A SILENT SONG AND OTHER STORIES. SUMMARY.

 

A MAN OF AWESOME POWER BY NAGUIB MAHFOUZ

History of the Novelist.

This story was written by the Egyptian Nobel Laureate; Naguib Mahfouz Abdelaziz Ibrahim Ahmed Al-basha, who won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1988. He wrote thirty five novels and seven plays. This story is found in his anthology, The Seventh Heaven (written in 2005), and is the ninth story. He has the candidly mysterious ability to cleverly depict what happens in the real world, coupled with an ingenious ability to capture the supernatural. His works are freshly nuanced and lyrical.

Focus of the Story

1.      How one false move can destroy infinite possibilities.

2.      How virtues are rewarded and vices punitive.

3.      Misuse of excellent opportunity.

4.      The need for values.

The story is mainly about a man who obtains the ability to perform miracles, lays strategies of effectively doing good universally and does lots of significant acts of mercy. In the long run, he gives in to his canal desires and loses his power eternally.  

Story Summary.

Tayyib al-Mahdi believed that his mission in the world had come to an end. He was deeply relaxed with only minor aches and pains. He had a generous health insurance, more than adequate pension, lived in his apartment in Nasr city and his four daughters had been married. He spent his evenings listening to a radio station dedicated to the Quran. He thought that he had discharged his duties in a commendable way. One night, a man of radiant appearance, bathed in light and wrapped in a snow-white rob, came to him in a dream and told him that from that moment, for as long as God willed, he would have power to tell something to be and it would be. He was given the liberty to do with it as he pleased.

Tayyib al-Mahdi pondered the meaning but soon forgot, then it recurred in its entirety for nights on end until he felt there was some secret message hidden within it. He wisely kept it to himself and not even his wife Haniya knew of it. He felt infused with physical energy, filled with confidence, inspiration and joy. Tayyib al-Mahdi was a good man whose sins were forgivable ones, pious and observant, a lover of virtue who lived his life as though he bore the burdens of the world everywhere, despite his modest status. The dreams were intense, so, he decided to try out his power discreetly. While his wife was busy in the kitchen, he mentally demanded that the television switches to the second channel and it did so without him rising from his seat. He was seized by confusing emotions of fear and elation. He kept this on and even ordered chairs to rise in the air then returned them to their original places. He accepted the significance of the miracles and saw that his purpose in the world was not yet fulfilled. He decided that he would reform reality with his own hands but without any credit to his name. He reckoned to heed the inner voice.

On his way to the café’ he hailed a taxi to take him to the heart of the city, but the driver waved his hand in haughty refusal, speeding away. This irritated Tayyib al-Mahdi, who considered causing the driver to suffer an accident. He stared at the taxi’s rear wheels and both exploded. Even though he told himself that he must use his power only for good, his anger got the better of him. When he reached the bus shelter, he watched an argument ensue between a man and a woman. When the man suddenly slapped the woman’s face with shocking impulsiveness, Tayyib al-Mahdi focused all his anger on the man’s stomach.  He was stricken by severe cramps and began moaning and screaming in pain and had to be carried outside for an ambulance to fetch him. Tayyib al-Mahdi observed with satisfaction, certain he had done his duty.

On his way to the café; he filled a gaping hole, locked a dangerously hanging electric box, drained sewer water flooding an alley and removed a pile of rubbish. While taking coffee, he listened to the radio as an announcer was explaining on promising developments expected in future. This annoyed Tayyib al-Mahdi because in the past such promises had only produced frustrations. He therefore remarked to himself that only sneezing would stop the man, and this happened again and again, more emphatically and he could not complete a sentence. He was forced to conclude that an unforeseen illness had seized him and he instead played a record song. Tayyib al-Mahdi was victorious and knew that he would purify broadcasting of what was unworthy by making the speaker sneeze spontaneously, emitting trilling sounds like those produced by women in a wedding or flee at the onset of uncontrollable diarrhea.

In the café, he noticed Suleyman Bey al-Hamalawi and his stooges, who crowded him in hypocritical sycophancy. He was a man considered as a fat cat of reforms amongst the poor of the city. Tayyib al-Mahdi ordered him to go and repent and pay up the millions he owed. He would wonder what had befallen him upon returning to his villa and beat his head on the wall in despair. Tayyib al-Mahdi applied his stupendous ability whenever it was suitable, a curse for some, mercy for many others, causing astonishment and confusion to trail his wake – leaving people in wonder.

Tayyib al-Mahdi wanted to make the best of his powers by doing proper planning and awareness of need. He therefore obtained guides to the departments of government, factories and private companies. He took then to the tea garden at the zoo to draw up a comprehensive programme for his interventions. He decided that each phase had to be mapped out slowly and deliberately; the lairs of official bureaucracy, centers of production and services, the people’s assembly, the prisons and what was said about them, the commercial market, the press, the political parties, the schools and universities. He desired to quiet every outcry and deter every deviation. Once he was done correcting his country he would turn with zeal to deal with the world, because the power he possessed was the wonder of the age.

A beautiful girl caught his eye at the tea garden’s entrance and he was swept by a surge of delight and his passions aroused in a way he had not known. Even though at first the girl did not notice him, he sent her a secret message that made her throw an answering look his way. He gave way to intense pleasure in spite of himself and in one shared smile, closed his book, forgot his faith and life and they surrendered to their fate. Tayyib al-Mahdi realized that he had erred and came back to his senses one evening. When Haniya remarked that he was not in his normal mood, he lied that it was a cold. He lost his confidence and the pain he felt could not go away. He tried doing miracles by changing the channel but met with failure because the miracle was gone. Sadness would haunt him all his life and he was only left with regret, distress and pointless pleading.

NB: Do you think Tayyib al-Mahdi deserved the punishment he gets at the end of the story.

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