Teaching
Stories

Now we know that humans like to tell each other stories,

and some of them are true, and others are made up completely.

But the ones that are made up have to have something about them that is true to life for people to enjoy them.

The characters in the stories may be stronger, or faster, or more magical than anyone in real life,

but people have to be able to recognise themselves and other people in them,

in their behaviour and the way that they think.

So humans like to tell stories to teach themselves about themselves,

what it takes to be brave or patient,

or clever or cunning, or loving,

or just plain stupid.

And muslims told stories like that long ago,

and still do so.

And no-one knows who first told them,

but some of those stories were so true to the way humans live their lives

that they were passed on through the years and are still told today,

and some of them like those from The 1001 Nights you may have heard already.

The book Khalila wa Dimna is full of stories whose characters are animals,

but who think and act like humans, and can make the same mistakes.

So when we see what happens to them, we can make sure that we don't make the same mistakes ourselves.

But there is one famous character who is well known around the muslim world,

whose stories teach us about the strange ways that humans think,

and how silly those ways of thinking often are.

He has spread so far around the world that he is even known by different names.

Sometimes he is known as Khoja,

and more often he is known as Mulla Nasruddin,

but in Scotland he is also known as Mulla Malky.

In other parts of the muslim world, his stories are told with the flavour of the local language,

but being a new arrival in Scotland, his stories are still taking on a local colour.

But the Mulla's tales still speak of the truth of humans everywhere,

so you can be sure that he will soon have a local accent.