From Fouad Haddad to Naguib Mahfouz.. How did Ramadan pass in the memory of Arabic literature?

At one time of the year when lights cover the suburbs and regions, young children run between neighborhoods and alleys carrying lanterns, markets are erected until dawn, and the air mingles with the sweet aromas of delicious foods such as porridge and sweets. The sweet that sweetens the hearts.

All this and other distinctive features of the holy month were recorded in the pages of literature, novels, poetry and biographies, which preserved the fragrance of the holy month among the frayed and folded papers.

Fouad Haddad.. my charms for all times

The Egyptian poet "Fouad Haddad" recorded for us in his book "Al-Masharati" an identity rooted in the popular and Islamic heritage known in the past as the art of "Al-Quma".

This is evident in the silence of the long night when the watchful city is drowsy, so it wakes up to the crawling of a wandering man who roams around with his drum, his loose robe and his loud voice calling the sleepers to get up to eat the suhoor and perform the dawn prayer.

Haddad tells us about his connection with Ramadan through Al-Masharati's diaries in Egypt and his inexhaustible stories, without the poet knowing that the title Al-Masharati will become attached to him, because of the stories he presented in his book that have become unforgettable.

"And I made my charms in the country on the move"

I loved and bred like a lover all nights

Every inch of my country, a piece of my liver, a piece of money.”

(From Diwan Al-Masharati, Fouad Haddad)

Fouad Haddad

The social and patriotic character almost drowns out the Diwan poems written in the Egyptian colloquial and swallows them whole, but parts of them overwhelm him. cream" (1).

However, Haddad often revolts in his diwan against the rules of mawal (a form of Arabic poetry since ancient times) of rhyme systems, and the specified number of verses for each poem, preferring to keep the space of his poetry free, with a light weight in which he wanders to wherever he wants.

The poem is sometimes shortened or lengthened according to its content (2), and its tone varies, such as the charged tone that appears in the hadith when a peasant addresses a feudal lord and says: “Oh, honorable Pasha, remember what you have enchanted, and my tears under the moon at night wipe your neighborhood,” revealing the hypocrisy of the rich man. And his falsehood and his claim that there is no righteousness in it.

Haddad takes Ramadan as a land from which the personality of Al-Masharati, which reduces a political depth, sees his symbolism of the general people in the homes and neighborhoods, workshops, factories, schools, universities, and the countryside, and the soldiers stationed on the borders, which is linked in minds to the radio and television program “Al-Masharati” when the artist presented. Sayed Makkawi, the character in a new dress through his composition and singing of Fouad Haddad's poems, to make his voice a basic, beloved ritual, transcendental, reverberating since the last night of Sha'ban.

"Every tear I see binds me"

Fouad Haddad repeated his experience of writing about Ramadan in the book "The Pleas of Heaven and Al-Kawthar on the Ramadan Road", but the poems this time came in classical, and had a religious character, which made Haddad in it closer to being alone with God.

Haddad modified his style a little, creating the index in a format that is as close as possible to the Ramadan Imsakiah we are familiar with.

He replaced the address with a modest sentence: addresses of places and days, and decided that the place was "on the Ramadan road".

This was followed by the arrangement of 29 poems with the number of days of the month.

Haddad continues his approach to the constancy of the pattern of the beginning and the end, making from the beginning of each poem a Quranic verse from Surat Al-Nur: “Did you not see that God glorifies Him who is in the heavens and the earth and the birds of their purities, each of whom knows his prayer and glorification, and God is All-Knowing of what they do?” Then he paves the way with the phrase “He says The healthy heart, Al-Fouad bin Al-Haddad Abdullah," before he recalled part of the memories mixed with wisdom and historical biographies, to then proceed smoothly with the desired anthem (3).

A sound heart, Al-Fouad bin Al-Haddad Abdullah, says: I thank God that I saw Sheikh Abdul-Fattah growing plants at the edges of his voice and the sea at its roots. to honesty, the kind-hearted, and those who yearn for the good” (4).

