Illusion

Muhammad Effendi Bassiouni is an ordinary man. He spent half his life in education and the other half forgetting this education at the job desk. Only one thing in this world excites him.. Telling him: Your jacket is unbuttoned.. And your appearance is disrespectful.. He has only one ideal, which is respect.. All his life he has pursued one goal.. which is respect.. He entered the College of Commerce to be said to be a respectable university graduate.. He joined a stable job to be said to be a respected employee.. and he got married at an early age. So that it can be said that he is a respectable husband... and he chose his friends from among the senior employees so that it can be said that he is a respectable person... and he wore the fez and turban in August so that it can be said that he is a respectable man... and before he speaks he thinks a little... not about what he wants to say... but rather about what respectable people usually say in... This or that occasion... Then he repeats it happily while rubbing his hands and looking around at the eyes of the listeners to collect looks of respect from them, just as a farmer collects cotton bolls from his field. He does not love his wife...and his wife does not stand him...but he maintains the form of the relationship between them in order to remain respectable...you cannot know exactly...what it is...because most of the time it is not his...it...which the free man has...it is according to... What you desire... not according to what he desires... He sold his personality to buy people's respect and approval, and he did not think for a single moment about the meaning of this respect... nor did he discuss it nor doubt it... it is a supreme value before which every truth, even his own truth, pales. Today, Muhammad Effendi Bassiouni met me and he looked disgusted. I asked him what was the matter. He said in disgust: - A cursed generation. Imagine our little maid, who is no more than sixteen, today discovering that she is pregnant... and she tells me that she is pregnant by my son... the liar, the daughter of... Is this reasonable... my son is doing this... my educated son who grew up in a respectable family... so I said to him calmly: This usually only happens in respectable families. These are families suffering from chronic constipation. It is common for them to have a rupture of their intestines one day. What is this nonsense that you are saying? - I am telling the truth. And what did you do to the maid? I fired her, of course. Is it possible for me to live with this epidemic? It seemed that he did not want to listen to any more of my comments. In his view, I was another type of epidemic that he did not like to walk with. He went on his way, and I went on my way. But I I kept thinking about him.. He is going to sleep with a woman he does not love and who does not love him.. He is doing this in exchange for my respect.. And his wife is doing this in exchange for three meals and an allowance.. And in exchange for my respect as well.. And the son who has been eating respect and drinking respect for twenty years. This respect was vomited all at once in exchange for a moment with the maid... and perhaps this maid was the victim of all... she lost her job, her virginity, and perhaps her life in a pregnancy of unknown fate... and all of this was for nothing... even the respect was lost forever... even the memory became hers. It is a hateful name. In my opinion, it is the saddest of all because it is the tax paid for all our sins. It is the small adultery that covers up the major adultery that takes place in homes in the name of marriage.. and the greater hypocrisy that takes place in societies in the name of respect. Muhammad Effendi Bassiouni is a great hypocrite, no matter how respectable he wears, and his son bears more sin than the miserable maid on whom everyone’s burden fell. From a book on love and life by Mustafa Mahmoud