Death without glory

I am a confused individual with mixed beliefs. I am scientifically educated but faithfully raised. I have read and been educated on religious beliefs and yet I find myself questioning my own interpretation every day. Although I cannot say that I faithfully believe, I do however live my life by the moral standards offered by religion. I observe others behavior as personal choice, and in that comes the curses and blessings in life as a personal choice. What I mean is that we live our lives by certain standards, and in that choice, you also choose your outcomes. Salman Rushdie wrote a collection of short stories entitles, “East, West”. Within this anthology is the story “The Prophet’s Hair”. This parable teaches a lesson of greediness and treachery, brought out by the characters moral/immoral decisions.

A family’s shortcomings can be hidden by smiles, but once adversity arises complete failure of the family structure is bound to take place. The father of Atta and Huma, was a moneylender named Hashim. He considers himself to be a divine creature because of his honorable living. The family spoke to each other with “HumHHumhskdjklsajdcourtesy and solicitude on which the family prided itself” (41). But this fairy tale was about to take a turn for the worse. Greed was taking over his life in the form of stolen silver vile containing a thread of hair belonging to the Prophet Muhammad. Hashim was not a religious man, so the hair of Muhhamad did not hold a secular meaning for him.

Although Hashim was not himself the thief, he was guilty of not doing the right thing. He found the vile in the water behind his house and fell in love immediately. At one point he told himself to do the right thing, to return the piece to “equanimity and peace” (43). But it was inevitable; his greed for collecting items overpowered the goodness within him. Not only was he keeping the sacred object, but it was turning him into something ugly. He had lost the love for his family; he was overpowered with all the negative thoughs and feelings he had been hiding. The reality of the religious item he held in his hands caused him to confess horrible truths to his family. He told his wife of hate and infidelity. He shunned his children, burned his books and became religiously enthralled.

In a bout of desperation Atta and Huma both sought out a thief to steal their fathers holy possession, to return him to the man he once was. The thief was also a disturbed man. He crippled his four sons to ensure they had a future in begging, and was willing to leave them once he had committed this act. His face held a scar representing the word sin. His life was simple. Steal to live and live to steal. Why work when you can take what others posses? But this religious symbol would be the end to his thieving days. It would be the end to Hashim’s collecting days as well. As the burglar went about his business, Hashims son was slowly dying in a coma one room over. In his fit of death he screamed “Thief, Thief, Thief!”(54). Hashim woke up and raced out of his room sword in hand, He didn’t realize that the thief was watching over him, and his precious vile was disappearing. The tretchery that follows the parting of the vile is disastorous. A whole family is disroyed in the blink of an eye. As Atta lies dead, Hashim stabs his daughter thinking it is the burglar. Once he sees what he has done he turns the sword of himself, leaving his wife to stew in her losses. She cannot handle the events of the evening and it ends up driving her mad. Huma was smart enough to leave a letter informing the authorities about the thief. He was shot in the stomach trying to escape his home with the vile.

In that small amount of time that the vile was present in their home, the thief’s crippled children were devastated to find they had been cured. And his wife woke up to a sight for sore eyes; she was able to see again. A family that had everything ended up with nothing, and a family that took from others ended up with nothing too. Although being able to walk would be great to most, it took away their source of income. I look at life through my own two eyes. My experience is based on the choices that I make. Hashim choose to live immorally through secrecy. When he was confronted with Muhammad’s hair the dishonesty and treacheries in his life came out. When the thief stole the hair, his dishonesties were fixed, but they still caused treachery to the family. Honesty and morality is the bases of life. You cannot choose your outcomes, but you can walk the path you choose in life.