The Rays of Chastity in the Lyrics of Ibrahim Naji

The subject of love has been a source of inspiration for poets and men of letters as well as a basic element for many literary works in the world and especially in the Oriental literary works. Arabic poets have also placed the subject of love as the progenitor of the seminal and enduring works and have presented different interpretations of it depending on their personality, their life experiences, their thoughts and ideas. The sacred element of chastity among other elements has taken a conspicuous part in the lyrical works of some of the poets. The Arabic poetry has been familiar with sonnets about chastity in the works of poets like Antarah Ibn Shaddad ‘Absi since the pre-Islamic period and one could smell the exhilarating sweet odor of chastity in the poetry of a majority of Arabic poets in the post-Islamic period. With the emergence of Romantic poets, the trace of chastity could also become conspicuously visible in the lyrics and works of love in the contemporary period. Ibrahim Naji is one of the Egyptian Romantic Poets who has devoted a majority of the themes on love and the lovely sayings. But what makes his love poems remarkable and demanding is the fact that it is decorated with the chastity beauty. Naji’s mystic lovely lyrics are never outside the circle of chastity steps and are mainly of mystic and Sufis nature. The present article, apart from delineating the concept of love in Naji’s poems, aims at presenting the brilliant reflection of chastity along with its various dimensions, in the mystic lovely lyrics of this poet who has been devotedly in love with the Egyptian contemporary poetry.