Passage Analysis

Passage

The rope would be after him now, while Ilish sat safe and secure. The truth was as clear as the bottom of an open tomb.

He tore his eyes away from the paper and found the Sheikh staring through the window at the sky, smiling. The smile for some reason or other, frightened Said: he wished he could stand at the window and look at exactly the same bit of sky the Sheikh was looking at so he could see what it was that made him smile. But the wish was unfulfilled.

Let the Sheikh smile and keep his secret, he thought. Before long the disciples would be here and some of them who’d seen the picture in the paper might recognize him; thousands and thousands would be gaping at his picture now, in a mixture of terror and titillation. Said’s life was finished, spent to no purpose; he was a hunted man and would be to the end of his days; he was alone, and would have to beware even of his own reflection in a mirror—alive but without real life. Like a mummy. He’d have to flee like a rat from one hole to another, threatened by poison, cats and the clubs of disgusted human beings, suffering all this while his enemies kicked up their heels.

The Sheikh turned to him, saying gently, “You are tired. Go and wash your face.”

“Yes,” Said said irritably, folding up the paper. “I’ll go—and relieve you of the sight of my face.”

With even greater gentleness, the Sheikh said, “This is your home.”

“True, but why shouldn’t I have another place to shelter?”

The Sheikh bowed his head, replying, “If you had another you would never have come to me.”

You must go up the hill and stay there until dark. Avoid the light. Shelter in the dark.

Hell, it’s all a waste of time. You’ve killed Shaban Husayn; I wonder who you are, Shaban. We never “knew each other. Did you have children? Did you ever imagine that one day you would be killed for no reason—that you’d be killed because Nabawiyya Sulayman married Ilish Sidra? That you’d be killed in error, but that Ilish, Nabawiyya, and Rauf would not be killed in justice? I, the murderer, understand nothing. Not even Sheikh al-Junaydi himself can understand anything. I’ve tried to solve part of the riddle, but have only succeeded in unearthing an even greater one. He sighed aloud.

…

Said rose, then said, as he was about to go, “Farewell, my Master.”

“Utterly meaningless words, whatever you intend by them,” the Sheikh remonstrated. “Say rather: until we meet again.”

Analysis

This passage occurs in Chapter 8, at the significant turn point of the novel in which Said discovers he killed a man he did not intend to kill. While he viewed his killing of Ilish justified through his own warped decree of justice, he begins to feel a greater sense of guilt for committing the same act against an individual he did not know and did not hold any personal grudges against. However, as the passage continues, we begin to see Said’s justification for his crime and his attempt to ease his conscience.

The passage begins when Said first becomes aware of his mistake. Mahfouz utilizes an image-evoking metaphor, stating that: “the rope would be after him now”, referring to the punishment of his crime by hanging. Through indirect dialogue, Mahfouz demonstrates how Said believes that it would be so blatantly obvious to pinpoint him to the scene of the murder when he compares the clarity of the truth to the bottom of an open tomb in a visual simile.

The fact that the Sheikh is sitting in the same room as him allows Mahfouz to highlight the stark contrast between them. The two characters essentially serve as foils to each other as they look to the sky, a symbol of purity. The Sheikh is able to smile at the beauty of the break of dawn as he is the ultimate depiction of virtue in the novel; he commits no faults and only speaks in peace and wisdom. Meanwhile, Said is a tainted character whose mind does not allow him to reach the same level of tranquility, not only because he committed murder, but because he realized he killed a potentially innocent man whose death came to no fault of his own or of his family.

Said is so downtrodden by guilt, he considers relieving himself of his secret and confess to the Sheikh. He comes to the terrible conclusion that before he was in prison he was “hunted”, and now he would be once more with no true significance to his life: no achievements, no friends, no family. He ceased to recognize the value of life, describing himself as a “mummy” as he carried on through life only in a biological sense, with no lasting milestones or true ties/motivation to persist in his current world. But perhaps he was more disturbed by the fact that his perceived enemies would have the luxury of freedom and companionship by society while he did not.

Said proceeded to plan an escape, but then he follows this thought with a soliloquy, keeping Shaban Husayn in mind, almost as if he attempted to get to know him and personally apologize to him. He claims how, as his murderer, he did not understand the workings of fate and sympathized with him, claiming that what had occurred was unjust. It was almost as if Said distanced himself from his crime and acted as the judge. Said is desperate to gain some emotional grounding.

When Said mentions “Farewell”, he signifies that he would not be returning to the Sheikh, foreshadowing a pursuit for a suicide attempt as he murders other people in abidance to his moral code.