It would seem that all of the parts where Said goes to see the Sheikh there is this certain aura of peace and tranquility. I mean “The old room had hardly changed. [...] the Sheikh’s sleeping mattress still lay close to the western wall, pierced by a window through which the rays of the declining Sun were pouring down at Said’s feet.” I mean, it sounds like a moment out of those old anime that were so calm and detached that you felt kinda high by the end. There is no other place in the story that is so calm… almost heavenly…
The Sheikh is somehow a being that seems to know it all. When Said first arrives at his house in Chapter 2 and says that he seeks his guidance the Sheikh responds “You seek the walls, not the heart.” He also always speaks in a metaphoric language that is rather off compared to the rest of the dialogues in the book. It’s almost as if the Sheikh was not human. As if he was something else. Like a perfectly wise being. A being that resides in heaven only to carry out His word.
You know, there is an interesting point made in The Matrix trilogy by the architect, the creator of the Matrix. He says that the reason that the first Matrix did not succeed was because it was created as a utopia. There was no pain or suffering, only happiness… but the humans could not live that way, and so they revolted to bring it down. It would almost seem as if this idea is repeated here. Said is talking to a man that resides in a perfect, warm and welcoming place. But Said is too human to simply stay there and devote himself to Islam. He needs that rush in life, which he will most certainly lose if he stays in that house. In a sense, it would seem that the Sheikh and his house represent a lost past to Said. A past of peace and happiness that led to a promising future, were it not for his father’s unfortunate death early on that was probably the event that kicked off the little rock that would continue to roll down the mountain until becoming a huge snowball that, literally, kills Said at the end.
However, it would almost seem like Said belongs in that house. The house is the first place that comes to Said’s mind when he gets out of prison to go to for shelter. He even says it himself: “this house is my real home as it always was home for my father and for every supplicant.” Despite this, it seems that Said cut off his ties with this world a long time ago. The Sheikh almost seems angry as he constantly repeats “Wash and read” while Said is telling him the story of his most recent tragedy, and that’s despite the fact that the book says “replied the Sheikh gently.” It would seem that Said has had the opportunity to repent for all his stealing and bad deeds many times before, but has always shunned them away. Said has already set himself on a path of destruction by the time that he comes back to the Sheikh’s house. He is too detached to understand the cryptic words of wisdom the Sheikh is trying to give to him. As Said himself puts it, the Sheikh’s “words [...] cannot be understood by someone approaching hell.” Said is beyond the point of salvation…
I’ll be honest and say that I really am clueless as to what the Sheikh symbolizes. I’ve tried to bring in as many facts as I could to look into them, but the epiphany has not hit me yet. If I had to take a guess, I would say the Sheikh is a representation of a calm, peaceful, and pure world that is beyond the reach of our unfortunate protagonist... Maybe I too am too close to hell to understand... Maybe we all are, because Mahfouz seems to be portraying the guy as way too mean and cryptic for pretty much anyone to understand.
