The Parable Story

A parable is a fictitious story that is used to describe something of greater meaning. In today’s society, the use of parables is not quite as common, but centuries ago, it was one of the most common ways to tell a message.

I have just recently read the story of “The Prophets Hair” written by Salman Rushdied. This story is a very intriguing story that once first read, reminded me a lot of a parable. It starts off with a man named Hashim who by chance finds a piece of hair. This hair happened to be a hair from the famous prophet Mohamed. Now this hair has a home in the mosque and is a very important and priceless item to the religion of Muslim. Hashim had the initial intent to return the hair to its rightful owner and go on with life. As he was stewing over his thought he decided to keep the hair because he is doing a good thing for his religion and the people around him. He likes the fact that he now has possession of a priceless item and wants to keep it all for himself. Mohamed would be proud of him because now people can’t worship an idol in the mosque.

To continue on Hashim brought the hair home and over the next few days, his family starts to experience many misfortunes. The father eventually starts to go crazy; a family that wasn’t very religious all of a sudden over a few days becomes very religious and strict. The father starts to tear the family apart all because this hair came into the home. The brother and sister of the family see that things are horrible now and try hard to get rid of this hair. They try to steal it but fail. Then they hire a thief to steal it but he also fails. Things just continue to keep getting worse for the family even since the moment that Hashim decided to keep the hair.

If we take a look at this story on the level of a parable we see that this has a distinct message in it. Hashim knew that he should have returned the hair to the rightful owner but instead kept it for himself out of selfishness. Yes he thought he was doing the right thing, but these thoughts were from him trying to justify himself. This story has a hidden message of both honesty and selfishness. Because of the fact that Hashim stole the hair and wanted all its glory for himself his life after that point fell to ruin. Honesty is always the best way. Sometimes it is hard to do and sometimes it might hurt others but in the end it is beneficial to both parties. Hashim kept the hair out of selfishness also; he wanted to keep something of value like rich men like to keep priceless paintings. He thought that if he kept it all for himself it would be beneficial to the rest of society. Again because of his actions his family has suffered a lot. The lesson to learn here is that all he had to do was give the priceless possession back to its owner and all would have turned out ok. Honesty is the way to go and don’t let selfishness take control of your thoughts.

Parables like these are important and use as teaching lessons throughout history.  Before there was even writings about them, they were passed down by oral tradition so that the younger generation will grow up and be wise and leaders.