Admitting One’s Fault

Once when a professor of Urdu language was taking a poetry class, he came across a phrase in the textbook which was printed as follows: “The beloved shall comb her hair with panja-e-sil.”

The professor explained “panja-e-sil” as “the hands of the grinding stone”. That is, the hair of the beloved will be properly combed by the panja-e-sil opening all the knots. Students were confused. Because even after the professor’s explanation, the meaning of the phrase was unclear. All he had done was paraphrase the poetic words in prose form. Meanwhile an intelligent student of the class stood up and said:

“Sir, may I say something?”

“Yes.”

“Sir, this might be a printing mistake. I think this is not “panja-e-sil” but rather it is “panja-e-shal”, which means “lifeless hands of the comb”. A comb resembles the fingers of a human being. Being a lifeless thing, the poet has called it “panja-e-shal” (lifeless hand). The poet laments that his fingers could not comb the beloved’s locks, while the comb, which is lifeless, is lucky enough to have found an opportunity to comb the beloved’s hair beautifully.” After this explanation by the student, all students in the class became happy. They realized that the phrase which was incomprehensible even after the professor’s explanation became comprehensible. But the professor did not admit his ignorance, he immediately said: “Right, right. There is no difference between “panja-e-sil and panja-e-shal.”

If one does not accept the fault even after it is laid bare, he only seeks to prove that he is greater while the reality is of lesser importance. But the truth is quite the opposite. What in effect happens is that the person only belittles himself.