• Naguib Mahfouz: Value and Values

Mahfouz: Value and Values

The history of human civilization tells us that it is not generals and warlords who bring about the real development of nations; rather, it has been and is brought about by their creative people, writers, artists, scientists, inventors and innovators. In this month there is the 92nd anniversary of the birth of a summit of creativity among the Arabs.

We are celebrating it not for the mere sake of celebrating this summit, but in order to sanctify the admirable values, unique in our Arab age, which have shone forth from the course of the life of the human being who holds them, Naguib Mahfouz.

I wanted to establish the concept of value firmly, as I intended to speak about Naguib Mahfouz on the occasion of his 92nd birthday. I found a tangled forest of ambiguity of value in the Palestinian security service, and that reminded me that Naguib Mahfouz was a student of philosophy. It is strange that, when he joined the Faculty of Letters and during the test which applicants went through after they had chosen the branch in which they wanted to specialize, Naguib Mahfouz was surprised that the examiner was Taha Hussein. Taha Hussein asked him: Why have you chosen the Philosophy Department? Naguib replied that he wanted to know the secret of the universe and the secrets of existence. The Dean of Arabic Literature listened well to the new student of letters, as he then was, and then said laughingly, You are indeed fit for philosophy, because you are talking incomprehensibly.

That was the Dean of Arabic Literature joking with a young student who was joining one of the departments in the faculty at whose summit he was the Dean, but the joke contained an indication of criticism into which some aspiring philosophers fall when they obscure what is bright and make what is clear ambiguous. Perhaps it was a hint from the Dean of Arabic Literature to the student Naguib Mahfouz that he should penetrate the subject gently and not try to get ahead of knowledge without knowledge.

It is a hint that floated on the surface of Naguib Mahfouz s memories, and comes close to us as we begin to talk about this man of value, in the most beautiful meaning of this word, and the deepest philosophical concept also.

Value is regarded as a modern philosophical term, which has been adopted from modern thinking as a specialist meaning which expresses a particular field, namely the philosophy of values. The features of research into the complexity of value in the beginning can be traced back to the philosopher Kant, even if it was the philosopher Nietzsche who opened the way to the philosophy of value and unlocked its enigmas.

One of the clearest things we have found in the philosophy of value is the statement that when value is linked to the quality of a personality, it imparts its standing to the person, raises him and raises itself with him from being generally different from other people to genius and other conditions of customary, widespread and commonplace breaking of value, as maximum limits in the scale of distinctiveness of values.

This is a statement that comes very close to what I want to say about Naguib Mahfouz as a value not only in our cultural, but also in our human Arab life in general. But there are frameworks of expression which may be more available, closer to hand and more eloquent.

In Arabic the word for value, qima, is derived from the verb qama, meaning to rise, as if it is a rising that carries the subject of this value to the condition of uprightness and equilibrium. As a verb it has strength conveyed by correctness, efficiency and effect, and in people’s words when they say that the man is a value, the borders of the meaning expand so that the aim becomes to exalt the person s status and his effectiveness among people.

Naguib Mahfouz in this sense was and still is a sublime value, with all the meanings that are both possible and unattainable. The scope of this article is not to cheer our great writer. Here we should contemplate his exalted literary value, which is undoubtedly of a world standard of greatness, both before and after he won the Nobel Prize. Literary evaluation and criticism have their people and their place, but I would like to pause here before his value as a creative human phenomenon in our contempoaray Arab society, as a real person whose presence is respected in the journey of life on earth, so he has given of his best. He has reached the summit with this giving, a summit of creativity in his literary field, and a summit of higher development in his interaction as a social being with his environment.

Naguib Mahfouz would not have been able to attain this value had it not been for a number of values which he chose for himself, and in which he trained himself until they came to indicate his existence.

This is an indication to whose expressions we must dedicate our attentiveness, because they are worthy of being a model to imitate for the effectiveness of which our Arab societies lack many aspects, both in general and in terms of the elite in our societies. I do not claim that I will take cognizance of all these expressions of our value author s values and literary conduct, but I aspire to contemplate the most notable of them.

