مسلمانوں کا نیوٹن ۔ ڈاکٹر عبدالسلام — Page 374
364 the modern counterpart of 'The Muhtasib', hauled up a lusty roister, vociferous with drink and youth, and flushed with his late nocturnal revels۔Waxing as black as Moses so quoth the reveler۔"Defile me not, Heaven's anointed, with their unsanctified hands۔Knoweth thou not my illustrious parent - he who presides over multitudes, who out-weeds rebels, he to whom the whole world bows۔" They narrate that the dignity stood aghast at the grim disclosure that beads of perspiration coursed down his brow, that he prostrated himself and apologized۔Subsequent inquiries, however, revealed that the desperado was none else except the direct lineal descendant of a barber۔So it was stipulated that it is to a barber alone that the whole world inclines its head۔To one thing I can testify - that barbers do keep well abreast of the intellectual movement of the time۔I can never forget the horrible yarns I heard some years back from the professional who exercised his shearing capabilities on the growth at my chin, blood curdling tales of murder, grim, gruesome, that would make my hair stand on end - and thus facilitate his work۔Psychology in the service of shaving۔Man's progress What part have hair played in man's march to progress? Cleopatra's nose, they say, changed altogether whole chapters of Rome's history۔Why not her raven black tresses? Pope has asserted in his Rape of the Lock that beauty draws us with a single hair۔۔۔۔۔But this aspect of the question will lead us too far into aesthetics۔Let it be merely stated that the growth on the virgin chin of their boy-beloved has had a mystic significance for our Eastern Sufi poets, proving for some the veritable road to Paradise۔-- for Has hair anything to do with personal valor? Perhaps yes Shakespeare mentions the "beards of Hercules and Mars۔" The cases of Samson and Shagpat may also be adduced۔Samson on one-occasion remarks: "God, when he gave me strength, to show withal, how slight the gift was, hung it in my hair"۔No man could subdue him but his wife: "Like a deceitful concubine, shore me, Like a time wether; no worthy match But by the barber's razor best subdued۔" When his hair grows again he recovers his strength and revenges himself on his enemies۔Similar was the case with Shagpat۔According to Meredith Shagpat wears his hair long, contrary to the custom of Mohammedan countries, where all men shave their heads, with the exception of one tuft on the top of the head, by which tuft, after death, the true believer is to be lifted up by angels and carried into paradise۔Shagpat wears his hair long because in his head there has been planted one magical hair taken out of the head of a Djinn and Genie and this hair was the power of making all men worship the person on whose head it grows۔۔۔۔From this it may appear that perhaps it is not worth while to shave at all۔Apart from the diplomatic significance of long hair and beard in social circles, beard has a political significance as well۔For myriads of historians the clean