(Tawaf Al-Paradise and Al-Kawthar on the Ramadan Road)

Meanwhile, Mesharati Fouad Haddad limps into one of the Egyptian neighborhoods such as Khan Al-Khalili, to mingle with the delegations there. Among the crowds, we distinguish the heroes of the Nobel writer "Naguib Mahfouz" who are scattered throughout the neighborhood, the roads intersect, even if they do not have a date or share to meet.

Khan Al-Khalili poem from the Al-Masharati program, sung by Sayed Makkawi

"My charms, the enemy of autumn"

My beaks have a cute melody

And if you are fifty years old

My back is neither tilted nor bent

I saw the hobbies, I saw the here

I saw your smile melodious

Return, my soul, to singing (5)

Naguib Mahfouz: Stories that cannot be forgotten

Naguib Mahfouz

"Destiny wanted me to see the blessed light on the Night of Power while I was sitting on my mother's lap looking at the sky! I opened the window and a brilliant light appeared from it that obscured the lights of the stars" (6).

(heart of the night)

Ramadan is revealed in several works by Naguib Mahfouz, to be an event that stops his characters.

In his trilogy of masterpieces: Between Kasserine, Qasr Al-Shouq, and Al-Sukaria, Mr. Ahmed Abdel-Gawad renounces the paths that lead to brothels and the ferry, where he used to spend his immoral evenings, but Ramadan was more evident in the novel “The Heart of the Night”, as the nights of the month were crowded with religious joy, And she brought to her hero Jaafar Al-Rawi a distant memory of his mother, whose heart twitched.

In his novel "Khan Al-Khalili", Ramadan is part of the narrative fabric, simplifying its influence on the place, events and characters and their interaction with each other (7).

And the matter touches on a degree of depth, as the owner of the main character, Ahmed Akef, an employee in his forties, is engaged in an argument with his parents, about the rights of the month such as kunafa, Qatayef and meat, which Ahmed sees as luxuries that he would like to abstain from despite his desire for them;

Due to the high prices.

The family members negotiate until the matter is settled: a few pine nuts and raisins because they are necessary for the filling, and half a Qamar al-Din roll to change the saliva, and to be satisfied with the kunafa once during the holy month.

In this vein, Mahfouz conveys the most accurate details of the Egyptian family. The mother goes out to prepare the kitchen, as according to her, it is the month of the kitchen as well as the month of fasting, while the father remembers the days of his youth during the night full of brown and vocalists, the innocent fun, his meeting with friends, the bewitchment of cubs and the meat of the head, and the smoking of mullet in Al-Hussein Café and listening to the call to prayer. Sheikh Ali Mahmoud and stay until the early morning.

While Ahmed Kamal is more preoccupied with the present, he creates a Ramadan routine, in which he devotes half of his time to reading after breaking the fast to be more focused, and the most time to go to Al-Zahra cafe where he spends his time with friends, for what he finds in cohabitation of pleasure that is not without reading and solitude.

And the evening of the vision came, and people waited after sunset, inquiring, and in the evening the minaret of Al-Hussein was lit, indicating the witnesses of the vision. The judge of Islam ordered, “The boys met her with cheering and the girls with ululating, and happiness spread in the neighborhood as if it was carried by the air” (8).

(Khan al khalili)

Yahya Haqqi.. intriguing realism

Yahya Haqi

“There is no access to the arena of happiness - in my opinion - except from one of three doors: faith, art, and love, nothing radiates with it like this reverence that I see in temples” (9).

(Qandil Umm Hashem)

The events take place consecutively in Yahya Haqqi's novel "Qandeel Umm Hashem".

An entire family from the Sayeda Zainab neighborhood depends on their son Ismail, and they live on subsistence so that he can study medicine in Europe.

However, Ismail returns as another human being who revolts against beliefs and sanctities and resents the homeland and the family, because he is fighting himself to leave where he was.

At the height of events, the path is confused and certainty shakes, so he flees from the house after his treatment of his cousin Fatima caused her last ray of light to be extinguished.

Yahya Haqqi enters the month of Ramadan after the first quarter of the novel until he slows down Ismail’s frantic running and clears his dark thoughts, so the rhythm of the events of the novel fades and the enlightening moment arrives like a summer cloud that shades him in the storm of worries and he realizes what was hidden from him on the Night of Decree.

