Holiness can be defined as the state of being holy, pure and sanctified. From this definition holiness assumes an evangelistic approach making it more precise in terms of purity and sanctification. It is used in many religious settings making it a common word used for a universal description across all religious faiths. Therefore, holiness is a universal religious word used to mean a state of sanctity and purity way from sins or evil. In many religious settings, holiness comes with self denial and total submission to a supernatural power and divine law of the supernatural being, common described as the Only Holy and owner of the Universe. The issue of different modes of being holy and the basics for a person to be holy forms the thesis statement in this paper. Two stories from two different religious backgrounds (Muslim and Hindu) are considered so as to express holiness from a broader perspective and not only from one religious point.
In both stories, Zaabalawi and The Breast Giver, the characters are placed in a situation where they have to give of themselves, to be in a state of abandon, deviating from what their lives have been in the past and transformed into another state of spirituality which is Holiness.
The author of Zaabalawi is a Muslim who uses this book to represent several levels of spirituality. The story appears a parable revolving around the different levels of spirituality where an ill man desperately looks for a miracle worker to cure him. In the second implication of the story, the author describes some aspects of the Zaabalawi as shown below.
1. To the wealthy, the content and context of Zaabalawi is a distant memory that they have set aside. An example of a wealthy person in the story is lawyer Qamar.
2. To the civic leaders, they use their position to control any search and overlook the divine power. In fact, they view God as a nag. A good example of this is the district Sheirck.
3. The lowly like the calligrapher and the musician are heavily indebted in spirituality owing everything to the divine supernatural power (God). In fact this depicts the reality of the society even in the current settings.
Analyzing the story closely, throughout his story, Naguib Mahfouz emphasizes on the Islam belief of abandoning self consciousness and forgoing self gain for a higher state of spirituality. He has also dwelt on the idea of this total abandonment of will and self to the point where an individual is emptied of all his cares that he is already prepared to commune with the holy.
Zaabalawi also signifies God or an encounter with God that brings the person to a different kind of awareness. This awareness looks beyond human needs and desires. It looks beyond the outside world that affects the thoughts and feelings of a person. It is an awareness of being connected to a higher being. The definition of self is in being one with a higher being during an encounter. The encounter with the Zaabalawi signifies holiness that brings peace, contentment and inspiration.
This act of self abandonment to attain holiness, as well as losing it to human desires, has been shown throughout the story. The narrator has met several people who have encountered the Zaabalawi before. Each of them can attest to the influence that the Zaabalawi has in their lives.
The story teaches that those who are only after personal gain and profit and who are too consumed with worldly cares are distracted and even hindered from the truth. In the story, Qamar, a wealthy lawyer, because of his wealth, has laid aside the quest for an encounter with a higher being and getting to know oneself through him. His encounter with the Zaabalawi and experience of holiness is hindered by his consuming desire for his wealth.
The local sheik has also encountered Zaabalawi. In the story he says "I myself haven’t seen him for years, having been somewhat preoccupied with the cares of the world. He is a very intelligent man and is able to rationalize and carefully plan everything. This rationality and his awareness of the world around him, hinders him from another encounter with the Zaabalawi. He is not open to an experience of holiness and the awareness and contentment that comes with it, because a large part of his consciousness is devoted to what the world has burdened him with.
The narrator also meets a calligrapher and a musician. They both attribute their artistic capabilities and successes to their encounter with the Zaabalawi. "He might well come right now; on the other hand I mightn’t see him till death", was uttered by the musician in conceding to the fact that he has no control of the Zaabalawi. He is not able to control when he comes and when he leaves. As humans, we often consider our ability to control our lives and everything that affects it. The musician understood that forgoing the need to control every aspect of once life, even controlling spirituality, is the way to attain it.
The narrator learned about self abandonment through being in a state of spiritual drunkenness when he met Hagg Wanas. He is a drunkard and is frequently visited by the Zaabalawi. He has encouraged the narrator to drink by refusing to talk to anyone who is not drunk. The narrator eventually obliged. Drinking is prohibited in the Islamic religion, one of the reasons why this story has been challenged as one deviating from Islamic teachings.
