| Abu Hasan Essay, Research Paper
How to Become Famous.
In the city of Aceh in what is now known as the island of Sumatera, Indonesia there was an
ambitious and vain man named Abu Hasan who worked hard to become a wealthy and important
businessman. However the one thing that continued to elude him was to gain fame and importance in
the eyes of the local community.
Unfortunately Abu Hasan?s wife was not what you would call a social butterfly and in her husbands
eyes was the reason for him not gaining his expected place in society.
“I divorce you. I divorce you. I divorce you. ” Abu Hasan invoked the Islamic law of divorce and
unfeelingly rid himself of his social albatross. Friends and family immediately paraded prospective
brides in front of the rich man?s door. However none of them took his eye.
Tired of his friend’s hassling him, and seeing a way to possibly gain prestige, Abu Hasan talked to the
old woman that made matches in the city. He paid the old woman a lot of money. The old woman
found him a match and he was married to a very popular young woman who was as beautiful as the
moon over the sea.
Friends, family, and all the wealthy and important people from the Achenese social set were invited
to the wedding feast which was held in the most famous building in the city. Of course there was no
expense spared by Abu Hasan in his desire to impress.
The whole room was feasting. There were five different colours of rice. Twenty different colours of
ice cream. Roasted goats were stuffed with three kinds of nuts – walnuts, almonds, and pistachios. A
buffalo was roasted whole on a spit in the middle of the room. Even by Aceh?s high standards this
was a very impressive event.
They all ate and drank, and ate and drank, and ate and drank some more. Everyone was full and
very happy, much to Abu Hasan?s delight.
When the bridesmaids showed the bride in her seven dresses to all the guests none could take their
eyes off her she was so beautiful. The groom?s happiness continued to expand at the same rate as his
newly found popularity.
“This is the best move I have ever made”, whispered Abu Hasan in one of his many prayers of
thanks to Allah.
Then Abu Hasan was called. He was slowly carried on a divan into the great feast room. Everyone
was very quiet as they watched the divan come into the room held aloft by four muscled servant
boys. It was an important time. The great man and the new bride would sit together in all their glory
for the first time in front of all the guests.
The divan was put down on the floor in front of the beautiful bride. She was sitting where all the
guests could see her. Abu Hasan, with great dignity and pride, slowly started to stand up. However
when he slowly stood up, with great dignity and pride, from his divan, because he was too full of
meat and drink, he broke wind with such force that the all window glass rattled as in an earthquake
and all the local livestock in a one kilometre radius stampeded in fright.
The utter silence of the great banquet room was only disturbed by the sound of the gassed insects
bodies hitting the floor and the bubbling of the paint on the ceiling caused by the incredible stench.
In unison each red faced guest started talking quietly to the person beside him, although neither heard
what the other was saying due to the continuos ringing in their ears. Everyone pretended they had
heard nothing. But as the poor groom knew, everyone had heard this terrible sound. Even the deaf
beggars on the steps at the front of the building were holding their ears and moaning in pain.
Very embarrassed, Abu Hasan went out of the great room saying he needed to use the toilet.
Everyone nodded in approval. First he went out of the great room, but then straight out of the house.
He went to his horse, put a saddle on it, and rode away, crying sadly as he rode all through the night.
The redness of his glowing face like a beacon lighting the way .
In the morning he arrived at a small city on the coast. He found a ship ready to sail for India, so he
boarded. In time he came to India. Here he met many Sumaterans. Some of them were from his city
Aceh. They took him to see the King.
They told the King what a great man Abu Hasan was. This King liked Abu Hasan and asked him to
be the captain of his bodyguard. Abu Hasan stayed there for ten years. He worked hard and was
happy, but after ten years he started to become very homesick. His wanted to see his home city
more than anything else, and it nearly cost him his life.
One day, when Abu Hasan was at the peak of his homesickness, he took a horse and started to ride
back home. The King was very angry that Abu Hasan rode away without asking his permission to
leave. He sent his bodyguards out to find and kill Abu Hasan.
Abu Hasan did get away. He made his way back to Sumatera. There he dressed himself in rags and
disguised himself as a beggar. Keeping his name a secret, he went on foot to Aceh. On the way, he
went through a thousand hardships: lions, snakes, cold, hunger, thirst, blisters, splinters acne, etc.
When he came near to his old home, he looked down upon it from the mountains with tears in his
eyes, and he said to himself, “The people may recognise me, so I will look around the city as a
beggar and listen to what the people are saying. May Allah grant that they have forgotten the terrible
event that happened and give me the fame and recognition that I deserve.”
He listened carefully for seven nights and seven days. Then when he was sitting at the door of a small
house, he heard the voice of a young girl saying, “Mother, tell me what day was I born on, for one of
my friends wants to tell my fortune.”
The mother answered, “My daughter, you were born on the very night when Abu Hasan farted.”
When the listener heard these words he stood up and walked sadly with his head bowed out of his
beautiful city, saying to himself, “Now that my fart has become a date, I will be remembered forever
and ever.”
Abu Hasan went away from his home city for the last time. He went back to India. He stayed there
until he died. May the mercy of Allah be upon him!
Such is the price of fame.
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