Asian Studies

    The sum of all changes in beliefs of man does not come all in one time. What you are now is not only because of one factor neither of one single moment that changed you. Because for every new experience new lessons are learned and it is a prerogative of the man if he will change his characters based on newly found knowledge. The greatest thinkers, philosophers and writers are not born rather they are made. They are honed by personal experiences including the mere observations on his surroundings. But what are personal experiences made up of Well, they are the whole thing that has ever happened in mans life the whole actual story of a mans life. Hence, the works and thoughts of those thinkers and writers are immensely influenced by their own personal experiences from the moment they were born, their education, the society they dwelled in, the people they idolize, the people who influence them, and up to their own deaths.

    Taha Hussein is one of the most celebrated Arab writer and a popular Egyptian public scholar popular during his time. He has a long list of published works mainly about criticisms on the secular education, on the authenticity of the Quran as a basis for history, on the claim that Egyptian civilization is different from the Arab civilization and, on proposing rising sense for Egyptian nationalism. Hussein was considered as a rational thinker of his time because of his saga for achieving Egyptian enlightenment in the midst of traditional and conservative Egypt.

    With his long list of published works and recognition from the world of scholars, how did a great Egyptian intellectual and writer rise up given that his roots are from a low-income family and community These questions can be inferred in his three books namely An Egyptian Childhood, The Stream of Days and A Season of Migration to the North. These three books are compiled in a single book entitled The Days which is published in 1943. This essay will take a visit at The Days and try to understand the link between his autobiography with the philosophies and thoughts he is nowadays well-known. The changes that pushed him to believe that there is a need to modernize the Egyptian nation-state and that there are divides or gaps between the Eastern and Western countries.

    Well it is important to begin an autobiography with childhood since it plays a critical part in the development of human mind and character, as sociologists also say. The first part of the book is the An Egyptian Childhood, wherein Taha Hussein described the kind of life and the early realizations he had during his childhood. At the basic level, after the family, it is the community which is the second teacher of children. A community composed of different institutions specializing in honing a particular aspect of human life. Church is for spirituality, neighbors for socializing and school for education. Taha Hussein identified three local influences that he could not forget for the rest of his life. They are the local oral storytelling, the Quran, and the Sufism.

    Oral storytelling is a folk tradition wherein stories are exchanged and passed on from mouth-to-mouth. Hussein remembers a local poet reciting poems of famous poets such as Abu Zaid and Khalifah. This part of the book amplified the importance of stories as not to be stagnant but rather a way of life which open young minds into the world the adults wanted to show them. In this stage of Husseins life, he is beginning to explore the world of literature. The second is the Quran. Muslim children are required to memorize passages of Quran and are expected to be able to recite them. Hussein memorized them all but when he is about to recite, he completely loses his memory. At this point, he realized that memorizing should be followed by a mark in the minds and hearts of people. It can be inferred, in this case, that Hussein became a person conscious with his words and that it is a start of the bloom of a great writer. Last is the Sufis. The practices of Sufi specially Zikr (in English is remembrance) intensified Husseins observation that poems and other forms of literature are alive they are on everyday lives and are performed simultaneously. This is the start of Husseins awakening of a writer who is socially aware and entangled. However, Sufism brought him great misfortune that he carried on to the rest of his life. At the age of three, Hussein became blind due to Sufisms magical and superstitious practices. Quoting one passage from the book,

    In this way our lad lost his eyesight. Opthamalia attacked him, but he was neglected
for some days. Then the barber was called in, and he treated him in a way that resulted in the loss of his sight. (p. 71)

This misfortune brought by traditional way of healing awakened Hussein that his community should be enlightened for them to be more responsible with their actions and for them to progress. His blindness did not impede him from seeing the real world but rather he is even more challenged to learn more  to seek enlightenment. The succeeding happenings in Husseins life showed the step-by-step enlightenment from a unreflective customary rural community to a new life lived in the context of modernizing the Egypt.

    The second part of the book mainly talked about his education in a Al-Azhar seminary. As a boy with high enthusiasm to learn more, he enrolled in a secular academe where Islam is the center of discussions. There he met Sheikh Marsafy who inspired to not constrain himself with the conversations and lectures at the Al-Azhar but rather talk about everything under the sun without hesitations. At this point in his life he became a non-partisan for anything, even for God. Hussein became a young man of free thoughts a radical thinker was starting to bloom. He transferred to Cairo University and became a professor there. Due to his objective and radical thinker upbringing, he was able to write books and essays that were deemed unacceptable in Islamic community. He was even accused of apostasy (religion traitors) but this did not daunt him to write freely.

    The last part of his autobiography talks about his travel and education in Europe, particularly France, wherein he accepted changes unlike the others who say it is better to stay at native homes. Hussein obtained masteral and doctorate degrees at prestigious universities there. Having been educated at other places Hussein was able to explore and understand the culture of the West. He became conscious of great differences between the East and West cultures in terms of all aspects. His marriage with a French woman deepened his attachment and familiarity with Western culture. Hussein admired the enlightenment and education the Western world has and that he felt an urge that Egypt should be also enlightened through education and not with mysticism and mere tradition. Inferring from the passages, it can be said that Hussein dream for a reform not only in government but also with the traditions of Egyptian nation-state which equates to reluctance from mysticism the major cause of his torment. So when he returned to Egypt, he pursued non-secular education to start the Egyptian enlightenment and eventually became Minister of Education in 1950. His advocacy of spreading non-secular education paved his way to become one of the Egypts proponents of renaissance.

    The autobiography The Days showed not only the events in the life of a great Taha Hussein but the deep significance of these events which paved the way to a man who influenced Egypt in terms of its education and enlightenment. Every event in Taha Husseins life has impacts wherein the young boy from a traditional and customary rural community was able to rise himself up into a thinker with ideas of integrated culture of the Eastern and Western countries.