A Parable with Power

I had never heard of Salman Rushdie until a week ago. I had however heard of the book “The Satanic verses” but never found the desire to actually read it. When I learned the writings of Salman Rushdie brought him a fatwa including a $5 million bounty on his head, I thought: now wait a minute, how can the mere words of an author cause such an upheaval, surely his work is worth checking out. And so I picked up “East, West” expecting a smack of blasphemy to manifest in a rather offensive form, but what I found instead was a well written parable illustrating important moral and religious lessons. I found that his writing may be interpreted in many different ways depending of course on the reader, but perhaps one can open their eyes to a great deal from the satirist writings of the Indian Author Salman Rushdie.

The story “The prophet’s Hair” is one of several stories in a book titled “East, West” by Salman Rushdie. The story is about the theft of a relic containing a single hair of the Prophet Muhammad which is encased in a silver vial. In the story the relic is stolen and found by a man named Hashim. Instead of returning the relic it to the mosque where it rightly belongs (a sacred place), Hashim decides to keeps it for himself a to place it amongst his collection of other, well stuff (A secular place) . Though Hashim is convinced that it is the silver vial he wishes to have rather than the hair, the relic, so it turns out takes a certain power over Hashim. Under its influence, this previously secular Muslim becomes an extreme orthodox to the point where he begins to hurt his family and those around him. He shouts “An end to hypocrisy!” (pg 45) as he bears horrible truths to his family wile commanding them to follow all rules set in the Qur’an. As the community moneylender, with the relic in his possession Hashim also turns violent, attacking those who owe him money.

In attempt to restore the family back to “normalcy” Atta, his oldest son tries to return the hair back to Mosque, but on his way looses the relic because of a hole is his pocket, which his mother who is “usually so attentive to household matters, must have overlooked under the stress of recent events.” (pg 49) The relic is once again found by Hashim and he continues to cause emotional upheaval in the house.

 Huma, his daughter, then comes up with a separate yet equally ineffective plan. Her plan is to have the relic stolen by “the worst of fellows.” (pg 40) At the end of story in the midst of the attempt for the burglar to steal the relic, Hashim accidentally kills his daughter Huma and then he kills himself. In the same night His son dies in a coma and the wife is driven mad. As for the thief who is hired to steal the relic, he is hunted and shot by the police, but his four crippled sons and blind wife are miraculously cured by their contact with the sacred relic. 

Now that we have the background of story out of the way, let's get down to business. You see the author’s storytelling is filled with metaphors and religious undertones. He is Satirist but behind the sarcasm and creative wit, what is Rushdie trying to communicate to his readers?

It seems to me that writer is mocking religious worship and a lesson that we might learn from the story is about the danger of a powerful tool is in the hands of currupt people. In the story Hashim is a secular Muslim, a moneylender, an important figure within his community. On the surface he seems almost virtuous as he prides himself on the values he instills within his family. Rushdie writes:

“In their children, Atta and Huma, the moneylender and his wife has successfully sought to inculcate the virtues of thrift, plain dealing and a healthy independence of spirit. On this, too, Hashim was found of congratulating himself.” (pg 42)

Although Hashim was not a religious man and did not want the relic for religious value. He was a man with an obsession for power for example; he charged 70 percent interest from the people who borrowed money from him, a less than generous figure to say the least. Then suddenly, the possession of the hair causes Hashim to suddenly become very "religious." There seems to be a part of Hashim that believes he is the beholder of a great power and he allows that power to consume him, which inevitably leads to his own demise.

Rushdie through wit and sarcasm is trying to tell the reader something, why else would he expend so much mental and creativity energy at the expense of ridicule? When in possession of  a relic, people hope for luck or a transformation of some kind, all the while forgetting about what is actually important. Rushdie seems to exploit the notion of superstition and extremity as he demonstrates (amongst other things) the danger of blind faith. It is a parable that questions the worship of icons in general, or relics that allegedly hold religious value and in the end we question that perhaps the only "power" relics, icons, and other sacred objects hold is the power bestowed upon it by the beholder.