Work, Work, Work

Naguib Mahfouz said in answer to a question that contained some praise, By God, I haven t been aware of it (genius), either in my early life or in my later life. I ve only felt that I am a hard-working, persistent and diligent man. I like my work, I love it. This is what I can talk to you about, as tangible, objective things. I love work more than I love its fruits. I mean, if it brings me glory and money I love it, and if it brings me poverty I love it. if it did not bring me anything but poverty, I would still love it.

This statement by Naguib Mahfouz was not simply the answer out of necessity to a question asked of him. Nor was it a claim for modesty s sake. There is no doubt of the man s modesty filled with beautiful pride, he who deserves an unparallelled statement. Rather, it was an honest statement, to which witness is borne by observed and memorable achievement that has continued as everyone knows for more than seven decades and is still going on.

He was born in the Gamaliya district in the Fatimid area of Cairo on 11 December 1911. he began writing in the Egyptian press in 1928, and his first collection of short stories, The Whisper of Madness, was published also in 1928. Then he created his first novel, The Folly of Destiny, in 1935. not a single critical reference was written about it until the first critical article in 1944, which was extremely enthusiastic about his art as a novelist. It was written by the literary critic at that time Sayyid Qutb, and published in the Egyptian magazine Al-Risala. Among other things, Sayyid Qutb s article about Naguib Mahfouz s novel, The Struggle of Thebes, stated, If it were up to me, I would put this story in the hand of every young man and woman, I would print it  and distribute it to every house free of charge, and hold a party in honor of the author, whom I know.

Thus Naguib Mahfouz continued to write to work for more than sixteen years without finding anyone who paid attention to the value of his work. Nevertheless, he did not despair, grumble or stop as many others would. Literary work was the project of his life, indeed his whole life. He loved his work, and his work loved him. They both climbed the ladder of accomplishment, ascent and honor together, up to the summit, in the opinion of many people and in the opinion of the world, but I do not think in his own opinion, on Thursday 13 October 1899, the day when the Swedish Academy announced at 2:00 p.m. Cairo time that it had chosen Naguib Mahfouz out of 150 candidates for the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Naguib Mahfouz did not stop his persistence in watering the tree of work, indeed he continued. He continued even after the criminal attempt to assassinate him in October 1994, which caused an injury to his right hand with which he writes. Naguib Mahfouz did not stop loving his work, writing. He unremittingly trained his hand to return to writing. Among the beautiful personal, moving and extremely indicative glimpses of him was what more than one writer from among Naguib Mahfouz s friends related, about his great joy that he could write again with his hand without going below the line. 

Now, as he approaches the ninety-second year of his life, he still writes, and wonderful short stories by him are still published under the title Dreams of Convalescence, whose subject matter is derived from his personal dreams. In a recent statement within an interview with The New York Times, he commented that a writer has to sit down every day to write, even to write anything.

His work, writing, has become a part of his daily rhythm, which makes him happy himself and with which he makes others happy. That love of his for work was connected with another associated word in order to make this love successful.

Respect for Reliability regarding Time

Naguib Mahfouz gave modern Arabic literature more than 35 novels, 15 collections of short stories, a number of beautiful Arabic film scenarios, many more articles expressing an opinion and statements which are difficult count, shedding light on some aspects of his creativity and opinions in various fields which interest him and interest people. In all this he has never to this day cut himself off from life among people, particularly friends and writers. His discussion groups on the banks of the Nile and in Cairo are still crowded. All this is a substantial thing that cannot be explained or justified by the length of the great man s life, but the deeper explanation, justification and appreciation is for the element of respect for time, a respect that despite its measurement in human hours is almost a pure spiritual respect, as a trust which God placed in the hands of human beings.