In the Islam belief, being a drunkard is discouraged. However, in the story the narrator only encounters the Zaabalawi when he is drunk. This state represents drunkenness as a ‘spiritual drunkenness’. This state of abandon can also be viewed as a spiritual openness. When the narrator was drunk, he loses his consciousness and dreams of being in a beautiful garden and experiences a feeling of harmony and contentment. Losing his consciousness represents a sense of self abandonment. In this state, he was open for an encounter and it is in this time that he encountered the Zaabalawi. In his encounter he is transported in a different place where he is free of affliction and one with the higher being. Once he is sober and regains his awareness of himself and every outside stimulus, he loses contact with the Zaabalawi. From this story, it is clear that holiness comes at a cost that most people in the world might not be ready to pay. For one to be holy, he/she must be ready to give up wealth, civil authority and be totally subdued by the word of God. This illustrated by the musician and the calligrapher. The worldly entangles that makes people lack holiness is depicted using Qamar and Sheirck.
The breast giver is a Hindu based story of holiness in which all the gender roles assumed by both men and women are reversed. Instead of the man going out to look for food for his family and the woman remains at home doing house chores, the man remains while the woman moves in search of food and other necessities.
Analyzing the story and looking at some insights in it pertaining to the thesis statement, Maasweta Devi, being born in a Hindu family, expresses the Hindu belief that Holiness can only be achieved through exertion, fatigue and self denouncing. In her story, The Breast Giver, the she illustrates the Hindu belief in submitting oneself to suffering and selflessly giving of oneself for others.
In the story, Jashoda takes on the profession of a Bengali wet-nurse. Through this profession, she has achieved holiness by giving and sacrifice. A Hindu woman in a patriarchal society, Jashoda finds herself without any property or skills that are of monetary value, except for her ability to breast feed. Her importance ceased when she developed breast cancer. She died in pain and poverty. Viewed in the Hindu context, Jashoda had managed to give of herself to the children that she had feed from her own breasts. She had also served the role of motherhood that the Hindu mothers she worked for could not do.
It has been said that breastfeeding involves an amount of pain and requires a lot of energy for a woman to do. Nursing one child after another can have negative effects on a woman’s body. In Jashoda’s case, it was breast cancer. Her illness took her livelihood and eventually, her life.
In the story Jashoda has dealt with this kind of suffering. She has abandoned he own comfort, even her body. Hindu religion and culture emphasizes the importance of sacrifice to the point of self-torture as a means to high spiritual attainment. Even in the Hindu scriptures, it is implied that undergoing suffering and penance can transcend a believer from level of spirituality to another.
"Such is the power of the Indian soil that all women turn into mothers here and all men remain immersed in the spirit of holy childhood." When Jashoda’s husband became decapitated, although he can no longer perform his duties as a Brahman, he had a benefactor who supported him. His wife, Jashoda sacrificed herself and took on a profession as a wet nurse to fill in his role as a provider. But when it was Jashoda who got sick and suffered until her death, there was no one to step in as her benefactor or to take care of her. She endured the wounds on what was once the source f life for many children, and a source of livelihood for her family.
Both characters, the narrator in Mahfouz’s Zaabalawi and Jashoda in Devi’s The Breast Giver is forced to take on a journey that has led them to the path of holiness. In Mahfouz’s story, the narrator sets out to find the Zaabalawi. He has met other characters who has attained and lost the Holiness that they have found. The main character himself has found it in seeking treatment to an undisclosed, incurable illness. In taking on the journey, he has abandoned his own plans and in his determination to find the Zaabalawi, he has abandoned himself. In Devi’s story, Jashoda finds holiness as defined by Hinduism which is attained through fatigue and penance.
In both stories, the characters’ path to holiness started with a necessity. In Zaabalawi it was caused by an affliction. In The Breast Giver, it was a necessity to take on the role of a provider that the main character’s husband is no longer able to do. The narrator in the Zaabalawi has found his holiness in finding a purpose as he repeatedly declares that he will find the elusive Zaabalawi. Jashoda in Devi’s story, exhausted every bit of that purpose as a mother, as a woman, as a vessel and as a wife.
In conclusion, the two stories express what is regarded as Holiness in the different religions. From the Hindu community, Joshada is taken to be holy for the sacrifice that she made for the children and her family and the brides who feared being watered down by breastfeeding. From, the Islamic religion, the calligrapher and musician led holy lives by believing in the existence of a supreme being who had power over them. They have translated these expressions of faith by using the lives and the turning points of the characters in the story.
