in 1982. godine.
In 1982, the novel “Tvrđava” by Selimović was set in the Muslim environment of Sarajevo after the Battle of Hoćim in 1621. The main character is Ahmet Šabo, a war veteran who returns to his hometown to find that his family has all died from a “grave illness”. He struggles to find a job and ends up working as a scribe, where he meets and marries a Christian woman named Tijana. In their mutual love, he finds the strength to endure all the problems and hardships that are no less in peacetime than they were in war. He often engages in inner dialogue and reflects on the relationship between the individual and the authority, the dilemmas of an ordinary person who recognizes injustice and immoral actions by the authorities, yet is aware that he must live in the community.
As the author himself said: “The main character of the novel, Ahmet Šabo, wants to find a bridge to other people, to escape from the fortress because he knows that hatred separates and destroys us, only love will sustain us, or at least the belief that any kind of understanding between individuals and the community is possible. Guided by this belief and desire, he sets out…” personu koja želi da se razumijemo, postoji način da to i realiziramo, samo moramo biti spremni da se otvorimo i iskažemo svoje misli i osjećaje. Bez obzira na vremenske i prostorne okvire, vječne dileme ljudskog postojanja i smisla života ostaju iste. Kroz iskustvo sam naučio da je važno razgovarati o onome što nam nije jasno, jer nam je teško samima sebi objasniti. Druga osoba može nam pomoći razumjeti to što nas muči, jer ima moć prave riječi koja će nam rasvijetliti put ka samospoznaji. Ponekad je teško pronaći tu riječ, ali treba je loviti i prepoznati je u drugima kako bismo je mogli i sami izgovoriti. Slušatelj je poput babice koja pomaže riječima da se rodimo u jasniji pogled na svijet. Ili nešto još važnije. Ako je osoba spremna razumjeti nas, onda će biti naš pravi prijatelj. Prijateljstvo se ne gradi, već nastaje, kao i ljubav. and we have understanding for everyone except our loved ones, we believe that their loyalty naturally belongs to us, like our own skin.
No one regrets their life less than a young man, and afterwards, the older they get and the less reasons they have to live, the more they cling to life.
I wanted to warn him, not only they suffered. There are accidents besides his. The world is full of misfortunes. I know they only concern us, but aren’t others also ours?
A person desires power… Because they live, because they move, because they interact with people. And they want to leave something behind, to create something, so they wouldn’t just exist, like a tree. And it appears to them that they have achieved something, that they are strong and important, that they can do a lot. But God makes them suddenly see, not with these eyes, but with those other, more insightful eyes, that they are just a grain of sand in the unfathomable desert of this world, tiny and insignificant as an ant in an anthill. Do ants desire power? Do they want to be stronger and more significant than others? Do they have their own worries, troubles, sleeplessness, despair?… We don’t see Him [God], because He is elusive for our thoughts, we feel him only when his will manifests itself in something. Even an ant doesn’t see a man in his entirety, because of its size, a man doesn’t exist for an ant, it will only see a finger or a twig, if we block its path, it will feel the disturbance if we destroy its anthill. And a man is smaller compared to the universe than an ant. And why should there only be a man and his way of thinking? The world existed before us, it exists beyond us, it will exist without us… It is impossible to imagine that this cosmic spirit is playing an unworthy game with humans, letting them run through life, coming from nothing and irrevocably going into nothingness. That would be a senseless waste of so much power. It is much more likely, and logical, and less offensive, that the body is mortal and the soul is immortal, the soul is a part of the universal cosmic energy, given to us as a gift, temporarily entrusted to us at birth, which will live its unknown life even after the death of the body, or it will inhabit a newborn, to continue eternal movement. Not even a drop of water is lost, only transformed. change, how can a person lose everything? There must be that life exists according to some higher principle, and not just according to meaninglessness, evil, madness!
Not every will to power is the same. One is the desire to rule over people, to make them submit, to instill fear, to force them to commit acts they would never do without coercion; it is a demand for silence, for obedience without resistance, according to the right of someone’s power. Such a will to power is immoral, it humiliates both the oppressor and the oppressed. Miserable is the one who has felt it himself… A completely different will to power is the one that consists of helping people, that conquers with love, that promotes understanding. This is great power, which all people could learn, and which would make evil impossible. With such power, a person is not a grain of sand, is not unimportant. One cannot speak of whether there is a supreme being, maybe there is, but it is certain that no one will organize our human affairs if we do not organize them ourselves. Waiting for salvation and seeking comfort in some supernatural power, which people often do, is futile. For thousands of years, people have been foolishly acknowledging their hopelessness and making no effort to improve the situation among themselves.