Name : Nurhidayati

NIM : 082407

Class : VI E

Layla and Majnun

Characters in the novel:

- Sayyid : head of the Arab tribe of Bani Umar, Qays’ father, a wealth,
power, and prestige man

- Qays : handsome, has an large eyes, and dark-haired, became the center of
attention and admiration, he is the lover.

- Layla :a beautiful girl, has black hear and eyes, who loves Qays

- Layla’s parents : who doesn’t agree with Qays

- a traveler : a great man who delivered what Qays said to people

- Amar : a brave man who want to help Qays to get Layla

- Ibn Salam : Layla’s husband

The synopsis

The story begins with the Sayyid, a man of wealth, power, and prestige, desiring a
son and heir. He importunes Allah, who grants his request. The beauty of his son Qays
"grew to perfection. As a ray of light penetrates the water, so the jewel of love shone
through the veil of his body." At the age of ten, Qays goes to school and meets his
kismet/fate, Layla. "Does not 'Layl' mean 'night' in Arabic? And dark as the night was the
color of her hair." Love struck them both; others noticed, tongues wagged, and Qays first
tastes bitterness. He refrains from seeing her, but his heart breaks and he begins to slip
into melancholy. Layla's tribe, to protect her (and their) honor, deny her right to see him,
and he falls into madness: "A madman he became -- but at the same time a poet, the harp
of his love and of his pain."

In time Majnun runs away into the wilderness, becoming unkempt, not knowing
good from evil. His father takes him on pilgrimage to Mecca, to seek God's help in
freeing him, but Majnun strikes the Kaaba and cries "none of my days shall ever be free
of this pain. Let me love, oh my God, love for love's sake, and make my love a hundred
times as great as it was and is!" He continues to wander "like a drunken lion," chanting
poems of Layla's beauty and his love. Many come to hear him. Some write down the
poems he spontaneously speaks.

Meanwhile, Layla holds their love quietly so none will know. she lived between
the water of her tears and the fire of her love, . . .

Yet her lover's voice reached her. Was he not a poet? No tent curtain was woven
so closely as to keep out his poems. Every child from the bazaar was singing his verses;
every passer-by was humming one of his love-songs, bringing Layla a message from her
beloved, . . .

Refusing suitors, she writes answers to his poems and casts them to the wind.

It happened often that someone found one of these little papers, and guessed the
hidden meaning, realizing for whom they were intended. Sometimes he would go to
Majnun hoping to hear, as a reward, some of the poems which had become so
popular. . . .
Thus many a melody passed to and fro between the two nightingales, drunk with
their passion.

Eventually Layla is married to another, but refuses conjugality. Being in love, her
husband accepts her condition of an outward marriage only. Majnun learns of the
marriage and of her faithfulness. Neither his father nor his mother, when near death, can
induce him to return to his people. Wild animals, loving rather than fearing him,
congregate in his presence, protecting him. One night Majnun prays to Allah, thanking
Him for making him the pure soul he now is and asking God's grace. He sleeps, and in
his dream a miraculous tree springs from the desert, from which a bird drops a magic
jewel onto his head, like a diadem.

An old man, Zayd, helps Layla and Majnun to exchange letters and finally to
meet, though she cannot approach him closer than ten paces. Majnun spontaneously
recites love poetry to her, and at dawn they go their separate ways.

After the death of Layla's husband, she openly mourns her love for Majnun, and
dies shortly thereafter. Majnun hears of her death and, mad with grief, repeatedly visits
her tomb. He dies and is buried beside his beloved.

"Majnun Dies on Layla's Tomb," Bihzad

In a dream, Zayd, who tends their joint grave, has a vision of them in paradise,
where an ancient soul tells him:

These two friends are one, eternal companions. He is Majnun, the king of the
world in right action. And she is Layla, the moon among idols in compassion. In the
world, like unpierced rubies they treasured their fidelity affectionately, but found no rest
and could not attain their heart's desire. Here they suffer grief no more. So it will be until
eternity. Whoever endures suffering and forebears in that world will be joyous and
exalted in this world.

On waking Zayd realized that

Whoever would find a place in that world must tread on the lusts of this world.
This world is dust and is perishable. That world is pure and eternal. . . . Commit yourself
to love's sanctuary and at once find freedom from your ego. Fly in love as an arrow
towards its target. Love loosens the knots of being, love is liberation from the vortex of
egotism. In love, every cup of sorrow which bites into the soul gives it new life. Many a
draft bitter as poison has become in love delicious. . . . However agonizing the
experience, if it is for love it is well.