Introducing Islam’s Holy Fool

​All religions, I suspect, have an inner as well as an outer aspect: an esoteric and an exoteric side. But I was surprised that Islam, such a straightlaced and serious-seeming faith, would have a lighter side, personified in part by a legendary—and possibly a real-life—character known as the Mullah Nasrudin. Associated primarily with Turkey, as was the mystic Rumi, the Mullah is often pictured as riding backwards on his mule (See below.). His reason: So he could see where he was coming from...

Here are some of my favorite Nasrudin stories. One day a villager asks the Mullah the following question: “Which is better, the sun or the moon?” After stroking his beard, the latter replies, “Obviously the moon.” “But why the moon, Mullah?” the nonplused villager asks. “Well for one thing,” the Mullah explains, “the sun shines during the daytime when it’s light out anyway!”
Another story also deals with light. One night the Mullah’s wife wakes up to find the Mullah’s side of the bed empty. When she looks out the window, she sees him searching for something under the candle-lit streetlamp. “What in the world are you looking for?” She exclaims. “My housekey” comes the answer. “Where did you lose it? “By the door,” he replies. “Then why in the world are you looking for it over there?” “Well, the light is better over here” comes the response.

On another occasion the Mullah is working as a raftsman who takes passengers back and forth across a river on a rather primitive wooden raft. One day his only passenger is a famous Islamic scholar. During the crossing the latter asks, “Mullah, can you read and write?” “Why no, your Excellency, I never learned.” “Then you’ve wasted half your life” came the reply. “Excuse me, your Worthiness, but can you swim?” “No, I never learned” says the scholar. “Well then, I’m afraid you’ve wasted all your life. You see, we’re sinking!”

And here’s a final story. One morning, as the Mullah is about to leave home to gather a week’s supply of wood, his wife asks, “Mullah, where are you going so early?” “To gather wood!” But you must add Insha’Allah, So Allah wills,” she insists. “Wife, I am simply off to gather wood for the week, and that’s that!” Ten hours later, dog-tired, the Mullah has just finished loading up his mule-drawn cart with the chopped wood and is about to head home. Suddenly, a band of brigands rides up and their leader asks, “Old man, where is the next town?” “Over there,” he points, “an hour’s ride from here.” Good,” the head brigand replies. “You will now take the bridle of my horse and lead us there.” Several hours later the exhausted Mullah and the lawless group arrive at the shuttered village. After beating the exhausted old man who had walked the whole way, they leave him to find his way back in the dark. Around four in the morning, half-dead, he staggers up to his locked front door and knocks. He had of course forgotten his key. Roused, his wife yells, “Who’s there?” His answer: “It’s me--Insha’Allah!”
​
For more on this fascinating figure, look on Amazon.com for three books by Idries Shah, all with stories of the “incomparable,” “incredible,” and “inimitable” Mullah Nasrudin.

The wonderful Mullah Nasrudin on his wondering mule.