Haqi casts signs that all revolve in one orbit, referring to the people of the neighborhood with yellow ghosts with withered eyes.

Groups visit the shrine of Umm Hashim, begging her to heal her, and buy hot oil from her lamp to seek blessings from her, and drip it into her eyeballs.

Then we see Fatima's tired eyes turn red whenever the conjunctivitis intensifies.

Finally, he makes Ismail an ophthalmologist.

Those repeated references to the eyes and sight bring us back to the truth that my truth passes to us, which is that ignorance is a blur, but knowledge without faith cannot save anyone;

My uncle Fatima is evidence of my uncle Ismail himself.

In this way, Ramadan is the opportunity for Ismail to find guidance and withdraw from darkness to light, which Haqqi expressed by saying: “Ramadan came and it did not occur to him to fast. It was not in it before. It was as if existence had taken off its old dress, and clothed a new one, and the universe rose to an atmosphere of truce after fierce fighting... The Night of Decree came and Ismail noticed it, for in his heart there was a strange longing for its memory, it was in his mind a white surprise in the blackness of the nights "to remove the cloud from his heart And his mind for what it represents to him from Ramadan.

From the iceberg of the cream

Ismail's journey ends, and another, more private journey for my right continues, documented by his book "From Fayd al-Karim" in a language that combines Egyptian and classical colloquial.

Haqi’s look at these collected articles deals with two aspects, one about Egyptian society during the sixties and seventies, and the other is religious reflections on Islamic rituals such as exploring the crescent moon, fasting, holidays, the Hajj season, the Prophet’s birthday, the reversal of people’s conditions in Ramadan without the other months, and about the Night of Decree and the relationship between the servant and his Lord, and the link Between reading the Qur'an and the dawn prayer.

He describes the night of sighting the crescent, saying: “There was no radio that brought people the news of the sighting in their homes while they were isolated from others, confined to themselves. Rather, the crowds of boys before adults gathered outside the door of the Sharia court in the Saray Riyad Pasha, where the judge sits waiting for the delegations of the messengers who went out. To various observatories and places, to spot a piece of light that is not in the sky that is brighter or more beautiful, and as soon as the vision is established, the cups of juice are turned over to those present, amidst the cheers of the boys: Fasting, fasting, this is the ruling of the judge of Islam” (10).

The book is presented by Dr. Ali Gomaa, the former Grand Mufti of Egypt, in his opening statement: "You suddenly felt, as you mingle with people, that you suffer from severe loneliness? Talking around you is understandable, but it is useless as if they are blind and you want to hear news about the light from those who saw the light, and I was certain that I would not forget You, unless you find guidance for yourself."

Excerpts from autobiographies

However, Yahya Haqqi, Naguib Mahfouz and Fouad Haddad are not the only ones who professed their love for the holy month. If we had left the novel and poetic aspect and moved to the biography, we would have met writers the size of Radwa Ashour and Ahmed Khaled Tawfiq who devoted spaces to talk about the holy month.

For Ramadan to be represented in Radwa Ashour’s book “The Scream” as a memory that lives on in her heart every year, in which her grandmother designates the months with the names of the Coptic calendar and what she was familiar with from the Arab months: Rajab and Sha’ban, and most importantly Ramadan.

“My grandmother’s Ramadan was not one of the months of the year, but rather a lover she waits for throughout the year. If its crescent moon bathes and perfumes and wears the new of her clothes, she talks to him and communicates with him, and when parting she bids farewell to him with tears. She repeats in sorrow: “Oh, I want to see you again or not. She cries for his departure. She was delighted, sitting in front of the dough sheet, dressing it, flattening it, and cutting it into small balls, pressing them to make each one of them like an itch, which she describes in the large rectangular trays that a benign mama will carry to the oven. After the first days of the feast and the six white days, a new cycle of waiting begins” (11).

(Radwa Ashour, The Scream)

On the other hand, Ahmed Khaled Tawfik diligently portrays Ramadan's connection to him with sounds and smells;

At the top of the first list is the majestic voice of Sheikh Muhammad Rifaat and the Naqshbandi’s tawasir, which, as he put it, was able, as he put it, to be the sound of Ramadan with merit, or the tawweeh voice before the dawn prayer, with the voice of those who say loudly and stretched out: Oh God, bless the presence of the Prophet.

