The Reason…

The Mulla went to see a rich man.

“Give me some money.”

“Why?”

“I want to buy … an elephant.”

“If you have no money, you can’t afford to keep an elephant.”

“I came here,” said Nasrudin, “to get money, not advice.”

The Pleaseantries of the Incredible Mulla Nasrudin – Idries Shah

I was thinking since we don’t have many storytellers anymore- those that would scare the beegeebies out of you, make you laugh until you peed on yourself, or let with you with a thought that at times changed your whole life. 

Because storytellers like Idries Shah are no longer with us to regale us with parables, stories, rhymes, jokes and all other manner of ways to reach a better understanding of Allah SWT; I will every day, Insha’ Allah post in the order the book was published all those stories…And since it is all his credit (Shah) all I can say that the errors therein are my lack of typing coordination, meds and other nefarious workings of my illness! LOL

You are most welcomed to comment on them- in fact I hope you do comment on them and what they mean to you in particular and what they mean to Muslim Society today… or not.

So I am actually repeating this on the regular daily posts…and will be reprinted here so we can keep a full compendium…

The Book starts with this dedication:

Pidar natawanad, Pisar tamam kunad

(If the Father cannot, the Son may bring it to a conclusion)

 

Introduction

When one has heard several Nasrudin tales, they can have compelling effect. There  is a tradition, often recorded in the Middle East, which seeks to explain this.

It is related that Nasrudin, when a boy, had the strange power of keeping his schoofellows’ attention upon his stories. Their academic work suffered. The teacher, unable to prevent Nasrudin’s magnetism working, was himself a sage who managed to modify it. He put this spell on the young man:

From now, however wise yo become, people will always laugh at you. From now, whenever one Nasrudin tale is told, people will feel compelled to tell them until at least seven have been recited.

It is quite curious how some people who are not immediately attracted to the Mulla can become addicts. The United States, the Soviet Union and Communist China are at this moment equally involved with Nasrudin, if nothing else. The Coral Cables High-Energy Physics Conference report uses Mulla tales to illustrate scientific phenomena which cannot be put in the limitations of ordinary technical terms. In  Soviet Central Asia a new Nasrudin film is in active production, as a cultural undertaking. Peking has published, in English as well as in Chinese, a folklore book containing stories about- Mulla Nasrudin.

Consistently with the Mulla’s history, the widespread welcome of our version of the Exploits found a dissenter in Punch. But if this could have been more diverted by reaction of the academic experts. In  Britain orientalists have been saying that Nasrudin is not a Sufi teaching-figure. In Beirut and Karachi, the specialist’s opinion to the contrary seems equally strong.

All this, of course, only serves to show that our Mulla does not fit into the current categories- and that there is nevertheless still a place for hi,

According to the Saying of Mulla Nasrudin:

Enjoy yourself, or try to learn- you will annoy someone. If you do not- you will annoy someone.

Idries Shah

Richard Williams- illustrator

ISBN 0 14 019.357 X