Dialogues of Naguib Mahfouz: God and morality By Mohamed Salmawy The following piece was submitted for publication before the death of Naguib Mahfouz. Al-Ahram Weekly mourns the departure of Mahfouz, who stands among the greatest writers in world literature. The theme of this final dialogue is respectfully fitting. Naguib Mahfouz looked at me and mouthed a word or two of prayers. This made me remember an interview I conducted with him for UNESCO over 10 years ago. The UN body was compiling a dossier of the world's top writers speaking on one topic: knowledge and its significance. We started talking and soon drifted from knowledge to certainty. Mahfouz wanted to talk about the importance of religion in man's life. The discussion took us to philosophy, which Mahfouz had studied in college. Salmawy: After all the scientific and technological progress humanity has achieved, is there really a place in our materially inclined world for religion? Mahfouz: Religion has become even more crucial in our modern world. Man has made immense progress, obtaining powers that were inconceivable before. This power can either be used in keeping with humanitarian and moral principles, or be subjugated to considerations of interests and material gain. When divorced from morality, the quest for gain can lead to catastrophes, as two world wars and subsequent conflicts prove. All the crimes and violence we see around us are a result of the separation of interests from principles. When humanity subjugates its power to principles, as embodied in religion, the outcome is more benign. Salmawy: Can religion be substituted with man-made philosophies, with morality based on humanitarian principles? Mahfouz: There are philosophies that address moral issues, but if you look at the roots of such philosophies, you will see that they are mostly influenced by religion. Jean-Jacques Rousseau, for example, didn't stray from Christianity, and neither did Francis Bacon. Besides, there is a difference between adhering to a philosophy and believing in a creed. Moral people are great, but only people of faith are willing to die for their beliefs. You need faith, not just an intellectual commitment, to be able to sacrifice. This is why some philosophers value the power of faith. The French philosopher Victor Cousin, who lived in the 19th century, said that we needed religion for its own sake. Faith resides in the heart, rather than the mind. The Sufis, to give you just one example, do not analyse their faith. They live it. The Sufi experience may begin with doubt, as was the case of Imam Al-Ghazali who wrote more than 200 books on various fields and ended up with a firm religious conviction. Salmawy: Have you had moments of doubt? Mahfouz: Yes, during my adolescent years. I wanted to submit my faith to reason and science. This was a painful period that lasted for four or five years. But I came out of it with a faith similar to that of Al-Ghazali. I followed my heart and reached a conviction that one can only feel in one's soul. Salmawy: Isn't faith always a matter of the heart? Mahfouz: Those who believe in morality with their mind can always question their moral principles. They may subject morality to the needs of gratification. But when principles come from God, they have more meaning. God imparts meaning on principles, just as He imparts meaning on the universe. Without God, there is no meaning to existence or values. The alternative to God is absurdity. The alternative to God is the absence of meaning.
