Professor/ Mohammed Fadel
An
Arab-American of Egyptian origin, the University of Toronto
Faculty of Law.
Qays b. Mulawwih was an
early Islamic Arab poet who gained fame for his absolute, unqualified, and
all-consuming love for Layla. So
complete was his obsession with her that people assumed he was mad, thus
earning him the sobriquet in the poetic literature of Majnun (the madman) of
Layla (Majnun Layla).
Two of Majnun’s more
famous lines about his love for Layla go like this:
أمر على الديــــــار ديار ليـلى … أقبل ذا الـــــــجدار وذا الجـدارا
وما حب الديار شـــــغفن قلبي … ولكن حب من ســـــــكن الديارا
“I pass through the lands
of Laila, kissing this wall and that one;
it is not the love of the
land that has filled my heart, but love for the one who dwelt there.”
Many people in Egypt
today speak of patriotism, but it is a false patriotism, a patriotism not
devoted to the love of the people of Egypt, with all their virtues, and vices,
but for an abstract idea of Egypt that is little more than a reflection of
their own fantasies, nightmares, or both. The great president Sisi, for
example, recently accused the Muslim Brotherhood of wanting to empty Egypt of
its Pharaonic heritage by destroying the pyramids and destroying ancient
temples. Aside from the sheer absurdity of the statement, this is from the
spokesman of a regime that has, from a practical perspective, been a complete
failure in preserving Egypt’s cultural heritage, even allowing the Great
Pyramids, through years of neglect, to turn into an urban slum.
Like Qays b. Mulawwih, we
Egyptians should reject the false patriotism which is based on love of an
abstract place — perhaps best exemplified in the absurd plans announced
yesterday for the construction of a new capital — for the complete, absolute
and unconditional love of the people, embracing them completely, even with
their faults. That is what democracy is about: letting the people govern
themselves, knowing that in the long run, they will get things right. This kind
of patriotic love for the people — not the contempt for them which is the only
thing that unites Egypt’s elites — might lead us out of this dark tunnel. But,
for many reasons, I doubt any one will listen to Qays b. Mulawwih. After all,
he was crazy.
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