Mahfouz's Zaabalawi

Zaabalawi by Nagiub Mahfouz is a classic story that has a very heavy lean toward religion and social studies. A common man is inflicted with a disease that he is unable to seek out a cure for, so he sets out in search of the mysterious Zaabalawi who has been known to cure illnesses. His search invites outside acquaintances who he hopes may be able to tell him where he can find Zaabalawi. By the end of the story it is clear that Zaabalawi is much less a holy man, but more so a figure one’s own desire for spiritual fulfillment.
The common man, played by the narrator, seems to have made a half-hearted attempted to find the cure by traditional means, but not finding success he has decided to seek out Zaabalawi; a man described almost entirely as elusive as the cure to his own
Sheik Quamar, a lawyer in Cairo, suggests that he once knew Zaabalawi but has since fallen out of contact and remembers almost nothing about him. Sheiks situation seems indicative of a man who has fallen out of touch with his spiritual side and has forgotten a lot of things he used to believe in before he found success. This same idea is repeated when the District Officer enters the story. We see a man who appears incapable of offering any real assistance, and goes on to say how his preoccupation with the cares of the world have almost made him completely forget about him. Interestingly, we see here that the man further goes on to explain that the narrators inquiry had made him remember his youth. Here again, we see a man who has fallen out of touch with many of the things that he believed in as a child. Both Sheik and the district officer have fallen out of touch with the beliefs they had once placed importance on, and given them up for the world. Mahfouz is pointing out mans mistake of misplacing importance, and how we lose touch with certain things due to the distractions of this