Love Quote by Naguib Mahfouz

Mahfouz praises Sufism with the kind of careful affection a realist reserves for art: intimate, moved, but not fooled. The first clause flatters mysticism by placing it beside “beautiful poetry,” then quietly cages it there. Poetry can be true without being a program; it can console without reorganizing the world. That’s the subtext: Sufism, for him, is aesthetically luminous and emotionally intelligent, yet politically and materially insufficient.

The mirage metaphor does the heavy lifting. A mirage isn’t a lie exactly; it’s a real phenomenon produced by heat and need, a vision generated by conditions on the ground. Mahfouz implies that spiritual yearning in Egypt has causes - inequality, disappointment, fatigue - and Sufism answers that fatigue by offering rest. “Come and sit, relax” is almost tender, but it’s also damning: an invitation to pause in the middle of a crisis, to treat suffering as something to transcend rather than something to fix.

Context matters. Writing in a 20th-century Egypt shaped by colonial hangovers, nationalism, authoritarianism, and widening social gaps, Mahfouz built novels around streets, institutions, bargains, and compromises. He isn’t attacking faith so much as resisting its use as an exit hatch. Mysticism can be a moral solvent, dissolving ego and sharpening compassion, but it can also become a sedative - private ecstasy replacing public responsibility.

Mahfouz’s intent is to protect the beauty without surrendering to it: admire the mirage, but keep walking toward water.