Alla'din and
the lamp
djinn – jinn – genie – gene –
genome – genius
The story of religious duty and the exploration of the Self
Alla'din - the name is derived from the two root Arabic
words alla
- excellence,
and din
meaning religion
[hence excellence in religion] - was a fatherless urchin
living off his street wits in Bagdad. He lived with his
long suffering mother, and both lived off little money -
for none had survived the death of the widow’s husband. His
father had been a successful businessman; except power,
deceit and corruption had driven him to an early grave and
financial ruin through his own greed.
In the story, the boy Alla'din is found by an ‘uncle' of
his father - a Magician in guise. The Magician takes him to
a hill where there is a hidden cave. Within this deep dark
cave is hidden treasure and a magic lamp. It is the lamp
that he seeks. He instructs the young Alla'din to go into
the cave but not to touch anything but the lamp. The boy
finds the old unused lamp, but due to his own dire needs,
he takes some of the jewels that he finds on the cave's
floor. The weight of these prevent him from exiting the
cave, and his refusal to dump the jewels thwarts the
efforts of the Magician to get hold of the real prize, the
lamp. He pushes the boy down into the cave, and seals it up
in disgust and anger. A crest fallen Alla'din lies in the
cave and rubs the dirty lamp. Immediately there is a
thunderous noise, a filling of the space in the cave of an
enormous being - a genie. This Genie offers his services
through granting him wishes. Alla'din's first wish is to
remove him from the cave. On arriving home, he summons this
genie who again brings him what he desires - food.
Consequently the genie brings riches and jewels to Alla'din
who is, gradually, able to provide for his mother, and to
trade profitably. The years followed, and Alla'din becomes
rich and powerful.
One day walking through the bazaar, he by chance, observes
that a recessed door in the Palace walls is ajar. He goes
over, his natural curiosity aroused. He spies a beautiful
woman being attended to, by her slave women. He reflects
that this must be the Sultan’s daughter. He falls for her
beauty. He determines that he should have the hand of the
Sultan’s daughter and concocts a ruse to slip in to the
Majlis - the court that allows all to petition the Sultan.
He asks for her hand, and is told in no uncertain terms
that he is not worthy, he is not a Prince or Noble , and
that he must show his worth. He is thrown out
unceremoniously.
A dejected Alla'din goes off, and in the evening conjures
up his genie to supply him with a camel train of gold,
jewels and costly goods. He would march into the City as a
Prince amongst men, and seduce the Sultan with his worldly
power. The genie, in a flash produces the huge train of
camels , all groaning with the weight of the wealth that
Alla'din now possessed. He marched triumphantly into the
town, through the market place to the Palace. Ushered in
before the Sultan, he offered his gifts, as a dowry for his
bride. Overwhelmed by this show of wealth and power, he
gave the Prince - for Alla'din was clothed in apparel fit
for a Noble Human - the hand of his daughter. Alla'din
through the power of the genie built a wonderful Palace for
his Princess. They married in great splendor, and
happiness, for truly they were in love. They moved into
their Palace and lived well.
Many months later, a beggar man approached one of the
windows of Alla'din’s palace, and shouted out to all that
could hear, "new lamps for old, new lamps for old!!" One of
their servants overheard this and reported it to her
mistress. The Princess had never liked the old dirty lamp,
and not understanding its importance, nor ever seeing it
polished, decided, that along with all the beauty of her
Palace, an old lamp would not do. She called the beggar
man, who gladly did as he promised and gave her a new shiny
lamp for the old one. What a bargain, she had thought.
Unfortunately, the beggar man was the magician, back in
disguise, after hearing the whereabouts of Alla'din He was
overjoyed and rubbed the dirty lamp, where upon the genie
appeared and addressed his master - for the lamp owner was
always the master of the genie - for any wish. "Send the
Palace and all that is in it, to China?"
