It
was the circumstances or destiny… or even coincidence that was behind my acquaintance,
closeness or friendship to whom I think are the stars of the time period of my
life… as I knew Mr. Muhammed Ouda and was close to him… I knew Mr. Kamel
Zoheiri and became a close friend or even a sticking one to him for many years…
I knew Mr. Mahmoud es-Sa’adani, was close to him and for long time we were so
close that I only separated from him during his sleeping hours while he was in the
UAE… I knew Mr. Ahmed Bahaa ed-Din and met him several times and the relation between
us became more than an acquaintance and a little bit less than friendship…
I
was also imprisoned in one cell with Mr. Philip Gallab, Hussain Abdel-Razeq,
Youssef Sabri, Muhammed Salmawi, Muhammed Youssef el-Gendy, Ahmed Fouad Negm,
Zohdi el-Adawi… and during the period from 1974 until he left our world, I knew
Mr. Muhammed Hassanien Heikal and was close to him… we also had common things
and pains that sometimes reached severe reprimand and other times sincere
amity.
And
due to my work in journalism and my political and thought interests, I went so
close to Mr. Salah ed-Din Hafez, Mr. Muhammed Sayed Ahmed, Mr. Fahmi Howeidi,
Mr. Gamil Matar, Dr. Sami Mansour, Mr. Mahmoud Murad… and many others whom I may
not remember right now to mention their names… some of those I mentioned made a
lot of favors to me… some lent me money when I was totally broke… some invited
me to eat when fava beans and Falafel was the most I may dream of eating…
others offered me drink when beer was the most I may wish for.
Some
of my friends and colleagues push me to write a book about all these acquaintances
that represent part of Egypt cultural and social history, especially that those
relations lasted for long time… moreover, they also included aspects of
thought, culture, sincere friendship, passion, satire… there were also disputed
issues started from joking and reached to the criticizing attacking articles.
In
the last ten years, or even 2 or 3 years more, I knew Mr. Es-Sayed Yassin from
a distance… as many of his students or those who worked with him were my
friends and colleagues… then our acquaintance developed to quick discussions in
the meetings gathering both of us until there was an incident that started the heated
attack between us and which took place in the newspapers… as I was invited for
the first and last time by the Coptic Evangelical Organization for a seminar in
Hurghada as I can remember… the opening lecture was of Mr. Es-Sayed Yassin… in
which he talked a lot about globalization mentioning a wealth of information
with tens of foreign names of sources, references, authors and thinkers… then the
audience was allowed to ask and then the dispute between us took place… I will
not repeat what happened again… then we came back and Mr. Yassin wrote an
article in “Al-Qahera” newspaper narrating part of what happened… I then
replied back in “Al-Arabi” newspaper… this heated dialogue in the articles
lasted for two or three weeks… then we stopped until it happened that I discovered
the other side of Mr. Es-Sayed Yassin.
Away
from his sheer persistence to stay updated with all that is modern… and even
the most modern in the world of political and social ideas and the world of IT…
and in addition to his ability to read and digest what he read and then
presenting it to the Arab reader and researcher in an easy-to-grasp way… Mr.
Yassin had a cultural and social eye that goes beyond the common patterns to
discover in no time the precious from the fake… he also enjoyed the ability to
coin his words in a fluid easy-going discourse… adding to all this the Egyptian
way of joking and sometimes bitter satire… I have not seen him exceeding this limit
for once in any time I met or listened to him… that limit of respecting the
humanity of the other party and keeping his dignity.
It
looked to me that Mr. Yassin hated those people with no talents and loathed
more those half-talented… he did not hesitate to ridicule their talk without
ridiculing them… he also was decisive if someone tried to exceed his limits
with him… especially if he was one of his students who became close to the
ruling power, in particular the circle of the National Democratic Party,
presidency and Mubarak’s “heir”.
He
used to be very meticulous in choosing the words he thought were exceeding
attacking the regime and government into attacking the country and state…
finally but not last, this high-standing man in thought and culture did not
hesitate for a moment to call and present to you – if you were the writer – his
opinion about what you wrote while affirming his respect in a way that makes you
look as if you are the master and he is the student.
May
the liberal Arab-national Egyptian intellectual and thinker Mr. Es-Sayed Yassin
rest in peace.
Translated into English by: Dalia Elnaggar
Translated into English by: Dalia Elnaggar
This article was published in Almasry alyoum newspaper
on March 22, 2017.
To see the original article, go to:
#almasry_alyoum #ahmed_elgammal #es_sayed_yassin
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