قراءة في كتاب الخاتم.... بقلم د. محجوب التجاني

Quote: Book Review - Al-Khatim ‘Adlan’s Ma al-Manfa? Wa Ma howa al-Watan? (1) Mahgoub El-Tigani December 21, 2008 With words of gratitude to Bakri AbuBakr, the Sudanonline’s manager-general that initiated and helped to develop with many others the idea of publishing al-Khatim Adlan’s collected works, Manshurat Madarik published Ma al-Manfa? Wa Ma howa al-Watan? [What is exile, and what is the Homeland?]. Suggesting a major characteristic of ‘Adlan social and political personality, Elyas Fat al-Rahman designed an artistic cover for the book in black and white. Amnesty International’s researcher, al-Baqir ‘Afif, emphasized in his introduction of the book ‘Adlan’s supra ethical agency. Both cover and introduction remind readers with George Lukacs’ blend of humanism and revolutionary thought. We will return to this thought in subsequent commentaries. In this series, we will present with commentaries sections of al-Khatim works on Sudanese thinkers, as published in Ma al-Manfa, including ‘Abd al-Khaliq Mahgoub, Hassan al-Turabi, John Garang, and Sadiq al-Mahdi. We will also comment on ‘Adlan’s works on philosophical and political themes, including the Machekos peace agreements, the NDA-GoS Cairo agreement, thoughts on Sudanese women writers, and other issues. al-Khatim “Adlan “was a thinker with an integral life philosophy,” says ‘Afif. “He lived in harmony with himself, his cosmological vision and its principles to the last moments of his life.” This self-integrative universality “was somewhat strange in specific aspects not understandable, even to his closest acquaintance. His philosophical praxis on the matters of existence, the meanings of life, and the place of man in the cosmos, was not acceptable by many relatives that wanted him to refute [this world outlook] in his dying days.” ‘Adlan appreciated the position of his critics “because he knew they belonged to a society engrained in religion; a socially backward simple community whose members bore oversimplified conceptions of religion, the day after, paradise and hell, and the good end of a person’s life. He knew they were decent people who thought of him in good faith thinking that if he repeated certain [religious] statements they would guarantee redemption of his soul.” At this point, Baqir al-‘Afif comments: “These relatives did not know that [‘Adlan] spent all his life doing the tasks of the prophets, the awliya [the people of God], and the reformers. Like them, he was altruistic: devoting his life for the sake of the powerless ones that God blamed the ones who wouldn’t defend their cause… Like them, he was not concerned with the worldly pleasures of life. He came to life as a poor person, and he passed away a poor person. Like them, he lived his short life in purity.” Khatim ‘Adlan “did the best of his amicable diplomacy to convince these critics to respect his own preferences in life. “Because he was strongly committed to the personal freedoms of people and the right of individuals to determine their own fate by free choice, he never wanted to impose his own perceptions on the others. Equally, he wanted the others to respect his own options.”