"Thy wish is my command", intoned the genie, and in an
instant the Palace now longer stood in its foundations. It
was gone, and all within it.
Alla'din returning home from his businesses, found only the
faintest glimmer of where his Palace had been. There was
but a space in the area where it had been built. Dejected
he looked around, throughout the City, and could not find
head nor hair, ne’er a whisper, as to the fate of his
Palace and his beautiful bride. Alla'din fell into despair;
in depression he neglected his business, his ‘nose’ for it
was gone, for indeed his powerful ally, the genie, was not
present. His business suffered, he lost all hope, and
eventually became yet again a pauper.
One day, dejectedly sitting around, lethargic and unable to
be motivated, he unconsciously fiddled with his wedding
ring. His actions, like a nervous tic, rubbed the surface
and suddenly there was a puff of smoke; another genie
appeared. ? What is Thy bidding, O master??, quoth the
genie of the ring.
? Take me to my Palace? cried an excited Alla'din, who was
quite used to these strange forces. In a twinkle of an eye,
Alla'din and the new genie found themselves alighting the
hallways of the Palace, in a far off country called China.
He looked around the rooms and eventually found his
Princess looking lost and bewildered, dejected as an
outcast, deep in misery at being in a foreign land without
her consort. They embraced, and she was quick to tell him
to make no noise, for the Magician was still about. They
concocted a ruse to steal the lamp, for they needed the
lamp’s genie to banish the Magician to another and even
further, far off land.
Alla'din sneaks up, and gingerly takes the lamp from its
hiding place, which his wife knew of. The magician, whose
powers of greed and avariciousness, had made him develop
some potent occult powers, instantly became awake as his
source of these powers was being taken. He rose up and
using his power turned into a huge snake, which attempted
to strike out at Alla'din. Dodging and twisting away from
the venomous fangs, Alla'din, whose sense of adventure in
life had returned with the reunion with his wife, had
reflected upon the nature of the Magician. He threw out a
challenged to this serpent:
"If you are so powerful", he cried, "I bet you can't defeat
this genie, he lives in here!" and thrust out a small glass
container. As quick as lightening the serpent changed its
form and went thundering into the glass vial, with intent
to kill the genie that had found the Palace. Alla'din
rapidly thrust a cork into the neck of the vial, and
triumphantly lifted the container which shook with fury.
"I own you now, and this is where you belong", he said, and
picking up the lamp that lay on the floor, he rubbed it.
Instantaneously the genie appeared; Salaamed his greetings,
and asked for some duty to perform. "Cast this bottle to
Africa", he commanded, "we have the seen the last of this
fellow". The genie took the vial and threw it into the
darkness, where presumably it landed in some dark faraway
land. He rubbed his ring, and the genie of the ring, took
the Palace and the two of them back to Bagdad, Capital of
Iraq.
The two of them lived happily ever after. Alla'din used the
genie of the lamp less and less, for his natural
astuteness, sense or morality, and understanding of life
had been opened by this episode, and he found that his
ability to make good business sufficed their needs. He
became a leader in the City, a righteous man who others
looked up to. He became a Prince amongst Men, a man who
followed the Shar’ia and the Hadith of the Prophet. A man
of who embodied surrender to his Lord, Almighty God.
In the other interpretation, we could read the story in the
following way:
Alla'din was a boy who was orphaned at an early age. His
mother was poor, and was only able to give the two of them
the most simple of lives. Food was often hard to come by,
and heating in the depth of winter was too expensive.
Alla'din was a bright, seemingly uninvolved child who often
forgot his mother’s toils and took to the streets to have
fun and supplement his sparse meals by stealing, begging
and borrowing food from vendors and other street hawkers.
One day during his early teens, as he became more mature,
he began to find that arising from his base instincts was a
rudimentary business sense. He could make more money and
food if he traded with the men that what he would if he
stole from them. He would buy cheap from those who liked
this brazen youth, and sell it again round the corner to
another who was looking for just the ‘thing’ he had moments
ago purchased. He had found his talent. In fact what he
found was his own family inherited quality of the
businessman. His deceased father had a gift for business.