He could, with some reservation, add other sounds: “In my childhood there was a special association with the sound of frying or roasting coming from the kitchen and related to my mother. The usual Egyptian mother stands in the heat in the midst of suffocating fumes, as if she was Hector in the Trojan War. Feeling: Her children are fasting and asleep waiting for the cannon, while she is fighting in the kitchen alone” (12).

Ahmed Khaled Tawfik

And because Ahmed Khaled Tawfiq pays special attention to smells, he inhales those sweet scents that permeate the popular neighborhoods and enjoys the smell of rose water that dissolves in ice water and is presented to worshipers in mosques after prayer, and the smell of kunafa and Qatayef while they are in the first dough stage, then the suhoor in which it is resisted. Forced drowsiness, mixed with the smell of melted wax in a beautiful tin lantern that uncle Shehata or uncle Bayoumi made with his own hands.

And he talks about Ramadan series that have become an integral part of it, saying: “The same sessions are for the same artists and the same pranks. As for the series, the series has lost its old taste and the abundance has overcome courage, but today it overcomes excellence. It is impossible to follow 9889798 series every day, and maintain the integrity of your mind and psychological balance. What? About the smoothing lighting on the face of Samira Ahmed, Fifi Abdo and Nadia Al-Jundi, which hides wrinkles and any possible representational expression, and the not bad, not good acting that meets the minimum without a real study of the character.. Which character? The one who believes that he is Egypt no longer speaks except with sermons and proverbs while looking dreamily into the lens of the camera, as if the great artist must say great words, and as if the roles of evil and psychological disorder are not worthy of him” (13) (14).

Khairy Shalaby...because the margin is all that matters sometimes

Khairy Shalaby

It is said that the Egyptian writer "Khairy Shalaby" was organizing poetry, until he met "Fouad Haddad" and approached him, so he turned towards the short story and the novel, to follow the passengers of those who wrote about Ramadan in his novels such as "The Journeys of Al-Tarshaji Al-Hallouji" and "The Mule of the Throne".

In his epic "The Travels of al-Tarshaji al-Halluji", "Shalaby" takes from Egyptian history the material of his imagined tale.

The hero who calls himself "Ibn Shalabi" is the same writer here.

He moves lightly between the places and times that he begins with the month of Ramadan, as the narrator receives a personal invitation from Al-Mu’izz Li-Din Allah the Fatimid to eat breakfast at his table on the occasion of the first Ramadan in Cairo.

Thus, money extends and fluctuates from one situation to another, impersonating many people, experiencing discrimination, tyranny, and changing people, and Ramadan remains as close as possible to a sky that contains all of that.

Shalaby passes in his other novel, "The Mule of the Throne" on the Night of Al-Qadr, which is adopted by a pivotal line from which the episodes of his novel branch off, and paralleled by a rural legend rooted about a mule that the Lord sends secretly to a slave of his servants on the Night of Decree loaded with gold extract and the head of a dead person who must be accepted and hidden in his own home. .

The myth is hidden behind Shalaby's belief that wealth that descends on its owner from the sky overnight can only be achieved by suspicion.

While no one in the village has ever seen this mule, all the people of the town are waiting for Ramadan and its blessed night, relying on the legend to rescue them from their harsh conditions.

But the superstition would not have found an atmosphere that would give it credibility of belief had the reality not been frighteningly corrupted and more senile than the myth itself, since the wide class inequality and manifestations of the outrageous wealth of a particular group of society without a logical and understandable justification and the apathy of the middle class cannot be traced back to realistic causes at all ( 16)(17).

In long monologues, each of the villagers tells his story to prove his worth with the promised wealth and the mule laden with gold and affliction, but the wonder is that the mule never reaches except to thieves, sinners and bandits in a political and social overthrow (18).

Did Shalabi deliberately combine the contradiction of superstition with the meanings of the holy month and its blessed night in order to bring us back to the requirement that we reject every evil and injustice we see, that we change it with our hands, or with our tongues, and if we are not able, then with the heart, and that is the weakest of faith?

As the hadith said.

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