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¶ … unnamed narrator of Naguib Mahfouz's short story is looking for a man Zaabalawi, what Zaabalawi represents to him, what Zaabalawi wants from him and what the illness is of which the narrator complains. Also, we will discuss how Mahfouz describes each character and how their perceptions of Zaabalawi reflect their own personalities. In addition to this, we will examine what the characters' traits have in common, as well as how they are different. In essence, the most interesting aspect of teaching the meaning of this story is to realize that at its root the story is mystical and to understand it one must travel into the spiritual badlands of mysticism that unite all religions. It is in this wilderness that the narrator has any hope of finding meaning for his senseless loss. Death, the greatest malady of humanity is also its greatest mystery and requires special revelation to endure and "understand" (if this is truly possible).
Mahfouz's narrator is looking for Zaabalawi to cure him from a strange, incurable illness. However, Zaabalawi represents more than just a cure for his malady which more spiritual than physical in nature. This is why Mahfouz's narrator finds himself in despair. This is...
The contact to get to Zaabalawi is friend of the narrator's dead father, Sheikh Qamar. Ironically, the "cause" of the problem is also the key to its resolution. The narrator must loose himself in Sufi mysticism to get there. Ironically, the portal to revelation is a Cairo bar where he meets Zaabalawi his mentor and divine bartender who will serve up the intoxicating liquors of divinity that will nourish the needs of the human soul. The narrator and the sheikh's perceptions are similar in that they are of the badlands. They are different in that the Sheikh has been there before and guides the tour ("Georgia Southern.edu").
This short essay does not allow a thorough investigation of Sufi Islamic or Christian mysticism, frontiers that the narrator is forced to cross. However, suffice it to say, the wine allows him to ponder works such as the Christian mystic Julian of Norwich's mystical ponderings in the Showing (his reflections on the meaning of the Virgin Mary) or the equally mystical and anonymous The Cloud of Unknowing. Julian of Norwich grabs the divine via the Virgin Mary, a saint who is revered in both Islam and…
References
"Judaism: Jewish Mysticism Kabbalah and the Sefirot." NVCC.edu.
NVCC,
13 March 2011. Web. 27 Jun 2011. <http://www.nvcc.edu/home/lshulman/rel232/resource/sefirot.htm>.
"Julian of Norwich ~ Her 'Showing of Love' ." Umilta.net. Umilta, 2010.
Web. 27 Jun 2011. <http://www.umilta.net/julian.html>.
"Using Mysticism to Teach "Zaabalawi." Georgia Southern.edu. Georgia Southern University, 2008. Web. 27 Jun 2011
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