The Food of Paradise

                                        

                     The Food of Paradise is an Islamic story by Ibn Majid, who talks about a mullah named Ibrahim. The story is full of mystery, magic and other religious aspects of Islamic culture. The story has a realistic setting but, the characters, jinns and their magic is clearly fictional. The story has a funny twist with a nice enlightening ending. It features the social and economic standpoint in our society.

 

                    The stories features Ibrahim, a mullah, his name might familiar  because he is named after the prophet Ibrahim who is Abraham in the Arabic version, Muslims call him by that name although it is unclear whether he was named after him or the Ibrahim in this story is prophet Abraham. The story does tell that the mullah is called Ibrahim the wise but he is a mullah, a mullah is a person that teaches the Koran, which confirms the fact that he is not prophet Ibrahim. If he is just named after prophet Ibrahim he is a pretty good character that blend well with the plot and story.

Prophet Ibrahim                                                   

Speaking to God

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                 The story is smart and talks about the social and economic standpoint in the society. The mullah at one time complained about why men like him who do hard work must try to survive and overcome starvation.  This is telling the viewers about the situation of others some are rich while some are poor, the poor must work hard and sweat in order to survive while the rich get to eat delicious food and do almost no work at all. It tells the problem in our society that hard work is ill-paid and that some people do not have food. The story really highlights the economic status of people. The princess who is rich and can buy almost anything she wants is unhappy and lonely and would even be willing to give half of her inheritance to the mullah because of the years of great loneliness she has experienced. The mullah and his sorry state all point out to that the message this story is giving us a look at our own civilization and the fact most of us value money because money is one of the most important things in our world because the reality is you won’t survive without money.

Our Society:                          

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                        The story has some mythological creatures such as giants and jinns. The story is fictional and thus has magic. These things might seem normal for a fictional story but what if these things actually represent something in the real world. The magical shield surrounding the white castle holding the princess could be that she is being protected from the outside world by her parents after all some rich children usually tend to be overprotected, this usually results them to feel lonely, the same feeling the princess has. The jinns might represent your friends who will help you do impossible tasks. The giants could be obstacles that you and your friends must overcome to reach your goal.

 

                         With this I come to a conclusion that our world is the same as the mullah’s although fictional it really relates to the real world. The characters, setting and magic might really be our daily lives covered in fictional spells and creatures. In the end, like Ibrahim you will find the truth behind the halwa you keep getting.