This was his source of power [or force of his business
acumen] and what he had found in the cave [of his ancestral
DNA] was the unexpected gift [of his genetic inheritance]
and the self worth [ jewels, something of value] to buy and
sell - the innate capacity of the businessman. The power
that manifest within him to do this, was his own instincts
or animal self proving his own capacity and will. The value
he placed initially on his new found talent, his self
worth, prevented him from being ensnared by the power [the
magician] of making too much money. This force or will
allowed him to become successful, to make money and to
begin to search for the hand of his true consort. This is
alluded to as the Sultan’s daughter - the progeny of a
Royal figure. The initial snub indicated that the Alla'din
was not worthy of the hand of a Princess, as he did not
show his true value. He was not a Prince or Noble human.
The desire to find his true partner was overwhelming,
almost obsessive; for it almost got the ruin of Alla'din.
He made huge amounts of money to bring him prestige,
wealth, honor. He could disguise his true nature with fine
clothes, jewels, gold riches, camels - all displays of
apparent wealth [material wealth]. He could mimic the
Prince by disguise. He turned up at the Palace of the King
- a metaphor for the inner emblem of the Ruler of the
Kingdom, his Self. The apparent show of value and wealth so
seduced the King, that he then offered to give Alla'din his
daughter.
The daughter here is the offspring of his royal imagination
- created by his wishes, his desires to find himself.
Created through his left brain; which is said to be the
secular, analytical, time orientated, logical, precise,
masculine, inspirational, intellectual side of the brain.
This part gave birth to the idea of the Princess. The royal
part of his brain sensed the idea that material wealth - or
things of this world - could buy him unity with the Self,
and with God. If he endowed his sense of Nobleness with
things of this world, it would give him a sense of
importance, of value, of self esteem. He could then trick
himself into believing that he was in touch with his
feminine Self, as he was able to give birth - the nature of
the feminine - to assets and power. Hence his proposition
to his own creation that he labeled a Princess.
The story continues.
The Magician or our own ‘power’ takes to extra-ordinary
lengths to disguise itself so that even Alla'din cannot see
him or this part of himself - for what it is. This
seduction occurs with his wife. His wife - the Sultan’s
daughter - a ‘princess’ is seduced by Alla'din’s own power
[the Magician, and his own corrupted idea of what power
really is], and she, seduced by the promise that this power
could transform the Vessel into something new - better and
more ostentatious, allows him to be emasculated by his own
greed and corruption with power, by letting him be taken
prisoner by the Magician. For the Magician - his material
power that now becomes master of his humanity - seizes the
lamp [the physical container or form] and banishes the
Castle [the dwelling place of his Holy consciousness] to a
far off land. The wretched Alla'din intent on making money,
taking power over others, wheeling and dealing, is unable
to see his state [the land] his wife [the pure, feminine,
receptive, creative part of himself - his inner] or his
house [his own precious Vessel]. The genie has become a
huge force - almost like a smoke that occludes the Light
from the Power of God. This genie [the family code - the
Creator of Wealth] has become so powerful that it now
prevents Alla'din to be mindful of his Lord, and Master,
Allah or God.
Fortunately within Alla'din, is something else, that
arises. It arises, for he is in desperate state. He has
lost his senses, reflectiveness, allegiance to God, wife,
inner Self and to life. He has lost his sense of his value
and his duty to God. This is the power of the shadow, the
code; the force that is embodied within the inherited
commands or our inherited predisposition: [the Creator of
Wealth]. For in check it was a useful code, it enabled him
to make enough money, and to buy, and purchase what he
needed. He had been liberated enough from the survival mode
of life, to begin to look and find his gentle, more
feminine creative side [his wife] and treated this part of
him as a princess [gently, with love, with heart -
Royally]. Although this is an idea - spiritual materialism
- it is nevertheless an important stage for us to develop
through.
