In My Library

This is another study, by Mr. Fayez Sayegh, one of the professors of philosophy at the American University of Beirut, whose subject turns on "sectarianism" — its causes, its dangers, and its remedy. It is a study that spares us the need to extol the deep originality and the conscious understanding that adorn it, for Mr. Sayegh has accustomed us, by his earlier studies, to all such praiseworthy qualities.

"Sectarianism," with respect to Lebanon in particular, is one of its thorniest problems — perhaps the thorniest of them all. It runs deep, intensifies, and entangles itself until it touches Lebanon's very existence as an international entity standing on its own. And we, while agreeing with the author in what he has set forth in exposing the corruptions of sectarianism in national life, in government and in society, nevertheless do not rest entirely upon the causes he has tried to find for it in Arab societies. And since we here, in "The Woman's Voice Library," are not in a position of criticism and analysis, we find ourselves obliged to carry this observation no further than this...

How my admiration was stirred by the glorious defense the author made of religion insofar as it is religion, and by his clarification of the separation between it and sectarianism insofar as the latter is a tendency by which groups turn doctrinaire in the conduct of their social and intellectual affairs. And how my admiration was stirred, likewise, by his vindication of religion from the corruptions man commits in its name, laying the blame not upon religion but upon man himself, saying: "Evil does not lie in the nature of religion in itself; rather, evil lies in the depths of man, in one of man's tendencies, which compels him — should it come to dominate his being — to distort religion in realizing it within himself, so that he realizes it contrary to its truth and its nature. Religion, in itself, is innocent of all that issues from man under the sway of this tendency."

I content myself, regretfully, with this observation on this book, and I commend it to the reader, urging him to take up its study thoroughly. The book is among the publications of the al-Wajib Bookshop, and its price is 75 Lebanese piasters.

In my library also is a booklet on "The Palestine Dilemma," written by Mrs. Jaura Wibers, secretary of the Foreign Missions Conference of North America. It has been rendered into Arabic by Dr. Daoud Salman. Its price is one Lebanese lira, allotted to the fund of the Arab National Treasury in Palestine.

Perhaps the booklet's foreword spares us any lengthy talk about it. For it says in this foreword that it is "a voice from America in support of the Arabs — a brief, comprehensive, and fair report of what every Arab must know about the Palestine question."

It is proof enough of the book's value, from this standpoint, that so noble and patriotic a compatriot as Dr. Salman should undertake to render it into Arabic, and that he himself should bear witness to it, saying: "Since this report contains present-day facts and sound information showing a technical point of view among the American people, not yet swept away by Zionist propaganda, we have chosen to render it into Arabic in the service of the Palestine question."

A delightful subject, translated from the French by Hisham Said and printed handsomely by the Islah Press. It runs to one hundred and fifty pages, and its price is two Syrian liras.

In this book are counsels and guidance on the choosing of a husband, of which we girls stand in the direst need, especially in a society which, in large part, does not allow the girl the right of choosing her husband. For that reason mothers and fathers would do well to read it before the girls do...

Perhaps we shall reproduce some of its chapters in coming issues of "The Woman's Voice," to spread its benefit and to encourage its purchase and perusal.

We have known Mr. Anis al-Nusuli as a trusted authority in historical matters. How often he has come forth with valuable studies and important works turning on what has passed over this country and gone by. Today the Kashshaf Bookshop and its press are publishing a book of his whose subject is "My Home, Beirut," treating in brief the rise of the bride of the Near East, from the dawn of history to this day — and that in a personal, guiding style that takes the reader along, so that he emerges from it with a deep attachment to this mighty city and with an ardent desire to serve it and carry it forward.

This is a collection of poetry by the poet Youssef al-Khal. Publishers: Dar al-Kitab — Beirut — second printing.

We leave the space for speaking of it here to our colleague "al-Jumhur," which said, in a long article, the following:

"Were Rihani still among the living, he would step up to the author of 'Freedom,' the poet Youssef al-Khal, and crown him with the wreath of victory, contented and glad at heart. For Rihani, in his book 'You Poets,' called for a poetry with life in it, and spring, and drive... for a poetry issuing from the very heart of the nation, representing its ambition and its vitality... This kind of poetry — if it is proper to sort poetry into kinds — we find in the diwan 'Freedom.'

...When we are in the company of 'Freedom' we step outside the circle of these repeated tunes that have nothing of poetry but meter and rhyme... I say we step outside the circle of these tunes to enter a new circle of poetry, one that accords with our leaping, ambitious life, which looks to tomorrow with the eye of strength and drive, believing in life, believing in its eternal endurance.

The diwan 'Freedom' constitutes a new conquest in the field of poetry; it is the picture of a nation, and the picture of a country, and it is the picture of man absolutely.

And I hope the young will take it up with the appreciation and care it deserves, and I hope they will find in it what they are searching for: a gushing vitality and an inexhaustible human wellspring.

'Freedom' is the gospel of this generation's youth, and no library should be without it. And it is enough for al-Khal that he is on the way..."