Bahlool Dana, a Gem in Rags

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As promised in my earlier post “A true story of an insane, but sane person!”, I am going to talk about Bahlool Dana (the Wise) today. Bahlool (real name – Wahab bin Amr) was a well known judge and scholar from a wealthy family in Iraq in the times of Haroun Al-Rashid (786 – 809 A.D), the Abbasid Caliph. He was the disciple of the Shi’ite Muslim’s 6th Imam Hajarat Ja’far Sadiq (a.s.) and he was alive also during the Imamate of the 7th Imam Hajart Musa Kazim (a.s.). Haroun Al-Rashid feared for the safety of his Khilaphat and kingdom from Hajarat Musa Kazim (a.s.) and he planned to destroy him. He put the blame of rebellion upon the Imam and appointed a batch of Jury from Chiefs of the capital to prove the charge. All of the Jury members were the ‘Yes-men’ of the Caliph except Bahlool. He did not vote against the Imam and thus became the enemy of Haroun. The Imam was imprisoned on ground of majority votes.

Here, Bahlool Dana was afraid of punishment of the Caliph and contacted the Imam in prison to seek guidance for what to do. The Imam told him to act insanely for life time, create an image of Lunatic among the people and be outspoken to carry on his mission of educating people to follow the virtuous path of truth. Bahlool, under the acting of insanity, fired the Caliph himself and his Courtiers also. The people acknowledged him for his superior wisdom and excellence. Even today, many of Bahlool’s stories are narrated in assemblies and valuable lessons of life are being taught to the listeners.

 

Crying, a unique expression of passions in human life

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We have no any strong and conclusive proof that the creatures other than human are crying. This Article being centered on human being, we have no concern with creatures. Tom Lutz, a biological Researcher of eye fluid (tears) gives three distinguished types of tears (1) Basal (basic) tears (2) Reflex (resulted from irritation or injury) tears; and, (3) Emotional (Psychologically caused) tears. But, here also, there is no any intention of mine to give you any scientific studies of crying or tear shedding. I am going to deal with the emotional tears only now-hence-forth.

Charles Darwin has said, “Crying is the special expression of man.” Crying has no any barriers of age, gender or culture and it will continue for ages in human life. No any external power or authority can prevent crying anybody until the crying person itself calms down in its own way or at its own will. Sometimes it happens that even the crying fellow itself cannot control own crying until the effect of happiness or gloomy whichever might be the root cause is fully wiped off from the mind.

Arnold H. Glasow has quoted, “Crying is a release, a psychological tonic or tranquilizer.” Crying is valuable and yet free, a gift from God to mankind. It is not limited to babies or women; it is for all. It is natural, healthy and curative. To stay fit both physically and mentally, crying is necessary. Sometimes some saddest or happiest events may prove to be fatal to weak hearted persons if they are not reacted or absorbed by shedding tears. At this juncture, I’ll correlate my subject with some literary backgrounds just to justify the importance of crying in human life. Let us go now onwards to an emblematical poem of Alfred Lord Tennyson titled as “Home They Brought Her Warrior Dead”. Instead of any brief summary of the poem, I am going to give you the full text of the wonderful work of the poet. It is as this: