MUSLIM VILLA - QURAN ONLY

As-Salam Alaykum dear kiddos.  A summertime story.  Who wants to go out and play when weather gets just a bit warm in Canada?   :D    So enjoy this story and retain the lesson it teaches.

(https://i.imgur.com/X8JuN9E.jpg)


It's from the medieval Arabian Nights tales, a fictional story, "Barber's fifth son," that was Al Naschar. 

Al Naschar was a spoiled and idle young man who inherited one hundred silver coins at the death of his beloved father.  He planned a business with the silver coins so the profit would multiply.  After buying several exquisite little glass bottles from a wholesale merchant, he placed each coin in a bottle and put the bottles in a costly basket.  He shared an old tailor's shop where he sat at the open door, his precious merchandise in the uncovered basket in front of him as he waited for the attention of passers-by.   His eyes were fixed on the basket, but his thoughts wandered far and wide.  Lost in his daydreams, Al Naschar began to talk aloud to himself as the old tailor heard and watched ....   

""In selling the hundred silver coins piece by piece, I shall make two hundred, and these two hundred I shall again lay out in glass from which will produce four hundred.  When I have got ten thousand I will give up the glass trade and become a jeweler.  I will trade in pearls, diamonds, and other precious stones.   Having all the wealth that heart can desire, I will buy a beautiful country house, with horses and slaves.   At my feasts I will send for musicians and dancers to amuse my guests.   In spite of my riches I shall not  give up my trade till I have amassed a capital of a hundred thousand dirhams.   I shall then request the hand of the grand-vizir's beautiful daughter.  Should the vizir refuse my proposal, I will seize him by the beard and drag him to my house"" ....   

Absorbed in his wishful thoughts Al Naschar went on and on. He was barely aware of the theatrical moves of his body and accidentally kicked the basket hard with his foot.   The ornate glass bottles broke into bits, the silver coins went rolling hither and thither and the old tailor burst into hysterical bouts of laughter! 

Moral of the story: 
-  Get into the habit of saying "InshAllah" (if Allah Wills), always.
-  Be real, not surreal.  Merely building castles in the sky won't help you climb up to reach it.

Artist: William Lockhart captioned "Al Naschar's fortune."


Related posts:
~ Islamic Tale of Sleeping Beauty (http://muslimvilla.smfforfree.com/index.php?topic=5126.msg19768#msg19768)
~ Rapunzel Islamic tale (http://muslimvilla.smfforfree.com/index.php?topic=5125.0)
~ Prince and the peasant girl (http://muslimvilla.smfforfree.com/index.php?topic=772.0)
~ Cinderella Islamic tale (http://muslimvilla.smfforfree.com/index.php?topic=5119.msg19717#msg19717)
~ Snow White Islamic tale (http://muslimvilla.smfforfree.com/index.php?topic=5123.msg19738#msg19738)
~ The Wise Vizier (http://muslimvilla.smfforfree.com/index.php?topic=4881.msg17744#msg17744)
~ Lion, rats, deep pit and honey-drops (http://muslimvilla.smfforfree.com/index.php?topic=4615.0)
~ The Believer and the atheist (http://muslimvilla.smfforfree.com/index.php?topic=5127.0)
~  Mole, Rat, Toad and Badger - Wind in the Willows (http://muslimvilla.smfforfree.com/index.php?topic=5162.msg20125#msg20125) 

 :D

lol ,, this story is quite well known in Syria and Lebanon.  But I never saw this illustration before.  Very interesting image.  Actually the story is much longer. The guy gets duped and trapped by thieves and robbers until finally he's rescued by his brother.  The other lesson should be not to trust strangers.

Lovely read dear Sis Ruhi  :D  You've articulated it great to support the image.   I heard this a few times as a bedtime story from my mom during my primary school days.  What follows is something to the effect that AlNashar returns home with whatever of the silver coins he could salvage. Then an old woman knocks at the door for some water to do wudu. He lets her in.  While going she tells him she works in the mansion of a beautiful rich lady who is looking for a husband.  AlNashar goes with her to meet this lady along with his silver coins to give as dowry.  There he gets robbed, beaten and thrown into a dungeon-like place, presumed dead.  Next day he gathers some strength and crawls out, somehow opening the trapdoor and returning home.

 

 

;D  yes Sister Zeynab, in a nutshell that was one episode that followed.  Yet this isn't the end.  The guy then sought revenge. Disguised as a woman he waited in the streets lined with souqs where he spotted that old hag again.  He requested if she could help him weigh his gold coins as "she" was a stranger in this city just arrived from Persia.  The old hag thought she hooked another prey and took him to the same mansion.  There AlNashar killed all the bad guys.  The much talked about beautiful rich lady said she was kidnapped by the thieves and brought here.  But at this point AlNachar was concerned about reimbursing his stolen possessions.  So he went out to collect few other men so they could remove the costly gold furniture and the piled up gold coins .. maybe share with those other helpers.  But when he returned, the so-called beautiful lady had vanished with all the gold coins.  Nonetheless, he removed the very costly furniture which more than made up for the money they stole from him.    But when AlNachar and his men left, he absentmindedly left the door of the mansion open.  The neighbors seeing the place vacant and empty thought it was raided by thieves and informed the police. Next morning AlNachar was arrested and taken to court before the judge.  He told the entire story to the judge and requested to be allowed to keep some of the furniture to compensate for the stolen coins.  But the judge refused.  Instead he ordered Alnachar to leave the town.  The poor guy obeyed the judge powerlessly, and as he was walking away to a neighboring town to live in exile, he was intervened by a band of highway robbers who stole all his humble traveling possessions including his outer garment.  The poor man was left by the roadside wearing only a torn pajama and vest, until someone informed his brother of the incident.  His brother rushed, took him back home under cover of the night and since then he began living in his home with his brothers happily ever after.  Obviously the law in those days wasn't as insensitive as today toward innocent victims, in that, it forgave them with the passage of time.

 :D ;D :D   Indeed an interesting adventurous summer read for kiddies.  My nieces and nephew read it this morning as they sat at my desktop ..... and then I spent another one hour telling them the rest of the story .. that everyone who looks innocent may not be a good guy.



 

O I see!   :)    This would make a great kids' movie or cartoon.  I too read it with rapt attention.    Thanks brother TS and Sis Ruhi.   The moral of the storyline is extremely useful - first, 'InshAllah' and realism and  secondly, a big pinch of distrust is better than too much trust when you see a stranger acting too kind. 

Exactly Sister.

lol, that's right.  From silver coins to torn pajamas. 

The old arabian nights story book we have in our bookshelf which contains this story mentions that the judge told him to leave town otherwise he might "seek justice from the Caliph" of the town he was living in.  Maybe this implied the judge was a crook, that he intended to swindle the costly furniture himself and in that case appealing to the caliph would mean the judge getting into trouble. So he wanted AlNachar out.



 

ha ha ha   :D   yes right.

Wowie!  thanks brother and sisters.  I didn't know of so many details that followed.   

More for kiddies to learn than I thought ....   gdbi

This is also a lovely painting  👍