Al-Darwish to Al-Rashid: If the Caliphate Had Lasted for Someone Else, You Would Not Have Reached This Position

I call out to whoever is better than you by His name, and He does not get angry with me.

Look at their palaces and there their graves; when this world arrives, it arrives as mud.

How many graves are built, while we are not built; how many sick people return to health, while we do not return to health.

We ask Allah the Almighty for the life of the blessed and the death of the martyrs... Amen.

When a Brit shouted at Churchill: "You are a stupid prime minister,"

Winston said before Parliament: "We arrested him because he revealed a state secret."

Instead of defending himself against the insult, he turned it into a joke.

A man said to his son: "I will propose to you a girl for marriage..." but he refused.

"My son works as the head of the Central Bank for the countries of West Asia."

An order was given to find a watch that had disappeared from the Presidential headquarters.

The story goes: Harun al-Rashid built a palace, and when he stood before it to hear the poets' praise, a poor dervish passed by and said: "O Harun."

The soldiers were about to seize him, wondering how the Caliph could be called by his first name without the title "Commander of the Faithful"?

So al-Rashid said: "Leave him." Then he said to the man: "What do you want?"

He said: "I am angry that I call you by your name, while I call upon someone better than you by His name, at any time, and He does not get angry. I say: O Allah, O the Most Merciful, O the Almighty?"

The Abbasid Caliph said to him: "Come closer to me."

The man approached, and Harun said to him: "Preach to me."

The dervish said: "If the caliphate had remained with someone else, it would not have reached you."

The Caliph said: "Add more."

He said: "Look, these are their palaces and there are their graves. Indeed, this world, when it comes, comes as mud; when it covers, it covers; when it clears, it clears; when it ripens, it rots; when it dries, it dries up. And how many graves are built, while we are not built; and how many sick people return to health, while we do not return to health. And how many kings had their flags raised for them, but when they rose high, they died.

The righteous will die, and the rebellious sinners will die, and the arrogant will die, and the humble will die... Everyone in existence will die and perish, and the Face of your Lord, Owner of Majesty and Honor, will remain. To whom belongs the dominion? To Allah, the One, the Subduer. And 'Indeed, to Allah we belong and to Him we shall return.'... We ask Allah the Almighty for the life of the blessed and the death of the martyrs." So Harun said: "Amen."

Stalin's Hour and Fear

The phone rang, and when the man answered, an angry voice ordered the search for a watch that had disappeared from the Presidential headquarters.

The owner of the watch was not an ordinary person; it was Joseph Stalin. Therefore, the initial minutes of the search turned into a full alert. The police force rushed out, and they did not just search for the watch; they began arresting five people at once.

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The investigations were accelerating, and the pressure was mounting, with each one trying to survive at any cost.

But at that moment, something no one expected happened: Stalin found his watch himself. He picked up the phone receiver again and ordered the investigation to be stopped immediately. The reply came coldly: "It cannot be stopped now. We have arrested five people, and three of them have confessed to stealing the watch!"

Strangely, the theft never happened, and the watch was in its place all along. Thus, fear turned into real confessions.

Sometimes the truth is not the strongest; rather, it is the fear that writes the story's text.

"You are a stupid prime minister"

With this sentence, a British man shouted at the motorcade of Prime Minister Winston Churchill during World War II, in the middle of the street and in front of everyone.

When confronting the head of government in this manner was not a normal occurrence, the man was arrested immediately. But the surprise was not in his arrest, but in the question posed by an opposition MP in Parliament the next day to Churchill: "Is it permissible to arrest a citizen merely for insulting the Prime Minister?"

Silence fell over the hall, and everyone was waiting for a political justification, or perhaps an angry defense of the dignity of the office. But when the Prime Minister stood up to answer, he knew how to turn the entire situation around with a single sentence.

Winston Churchill raised his head and said: "He was not arrested because he insulted the Prime Minister, but because he revealed a state secret."

At that moment, the hall erupted in laughter and applause, for instead of defending himself against the insult, he turned it into a joke that made everyone forget the insult.

It’s not about power, but quick wit—making your few words stronger than the entire situation.

I became the president’s relative.

A man told his son, “I will propose to you a girl for marriage,” but the son refused. The father explained that his son believed he was an old man with outdated thinking, who would not accept his choice of a bride for him.

So the father added, “The girl is the prime minister’s daughter.” Immediately, the young man agreed to the marriage.

The father continued, “I went to the prime minister and said, ‘I have come to propose your daughter to my son.’ The prime minister refused. So I told him, ‘My son is the governor of the Central Bank of West Asian countries.’”

The prime minister immediately agreed.

Then I went to the bank’s owner and said, “I am looking for a high-ranking position in the bank for my son.” The manager refused. So I told him, “My son is married to the prime minister’s daughter.” The manager agreed without hesitation.

In the end, the man said, “I secured a prestigious position for my son, whose wife is the prime minister’s daughter, and I became the president’s relative.”