the death. It would be a dividing point between his past, dominated by legend, and his future, dedicated to light. In this manner the paths leading to God would open before him – paths of learning, benevolence, and beauty. He would say goodbye to the past with its deceitful dreams, false hopes, and profound pains.
friend’s a partner who’s a reflection of yourself. He echoes your sentiments and thoughts. It doesn’t matter if we differ in many respects so long as our essential characteristics are the same. I’ll never forget this friendship, and we’ll keep writing each other until we meet again.”
Husayn seemed to be describing the paradise Kamal had ceased believing in. But Husayn’s was a negative paradise, full of taking without any giving. Kamal
“How beautiful it would be if man could devote his life to truth, goodness, and beauty.”
It’s enough for me to live a life that doesn’t need to be explained. I’m instinctively drawn to what you achieve only after a bitter struggle. God forgive me, you haven’t achieved it yet, for you still – even after renouncing religion – believe in truth, goodness, and beauty.
You wish to dedicate your life to them. Isn’t this what religion requests? How
can you claim to reject a...
This highlight has been truncated due to consecutive passage length restrictions.
when you believe in everything deri...
This highlight has been truncated due to consecutive passage length restrictions.
“The Believer derives his love for these values from religion, while the free man loves them for themselves.”
“You’ll never be at a loss for companions to play and joke around with, but you’ll never gain another friend for your spirit capable of conversing directly with it,” Kamal told himself. “So be content with silence or with talking to yourself like a lunatic.”
“So pain and life are twins,”
The fragrance of the Shaddad family filled his nostrils. It had a gentle, zesty bouquet rare for a human being, like a puff of air from a dream that had circled in a sky replete with delights and pains.
“The wisest thing would be for me to stop after one glass.” “That might be wise, but we didn’t come here in search of wisdom. You’ll learn for yourself that delirium’s more pleasant than wisdom and that there’s more to life than books and thought. Remember this day and don’t forget who’s to thank for it.”
don’t want to pass out. I’m afraid of that.” “Be your own physician.”
Yes, at last he had…after a long period of anxiety and apprehension, when he was torn between the ascetic skepticism of Abu al-Ala al-Ma’arri and the more hedonistic version of Umar al-Khayyam. He
the same, he had retained his lofty principles by broadening the range of meaning for “goodness” to include all the joys of life.
He had told himself, “Belief in truth, beauty, and humanity is merely the highest form of goodness. For this reason, the great philosopher Ibn Sina concluded each day of deep thought with drinks and beautiful women. In any case, only a life like this offers an alternative to death.”
“I agreed, but I haven’t abandoned my principles.” “Well, I’m sure you haven’t abandoned your fantasies. You’ve lived with them so long they seem truer to you than reality itself. There’s nothing wrong with reading or even writing, if you can find readers. But make writing a way of obtaining fame and fortune. Don’t take it too seriously. You were intensely religious. Now you’re intensely agnostic. But you’ve always been intensely concerned, as though you were responsible for all mankind. Life’s not nearly that complicated. Get a government position you like, one providing an acceptable
...more
This highlight has been truncated due to consecutive passage length restrictions.
