The Power of Stories

I've become quite the hulu.com junkie. I've been making my way through documentary series; first I watched all the "30 Days" episodes they had, and was continually touched by the ability of the show's structure to soften even the hardest of hearts. God bless Morgan Spurlock for doing this most crucial of work to help us to see each other as humans instead of (opposing) issues.

Now I'm making my way through the "Empires" series. I finished "The Kingdom of David" last week. The series began with the Jews being brought into captivity in Babylon. The scribes and religious leaders decided that the way to get the Jewish people out of slavery was through their stories. So they took a religion that had been oral, and began transcribing it to paper. Historical accuracy was not as important as imparting morals and patterns of behavior. They needed spiritual roadmaps; working in the Truth imparted to Muslims in the Qur'anic verse "God will not change the state of a people until they change themselves."

Throughout the series, the commentators emphasized that the legacy of the Jewish empire was not land or wealth, but ideas. The idea of One God. The idea of religious autonomy (the Maccabbees revolt against idols in the temple of Jerusalem). The idea of democratization of religious institutions (replacing the temple and priests with synagogues and rabbis). The idea that piety lays not in how one treats the gods, as it had in paganism, but in how people treat each other: the Ten Commandments given to Moses were largely concerned with behavior rather than temple rites.

The fact that stories are healing, the political implications of which are so beautifully laid out in the Arabic legend of Sheherezade, is a cornerstone of American society. Recovery groups are built on stories, non-profits are expanded through stories, fields of psychoanalysis use stories as their primary tool, television programs revolve around real-life stories. Indeed, the Qur'an edifies and encourages through stories, reviving stories that had been lost, deepening stories already known. Muslim literature, based on the idea that reporting life was interesting enough without the need for fiction, revolved around biographies- the telling of life stories. Stories inspire and encourage because they touch something very deep and personal within all of us. They connect us to one another, to ourselves, and thus to God.

Yet the Muslim community is silent. People are warned against telling their stories. Stories told are often punished by those that are so small minded they see only fodder for gossip rather than fuel for growth and change.

We are suffering from a plague of social diseases and dysfunction in our community, however, recovery and growth programs--even programs to lift families out of poverty--are left dead in the water because Muslims won't respect confidentiality. Apparently we would rather be sick than foster an atmosphere supportive of openness and honesty.

We know that God does not send a disease without sending the cure. Have we become so lost that we would deny the cure for so many of our ills: sharing stories? Has our communal immune system become so infected that we only turn on ourselves; attacking that which is there to heal us?

Stories heal because they bring darkness into the light. Stories heal because they help us find our voice. Stories heal because they connect us. Stories heal because they humble us, making us realize that we are all struggling, that we all make mistakes. Stories empower for that same reason. Stories help us better discover who we are, and as Prophet Mohammad told us: he who knows himself, knows his God. Stories help us release the past so that we can move on with our lives, instead of having to perpetually shove things deeper in the closet and always worry they will pop out. Stories strengthen us against the whispers of the Shaitan. Stories open us to the beauty of God and the Creation. Stories confirm faith and foster community. Stories help us understand where we've been so that we can see where we're going. Stories help us change. Stories are, indeed, the most effective tool for change humanity has ever known.