Diving off the Deep End

From the beginning of human civilization people have guarded, protected, and hidden relics of religious or spiritual value. At the same time power hungry thrill seekers have attempted to steal and claim many of these relics hoping it will give them some divine power or insight. Characters in cinema like Indiana Jones seek out relics of long lost civilizations and dead prophets, defacing sacred items in return for power and glory. Hashim of Salman Rushdie’s novel East West discovers the harmful power of a relic removed from its original resting place, as well as an important lesson. Hashim is a rich money lender living in a lakeside residence. He makes a living loaning money at “…an interest rate of over seventy percent” (Rushdie 41), and also beating and exploiting the people who come to him and cannot pay. While Hashim is in his boat one day he finds a vile floating next to his boat, “There can be no doubt that Hashim the moneylender knew from the first that he was in possession of the famous relic of the Prophet Muhammad, that revered hair whose theft from its shrine at Hazratbal mosque the previous morning had created an unprecedented hue and cry in the valley.” (Rushdie 43). Hashim knows that he should return the vile to the shrine of Hazratbal like any other honest follower of Islam, but Hashims greed and compulsive collecting syndrome clouds his judgment and he decides to keep the relic for himself. This brings a curse on himself and his entire family.

            Hashim’s first steps in the wrong direction lead him to degrading his own family members, and causing a negative aura in the household. He tells his wife of his mistress, calls his son a “dope”, and his daughter a whore. When his wife attempts to calm him down he slaps her face and throws his son back as he tries to stop him. He then exclaims, “An end to politeness!’ he thundered. ‘An end to hypocrisy” (Rushdie 45).  Hashim’s situation gets worse when he decides to disown his daughter Huma for her for her refusal to wear a veil in public, and for his family this is the last straw. Hashim’s son Atta is heir to his father’s estate and in title owns a key to his fathers safe. Behind his back, Hashim’s family decides to return the relic to its original home, and Atta is the one sent to accomplish this. On his way to the mosque, Atta drops the relic through a hole in his pocket, and his father Hashim notices the relic on the ground as he is walking back home from a business trip. Hashim knows his son is the culprit to the theft and goes home and beats the truth out of his son. Hashim’s wife knows that the relic must be removed from her home, so she hires the Sheikh who is the “thief of thieves” to come and remove the relic. On the night of the robbery Atta awakes screaming due to a blood clot in his head due the he beating, this erupts the household into commotion and during the confusion Hashim sees a shadow run towards him and he stabs it with his swordstick. He doesn’t realize that he has killed his only daughter Huma until it is too late. His son then dies from the brain clot, and Hashim kills himself in the heat of pain and confusion. His wife was “driven mad…and had to be committed to an asylum” (Rushdie 56). The thief was shot by police as he was leaving the scene, and as he lay on the ground the relic rolls from his pocket exposing itself.

            Hashim was a person who loved to accumulate wealth, and he was driven into a life of greed and self-promotion. The relic kept from its original home was another item added to the collection in Hashim’s eyes, although it deteriorated his wealth and well-being dramatically rather than increasing it. The power of the vial seemed to work against him, while at the same time it increased his piety and this was shown as he imposed Islam on his family to the max. This stories moral is directed towards the reader saying; greed cannot benefit you, it can only bring you down in the end.