#455 Zaabalawi- Naguib Mahfouz
A man is afflicted and in need of help. He remembers his
recently deceased father speaking glowingly about the great Sheikh, Zaabalawi.
He saved his father and now he strikes out to find him, so he too can be saved.
But where to look?
“He was once upon a time. A real man of mystery: he’d visit
you so often that people would imagine he was your nearest and dearest, then
would disappear as though he’d never existed. Yet saints are not to be blamed.”
He visits any place he has heard rumors of Zaabalawi’s
presence, but he is greeted with the same answers each place he goes. They say
that Zaabalawi was here, but he has left, and they don’t know where. Zaabalawi
has touched the lives of so many people, talked of in mostly hallowed terms,
and even when he was thought a charlatan, they still remembered him. But he
still cannot find him
Zaabalawi is a metaphor for faith. He is elusive and hard to
describe. Those that have experienced it talk glowingly about it, but they
cannot show you where to find it, it must be found by each person in their own
way. In searching, one might find many other valuable things.
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