Murder He Wrote

Every while and then, I remember the life of an old Arabian poet who lived over 1800 years ago and was called Tarfah Ben el Abd. He was asked by the King , Amr bin Kalthoom, to come to his palace and narrate stories and poetry praising him. Once Tarfah arrived to the King's palace, he was stunned by the beauty of the queen,Bin Kalthoom's wife.

Tarfah couldn't hide his great admiration of the queen's beauty and described her beauty in a poetry he was making on the spot. The King was not happy and decided to kill Tarfah, but didn't want to do it right away so people wouldn't rage against him for killing a popular poet at that time.

What the King did is write a short letter... "Kill the one holding this letter" and he handled this letter it to Tarfah, and told him to go to Bahrain and meet its leader there and give him this closed letter, and he'll reward him for the great poetry he just wrote.

Tarfah kept the letter closed and headed south, and on his way to Bahrain he stopped by a house of 3 sisters and he told them the story and asked them to stay at their house for rest. While he was sleeping, the sisters (acting like all women hehehe) couldn't resist but open the letter. They were shocked by its content, and they told Tarfah about it.

What did Tarfah do?

He closed the letter, continued on his way and met the Bahraini leader over there, and handled him his own death sentence. The Bahraini leader had no option but to kill Tarfah and yes he did.

Honesty has caused Tarfah his life. He knew his fate and could have avoided it, yet chose not to be dishonest even if it was going to save his life.

I keep remembering this story whenever I see any Arab leader getting 99% plus of votes, or extending his leadership for a 7th or 8th term or swearing by his 40 wives' lives from a casino in vegas that all his life is dedicated to his poor illeterate people, because honesty is lacking from the people who should have been teaching it to us. We barely have leaders who tell us the truth about themselves and their decisions, about their mistakes and mishapes, without worrying about the consequences of their honesty.

Maybe it's just that the last honest Arab has died 1800 years ago and we have to accept who we have now.