Manifestations of Sufi Heritage and Their Impact on the Formation of the Novelistic Event in the Works of Ahmad Ibrahim al-Faqih:The Character of the Righteous Saint as a Model

Abstract

Sufism has exerted a significant influence on the formation of the Arabic experimental
novel, particularly among the generation of the 1970s, who, in the aftermath of the 1967
defeat, were impelled to construct strange and fantastical fictional worlds. This influence is
evident in their literary texts, which are grounded in a religious sensibility that prevailed
across much of the Islamic and Arab world. Such sensibility was manifested in an excessive
belief in the miracles (karāmāt) attributed to saints (awliyāʾ) and in their supernatural
capacities—whether living or deceased—capacities that were at times perceived as surpassing
even the miracles of the prophets. This outlook was consolidated by representations of these
saints embedded in popular memory, emphasizing their asceticism, piety, scrupulous
devotion, moral rectitude, and commitment to religious worship. It was further reinforced by
their reputed seclusion, dedication to the remembrance of God (dhikr), and ascetic retreat in
remote locations where the practical conditions of their subsistence remained unknown to the
public. Moreover, this perception was strengthened by the widespread illiteracy and ignorance
that prevailed as a consequence of successive periods of colonial rule, during which a
common popular conviction held that such saints possessed the power to confer benefit or
inflict harm. Within this framework, the saint residing in a village or town—or whose shrine
was located there—functions as an mediator between the community and the divine, serving
as an intercessor and savior in both worldly life and the hereafter: through his blessings
illnesses are cured and afflictions alleviated; through his intercession rain descends in times of
drought, and barren women are enabled to conceive.
This study seeks to trace the manifestations of Sufi heritage in a selected corpus of novels
by the late Libyan writer Ahmad Ibrahim al-Faqih, with the aim of elucidating the extent to which his narrative practice is shaped by that heritage through the deployment of the character
of the righteous saint (walī ṣāliḥ), and of examining the impact of this character on the
development of the novelistic action in which it is embedded.
Keywords:(Sufi heritage – the personality of the saint – the miracles of the saints – Ahmed
Ibrahim al-Faqih – the narrative event)