أبي مات شهيدًا في حرب السويس وأنا مجرد نطفة في رحم أمي يا سيدنا الشيخ، ولا أعرف في الدنيا أحدًا غيرهم.
My father died a martyr in the Suez war while I was no more than a seed in my mother's womb, Sheikh; I know no one else in this world but them.
From the novel Days in the Diaspora · Chapter 1
Words of a narrator or a character belong to the novel's world, not to the author's personal views.
Days in the Diaspora
Days in the Diasporaوأحسب أن اليهودي إنسان والصهيوني إنسان آخر، وكان جدي مثلًا حيًا من لحم ودم لليهودي الصالح الذي كفل يتيمًا مسلمًا معوزًا مثلي، ويسر له كل سبل الحياة على قدر ما يستطيع، بل وفضله على غيره من أحفاده الخُلَصّ. جدي الذي لم يفرق بين دينه الذي يحبه ووطنه الذي ولد وتربى فيه، فكلاهما مقدس لديه وواجب الاحترام.
I hold that the Jew is one person and the Zionist another, and my grandfather was a living example in flesh and blood of the righteous Jew who took in a needy Muslim orphan like me, eased every path in life for him as far as he could, and even preferred him over his own full-blooded grandchildren. My grandfather, who never set the religion he loved against the homeland where he was born and raised: both were sacred to him and deserving of respect.
Days in the Diasporaلعلك لا تدري يا جلال أن أهل حيفا بعد أن نزحوا من بيوتهم، اقتحمها اليهود فوجدوا الشاي والقهوة لا تزال مصبوبة في الأقداح.
Perhaps you don't know, Galal, that when the people of Haifa fled their homes, the Jews who broke in found the tea and coffee still poured in the cups.
Days in the Diasporaأنا همي دلوقتي أراضي ربنا إزاي.. وعلشان ترتاح هقولك حاجة بسيطة بسيطة عرفوها وقالوها من زمن ولاد البلد بتوعنا الطيبين، ولما يأذن لك ربنا وترجع مصر يبقى امشي في أي مولد وللا لمة ناس هتسمعهم بودانك وهُمَّه بيقولوا: موسى نبي وعيسى نبي ومحمد نبي، وكل اللي له نبي يصلي عليه..
All I care about now is how to please my Lord. And to set your mind at rest I'll tell you something simple, something our good plain folk back home have known and said for ages: when God allows you to go back to Egypt, walk into any mulid or any gathering and you'll hear them with your own ears saying: Moses is a prophet, Jesus is a prophet, Muhammad is a prophet, and whoever has a prophet, let him pray for him.