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Or maybe we're remembering him for giving us a pithy example with an even more pithy punchline that explains in some small way a fundamental part of the human mind? In that way, Hatim al-Tai’s brother was wrong. He was remembered for his wisdom, so much so that I only know of Hatim al-Tai as a way to express this story about his brother.

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Whatever the reason might be for us remembering, my point still stands that by retelling the story we make it so that disrespecting others and their belief was indeed the right thing to do for him to be remembered, that is what lead to his goal being reached.

If the same thing happened but the story wasn't passed on, then it would not have been the right path to reach his goal.

For a modern reference, that is why I'm a strong supporter of not propagating the names of people committing things like mass killings for glory, like we've seen quite a few times.

You can still learn from misdeeds. That's a rather clever parable.

No, human nature makes that so, retelling this story just communicates that knowledge of human nature.

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