THE NEW PROPHET comes to do exactly the opposite: to delve into the murky, even dark, depths of the world in which he lived and wrote his testimony, his new gospel. In this book, THE DIVINE BEING PHANTOM exposes what he has witnessed, seen and experienced in the company of a young boy whom he elected to protect, to guide and to instruct. When that boy was still a baby, a Maghribiyya soothsayer told his mother that he had been blessed by Christ, Son of Mary, and would be able “when he raises his eyes into space to see what cannot not be seen.”

The boy, just like Jubran, came from the mountains of Syria and travelled as a young man to a land called Frankistan, or Franjestan, in search of knowledge. Before his departure, The Divine Phantom Being reveals himself to him and tells him that he will accompany him wherever he wants to go, always guiding and protecting him. Inspired by that Divine Being who has kept an eye on him throughout his travels and sojourns, the young man keeps a Grand Book in which he inscribes and finds inscribed his intimate, inner thoughts, feelings, dreams, anguish, frustrations and anger. The vision that is revealed in the interlacing fusion of these two figures, the disciple and his Master and beloved, represents one of the most fundamental radical critiques of life in the societies of that Frankistan world that displays the highest degree of arrogance, self-grandiose, lust for power, domination, hegemony, and enslavement of others, accompanied by spiritual emptiness and moral bankruptcy, ever experienced by any prophet in any age.

However, together with the piercing critique, the New Prophet speaks directly to these communities and reveals to them, in magical, beautiful, spiritually transcendent pieces of poetic creation, that which is most sublime in his own self and his own cultural heritage, as well as that to which human beings need to aspire in order to create a nobler, exalted, rewarding and humane life. He condemns in powerful, painful language, their destruction of nature and their continued efforts to exploit it to fulfil their selfish desires for material enrichment while pretending to be striving to protect the Earth from destruction and its inhabitants from extinction.

A book that may be unique in content, written in two languages, some sections in English and some in Arabic, with no translations, and sometimes mixing the two effortlessly. It is enunciated by two voices which often entwine to present a vivid, enchanting vision, doing so with a degree of courage that is hard to come by in these darkest and most oppressive of times.

يعرّي النبيّ الجديد زيفَ ادعاءات جزر الفرنكستان بأنها تقدّس الديمقراطية والحرية والعدالة والمساواة والأخوة، التي ترفع شعاراتها ليل نهار، ويفنّد تبجّحها بأنها تؤمن بحرية الرأي والكلام والتعبير والمعتقد والدين، وأنها ترفض العنصرية العرقية، ويجلو متاجرتها بهذه الشعارات لتنفيذ مخطّطاتها للسيطرة والنهب في مختلف مجالات الوجود الإنساني. ويدين صوتُ النبي الجديد انهيار القيم الأخلاقية والفكرية، والخواءَ الروحي، في هذه المجتمعات، كما يكشف شهوتها للهيمنة على العالم ولاستغلال الآخرين واستعبادهم، ويدين تدميرها للطبيعة بكل أبعادها من أقاصي الفضاء إلى أعماق الأرض وأغوار المحيطات. وبهذا وأكثر منه يجسّد نقداً جذرياً للحياة والمؤسّسات والبنى الاجتماعية والأنظمة السياسية في هذه البلدان ويبرز تفسّخ الروابط بين البشر فيها وتشظّيها، ثم يتنبّأ بانهيارها كما تنبّأ مفكرون وشعراء بارزون من أوزفالد شبنغلر إلى ت س إليوت بانحطاط الغرب.

• Author: Prof. Dr. Kamal Abu Deeb
• Publisher: Fadaat Publishing
• Year of Publication: 2024
• Edition: First
• Number of Pages: 280
• Size: 17x24 cm
• Language: Arabic and English
• Category: Literature & Arts