A book of pictures and thoughts by Sheikh Ali Al-Tantawi, may God have mercy on him
I looked out of the window, and everything I saw was asleep, this palm tree that stands in front of my window, the dome of Adhamiya that looks behind it in greatness and majesty, and the Tigris that runs silent and majestic.
And the moon that washes its water with its rays... And behold, an old man is walking exhausted on the road! On the road that extends in a plain and not rugged, and does not walk on the slope of a mountain, nor a beach, nor the sea, and does not pass through a desert, and does not penetrate orchards. The long one that looms like a white line, the beginning of which disappears in the darkness of eternity, and the end of it disappears in the mist of eternity... I saw a ghost walking on... the road of time! And I heard a cry in the sleeping world: Wake up, the world is leaving now! So the palm tree opened its eyes and looked, and when it saw it, it said: I have seen tens like it come and go, and it did not change anything... The ax still remains, and this human beast is still waiting for my passage to rob me of it, then if it despairs of me, it rewards me with the sting of fire... So what is my money and the departed scholar? She closed her eyes and slept, and did not care! And she looked at the dome, and when she saw him, she said: I have seen hundreds like him coming and going and they did not change anything. This palm tree stands around me as it used to be, and the sun rises on me every day and sets, and the stars shine above me every night, and the earth is waiting for me, it wants me to grow old, it attracts my stones to it and eats me... and all Something remains the same, nothing has changed except for the human being: the caliph used to walk beneath, and move between two poles in robes of glory and robes of majesty. I honor him among the people.. So I became lonely in isolation, I only see these groups of the poor common people who have stripped themselves of every path except the glory of worship, and glory except for the glory of the Hereafter... So what is my money and the passing year? And she closed her eyes, and she dreamed again, and she did not care!... And the moon listened and stared, and when he saw the late year, he said: I have seen millions like it, and I am tired of the years and the times, so what is my money and his? And he returned to overflow his light on the universe and did not care! And I was left alone! I stayed alone...
In this text quoted from his book Pictures and Thoughts, which came under the title Between Me and Myself, Philosophical Human Glimpses, the writer deposited this text as the rest of his texts, which formed the material for this collection of the works of the creator Ali Al-Tantawi. Sheikh Dr. Tantawi takes the reader to where he sometimes finds himself or finds others who sometimes formed the characters of some of his stories or some of his thoughts. Al-Tantawi’s writings varied in this collection to form a literary work that embodied in himself the writer’s wisdom, philosophy, transparency, and literary creativity, in addition to an aspect that should not be overlooked, which is that Al-Tantawi presented material reflecting through it an image combined with all its human and life aspects, hence it was necessary to suggest the works of the late Tantawi from By republishing this group, pictures and thoughts, stories from life, stories from history, with people.