The Medicine of Story
by Shamsul Bahari
Bismillah.
To be human is to tell stories. No other creature we know carries the same relentless urge — to explain, to share, to remember, to weave moments into meaning. We tell how we came to be, and we tell how we got out of being here. We tell to others, and mostly, we tell ourselves.
But as Lao Tzu wisely said,
“He who justifies himself does not convince.”
And so often, that is what our stories become — justifications dressed up as memoir, ego cloaked in memory. We defend the self. We explain our pain. We try to redeem our mistakes or polish our triumphs. But in that trying, something is lost.
Yet even in our fumbling for truth, there is something sacred. Because beyond justification lies another purpose — communion. To speak, to write, to reflect — even quietly, even insignificantly — is to offer a piece of oneself to the larger body of humanity. And that offering, however small, may hold medicine for another.
Perhaps the true value of our stories lies not in their clarity or coherence, but in their presence. The simple act of saying:
“This is what I saw. This is what I felt. This is what passed through me.”
Not to convince, but to witness.
As a member of this species — this wondering, wandering kind — I feel the responsibility to tell my story, even if it dissolves as I tell it. I owe it to those who came before, and those who come after. I owe it to the aching stranger who may find in these words a reflection, or a release.
The universe, they say, is shaped by our collective thinking — and perhaps, too, by our collective telling. In every tale is a key. In every voice, a signal. And even silence has its story — a reminder that to stop thinking is, at times, the purest truth we can share.
Let this be my offering today. No justification. No claim to wisdom. Just a reflection — and a breath — passed from one soul to another.
Wallahu alam.
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