Naguib Mahfouz says about himself, Yes, I am organized, and the reason for that is simple, as I have lived my life as an employee and a writer. If I had not been an employee, I would not have taken organization into consideration. I would have done what I wanted, at any time I wanted. But in this situation I had to wake up at a certain time, and certain hours of the day remained for me. If I did not organize this day I would lose control over it. I accustomed myself to certain hours for writing. At the beginning my spirit sometimes responded and sometimes it did not, but in time I became used to that I usually write at sunset, and I don t remember writing more than three hours, and on the average for two hours. In one day I drink five cups of coffee, I stay up until midnight, and five hours of sleep are enough for me.

Of course, it was not only his job that caused Naguib Mahfouz to organize his valuable time. How many employees are professional wasters of their own and other people s time in our Arab world, so that the phenomenon of time wasting and negligence in doing one’s work has become one of the prominent characteristics of Arab backwardness. It is not the job, but a rare, creative far-sighted employee sincere to the project to which he has dedicated his life, Naguib Mahfouz, who turned the drudgery of his job into a blessing. He is an eloquent lesson, not only in the field of organizing creativity and the work of creative people, but also in every field of our lives, which have been and are threatened by the folly of undervaluing time, times which means not only punctuality in keeping appointments, but the trust of precision in performance also. This is what Naguib Mahfouz has given and is still giving, and I wish we would discipline our appointments according to the precision of his unique human clock, which believes that the time in our hands is a trust, like one of the most valuable trusts.

Freedom through Simplicity

My relationship with Professor Yahya Haqqi was that of one writer with another, Naguib Mahfouz has stated, indeed more deeply than that in human terms, even if I was like a dutiful employee who rose to greet him when he came in, and even if he disapproved of this behavior of mine since I was a great writer as he said. But as an employee I gave the job its due. He was my boss, and that means my boss regardless of friendship and human relationship. But when he came I had to stand up to greet him. I do not know any other way for an employee to behave towards his superior, even if my friendship for him would justify my dealing with him otherwise. But I used to stand up for him as a kind of greeting and politeness of the job.

This statement by Naguib Mahfouz about Yahya Haqqi, if considered from the view of superficiality and snobbery, could be subject to disapproval. But we should go into it a little more deeply, against the background of what we know about Naguib Mahfouz, that he never gave up his dignity, and never lacked courage in expressing an opinion in which he believed. Indeed, in doing his duty he was surrounded by danger, as happened when he insisted on visiting Sayyid Qutb after he came out of prison the first time. This makes us certain that Naguib Mahfouz s modesty was only a manifestation of a rich soul and a spirit that was clean in moral terms. In material practical terms, this modesty was a unique human way to interpret Naguib Mahfouz s modesty, an interpretation of genius in its depth. Yahya Haqqi has said of him, Naguib Mahfouz does not have one atom of the characteristics of employees. In his whole life he has never sought after rank or a pay rise, or been attracted by the glitter of power or the splendor of a position. Do not be surprised if I tell you that he in spite of that is a model employee. He has never arrived one minute late after the clock struck eight a.m. at his office. This was his view even when he worked in a senior position as director of an institution to support the cinema. He did that because he was eager to do his duty and to be an example to others. Indeed, and this is the truth he would keep headaches away from himself in order to free himself for his art.

This humility aimed at self-liberation and sparing energy for the more important effort, his work and love, writing, Naguib Mahfouz complemented with another necessary and important expression to consummate this noble effort to liberate himself. This was avoidance of outward appearances and distancing himself from anything that did not benefit in a way parallel to the effort he made. Naguib does not wear neckties, and gives those he is given to his friends. He has never owned a car in his life, and lives in a rented apartment on the first floor of a building in Nile Street. Apart from his free personal discussion groups with his friends, he is not known to have attended a seminar, literary conference or festival, or accepted an invitation to a conference or seminar outside Egypt. He has never knocked on the doors of literary or political salons or forums. He is a great and wise treasure who knows his priorities in the short journey of life as short as the life of a human being however long it may be. And on this short road of storing up wisdom, the special qualities and creative values of Naguib Mahfouz follow each other in succession.

