A Glimpse into the Life of Mustafa Mahmud

on Monday, September 23, 2013

Mustafa Mahmud was a famous Egyptian scientist, as well as, an author. He was born on the 25th  of December, 1921. His place of birth is called Shibin-el-kom that is located in Minufiya province in Egypt. He got medical training, but he did not end up becoming as a doctor. In fact, he became an author and also a journalist later in life. As an author, he wrote many subjects and discussed different matters and phenomena. He was very fond of exploring new places, and thus spent a lot of time travelling from place to place.

Mustafa Mahmud belonged to a middle-class family. His father worked as a secretary in the province of Al Gharbiyya. He had a great personality and a very strong character. He was a very religious man and used to offer the five prayers daily. He was a man of extraordinary patience and good behavior and provided a perfect example of a good human being. Mustafa Mahmud’s early life was very calm and peaceful, and he had never witnessed any acts of violence. It is hard to believe that in primary school, he failed consecutively for three years. He had nothing against his school until his Arabic teacher beat him in class one day. After this incident, he got extremely angry and left school in retaliation. He got back to that school eventually after that the teacher was taken out of that school and put into another one.

When he was little, Mustafa Mahmud used to get sick a lot, and he could not play with the other kids of his age or do much exertion. Thus, he spent most of his time in isolation, during which he used to think about his future. He always wanted to become a scientist or a discoverer. Even his role models were Louis Pasteur, Christopher Columbus, Marconi and Thomas Edison. As Mustafa Mahmud used to live in Tanta next to the mosque of Sayyid Al Badawi, he used to attend a lot of religious events and celebrations, as well as, recitals that used to take place in the mosque. This had a great impact on his psychology and helped to create his innovative personality. When Mustafa Mahmud had finished school, he was thinking of joining the faculty of medicine, but in 1939, his father passed away who had been suffering from paralysis for the past seven years. After some time, Mustafa Mahmud along with his family moved to Cairo. After the death of his father, he felt that he was under a lot of pressure as he was supposed to support his family then. He felt like his life was being controlled by other people instead of himself, and thus got really frustrated and confused.

After Mahmud’s medical studies started, he started getting more ambitious about science and knowledge. The medical study was really difficult, and it needed a lot of hard work, stamina and devotion. He was really inspired by his love for science and finding the logic behind the universal mysteries, but he could not really focus on his studies as much as was required because he used to get ill a lot and thus used to stay in bed most of the time. When he was in the third year of medical, he got really sick and got admitted in hospital for two years. Although this was a setback for his career in medical, he availed this time to read books and thus found out that he had a great tendency to be a writer.

Mustafa Mahmud travelled a lot in his life. He travelled to many places, starting his journey with Sudan where he stayed with the tribe of Niam Niam for two months. He also went to Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya. When he went to Sahara Desert, he stayed with the tribe of El Tawariq for two months, in the oasis of Ghadamis. He also travelled to the capitals of American and European countries such as France, Italy, Germany, Canada, Greece and the United States. Furthermore, he travelled to the Arab countries including Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Morocco, Syria and Lebanon.

Let’s take a look at Mustafa Mahmud’s marriage life. He got married twice, but both marriages failed. He got married in 1961, and he had two children, then the marriage ended in 1973. He got married again in 1983, but it also came to an end in 1987. The reason behind these divorces is that he was more passionate about writing than anything else in his life. After his second marriage failure, he devoted himself completely to working as a writer, a Muslim scholar and a thinker. He built a mosque in Al Dukki as a part of the Islamic Center, and stayed in the apartment that was attached to this mosque. From this point onwards, he became very satisfied with his life as he could work, as well as, maintain his link with God. He started finding the cure to different physical, physiological and psychological diseases. After spending a very peaceful and meaningful life, Mustafa Mahmud passed away on 1st November, 2009. He was found unconscious in his apartment. The medics tried to revive him, but he was already dead at that time. He died at the age of 88.



View the
Original article

0 comments: