For the importance of this example, I am correcting here the mistake and elaborate more on the novel and its significance.
Firstly...The title is officially translated to "Children of our Alley"
In the Alley there are the following characters:
Jabalawi: symbolizes God and his eternity.
Jabalawi House: (The Big House: symbolizes Heaven and God Throne)
The Alley symbolizes the Universe
Kandil: symbolizes Jibril or Gabriel
Adham: symbolizes Adam
Kadri: Adham's son symbolizes Cain
Idris: symbolizes Iblis or Satan
Jabal: symbolizes Moses
Rafa'ah: symbolizes Jesus Christ
Kasim: symbolizes Mohamed
Sadiq: symbolizes Mohamed friend and companion Abu Baker Al Seddiq
Arafah: symbolizes knowledge or science - not related to the sons...(Jabal, Rafa'ah or Kasim}yet each one claims he is his. However he is influenced by Idris and his descendants..
He is also Jabalawi's Killer.
In plot sequence:
Jabalawi has built a mansion in an oasis in the middle of a barren desert; his estate becomes the scene of a family feud which continues for generations. "Whenever someone is depressed, suffering or humiliated, he points to the mansion at the top of the alley at the end opening out to the desert, and says sadly, 'That is our ancestor's house, we are all his children, and we have a right to his property.
Jabalawi by choosing his younger son, Adham, to oversee the estate, rather than the eldest son of his first wife, Idris opened wide conflict between the two sons. Idris explodes in such a jealous rage that he is expelled from the house and family, and becomes a thief. He had previously raped a servant, who bore him a daughter.
Adham as Jabalawi's favorite son manages the estate and gets married. And before his wife gives birth, Idris tricks him into disobeying their father, so he too is expelled from home and family. He builds a shack on the outer wall of the garden, and forever dreams of going back inside. He and his wife have twin boys, who grow up in the alley.
The couple go on to raise the two sons, one of whom accidentally slays the other in an argument, and they spend their remaining days in misery. On his deathbed, however, Adham receives a promise from Jabalawi that Adham's children will inherit the estate. Their surviving son, having left his parents' home years earlier, returns with his wife, the daughter of Idris, and their children. From them are descended all the people of the alley.
Jabal, Rafa'ah and Kasim, follow. Each established a just society.
Like Adham, they have the blessing of Jabalawi, who communicates with them, either in person, or through a servant. He remains holed up in his house and garden, and doesn't communicate with anyone else.
Jabal is the first of Jabalawi's descendants to receive his message that the residents of the alley have equal right to the estate, and he leads the first successful uprising against corruption and mob rule. A period of universal prosperity returns, but, sadly, it is not long before the cycle of abuse resumes, interrupted only by the occasional interventions of one of Jabalawi's descendants.
Rafa'ah works in his father's carpentry shop, until he starts to exorcize evil spirits from people, so that they may lead happy lives. He acquires a following of reprobates, whose lives are changed.
The girl across from his parents' home is caught in adultery, and to spare her honor and her life, he marries her.
He teaches his followers that in a society in which one either clubs, or is clubbed, it's better to die than to kill.
Of course, he gets killed, but Jabalawi takes his body into the garden for burial. After his death there are two clans, Jabal and Rafa'ah, which each fight one another ferociously in the alley.
Kasim suffers for his ideals and love to Jabalawi and his family. He was raised by one of his uncles who taught him the trading business. He married a wealthy woman who was older than him, loved him and believed in him.
He was not happy with the corruption that controlled the Alley, and tried to convince people to quit their criminal acts and follow a clean path.
But he was faced with tough hardship on him, so he retreats from the Alley before he brought back justice for all, men and women, slaves and free, which he did, representing the Hijra, confirming that he stood for the prophet, Mohammed.
Families of each son settle in different parts of the alley, symbolizing Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
The book symbolizes the story of creation of Jabalawi (God) to his village(Heaven) and filling it with sons, starting with Adham (Adam - Jabalawi favourite son), and the rebellion of Idris (Iblis-Satan), which led Jabalawi to kick him out of the Village.
Idriss succeeds in causing Adham be driven out f the Village, so the eternal struggle between Adham and Idriss begins.
The protagonist of the book's fifth section is Arafa , who symbolizes modern science and, significantly, comes after all prophets, while all of their followers claim Arafah as one of their own.
This novel together with Mahfouz's Trilogy, were the basics which considered essential for the author to win the Nobel Price.
The Trilogy is another amazing novel of three series:
In this controversial classic that nearly cost him his life, Mahfouz addresses human suffering, the never-ending battle between good and evil, and God's mysterious ways.
Mahfouz wanted to show that humans are cursed to forget the lessons of the past and forced to relearn them continually through hardship.
The book was banned throughout the Arab world, except in the Lebanon. In the 1960s, Mahfouz further developed its theme that humanity is moving further away from God in his existentialist novels. In The Thief and the Dogs (1961) he depicted the fate a Marxist thief, who has been released from prison and plans revenge. Ultimately he is murdered in a cemetery.
Sami Cherkaoui
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