In the text, The Thousand and One Nights,(926) there are several moral issues introduced. The story of the merchant and the demon, as presented by Shahrazad, displays most of these morals. In fact, first told thousands of years ago, this story presents many of the morals that humanity lives by today. The story advocates grace, virtue, sharing pain, the depravity of jealousy, and forgiveness; morals, that to this day are prominent in the lives of people all over the world. But perhaps the most important message that is initiated in the story of the merchant and the demon is to stand by your own personal morals and values, though hardship may provoke desertion. One of the morals presented by the story of the merchant and the demon, is that of grace. Although the Jinn is called a demon, he is not completely horrible. He shows grace when he allows the merchant a one-year reprieve to settle his affairs, furthermore, the Jinn takes the word of the merchant that he will return. The Jinn also demonstrates grace when he listens to the mens stories. By listening to these stories and agreeing to relinquish parts of his claim on the merchants life the Jinn is allowing the old men to consequently free the merchant.Another moral that is displayed in this story is virtue. The merchant is virtuous because he keeps his word to the Jinn even though it means his death. When the merchant gave his word to the Jinn he swore to God that he would return, to then break this contract, out of his own fear of death, would mean that he would no longer be virtuous because he has dishonored God and himself. The story shows the reward for his courage when the men stay to find out what will happen when the Jinn appears. These men similarly exhibit virtue, when they put themselves in danger by staying with the merchant.The moral of sharing someone elses pain and that of helping without a promised compensation is also implied in this story. The first ma...
