I: Madame Rose Hanie
“Rashid Bey Namaan was generous and
good-hearted, but like many of the Syrians, looked only at the
superficial things instead of reality. He never hearkened to the
dictates of his heart, but busied himself in obeying the voices of his
environment.”
“When a man loses the ease of his heart, where can he find comfort, and with what can he replace it? What mind can master it?”
“Please do not ask anything further. Do
not make a crying voice of my calamity, but let it rather be mute
misfortune; perhaps it will grow in silence and deaden me away so that I
may rest at last with peace.”
“Haven’t we heard that obvious beauty is the cause of many hidden distresses and deep suffering?”
“A woman’s happiness does not come
through man’s glory and honour, nor through his generosity and
affection, but through love that unites both of their hearts and
affections, making them one member of life’s body and one word upon the
lips of God.”
“Love is a power that makes our hearts, yet our hearts cannot make that power.”
“Love descends upon our souls by the will of God and not by the demand or the plea of the individual.”
“Those people who go to back to eternity
before they taste the sweetness of real life are unable to understand
the meaning of a woman’s suffering. Especially when she devotes her soul
to a man she loves by the will of God, and her body to another whom she
caresses by the enforcement of earthly law. It is a tragedy written
with the blood of the woman’s blood and tears which the man reads with
ridicule because he cannot understand it; yet, if he does understand,
his laughter will turn into scorn and blasphemy that act like fire upon
her heart.”
“They are like the deserted caves of the
mountains that echo voices whose meanings are not understood. They
neither understand the law of God, nor comprehend the true intent of
veritable religion, nor distinguish between a sinner and an innocent.
They look only at the surface of objects without knowing their secrets.
They pass their verdicts with ignorance, and judge with blindness,
making the criminal and the innocent, the good and the bad, equal.”
“They judge the soul by the outcome of the body and measure the spirit by the standard of matter.”
“They have exiled me now from their
society and I am pleased, because humanity does not exile except the one
whose noble spirit rebels against despotism and oppression. He who does
not prefer exile to slavery is not free by any measure of freedom,
truth and duty.”
“God does not want me to lead a miserable
life, for He placed in the depths of my heart a desire for happiness;
His glory rests in the happiness of my heart.”
“For the first time in my life I found
the phantom of happiness standing between a man and a woman, cursed by
religion and opposed by the law.”
“Many times ignorance kills a woman’s
honour and revives her passion; she grows tired and leaves her husband,
prompted by her desires, and follows a man to whom she lowers herself.”
“Is it permissible for a woman to buy her
happiness with her husband’s misery? (…) Is it lawful for a man to
enslave his wife’s affection when he realizes he will never possess it?”
II: The Cry of the Graves
“When a man kills another man, the people
say he is a murderer, but when the Emir kills him, the Emir is just.
When a man robs a monastery, they say he is a thief, but when the Emir
robs him of his life, the Emir is honourable. When a woman betrays her
husband, they say she is an adulteress, but when the Emir makes her walk
naked in the streets and stones her later, the Emir is noble (…) Shall
we meet evil with evil and say this is the Law? Shall we fight
corruption with greater corruption and say this is the Rule? Shall we
conquer crimes with more crimes and say this is Justice?”
“The soul is like a flower that folds its
petals when dark comes, and breathes not its fragrance into the
phantoms of the night.”
III: Khalil the Heretic
“Mercy and cruelty are both wrestling in
the human heart like the mad elements in the sky of this terrible night,
but mercy shall overcome cruelty because it is divine, and the terror
alone, of this night, shall pass away when daylight comes.”
“The animals have their caves, and the
birds of the sky their nests, but the son of man has not place to rest
his head (…) This is the answer for every man who wants to follow the
Spirit and the Truth in this age of falsehood, hypocrisy and
corruption.”
“The true light is that which emanates
from within man, and reveals the secrets of the heart to the soul,
making it happy and contented with life. Truth is like the stars; it
does not appear except from behind obscurity of the night. Truth is like
all beautiful things in the world; it does not disclose its
desirability except to those who first feel the influence of falsehood.
Truth is a deep kindness that teaches us to be content in our everyday
life and share with the people the same happiness.”
“He who does not see the kingdom of
heaven in this life will never see it in the coming life. We came not
into this life by exile, but we came as innocent creatures of God, to
learn how to worship the holy and eternal spirit and seek the hidden
secrets within ourselves from the beauty of life.”
“You pretend that you are killing your bodies, but in fact you are killing your souls.”
“The people’s tears are more beautiful
and God-joined than the ease and tranquility to which you have
accustomed yourselves in this place. The sympathy that touches the
neighbour’s heart is more supreme than the hidden virtue in the unseen
corners of the convent. A word of compassion to the weak criminal or
prostitute is nobler than the long prayer which we repeat emptily every
day in the temple.”
“The viper will not become a dove if placed in a cage, nor will the briar bear figs if planted in the vineyards.”
“He who has been chosen by heaven as a
defender of Truth will not perish by heaven’s own storms and snow (…)
The storms and snow may kill the flowers, but cannot deaden the seeds,
for the snow keeps them warm from the killing frost.”
“Will a good son leave his mother if she is ill? Will a merciful man deny his brother who is miserable?”
“Listen to my protest, and do not be
merciful, but be just, for mercy is bestowed upon the guilty criminal,
while justice is all that an innocent man requires.”
“The will of the people is the will of God.”
“The dying man cannot hear his own heart
rattling, while those who are standing by his bedside can surely hear.
The slaughtered bird, in spite of his will, dances painfully and
unknowingly, but those who witness the dance know what caused it.”
“God has placed a glowing torch in your
hearts that glows in knowledge and beauty, and seeks the secrets of the
days and nights; it is a sin to extinguish that torch and bury it in
ashes. God has created your spirits with wings to fly in the spacious
firmament of Love and Freedom; it is pityful that you cut your wings
with your own hands and suffer your spirits to crawl like insects upon
the earth.”
“I will die happy and in peace because I
have fulfilled my mission and revealed to you the Truth which demons
consider a crime. I have now completed the will of the Almighty God.”
