He kept applying his stupendous ability the rest of that day and in the days that followed, in all sorts of different places, wherever it seemed suitable. He passed by a maternity hospital, a consumers cooperative, an electrical appliances factory, and so on. A curse and an affliction for some, a mercy for many others. Wherever he went, astonishment and confusion trailed in his wake. Both those he had chastised and those he had blessed would wonder, “How could people change without warning from one extreme to another? What’s happening to the world? How can so many problems be set right, without any steps taken to sort them out?”Meanwhile, Tayyib came to see that he could not make
the best use of his power without proper planning and awareness of need. He obtained guides to the departments of government, factories, and private companies, and took them to the tea garden at the zoo to draw up a comprehensive program for his intervention: the lairs of official bureaucracy, the centers of production and services, the People’s Assembly, the prisons and what was said about them, the commercial markets, the press, the political parties, the schools and universities. Each phase must be mapped out slowly and deliberately. Every clamor must be quieted, every deviation must be deterred. And once he is done correcting his country, he will turn with zeal to deal with the world. The mission that shall emerge from it will be manifold and heavy. Yet the power that he possessed was the wonder of the age!
Something caught his eye at the tea garden’s entrance. He saw a beautiful woman approaching, to take a seat at the table right next to him. Gorgeous and enticing, she was a perfect replication of his lost youthful dreams. Swept by a surge of delight, Sulayman found his passions aroused in a way that he not known since he first married Haniya, destroying the indifference he had dreaded since he entered old age. The surprise attraction amazed him — truly it was far from ordinary, and hardly appropriate for one preoccupied with such a mountainous burden as his.
She barely noticed him as her large, round eyes wandered over the zoo’s green lake, and the ducks floating lazily on it. Does she have any idea that, in a split-second, he could set her head-over-heels at will? He hesitated a moment before sending her a hidden message. Instantly she threw him an answering look, and seemed as though she were about to speak. His desire now ecstasy, he gave way to it in spite of himself.
Would it do any harm to one who wished to repair the world if he also sought to heal himself? And, in one shared smile, he utterly forgot both his faith and his life. He closed his notebook as they stood up together, surrendering to their fate.
Returning to his house one evening, Tayyib came back to his senses: he realized that he had erred. When Haniya remarked he was not in his normal mood, he claimed to her it was only a cold. And though he never thought to repeat his mistake, the pain it caused him would not go away. Worst of all, he was no longer favored with the depthless inner confidence on which he’d been drunk for so long.
He longed to practice his secret power once again. Waiting until Haniya had gone out on an errand, he turned toward the television as he had done so often before.
The channel would not change.
He thought he was going mad. No matter how much he tried, all he met was failure. The miracle was gone— like a dream.
Pleading is pointless. Distress is useless. Regret has no effect. An awesome sadness will haunt Tayyib al-Mahdi until the day of his death.
The Only Man
Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Satan. That alone should do. You’ve known my story since antiquity. Indeed, my mission’s fame burns as brilliantly as the sun that shall surely scorch me on the Day of Judgment.
Yet I am dazed and confused since it has come to me that, despite all claims to the contrary, there yet exists an honorable man in your country. To avoid any misunderstanding, let me say frankly that I can take no credit whatsoever for the flood of evil that now engulfs the earth. Yet I gladly embrace these new, deviant ideas that never even occurred to me in times of old. I have always accepted my fate, which is to struggle to make man stumble, then bide my time to see the result. But the innovations of this generation far surpass those of all who came before it. Since time immemorial, the art of tempting a single man or a woman would totally absorb me as I resorted to my vast repertoire of tricks and sleight of hand in the effort to snare them. Yet now I simply watch as all humanity throws itself madly into the abyss. Whole groups and peoples fall into the pit without a word passing from my lips, without my moving at all. They all sink together into the mire, while I stand back and wait, puzzled and perplexed, drumming palm against palm. How I have wished that I was its cause, the man who put it in motion, the one who could boast it was his own!
But what is really going on? From where did all this corruption come?
Once again, I must confess that times have changed. Every day there is some new miracle or wonder in the world. Indeed, I realize that today I must study economics and politics, public speaking and propaganda, and learn all about science and technology, as well as contractors’ and agents’ commissions, and the ways and means of illegal immigration. I have to become more cultured and change my former ways, if I don’t want my cause to be defeated, to lose my very reason for being. Otherwise, my immortal rebellion would vanish fruitlessly into the void, leaving not a trace behind.
I was in this state of frustration and confusion when my spies informed me that there is still a man of integrity left in this land.
“His name is Muhammad Zayn,” they told me. “A judge by profession, he lives at 15 Zayn al-Abidin Street.”
Immediately I began watching this man with special care. His residence is an old house, ill-suited to his status. That is where he grew up with his family until it was left to him as one by one his kin passed away. Nonetheless, it is considered a great boon from the Lord in an era when people are living in tents and tombs. He is married, with a son at university and another son and daughter in secondary school. He sets off alone for the bus to the courthouse each day, getting off one stop early so that people do not see him riding amidst the crowd, clutching his briefcase under his arm. He starts his court sessions at the scheduled time, following the testimony of the prosecution, the defense, and the witnesses with startling concentration and concern. Other than that, he hardly ever leaves his home except out of necessity, to study his legal briefs sometimes, or to pay his bills. He instills the spirit of hard work and abstinence in his children, who do not hold themselves above the offspring of paupers. Overall, the household abides in an air of plain modesty — in demeanor, in clothing, and even in food. His wife, though, endures this with resentment, easing her feelings by complaining, and by cursing the age from time to time.
“You have my entire salary in your hands,” the judge tells her. “I cannot turn base metals into gold. I do not speculate about the savage cost of living, because I live in the protection of God, who shall preserve me from perdition until my last breath is drawn.”
A great man, but blighted just the same. Temptations surround him from all sides, like water and wind. I found the urge of conquest aroused in me, for right before me were his wife and family. What’s more, it was a household fully aware of what was going on around it. Here you have a conversation that shows the divisions between a husband and his spouse:
“What kind of world is this?” she asked. “Are we doomed to all this torment simply because we’re good?”