Aisha Descends to the Underworld

In “Aisha Descends to the Underworld,” Buthaina Al-Essa seeks to highlight the interconnected relationship between life and death, the worldly and the afterlife, in a different perspective on time. It is the story of a mother who lost her son and wanted to keep his memory alive after he died a tragic death. There is nothing more painful than losing a loved one, and nothing more horrific than the gradual fading of his memory. How could it be if death was by drowning, right in front of her eyes? After the tragic death of her child, the mother refuses to accept the idea of ​​life after him, so she decides to descend into the underworld through writing. On her way to the underworld, she must pass through seven gates, and now she is crossing the seventh gate, on the threshold of her final departure. She sees nothingness flashing and radiating, absorbing her soul. But there is a condition for entering this world: she must shed her most obvious wound—her son and his memory. Can a mother be outside this wound? “Aisha (the laws of the underworld were carefully and completely formulated, so no Discuss, Aisha, the rituals of the netherworld. Your child is your pain, your pain is you. The wound now has your face, your name, and your panting breath. The beholder does not know where your wound begins and your scream ends. You cling to the ropes of your tears as if they are your salvation. You clothe yourself in your eternal sorrow and hurt the world with your pain. The universe cannot be your victim, Aisha. Remove your wound, kiss it between the eyes and release it, free its precious ghost and allow it to depart. All the relationships you left behind in the previous six gates were to prepare you for this one. None of them compare to this one in weight and density. Salvation will not be written for you except by transcending yourself. Be filled with love, Aisha, and set its spirit free. What are you now? “A pure spirit.” And now Aisha admits that for the first time in her life… For the first time in my life, I have been able to be myself, without being a wife, a mother, or a daughter, without being anything other than what I am, a pure spirit. My sense of my spiritual truth is very strong, and I don’t need to die to feel that… So let me stop writing and go experience the world….” And after “Aisha Descends to the Underworld,” a novelistic work that entails a great effort on the level of language, discourse, techniques, and connotations, and perhaps it is greater than the story requires, which in return requires an effort in reading.