The Prophets Hair

After reading the short story of “The Prophets Hair” by Salmon Rushdie I was quickly reminded of Frodo Baggins and his Ring.  How the weight of the ring caused great anguish to Frodo and how it brought out the very evil inside of anyone in contact with the powerful ring.  And yes, yes I did just use Frodo Baggins from the Lord of the Rings in order to relate to the silver veil that just so plagues the likes of Hashim, his family, the thief and pretty much anyone else who comes into contact with the so called cursed item.  But the two stories are similar, in one story you have a magical item that gives great power and pain to whomever possesses it, in the other you have a religious relic that alters the lives, in good and in bad ways, of everyone around it.

            The story starts off placing the mystical prophets hair into the hands of the greedy money lender, Hashim.  The item feeds his greed and instead of returning it back to the temple he decides to keep the relic, lying to himself that it would be for the greater good.  Hashim believes that he must now act as a religious fanatic and force his family to fiercely practice their religion to his liking.  Becoming closer to mad Hashim causes great worry to his family and in return his son Atta decides to seek out help to rid his father of his “precious” (there I go again with the Lord of the Rings talk) item.  First Atta tries to take the relic himself but learns, by losing the item, that it has an alternate agenda.  Being obtuse in his plight Atta finds himself being pummeled to near death seeking out the worst of men to carry out his plan of hiring someone to seek out the item.  His sister takes the place of Atta in pusuit of a capable theif.  And for a hefty reward a theif named Sheikh is hired to do the job.  

While performing the thievery many odd things happen.  It is as though the relic has power and causes a catalog of events to take place.  Whilst stealing from Hashim the coma induced Atta awakes screaming which inturn wakes Hashim, kills Atta, alerts the daughter and startles the thief.  In a panic Hashim draws his sword and unintentionally slays his own daughter.  In response to his own wrongdoing he turns the blade unto himself.  All the while leaving only two alive: the wife, who becomes beside herself with grieve and gets admitted into an asylum; and the thief who is left in possession with the magical piece.  

            As I digress from the story I must point out that the presence of the relic has caused only harm so far in the story to everyone it has come into contact to.  It’s powers have only punished, as if it was acting divinely to spite those who are wrongdoers.  

            Now back to the story.  The thief then brings the relic home only to find that its powers have a lot in store for him and his family.   The end of the story concludes with the thieves killing, the unwanted curing of his sons “money making” crippled legs and the only good miracle, the gift of sight to his blind wife.

            Looking back I can see that there is a moral to the story.  It’s complicated but I do believe that the relic was acting as a judge punishing those who have done wrong and blessing those who have done nothing wrong.  But I must leave with a question for you because I too have no idea.  Why was the mother punished?  Was the relic punishing all that are related to the wrongdoers?  If that’s the case then why did the wife get relieved of her blindness?