Have you ever meet a man with a sense of humor? Or have you read ever a comic book? If yes, then you would probably know the one who could be considered the king of humor. Who is that man? Yes, I am saying of Mullah Nasruddin .
Mullah Nasruddin , sometimes called Mullah Nasruddin Hooja, was a humorist and a satirist noted for his hilarious and sidesplitting jokes across the globe. When and where was he born are too complicated questions to be answered. Historians are divided in answering these questions, and this is going to be the main reason of this uncertainty. Turks claim that Nasiruddin was a dweller of Turkey. Iranians, on the other hand, have their own claim. The latest claim has been triggered by the Russian, who consider him a native of Bukhara, a city in Uzbekistan. However, there are strong historical evidence that show, he lived in the 13th century in Anatolia, lying in today Turkey.
Whatever his date of birth and nationality might have been, his anecdotes are liked and read the world over. Moreover, his anecdotes have been translated into many languages of the world, including Urdu, Pashto, and Chinese and even a novel has also been published on his life in Russia. Moreover, the year 1996 was proclaimed “Nasreddin Hooja Year” by UNESCO, in the honor of this remarkable man.
Abreast the presence of overwhelming hilarity in his anecdotes, one can also find some golden pieces of advices in them. He puts the finger on our moral degeneration in the guise of fun. Some of the messages in his anecdotes are: if you have given something to someone, then do not toy with his honor by reminding him that the thing he uses is yours or, in other words, give charity to paupers covertly; don’t shape someone’s image in your mind by taking into account just his apparent character; when you want something to happen, take into consideration others too that what they want; always ask that person who has an answer to your question; and if someone seeks help, help him if you can instead of telling him tales. Looking at these messages, we can conclude that perhaps, his ultimate goal was to point at the moral degradation of the people, not only making them laugh.
Now, we shall know about the main characters in Nasiruddin’s anecdotes. Even though every character in his anecdotes is amusing and sublime, personally, my favorite character is that of Nasiruddin himself thanks to his verbal wit, hilarious remarks, and vivacity. He is exceptionally clever, meaning that he is adroit at handling problems and tricky situations. He plays the role of a merchant, a tailor, a father, a judge, and a thief. In other important characters in his short stories: Jalal Khan, playing Nasiruddin’s friend, a farmer, his wife and daughters are noteworthy.
People like Nasiruddin’s anecdotes for hundreds if not thousands of reasons. The first and foremost reason is the humorous tone of the anecdotes that spellbind their readers. Second, his tales are funny as well as lesson-filled, philosophical, and thought-provoking. Third, by the virtue of their proximity with the experiences of day-to-day life, as he has pictured these experiences in a very beautiful way. Fourth, all his anecdotes contain objective and fair language and no space has been given to biased and tendentious attitudes towards any specific religion, sect, race, creed, and section of the society. In addition, there is also paucity or even nothingness of vulgar and nasty remarks in his anecdotes.
On the whole, Nasiruddin’s anecdotes and jokes are regarded as a laughing stock all over the world, causing people to burst out laughing by reading them, even in the very moments of sadness and solitude. By his sample and full of wisdom life, we mean that we should live for others and give others a moment of joy and float others’ boats if we are able to.
Some selected anecdotes of Nasiruddin
A passage from The Kite Runner
“Agha, did you hear what Mullah Nasrud din did when his daughter came home and complained that her husband had beaten her?” I could feel him smiling in the dark and a smile of my own formed on my face. There wasn’t an Afghan in the world who didn’t know at least a few jokes about the bumbling mullah.
“What?”
“He beat her too, then sent her back to tell the husband that Mullah was no fool: If the bastard was going to beat his daughter, then Mullah would beat his wife in return.”
I laughed. Partly at the joke, partly at how Afghan humor never changed.
• Nasiruddin requested a friend named Jalal to accompany him on a journey. “Only on one condition”, said Jalal “that you lend me your cloak because mine is worn out”. Nasiruddin gave a new and very fine cloak to Jalal. On the way, Nasiruddin met another friend and said to him, “Sir, meet my friend Jalal. The cloak that he is wearing is mine.” When the friend had left, Jalal protested, “Why did you tell that man that the cloak was yours?” Nasiruddin promised that he would not repeat the mistake.
As they proceeded further and visited another friend at his house, Nasiruddin his friend thus, “Here is Jalal, an old friend of mine. The cloak that he is wearing is his own.” Jalal became furious and warned Nasiruddin not to speak a word about the cloak. When they visited another of Nasiruddin’s friends, he introduced his friend. “Meet my friend Jalal. The cloak he is wearing – OH! I’m not supposed to say a word about it.”
• A former brought a letter to Nasiruddin and told him of reading it. Nasiruddin excused that he could not read the letter, as he was illiterate. The farmer said, “You have worn such a big turban, and still you can’t read a letter.” Nasiruddin immediately placed the turban on the farmer’s head and said, “Now, the turban is on your head. Read the letter.”
• Once thieves broke into Nasiruddin’s house. He hid himself in a cupboard. The thieves, after ransacking the house, reached the cupboard and opened it. They asked him why he was hiding himself here. Nasiruddin answered, “Because of shame that there is nothing worthy of you in my house.”
• One day Nasiruddin was riding his horse. The horse took fright and started to gallop. A person asked Nasiruddin where was he going so fast. “Don’t ask me, ask my horse”, he replied.
• Nasiruddin went to see a rich man, “Give me some money,” he requested. The rich man asked, “Why?”
Nasiruddin said, “I want to buy an elephant.” “If you can’t afford to buy an elephant, how would you be able to keep it?” replied the rich man. “I came here,” said Nasiruddin, “to get money, not advice.”
• One night a thief entered Nasiruddin’s house and stole all kinds of things. After he left, Nasiruddin grabbed the first thing he could put his hands on, which happened to be a strainer and followed him out the door. He followed the thief all the way to his house, and even tried to go in after him. The surprised thief said, “What are you doing in my house?”
“You’re bringing all our stuff here… I thought we were moving in, too.”
• One day master Nasruddin was giving a talk from the pulpit in the mosque. “O believers, do you know what I am going to say to you?” The audience replied “NO”, so he announced “I have no desire to speak to people who don’t even know what I will be talking about” then he came down from the pulpit and left the mosque.
The people felt embarrassed and called him back again another day. On another day, he went up to the pulpit and asked the same question, and this time, everyone answered, “We know,” “Well, since you already know what I am going to say, I won’t waste any more of your time” and he left them again.
Everyone was really perplexed. “The next time he comes, we’ll say some of us know and some of us do not.”
Sure enough, another day came and he stood in the pulpit asking the same question. The ones on the left said, “We know,” And the ones on the right said, “We don’t know.” “Well,” Nasruddin said “The half who knows what I am going to say, tell it to the other half” and he left!
The writer is the student of 9th grade at Oxford School & College Bannu, and is the instructor of English grammar and composition at Hamza Coaching Academy.
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