The Story By Naigub Mahfouz - 1727 Words

Zaabalawi presents the case of returning to one’s roots and seeking a reconnection with the earlier forms of existence. It takes personal conviction from an individual in order to pursue their greater self and realization. On one perspective, the narrator (an ill man who desperately searches for a miracle worker to cure him) is in pursuit to achieve the mystical Islamic Zaabalawi. On the other perspective, the narrator’s pursuit appears as a search for piety, God, and mystical experience. One of the two perspectives depicts the search for inner peace while the other depicts the search for a great physician. Therefore, one of the search is necessitated by the illness while the other is an urge to return to the roots. The short story by†¦show more content†¦Foremost, in the interpretation of the story it appears that the pursuit of Zaabalawi is a symbolic term. The term in this case represents the journey that an individual can take into their soul and search for inner peace thus quenching their spiritual thirst. The term may also represent the idea of soul searching and separating oneself from the world in order to return to their traditions. The return to traditions involves tracing back the events that the ancestors practiced and replacing the modern actions with the ancient approaches. The narrator in this situation is a young man who later on may be referred to as the protagonist. The young man, the narrator, has set on a quest to find a cure for a disturbing illness. From the start, an allusion appears to the myth, which is Zaabalawi. The narrator seeks to understand from the father, â€Å"Who is Zaabalawi †¦ ?† (Mahfouz p.3). Dialogue between the narrator who is the protagonist in this case and his father continues with more allusion towards Zaabalawi. Furthermore, the allusion provides an in-depth depiction of the symbolism used in the short narrative. According to the response offered by the father, Zaabalawi is an icon ic figure who holds the power to bless an individual. Additionally, the description offered by the father to the protagonist depicts Zaabalawi as a saint of God who has the ability to remove troubles and the inner worries of man. The ability to find inner peace is the