Abdellah’s isolation rule for David

Abdellah’s isolation rule for David is a personal prohibition that turns grief into a strict boundary of proximity and contact. As Anouar explains it, David must not come near Abdellah, share his cup or plate, touch anything he has touched, or let their shadows cross. The rule is presented not as a cultural custom but as Abdellah’s way of keeping apart from David for the time being; its immediate force lies in that separation, while its eventual end remains uncertain.

The Rule and Its Terms

The prohibition reaches beyond ordinary avoidance. Abdellah forbids David from coming anywhere near him, and the restrictions Anouar relays govern several kinds of contact at once: they cannot drink from the same cup or eat from the same plate; neither can touch what the other has touched; even their shadows must not meet. The language makes separation comprehensive, extending from bodies to objects and their traces. It does not describe a general rule imposed on everyone at the quarry; Anouar specifically presents it as a restriction Abdellah has placed on David and himself.

The rule is also reciprocal in its stated terms. David cannot touch what Abdellah has touched, and Abdellah cannot touch what David has touched. That symmetry does not erase the imbalance in the scene: Abdellah is the person who has forbidden David’s approach, and David learns the terms through Anouar rather than directly from Abdellah. The prohibition therefore governs their contact while also keeping them from speaking to one another about it in the exchange shown.

The Quarry Encounter

The rule is disclosed at Mirzan quarry, during the visit to the scarred red-rock workings at Hmor Lagdad. The men have gathered around tea, and David is among them when Anouar gently draws him away. The explanation is delivered quietly, out of the others’ hearing. In a scene organized around gathering and shared refreshment, the prohibition makes the cup and plate markers of a closeness David is not permitted to share with Abdellah. Anouar’s quiet aside also means the rule is conveyed privately rather than announced to the group.

David responds by wondering whether Abdellah is mad or acting from grief. He asks Anouar directly whether the separation is a custom. Anouar answers that it is not: it is simply Abdellah’s way right now, and it will pass. The distinction matters. The restriction is not presented as a fixed practice that can explain itself through communal tradition; the account identifies it as an individual response, temporary in Anouar’s expectation but still binding in the moment.

Meaning and Limits

The passage links the rule to bereavement without making its cause certain. David considers grief as one possible explanation, but this is his thought, not a confirmed account from Abdellah. Anouar supplies the clearest description of the prohibition’s status—personal rather than customary—and predicts that it will pass, but the scene gives no direct explanation from Abdellah himself. His reason should therefore remain unresolved rather than being treated as an established motive.

The prohibition’s careful reach gives visible form to a relationship under strain: distance is enforced not only by keeping the two men apart but by excluding shared objects, touch, and even overlapping shadows. Yet the scene does not establish how long the rule lasts, whether David complies in every respect, or what later changes it. Anouar’s reassurance offers a possible limit to the separation, not proof that it has already ended. The rule is significant precisely as a temporary, personal boundary whose terms are explicit while its emotional cause and eventual outcome remain only partly known.