A story encountered among Muslim activists in Turkey.
“One day, a man of religion wished in
a prayer to God that he wanted to see heaven and hell. The same day,
God sent an angel to the man to tell him that his wish was granted. The
angel took the man by the arm to a salon in a faraway land. In the
salon, the man saw a long table laden with delicious food. Around the
table he could see thin, unhealthy people getting ready to eat the food.
A gong rang and the people began to eat. The man noticed that the
people could not eat the food properly as they were forced to eat with
metre-long spoons. Trying to eat, the people would spill the food from
the spoons to the floor. The angel said to the man: ‘Can you see? This
is hell’.
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| Pomegranate Juice on the Street in Istanbul |
"Startled, the man of religion said:
‘what kind of a hell is this? I thought that hell was a place full of
flames and screaming people. I want now to see what heaven is like’. The
man and the angel went on their way again, eventually arriving at
another salon. Inside was the same scene. A long table laden with
delicious food. This time, the people around the table were young,
beautiful and healthy. However they also held one metre-long spoons with
which they were to begin eating the food. The angel turned to the man
and said ‘this is heaven’. The man replied ‘what kind of a heaven can
this be? I thought that heaven was a place full of beautiful virgins,
green trees and fragrant flowers… what is the secret behind this
heaven?’ The angel said: ‘watch how these people eat their food’.
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| Outdoor Market in Kadikoy, Istanbul |
"The gong rang once again and
people began to eat. Unlike the other salon in which everyone was trying
to eat by themselves, the people in heaven were using the spoons to
feed the people around them. Eating this way made them happy and
healthy.
"The angel added: “in the previous
salon there was only ‘I’ [nefs] and selfishness. Every place in which
‘I’ reigns supreme is hell. In the second salon there is not ‘I’, the
people sitting across from you come first. Here there is love, mercy,
sacrifice and friendship. Every place with real love, equality,
fraternity and sacrifice will eventually turn into heaven’.”
Like me, you may have heard this parable before--but I'd never heard it cast, as this version is, in deliberately Muslim terms. It comes, in this form at least, from a Turkish political movement called "Anti-Capitalist Muslims." But it sounds a bit like the New Testament, the Torah, the Quran. Thanks to Kenan Sharpe for the tip about the Anti-Capitalist Muslims--very interesting folks.
