The Power of Education

The Power of Education

Once upon a time, two men were traveling together.
They were cousins. They were on their way to a special
school that taught religion. While they were traveling, they
stopped at a town that was ruled by an uneducated king.
Since it was a Friday, they prayed at the mosque where the
king talked nonsense. They slept in this town at night. In
the morning they continued their travels. Finally, they
reached their destination and they started to learn about
the Islam religion. After they finished their religious
education, one of the men said, “Let’s go back home.”
The other one said, “I will not go back home until I learn
about politics.’’ The first man said okay, and he started
traveling back home.
He returned to the town where the uneducated king
lived. When he was in this town, the king was leading
Friday’s prayer again. The man prayed with them. After
they had finished the prayers, the king gave a speech. He
said anything he wanted because he was not educated.

No one dared to say that the king was wrong. However, the
man who learned religion took over the speech. He changed
everything that the king said. He made the king look like a
fool. The king ordered his soldiers to put the man in prison.
They took the man from the mosque, and took him to jail.
They put him in a dungeon.
After two years, the prisoner’s cousin returned to the
town after he finished his political education. He didn’t know
his cousin was in jail. It was another Friday (Prayer day for
Muslims). When they finished prayers, the king started to
give his same old speech. After the king finished the
speech, the man who learned politics raised his hand. The
king let him talk. The man said, “Your king is so intelligent.”
He kept praising the king. Then he said, “The luckiest
person in this world is the person who prays with this king
for four Fridays, but you would be luckier to cut one hair
from his head. Everyone started running to get a hair from
the King’s head. A mosque full of people tried to grab the
King’s hair. They climbed all over the King, trying to get his
hair. The King died.

Then the people who lived in the townchose the man

who learned politics to be their King. He let
his cousin out of jail. He had very tangled and matted hair
after being in jail for two years.
Lesson: Any education you gain will help you one day.

Somali Folktale