There was a student who had been studying for many years at a madrassa. He had memorized the Koran and learned all the lessons his teacher taught. One day he went to his teacher and said, “I am ready to leave and go be a mullah.”
His teacher said, “I think you should stay here for a few more years.”
“Why?” asked the student. “Is there some additional degree or higher certificate that I will get?”
“No,” said the teacher, “all you will get is wisdom.”
“But I’m ready to be a mullah now,” said the student. And he left the madrassa and wandered from village to village looking for a mosque where he could be the prayer-leader.
Finally the student came to a village where a corrupt old mullah was using the mosque as a stall for his cow. The student was outraged. He gathered the villagers together and told them, “I have studied at a madrassa. I have memorized the Koran. It is a great sacrilege for your mullah to use the mosque as a stall for his cow.”
The villagers beat him up.
The student limped back to the madrassa and told his teacher what had happened. The teacher said, “Follow me.” They went back to the village where the mullah was using the mosque as a stall.
The teacher gathered the villagers together and told them, “I see you have a beautiful cow being kept in your mosque. It must be a very blessed animal. And I hear the cow belongs to your mullah. He must be a very holy man. In fact, I think that this cow is so blessed and your mullah is so holy that if you were to take one hair from the cow’s hide and one hair from the mullah’s beard and rub them together, you would be assured of paradise.”
The villagers ran into the mosque and began plucking hairs from the cow’s hide. The cow started to buck and kick and it bolted from the mosque and disappeared. Then the villagers ran to the mullah’s house and began plucking hairs from the corrupt old mullah’s beard. And they tugged and they yanked so hard at the mullah’s beard that he had a heart attack and died.
“You see,” said the teacher to the student, “no cow in the mosque and a need for a new mullah—that is wisdom.”
As the old saying goes…. ‘It is not what you say, but the way that you say it’!
Rummuser Reply:
May 20th, 2011 at 17:52
I think that you will make for a great Mullah GM.
Well, insert big sigh: The question is why the villagers bought into the teacher’s “wisdom” in the first place.
The cow will be fine. She had good sense to bolt. Who wants to live in a mosque anyway? And hair will grow back.
U
Rummuser Reply:
May 20th, 2011 at 17:52
In South Asia, this is the problem Ursula. Teachers are revered. Particularly in Islam, which itself means submission to Allah, which is represented by the Mullah.
If we were all well equipped with ingenuity rather than greed or selfishness, the world’s problems would all be sorted out in a flash!
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Rummuser Reply:
May 20th, 2011 at 17:50
Particularly in Afghanistan, such ingenuity. Did you get the metaphor in the story?
Cheerful Monk recently posted..Last Words
Notice this story completely repudiates the idea that all wisdom is by hindsight. This is wisdom by creative thinking, my favorite kind. I find it hard to believe that you have never experienced it yourself.
Cheerful Monk recently posted..Last Words
Rummuser Reply:
May 20th, 2011 at 17:48
But you give me credit for wisdom CM!
I don’t think that a lie about the guarantee of paradise can be said a wisdom
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Rummuser Reply:
May 20th, 2011 at 17:47
How about all the promises made like 72 virgins etc?
Clever.
Brutal, but clever.
Nice change to see a story where the cunning opportunist wins by, er, outwitting other cunning opportunists. Though now I think of it, perhaps that’s not so different from Aesop’s fable about the crow and the fox who both try to steal from a baker. The crow wins – for a while – till tricked by the fox. But both are thieves. Though in your story, the baker (old Mullah) is arguably a thief too.
I’ll pass this on to my son. Good story.
Rummuser Reply:
May 20th, 2011 at 17:46
Thanks BWT.
The new Mullah is in deep trouble. Too many now believe the beard of a Mullah and the hair of a cow to be the path to paradise. He will be plucked before long!
His friends will look at him and say, “You’re plucked!”
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Rummuser Reply:
May 20th, 2011 at 17:45
Now, that sounds very familiar for some strange reason. Can you identify that reason mate?
Does this wise teacher have a web site?
Rummuser Reply:
May 20th, 2011 at 17:44
The only web sites he is likely to have are cobwebs!
Hi Ramana:
This story absolutely made my otherwise rough day. Put a smile on my face. Thank you.
“But you give me credit for wisdom CM!” Mostly I avoid the word wisdom because it sounds so pretentious, and you’ve taught me to feel free to poke pins in pretentiousness. Now does that mean you’ve been a good influence on me or a bad one?
Cheerful Monk recently posted..Last Words
Rummuser Reply:
May 21st, 2011 at 23:38
I should imagine, a VERY GOOD one!
Is this an example of wisdom or cunning? I normally associate wisdom with deeds that are positive and good, and cunning with deeds that are designed to win, regardless if they are good or not.