Belief

        I wouldn’t call myself a complete atheist, but I definitely do not believe in sacred objects or miracles.  There is almost always a simple answer for unexplainable events.  In Salman Rushdie’s short story The Prophet’s Hair, there are many events that happen around the silver vile of the Prophets hair. 

        The first event that happens is the finding of the vile by Hashim a moneylender.  He takes the vile into his home and treats it like an expensive piece of art not a religious artifact.  Previously Hashim was not a devout Muslim, but during the night he changes his ways and starts forcing his family to be devout Muslims. 

        This could be an example of a relic as a curse, but I believe that there is no curse.  My belief is that he had wanted to make changes in his life already and the vile was just the piece that sent him over the edge.  He saw everything that the vile stood for and wanted to change his life so he would live more devout. 

        Another place where you can see the relic as a curse is when Atta screams, “Thief!  Thief!  Thief! (54),” and then dies.  His screaming wakes up his father who then accidentally kills Huma his daughter, then Hashim the kills himself as he became overwhelmed by remorse.  This part of the story can be seen as another curse being placed on Hashim for taking the vile.  But I believe that it is just a series of unfortunate events that do revolve around the vile but not because of any curse. 

        The last part of the story deals with a couple miracles that were preformed which in one case was actually a bad thing.  The first one is the Thief’s four sons are no longer crippled, which means that they can no longer make any money as beggars.  The second miracle is the healing of the Thief’s blind wife, she can now see.  I have no explanation for either of these events other that that this is a book of fiction. 

        The moral of this short story is that all Hashim had to do was not be greedy.  If he contacted the mosque and gave them the vile none of these unfortunate events would have taken place.  As I said earlier I don’t believe that religious items have any power by themselves, but they do have a certain power because of the way people respond to them.  If instead of Hashim finding the vile with the Prophet’s hair in it, say he found a worthless stick his life would have gone on without interruption.  Objects don’t have power people give objects power.