Qader was once a source of religious and humanistic learning in his village. A violent confrontation in prison leaves him paralysed and dependent on help from others. When he meets Dr. Mahmoud, a philosophy professor, their conversations open questions about knowledge, the self and the relationship between body, mind and spirit.
El-Sayed Mahmoud Tarsh builds The Ordeal of Man in the World of Possibility around this encounter. Hope of recovery and the waiting of Qader’s fiancée, Rabab, accompany a broader examination of pride and inner freedom. Physical suffering becomes the starting point for asking what remains within a person’s power when ordinary independence has been lost.