Two Return, One Remains (4)

The second penguin offerred, "Would you like to hear a story?" The first nodded, "Sure, tell me!"

"Well, this is a story about a monkey, who earns a living as a fisherman and he has a habit of waking up late," the penguin started the story.

"The story begins when, one day, the Fisherman happened to see an octopus during the winter, and said, 'If I take off my clothes and jump in after him, I will freeze! But if I do not catch that octopus, I condemn myself to die of starvation!' Then, he took off all his clothes, naked. However, instead of catching the octopus, even reaching it, he was unable to. Luckily, he survived.

Days passed, but still, the octopus was too agile to be catched. 

And came the spring.

The monkey knew that he had skilled in music, then took his flute and his nets to the seashore. Standing on a projecting rock, he played several tunes in the hope that the fish, attracted by his melody, would of their own accord dance into his net, which he had placed below.

At last, having long waited in vain, he laid aside his flute, and casting his net into the sea, made an excellent haul of fish. When he saw them leaping about in the net upon the rock, he said, 'O you most perverse creatures, when I piped you would not dance, but now that I have ceased you do so merrily.'

'Yes,' said an old Fish, 'When you are in a man’s power, you must do as he bids you. There are certain rules and methods for the doing of all things in this world; and therefore, let every man stick to the business he understands, and was brought up to, without making one profession interfere with another.'

Not satisfied with his catch, the next day, the fisherman laid his nets in the river, and encompassed the whole stream from one side to the other, took a long pole, and fell a beating the water, to make the fish strike into his nets.

One of the neighbours that lived thereabout, seeing him do so, wondered what he meant; and going up to him, 'Friend!' says he, 'What are you doing here? Do you think it is to be suffered, that you shall stand splashing and dashing the water, and make it so muddy that it is not fit for use? Who do you think can live at this rate!' He was going on in a great fury, 'Do not fish in troubled water!' But the fisherman interrupted him, and replied, 'I do not much trouble myself, how you are to live with my doing this, but all I know is, I must either spoil it, or have nothing to eat.'

But suddenly, something moved from the river, and the hands of the octopus, as fast as lightning, grabbed the fisherman's legs, and dragged him into the sea. Indeed, life of the fisherman, ended sadly.

The neighbors, not expecting this, said to one another. One who had rebuked him, said, 'There are some men of such execrable principles, that they do not care what mischief or what confusion they occasion in the world, provided they may but gratify some little selfish appetite. 

A thief, will set a whole street on fire, to get an opportunity of robbing one house; an ill-natured person, will kindle the flame of discord among friends and neighbours, purely to satisfy his own malicious temper. And among the great ones, there are those, who, to succeed in their ambitious designs, will make no scruple of involving their country in decisions and animosities at home, and sometimes in war and bloodshed abroad, provided they do but maintain themselves in power, they care not what havoc and desolation they bring upon the rest of mankind.

They see all around them confounded with faction and party rage, without the least remorse or compassion. The widow’s tears, the orphan’s cries, and the sighs of despair itself cannot affect them. Like the Fisherman, they boldly pursue their sport, and only reply, it must be so, because we cannot live, as we would do, without it. What brutish, unsociable sentiments are these; such as a mere state of nature would scarce digest!

Those that have any traces of equity in their brest, or any regard for the rights of mankind, should enter their protest against such notions as these, and oppose the practice of them with all their might and strength.

The other replied, 'They care not what mischief or what confusion they occasion in the world, provided they can obtain their ends, or even gratify some little selfish appetite.

They do but maintain themselves in power, they care not what havoc and desolation they bring upon the rest of mankind. Their only reason is, that it must be so, because they cannot live as they wish without it. Therefore, those who have the happiness of mankind at heart, for happiness and morality are inseparably connected, should oppose them with all their might; at the same time shunning the society of their possessors as a plague, and consigning their characters to the detestation of posterity.'

The penguin finished his story by saying, 'It's getting late, let's go home!' The other nodded, 'Yes, the boys are waiting for our catch.'

And so, with the typical stride of penguins, they walked along the shore, and then slowly, greeted the waves, and sang,

I'd like to be

Under the sea

In an octopus' garden

In the shade

We would sing

And dance around

Because we know

We can't be found

We would be so happy

You and me

No one there to tell us

What to do

I'd like to be

Under the sea

In an octopus' garden

With you *)

It's time to go, and the Moon gone by saying, "And all praise is due to Allah the One Alone, and may Allah send abundant blessing of peace upon our leader, our beloved Prophet (ﷺ), upon his Family and his Companions until the Day of Judgement. And Allah knows best."

Citations & References:
- Ibn Rajab Al-Hanbali, The Three That Follow to the Grave, Dar As-Sunnah
- Rev. Geo. Fyler Townsend, M.A., Aesop Fables, George Routledge and Sons
- Thomas Bewick, Bewick's Select Fables, Bickers & Sons
- Samuel Croxall, D.D., Fables of Aesop and Others, Simon Probasco
*) Octopus’s Garden written by Sir Richard Starkey MBE, better known by his stage name Ringo Starr.

[Part 1]

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