The Theocrat: A Modern Arabic Novel (Modern Arabic Literature) Read Online Free Page B

is simply a substitute, a tissue on the fabric of your rancors and accumulated losses. I get the feeling that on the path to submission you bow to fates that existed before you. For you the entire burden and freedom lie in a concern with details.
    Argue with me on this topic. Go on and argue, and I will take pity on you and reward you handsomely.
    Learn to Be Extremists
    “Do not blame me. There is no pact between you and me.
    I must clash with the enraged,
    Propel my steed away from the Tigris and Euphrates,
    And reunify the faith after schism,” 2
    Within worldly limits and the framework of mundane matters, your only currency is your defeats and self-destruction; sometimes the cause is a loss of your sense of identity in a reckless dependency, and at others it is mental exhaustion brought on by an attempt to reconcile the irreconcilable.
    By the lady Fatima, you will not find me offering you any alternative to this counsel: create your own essence and substance by selecting the keenest of cravings, by opposition, and by creative contradiction. Be extreme in everything; be extreme, and God forgive you all!
    Hearts Closest to Me
    I detest pomp in anything, not merely in worldly chattels but in language and vocabulary too.
    For that reason, anyone who really thinks that I murdered Shaykh Jabbara the philologist because he knew three hundred words for dog in Arabic will find all that and more in the realm of exegesis. The hearts that are closest to mine are among the exegetes, those who compete with each other to produce alternative proofs and to expose virgin ideas to the light. They all grind and sweat, and in the end all they discover is what they started with, namely themselves—themselves just as they were and are, no one else.
    You Must Be Patient with Me
    Ever since I took control of events, everything about me has changed: the tone of my voice, and the way I sit, stand, and walk. My speech has altered too, and the ways I traffic in words, dreams, and reality.
    Should I be too surprised when I have shouldered the burden of all of you? My dreams and waking hours are burdened by my efforts to bring your sins and continual reformulations under control.
    By Fatima, all that remains is for you to seek refuge in patience and perseverance, hoping all the while that, with the disappearance of myself and the clear smoke, the signs of the luminous light may come!
    By the eye that never sleeps, my autocratic rule and the usage of my trusty sword are both essential to your interest in order to cure you of, and protect you against, oppression; and so that Egypt may remain as it was and as I want it to be: a land inhabited only by a shepherd and his flock.
    So fear me and do not ask to be rid of me. I am ever watchful of your deeds and intentions. Through spying and night watches I make a collection of the most malicious and gruesome of them, then I eradicate them without mercy.
    My Tastes
    From the biographies of prophets and messengers I have grown fond of long hair and beards, wearing wool, and riding donkeys. I intend to follow their example and to go even further, by letting my nails grow even longer, by traversing the length and breadth of desert wastes, and by giving the bald mountain of al-Muqattam the particular favor of prolonged sojourns and meditations. In that way only the most creative and comprehensive of imaginations will be able to take possession of me.
    Indeed I Shall Nullify the Rule
    There will be historians who will say that the deeds of al-Hakim bi-Amr Illah were inexcusable, and that my dreams and obsessions could not be explained.
    A reasonable statement, not without justification, since I am the exception that nullifies the rule.
    The rule consists simply of the mesh of your habits and customs.
    And that very mesh is simply the product of your arguments and pygmy-like stupors!
    Where Do I Get the Power to Do Evil?
    When the ruler was asked from time to time why he did a certain thing, such as splitting open