Magd al-Din if he knew anything about that man, and Magd al-Din left him without a reply.
“The only thing you know about me is that I am Dimyan Abd al-Shahid. But I know that you come from a good family and I too come from a good family. My grandfather used to own slaves—no lie. That’s what they say about him in our village, Dayrut. You’re from northern Egypt and I am from southern Egypt. There are many notables from the north and many from the south. And inboth north and south, the poor are of course more numerous. Somebody’s got to take from somebody! Make sense? Do you hear me, Magd al-Din?”
“I hear you,” replied Magd al-Din, as he did every time Dimyan asked him. Dimyan was now passing by every morning to accompany him on their job hunt. On the days without work, which were usually more than the successful days, they would sit at the café by the bridge. Magd al-Din would buy the newspaper and astound Dimyan with news of the German submarines and torpedo boats that blasted the British ships then disappeared like demons into the waters of the Atlantic Ocean. Dimyan learned a lot about Magd al-Din’s life. The most important thing he learned was that Magd al-Din had been exempted from military service because he had memorized the Quran.
Dimyan was now calling Magd al-Din “Sheikh.” He once told him in jest that there was no law exempting those who memorized the Bible from military service. Then he laughed, “But who could memorize the Bible?”
Every time they met, Dimyan would tell Magd al-Din something about his life until the story was rounded out. He told him that one day, out of the blue, one of the village people announced that Mr. Baskharun was an infidel. Baskharun was Dimyan’s grandfather, not the great-great-grandfather who had owned slaves. Why was Mr. Baskharun an infidel? The accuser said that as a child, he had not been baptized. The truth was that there was a dispute between two families over a piece of land, and one of the adversaries was able to spread that rumor about Mr. Baskharun.
“What is baptism, Dimyan?”
“Baptism means becoming Christian. Without it a man stays in limbo, between heaven and hell.”
“That means nobody holds him accountable?”
“Exactly.”
Magd al-Din smiled and said, “How can that be bad for the person?”
“Of course it can. Don’t ask me how. But it’s a very difficult situation. I don’t know exactly the nature of the difficulty, but I feel it. It’s like falling off a mountain but never landing anywhere. You remain suspended in space, in total emptiness, neither hot norcold, not even air of any kind. Do you know, Sheikh Magd al-Din, that that happened to me once?”
“You stood between heaven and hell?”
“Yes. I felt it when I rode an elevator. Only one time in my life I rode an elevator in a building in Manshiya. I was cleaning the roof of the building. It was very hard work. The roof was a pigsty. I couldn’t go down the stairs. Can you imagine? I was too exhausted. Anyway, I stepped into the elevator and pressed the button. It went down so fast that I felt I was in a place that had been emptied out completely. I remembered the story about heaven and hell and being stuck between them. If I hadn’t seen through the glass door each floor going by in front of me, I would’ve screamed in fright.”
Magd al-Din looked at him in amazement and admiration, and felt genuine warmth toward him. Dimyan continued his family’s story.
“My grandfather went to the church in Asyut, Dayr al-Muharraq, the largest church in Asyut, and brought back the priest who had baptized him as a child. He was a blind man on crutches. But nobody believed him because the priest himself had committed many sins in his youth before he entered the monastery.”
Magd al-Din, honestly wishing to learn, asked, “Is it necessary for a person to be baptized young?”
“It’s more proper. But, no. A person can be baptized any time. Baptism is very
“The only thing you know about me is that I am Dimyan Abd al-Shahid. But I know that you come from a good family and I too come from a good family. My grandfather used to own slaves—no lie. That’s what they say about him in our village, Dayrut. You’re from northern Egypt and I am from southern Egypt. There are many notables from the north and many from the south. And inboth north and south, the poor are of course more numerous. Somebody’s got to take from somebody! Make sense? Do you hear me, Magd al-Din?”
“I hear you,” replied Magd al-Din, as he did every time Dimyan asked him. Dimyan was now passing by every morning to accompany him on their job hunt. On the days without work, which were usually more than the successful days, they would sit at the café by the bridge. Magd al-Din would buy the newspaper and astound Dimyan with news of the German submarines and torpedo boats that blasted the British ships then disappeared like demons into the waters of the Atlantic Ocean. Dimyan learned a lot about Magd al-Din’s life. The most important thing he learned was that Magd al-Din had been exempted from military service because he had memorized the Quran.
Dimyan was now calling Magd al-Din “Sheikh.” He once told him in jest that there was no law exempting those who memorized the Bible from military service. Then he laughed, “But who could memorize the Bible?”
Every time they met, Dimyan would tell Magd al-Din something about his life until the story was rounded out. He told him that one day, out of the blue, one of the village people announced that Mr. Baskharun was an infidel. Baskharun was Dimyan’s grandfather, not the great-great-grandfather who had owned slaves. Why was Mr. Baskharun an infidel? The accuser said that as a child, he had not been baptized. The truth was that there was a dispute between two families over a piece of land, and one of the adversaries was able to spread that rumor about Mr. Baskharun.
“What is baptism, Dimyan?”
“Baptism means becoming Christian. Without it a man stays in limbo, between heaven and hell.”
“That means nobody holds him accountable?”
“Exactly.”
Magd al-Din smiled and said, “How can that be bad for the person?”
“Of course it can. Don’t ask me how. But it’s a very difficult situation. I don’t know exactly the nature of the difficulty, but I feel it. It’s like falling off a mountain but never landing anywhere. You remain suspended in space, in total emptiness, neither hot norcold, not even air of any kind. Do you know, Sheikh Magd al-Din, that that happened to me once?”
“You stood between heaven and hell?”
“Yes. I felt it when I rode an elevator. Only one time in my life I rode an elevator in a building in Manshiya. I was cleaning the roof of the building. It was very hard work. The roof was a pigsty. I couldn’t go down the stairs. Can you imagine? I was too exhausted. Anyway, I stepped into the elevator and pressed the button. It went down so fast that I felt I was in a place that had been emptied out completely. I remembered the story about heaven and hell and being stuck between them. If I hadn’t seen through the glass door each floor going by in front of me, I would’ve screamed in fright.”
Magd al-Din looked at him in amazement and admiration, and felt genuine warmth toward him. Dimyan continued his family’s story.
“My grandfather went to the church in Asyut, Dayr al-Muharraq, the largest church in Asyut, and brought back the priest who had baptized him as a child. He was a blind man on crutches. But nobody believed him because the priest himself had committed many sins in his youth before he entered the monastery.”
Magd al-Din, honestly wishing to learn, asked, “Is it necessary for a person to be baptized young?”
“It’s more proper. But, no. A person can be baptized any time. Baptism is very
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