Dream 152
Arriving at the famous establishment on its golden jubilee, I found the grand reception hall jammed with people from all professions and with dogs of every breed.
The one who invited me stopped to say hello and thank me for coming, and we began to reminisce about memories that one can never forget, when a savage dog attacked him. The beast might have killed us all if a brave man had not saved us. He threw himself into the fray — and for the first time ever, a man bit a dog. He kept on biting until he’d sucked all the viciousness out of him.
The dog’s canine nature changed and the behavior of dogs toward people in general was transformed. They sat side by side in peace, chewing candied treats.
And when the event was over, they all stood up and sang “My Country, My Country”—our nation’s anthem — together.
Dream 153
There I was in a sailboat with the cream of our nation’s elite. With water surrounding us on every side, my heart pounded — I didn’t know how to swim.
The waves arose from a profound silence that warned of a coming explosion. The members of the upper crust threw themselves overboard, and began to tread water with vim and agility.
Watching them, I grew more and more alarmed as I remembered the huge amount of time lost in amusements. Only a fraction of that would have been enough to learn how to swim — not to mention lifesaving, as well.
Dream 154
Crashing waves of humanity propelled my friend the lady broadcaster and myself along until we stopped in a small square facing a wall of people: not even a needle could have passed through it. Glancing around, I saw the sweet shop in which I regularly took breakfast on the other side of the square. But we could not move.
I remarked to my friend that her program on the victory would be delayed a short while.
“In any case,” she replied, “I have a disturbing piece of news: that Makram Ebeid, the great struggler for freedom, has died in the crowd.”
My heart shuddered with sadness for the death of the hero. Meanwhile, a waiter from the confectioner’s shop saw me. Putting some pastries in a paper bag, he then stood on top of a chair and threw it over the heads of the throng. I grabbed it frantically and opened it, but my friend’s hand beat me to it as she whispered apologetically, “I was about to perish from hunger.”
At this, I stretched my own hand inside the bag — but all I found were some foreign-style pickles.
Dream 155
I was informed that my noble mentor, Shaykh Mustafa Abd al-Raziq, had caught a slight cold. I decided to visit him, but instead found him standing in front of my door, tears streaming down his cheeks. He regarded me with his wise expression as he wept.
“Master,” I told him, “it’s nothing more than a minor illness; there’s no reason to cry.”
But he answered, “I’m not weeping for myself.”
Then I understood: the lament was for us all. So I seized the chance to ask him, “What should we do, then, about humanity as a whole?”
“You have a lot of pharmacies full to the brim with all sorts of medications,” he replied, “not to mention the deadly popular remedies.”
Dream 156
Finally the calm, mild-tempered cat got angry. The winds of rage blew, throwing off sparks that started fires wherever they fell.
Finding no one to address but the winds, I told them we had peaceful means that we were now ready to try.
But they told me the time for that had passed — as the gusts continued to roar, and the sparks to fly.
Dream 157
According to the medical report, I only had a few weeks to live. First I was struck by sadness — then by a wave of recklessness. I began to eat food that the doctors had forbidden me to touch for years. And I finally committed myself to my girlfriend “S,” asking her to marry me.
“You’ll lose a great, innocent friendship,” she told me, astonished, “while getting nothing in return.” But I pressed her anyway until she gave in.
Two days later, a doctor friend said that a world-famous specialist would be visiting Egypt, and they had booked a place for me with him: Congratulations! I was consumed with joy from head to foot — until I remembered the deadly food that I had devoured, and the marriage to which I had tied myself without really wanting it.
My ecstasy turned to vexation and concern.
Dream 158
The minister charged me with inspecting the ministry’s fine arts warehouse to prepare for an exhibition. Taking a team of helpers with me to clean up the dust and kill off the pests, I spied a large painting draped in a cloth.
Pulling the drape away, a portrait of Sa’d Zaghlul, seated on his prime minister’s chair, his hands clasped around the head of his cane, stared at me. Moved by the neglect of the leader in whose school of patriotism I had been raised, it seemed to me that the picture was alive. Sa’d’s eyes winked, his hands shifted on his walking stick, and he gleamed all over with a matchless magnificence.
In a flash, there appeared throngs of people from the pasha’s generation, all lining up to greet him, and to complain of the oppression that they have endured. Instantly I forgot the minister’s orders, and the job I’d come to do.
Instead, I queued with the largest group of those coming to pay their respects — at whose head was Mustafa al-Nahhas.
Dream 159
Some of the Harafish were summoned by Ustaz Sa’d al-Din Wahba. We went to him, and he welcomed us warmly, showing us a petition he planned to present to the higher authorities, to purge the organization of deviant elements.
He invited us to sign it — and we did so with enthusiasm. And at daybreak the next morning, our homes were broken into by “the visitors of dawn”—who drove us away blindfolded to the unknown.
Dream 160
I discovered by chance that I had the power to see behind closed doors.
Both astonished and delighted, I went to the reception hall and found the Brotherhood gathered around a gaming table. The young woman who served the drinks invited me to take a vacant seat. Feeling confident, I obliged her.
Looking at the back of the cards, I could see which ones they were, and pulled in great winnings. But then I heard a voice telling me, He Who granted this power is able to withdraw it if it is used to do evil.
So I withdrew from the game and made for the buffet, and at the night’s end, the young lady came to inform me that the winner at the table had been found murdered and robbed. I was astounded, and the woman told me that she hated this profession.