The holy but empty shrine

There is a Turkish proverb, "The sheikh doesn't fly, his followers make him fly." The meaning is clear. People often attribute such extraordinary virtues, values and capabilities to religious or political leaders, or their bosses at work, that are hard to take seriously on sober or intellectual consideration. They may do this for religious or political reasons, or for some other reason. These are the bitter realities of the opportunistic human character.

In Ankara's Yenimahalle district there are a number of small ateliers where highly skilled craftsmen produce monumental marble gravestones and tombs, which look very much like shining versions of the sarcophaguses used in ancient times. Such marble work is often very expensive.

There was once a man who ordered one of those elaborate tombs to be carved in a block of marble for his beloved mother. What happened to the man? No one knows. Did he die? Did he move to another city or abroad? For whatever reason, the man never turned up to collect his order, and the craftsman moved the huge one-piece marble tomb to the unused second floor of his shop, which was the first floor of the building from the backstreet because of the street's slope.

The tomb was so elaborate, ornamented, and nicely engraved that word started to circulate that it hosted remains of a great Islamic scholar who devoted his entire life to spreading the message of Allah. Soon, people had turned the shop into a kind of a shrine, appearing there in hundreds every day, particularly on holy Fridays.

The shop owner quickly got fed up with this. But at the same time there was an incredible increase in his work and sales because people started to attribute all the marble worked on at his atelier with a kind of holy value.