The Fall of the Imam by Nawal El Saadawi

occasions he remained close to the Imam. No one in the whole land could possibly distinguish between the two, tell which was the false Imam from the true, except the God of heaven and the Chief of Security. Nevertheless, the Bodyguard never allowed his senses to be lulled into a feeling that all was well. His ears kept turning themselves in all directions so that if at any moment he perceived what might resemble the sound of bullets being fired from a gun, he could immediately throw himself in front of the Imam and with his body intercept whatever bullet was destined for the One and Only Ruler. Thus he would die with that feeling of sublime happiness accorded only to he who has chosen to die a martyr for a great cause, who knows that the key to Paradise hanging around his neck will serve him well, and that all he will have to do is insert it in the door and enter, upon which he will find himself in the presence of the Prophet and the other martyrs who have arrived before him. He would also die happy in the knowledge that after death his wife, promoted to the status of Widow of the Great Martyr, would be provided with a special double pension and decorated with an Order of the Third Degree.
    On the servant list our man was officially described as the Bodyguard. Only people with unique qualities could aspire to occupy this very special post, which entailed great risks and was very important since it required total devotion and loyalty to the Imam and complete faith in him. It was clear that such qualities could only be found in someone who had abandoned all use of his mind or who did not possess a capacity for reasoning at all. It had to be so since any attempt to think could lead to hesitation, and hesitation, even if only for a moment, could mean the end of the Imam. Once a bullet was fired, if the Bodyguard was slow in throwing himself forwards to intercept it with his body, the greatest of catastrophes would ensue. A complete lack of any capacity to think was therefore considered the first and foremost requisite in whoever applied for the post.
    The Imam himself chose his Bodyguard. The applicants were made to stand in a line as he sat on his swinging canopy in the palace gardens. The choice was made after careful testing of the applicants’ brain cells, and the results were registered on a sheet of the whitest paper. Any mark or black dot on the paper could immediately arouse doubt as to the applicant’s suitability, since it would signify that one of the cells in his brain was still functioning.
    ‘Are you prepared to die for the Imam?’
    ‘Yes, with the greatest of happiness.’
    All of them said yes. There was not a single no. But the Imam did not trust what people said. He believed only in the electronic apparatus which alone was capable of distinguishing between truth and lies. It was a difficult test, and only one person in a million could hope to succeed in passing it. After testing of the brain came testing of the body, and this was no less difficult. Many things had to be tested. The capacity of the ear to stretch and strain itself to the full so as to hear the sound of the bullet before it was fired from the gun. The capacity of the body to encounter death and to take on the form and consistency of the Imam’s body so that the two became indistinguishable. The agility required to drop suddenly and die, without drawing anybody’s attention to what was happening or giving anyone the slightest chance to realize that a bullet had been fired from a gun, especially as the sound was usually muffled by the use of one of those modern devices fitted to guns used in assassinating leaders. Besides, the acclamations of the crowd were so high that they made it impossible to hear the gun being fired even if it did make a sound. ‘God is with you,’ they cried.
    The Imam lifted his face to the sky and fixed his attention on it, his mind straying for a moment from what was happening on earth. But in this split second of