Now he pulled up another resource. This was the gift of
finding the heart within him. The inner heart. The capacity
to enter into love of life, of the Self -- of opening
himself to the inner self and the inner life. This was the
genie who appeared in the story from the ring. The nature
of the code [the Ruler of the heart] was whatever he wanted
- his heart’s desire - he was able to obtain. He had done
so when he became successful in business. Now it was time
for him to enter into a covenant with God, to look to his
capacities, to the forces that rule, and take the lead. He
took the lead and found the capacity to change his ways,
banish the greed, cull the power of acquisition, of money.
He came back to find the Light and to be guided by God, but
also supported in measure by his capacity to earn a
livelihood, to set goals; to accomplish them, and be
connected to his inner. He was then able to find himself,
to have pride, to value his capabilities, and to honor his
ancestors who had given him this capacity.
In other words; on returning home Alla'din and his wife saw
that the genie of the lamp was the source of conflict. That
somehow his ability to accrue wealth, and thus create the
illusion that he was such a man of wealth, had been the
cause of this fight with the Magician. This capacity had
drawn the envy of this person, and the need to acquire it.
Thus the integrated Human being, one united with his wife /
self / inner / with God, foresaw the trouble when his
secular resources became too powerful. and made an inner
agreement to modify his needs, yet utilize the qualities
that had been developed. The genie of the ring was the
inner resource to get him to see and become aware of the
inner heart, by initially amplifying the need to gratify
his worldly heart or desires. Once done, and he was able to
reflect through adversity, and through finding his true
inner Self, and thus his inner partner - who was found a
long way off, in another land - he was able to draw upon
the Nobility of action, the capacity to ‘cork’ the bottle,
and thus his desire nature, and to do so, he had to be in
step with himself and his inner being. The changing of the
genie into the form of the snake alludes to the tempter
within ourselves - a direct reference can be made to the
serpent who tempts Eve. The metaphor of the snake is
covered in the chapter entitled Flexibility,in our
forthcoming book: Being Human - the elements and forces
that create a human life. We write about the force within
us that can tempt us with feelings that are not pure. These
feelings arise from the material forces that rise up to
seduce us - the power of material wealth. The bottle is his
own vessel, the cork is the human self who takes charge or
manages our resources. The banishment of the genie to the
far off land represents the sending off of this force that
takes power, to a corner of the Self still left in shadow.
Here as we become more in tune with the Lord, our God, then
the Light of Grace can illuminate even that which has been
in darkness.
This is an example of a teaching story, a fable or
mythology which allows us to sense truth as symbol and
metaphor. Whether a djinn or genie exists does not really
matter; what does matter, is that the story portrays the
struggle over unseen elements within our lives. The story
of Alla'din is especially important for his name tells us
the nature of essence of what his life will be about. The
main character in this Middle Eastern mythic journey learns
about his innate resources, the pitfalls when those talents
rise up and occlude us from what is Right and truly worthy.
It forewarns us of the pitfalls of greed, illusion, and yet
illustrates the journey of self discovery. It reminds us of
our feminine self (and vice versa if we reverse the gender
of the principle characters) and our need to embrace this
part and have it part of our lives. It tells us that by
polishing (rubbing) the vessel or 'lamp', or indeed the
'ring' , we bring out their value and shine to the world.
Our way to polish ourselves is covert in the story, but
because of the name of our hero, it infers that life
polishes us, and our worship and surrender to God, rather
than secular things is the prime hand that creates the
shine. Disney in their movie, reminds us that Alla'din is a
diamond in the rough' a modern vernacular that tells us
that his value is yet unpolished , or may not yet been
faceted or cut on the vagaries of life. The end of the
story tells us of the value that others see in him, and the
value that he sees in himself and the ability to put things
of this world, undeniably valuable, in their proper place.