Tolerance without Surrender

The conduct of Naguib Mahfouz in agreement and disagreement may be a unique Arab model - which deserves to be imitated - and which is within the capacity only of someone to whom God is merciful and who has trained himself highly to an astonishing degree, even with his enemies. In one of his articles, the critic Raja Al-Naqqash in 1969 wrote a reply to a question, has Naguib Mahfouz become an obstacle in the way of the Arab novel? The article aroused the resentment of some young novelists, and severel comments on it appeared in which they attacked Raja Al-Naqqash. This compelled him to reply harshly. Although the critic had sided with Naguib Mahfouz, the latter rebuked him politely and gently when he met him later, with the words: I m not used to reading harsh words from you, but your last article was violent. I did not want you to take this attitude.

Naguib Mahfouz through his long life of thought remains a living embodiment of the principle of welcoming difference and accepting the other view. One of the rare occasions on which he was compelled to reply to an opinion that differed from his was with Abbas Mahmoud Al-Aqqad. This was an affirmation of Naguib Mahfouz s courage with regard to what he believed was the truth. He is a tolerant soul and respects somebody who holds a different opinion from his, yes, but he is not weak in defending what he considers correct. Somebody who follows the literature of Naguib Mahfouz understands this principle and finds it clear in all his opinions mentioned in his novels, even in the darkest periods when freedom of opinion and creativity were forbidden.

Abbas Mahmoud Al-Aqqad wrote an article in the Egyptian magazine Al-Risala owned by Ahmad Hasan Al-Zayyat in 1945, in which he mocked short story writing and accused short story writers of being lazy. Naguib Mahfouz replied to him later, after he had established himself as a short story writer. The young Naguib s reply to Al-Aqqad the mighty (at that time) was so masterly that Al-Aqqad did not answer it, uncharacteristically as he usually did not miss an opportunity of answering someone who disagreed with him.

This disagreement did not leave any stains of enmity in Naguib Mahfouz s serene soul. He continued to feel strong liking and respect for Al-Aqqad, and said of him, I liked Al-Aqqad more than one can describe. Al-Aqqad himself although he liked literary and intellectual battles was another example who rose above hatred in facing the truth. Al-Aqqad proposed Naguib Mahfouz the novelist as a candidate for the Nobel Prize, twice affirming that he deserved it: the first time it was published in the press, and the second time it was broadcast on television. In Al-Akhbar newspaper on 31 October 1962, Al-Aqqad said, Now we have a right to say: if the question is one of search after an effort, why does this search stop short of the Arab countries out of the nations of the world, and why does the (Nobel Prize) Committee not come, or not want to come, to one of them? Those in this category are not few, I can mention four of them. Naguib Mahfouz was one of these four who Al-Aqqad decided deserved the Nobel Prize. Al-Aqqad repeated that recommendation in a statement broadcast on television shortly before his death.

A quarter of a century after that recommendation, Al-Aqqad s expectation came true, and Naguib Mahfouz won the Nobel Prize, the first Arab writer to do so deservedly and by his merit.

A Great Participation in Life

Naguib Mahfouz established a leading and thriving city for the Arabic novel, of an international standard. This is something that everyone has noted, witnessed and observed. The edifice which Naguib Mahfouz has built is worthy for us to imitate and visit continuously in our hearts and spirits, and is worthy to dwell in us and for us to dwell in it. These are the values which he has exalted through his obstinate, unique conduct without violence the values of respect for work, perseverance, diligence, observing the trust of time, honoring the values of tolerance, good neighborliness, abstinence, modesty and the avoidance of hollow displays, all that with a serene spirit and a contented soul with a refined, intelligent sense of humor.

As we celebrate the ninety second year of Naguib Mahfouz s generous life, we congratulate him, and we congratulate ourselves as Arabs for this Arab example who stands before us. This may be an opportunity for us to reflect whether this example may be a road for Arab individuals to get out of the impasse of Arab backwardness, and a practical proof that we can do so, just as Naguib Mahfouz did, if we wish.

Sulaiman Al-Askary

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