The Prophet's Hair

At a very young age I can look back and remember sitting in the aisle pew of the great Catholic Church and wondering what the hell the priest was talking about. Even at such a young age I quickly learned of the misleading concepts and often blind beliefs that one must endure for religion to make sense. From personal experience the Catholic religion is full of misleading gospels and often contradictory fables. Born and raised in a technology and industry driven world directly conflicts with the orthodox and often extreme lifestyle of a devout catholic. Today as a society we are raised to strive to better ourselves, often for material and social gains, while in most religions this is viewed as sacrilege.

The fable of “The Prophet’s Hair” could be viewed as having many meanings but one includes satirizing the Islamic faith and the Quran through the story of Hashim and Sheikh Sin. The life changing event that creates the basis for this short parable is the lucky discovery of a silver vial said to contain one of the Prophet Muhammad’s only known hairs. The great moneylender Hashim sees this as a great and lucky sign and keeps this great symbol of faith as his own, sharing it only with his son. Almost immediately the great Hashim and his family begin to experience the effects of possessing an item that symbolizes the image of an entire faith. Hashim openly violates the trust and care of the entire family and over the time of a few days radically alters the lifestyle of the household, radically charging in a purely orthodox direction. He forces the house to take part in daily readings of the Quran and his business becomes increasingly violent towards people late in their repayment.

The idea of possessing an icon of an entire religion and its effects on a single family help to illustrate the idea of religion is more of a guide to help people lead a better life, not to believe in it blindly and without some moral questioning. The general carnage is the direct result of the family forgetting the genuine importance of the icon as an icon for all. The good luck that Hashim seeks is simply shown to be unobtainable by possessing such a powerful religious icon and more likely to be obtained through living a life filled with proper moral choices virtuous actions. Religion must be viewed as and interpreted as guidelines and it may have a positive impact on one’s life, but as is evident is so many of today’s extreme religious factions, blindly following without question leads to death and carnage. The fable of Hashim and his family help to illustrate this very important point.