The Curse of The Hair, More Than Just a Bad Hair Day.

             It’s surprising to me to see how many people these days are superstitious, believe in ghosts, or believe in the power of sacred relics.  In the case of sacred relics, it is more often than not tied to religion.  For example, the idea of holy water, or the cross, the Qu’oran or the bible itself. Statues and relics of Buddha and Muhammad. Although I don’t consider myself a superstitious person, I can’t help revere these items to a certain degree as sacred. I do believe that moving these relics from where they belong is an injustice and a big mistake. In Salmon Rushdie’s composition of short stories in East, West, he writes a story called The Prophets Hair. In the story Hashim is a wealthy moneylender who takes possession of a stolen relic. Through his greed, Hashim collected the vial with the hair, and took it home and discovered that “he was in possession of the famous relic of the Prophet Muhammad” (p 43). Everything only goes downhill from there. By keeping the relic Hashim has removed it from its sacred place, and instead of bringing him great luck, it tears his family apart.  But the question is, was it a curse from the relic that ruined his life, or was it his own greed?

             Maria, a close friend of mine, grew up in rural Mexico where many communities are still very superstitious, and even still go to cuaranderos, or “witch doctors” to solve certain ambiguous problems. Knowing this and knowing she herself is slightly superstitious, I would tease her about it all the time. If a black cat would run in front of us I would tease “Are you scared?” “What’s going to happen?”  “What should we do?” She chuckled and said “You’re lucky you don’t believe in these things because when you don’t believe they don’t affect you.”  So what of Hashim and his prophet’s hair? Did he really believe in the power of the relic, and did removing it from its sacred place destroy his family, or was it his own personal greed that led to the destruction of his family? If Maria had read the story she might have believed it was the power of the relic that destroyed Hashim’s family, but I would have to disagree.

             In the story, once Hashim comes into possession of this relic, he suddenly becomes a strictly religious man He forces his family to read the Qu’oran for at least two hours a day, and is very harsh on his children. The story is begun by explaining the children’s quest for a thief to rid their father of this relic. Eventually Hashim’s entire family falls apart. The son is killed in search of a thief; Hashim kills his daughter, for hirering a thief, and then kills himself from the guilt. The only member of the family who survived was the wife, who inevitably ended up in an institution for the insane.  By the end of the story Rushdie leaves the reader wondering was it the hair or was it Hashim who destroyed his family?

             There is a lot of evidence supporting the idea that it was Hashim’s own greed that ruined his family. He was a greedy man to begin with, often charging his clients an unreasonably high interest rate, and confiscating many interesting artifacts from them as well. Upon obtaining a relic of such power, he is the one who began to abuse the power he had in his own home. All his actions were done with his own free will. But then there is one question that deflates the Hashim argument. Would Hashim of acted this way if he had found any other type of artifact?        No matter what the reader believes one can’t help but think, probably not. It was the fact that the hair was a religious item that wielded a sort of power and prestige that Hashim began to act the way he did. If it were not a revered religious item he would not have acted the way he did. It would have simply been added to his collection.  So was it Hashim, or was it the power of the hair that was sacrilegiously removed from its sacred place?  I guess it just depends on what you believe.