Trying to Identify a Religious Relic

    Who knows how to recognize a religious relic when fate puts one in my way?  Will it be glowing or invisible? Will it be very large and awkward or small and easily misplaced? I have never taken the time to think about what I would do in case such an event occurred in my life. I have seen every installment of the Indiana Jones movies many times as well as ridden the Universal Studious theme park ride many times as well. But still, I feel I am ill-prepared when I am reminded of it. Until recently this was all true. I have since been introduced to the effective parable included in a collection of short stories written by Salman Rushdie, called East, West. In this story, Rushdie demonstrates how someone without proper instruction can be misled after being landed with a religious relic.
   

    Hashim, the main character of the story, had once been a seemingly normal member of society. He had a wife, son, and daughter, and as a private moneylender, part of the bourgeois class.  The author points out that he had a hobby of collecting rare objects, which seems to be his first mistake.  On one random day, something had caught his eye that he desired to be a part of his collection.  He makes his second mistake here by letting his guard down.  He claims to be attracted to the case which holds a supposed religious relic. This is a very regrettable third mistake, probably the worst he had ever made, “I’m a man of this world, of this world. I see it purely as a secular object of great rarity . . . it’s the silver vial I desire, more than the hair.” (Rushdie, p. 44) It is at this point that his life goes down hill. He is enticed by the empty promise offered by the relic; but because of his deep seeded greed, he will prove to be incapable of avoiding its wrath.
   

    Not even twenty-four hours had expired before the effects of the first three mistakes are apparent.  Having three strikes against himself, Hashim’s future does not look promising.  Either as a cause or result of his vice, he brags to his son, Atta, about his recent acquisition, his fourth mistake.  Later, right before a diner, Hashim losses his cool and screams horrible truths about his family, something that would have and never did happen previously.  With his appearance altered, he claims, “An end to politeness!...An end to hypocrisy!” (Rushdie, p. 45) After seeing his dad’s antics, the son tries to help his possessed father by getting rid of the religious relic.  It seems there are some who can defend themselves from the object’s tractor beam. He goes in search of the thief of all thieves, but was unsuccessful after being brutally beaten. Before he unfortunately failed his attempt, he told his sister what his father had bragged to him earlier and what he thought of the whole situation, in turn forcing her to take action.
   

    Her idea is the same, to hire a “professional” thief, the one of highest reputation that she also remembers from stories told by her mother.  When she finds him and succeeds in getting his help, the number of people affected by Hashim’s simple choice grows to include the family of the burglar.  Not that it is all bad though, his wife regains her sight, and his son’s legs are miraculously healed to walk again.  By the end of the story, his son has died from the beating, he accidently killed his daughter which caused him to commit suicide, and his surviving widow is committed to an asylum for psychiatric treatment. Ironically, the Prophet’s Hair, which is also the title of the story, that was said to have been the religious relic, is taken back to the museum it had escaped.
   

    With recognizing the mistakes that Hashim made, failing to overcome the destructive power of the religious relic, I am now much better prepared.  His life and the lives of those around him were cut short by his inability to see past his desires.  I feel sorry for Hashim and consider myself fortunate to be able to hear his story and learn from his shortcomings. I only hope to be able to apply this newly acquired insight if ever confronted with such a situation where I have to identify a religious relic.