ABSTRACT
The Egyptian of the future is represented by Khadija's two sons. Khadija, the dark-skinned, dark-haired, fat woman with black eyes and a terrible nose, who spits profusely when she speaks, is the happy mother of the story. Najib Mahfuz often constructs his stories in triads, such as Ahmad Abd al-Jawad and his two sons, Yasin and Kamal, Amina and her two daughters, or the two Shaukat brothers and their cousin. In 1957 Najib Mahfuz was awarded in Cairo the State Prize for his Qasr al-shawq, jointly with Muhammad Kamil Husayn, who received his share of the prize for his book Qarya zdlima. Society being thus devoid of conscience looks to the chosen few to supply that conscience,25 and will brook no attempts on the part of these few to shirk their responsibility. Children's duty toward parents is one of the most central Islamic moral concepts, and is expressed by the phrase al-birr bi al-walidayn.
