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| Muhammad Ali (Right) 3 Times World Heavyweight Boxing Champion |
The
other day I performed my ablution and hurriedly walked a little distance to
enter the mosque in our area, with the intention of praying Asr salaat.
I had to content myself with standing in the 5th row, because I had allowed
some worldly interest and of course my Qaarin to distract me from
promptly responding to the adhan
after he had called to prayer. The iqamat
had already been said and everybody was adjusting his position to form a clean,
neat, straight row. As I raised my hands looking straight at the qiblah to say my takbir after the imam, I could not believe my eyes as something or
should I say someone attracted my attention.
Right
there in the first row, I saw a famous international football star. Though I was
in the local mosque in our neighborhood, yet there he was standing upright in
front of his Lord, Allaah Subhanahu wa Ta’alah (SWT) in total submission and
devotion. And what more, he was ahead of me in arriving to the congregational
prayer. Shame enveloped me at first. My inner voice, looking for the slightest
excuse to distract my Khushu’ (concentration)
from the salaat quickly seized the
opportunity and whisked me away into my ocean of thoughts.
My mind’s
voices (I have 2 of such voices in me, always at loggerhead with each other. One
always getting unnecessarily excited and wanting me to do things in a hurry, discouraging
me, unless it is towards evil, highly pessimistic, irrational, stupid, bad and
so on. The other is foresighted, calm, composed, patient, wise, careful and
calculated in his utterances) immediately commenced their usual exchange;
“Is it
possible that he’s the one? No, it can’t be!”
“So who
does he know around the neighborhood, could it be the mosque owner? Or maybe he
has some relatives in one of the houses on the street”
“Surely
he cannot be passing by and heard the adhan
being called and just stopped to pray”
“It’s
possible you know. With Allah, all things are possible. Probably he has
reverted”
“No
way! And the prompt response to adhan,
even among devout Muslims, not many do that”
“I
guess you are right, for it is a rare gift bestowed by Ar-Rahman upon some of
His slaves. Maybe he came with a friend, another football star from this part
of the county, perhaps?”
“But,
look man! Look closely at who you are talking about! Do you think he’ll
be here with a friend? If you say he is here to see a babe, a beautiful chic,
that is a probably studying or living abroad, but happens to be the daughter of
one of the rich guys living in the vicinity, I might agree with you. But look again;
he is the current FIFA World Footballer of the Year!”
“That is
not what is amazing me…” the good inner voice sounding hopeful concluded “I
never thought he is among the ones who bows down in total submission to Allaah,
The Lord of the worlds. He looks so so humble”
“Allahu Akbar!”
suddenly I heard the imam say, bringing me back to reality and the prayer we were
observing. I raised my hands to my ear level and softly repeated after the imam,
Allahu Akbar and bowed down in Ruku’, then started whispering softly my
supplications of that position. Subhana
rabbiyal adhim wa bi hamdihi…(3 times). As I stared at the ground, the toes
of the man standing next to me looked so clean compared to mine, that for a
moment I could not help but admire them, wishing I had taken the trouble to cut
my toe nails as I had earlier intended. “May be when we conclude the prayer and
I get back home” I said to myself.
Allahu Akbar! Again the gentle voice of
the man leading us in salaat recalled
me from my straying. As I stood up from the bowing position, the back of the iconic
football star came into focus again, “Subhannallah! Could this be real or am
I dreaming? Is it really him?” I asked myself again as I
fell down on my face to perform the sajdah
in unison with the rest of the congregation. Subhana rabbiyal A’alah wa bi hamdihi… I could hear the worshipper
to my right softly praising his Lord as he supplicated some more with some other
beautiful and eloquent words befitting only Allaah. Allahu Akbar, I heard myself saying from far off. We were now in
the prostration position, so I struggled to remain focused, keep my mind off
all worldly things as this is the most important part of my salaat, for Allah was now closest to me,
mind, body and soul while I am in this position of my prayer. Thus, I kept
reminding myself not to entertain any more thoughts outside my God. Fortunately,
with the Help of Allaah, I managed to shut out all other attractions, so as to
experience His presence in my heart. Mmmhm, sweet delicious delight, peace, tranquility
which lasted for a brief moment… Oh how I love that feeling, always. We sat
back up and then repeated that motion of the forehead touching the floor and it
gave me a rush, a recharge, a high! “O how especially beautiful you are, O
Allah” I thought to myself,
celebrating that bliss.
With another
“God Is the Greatest!”, we stood up
and I silently commenced reading again the Seven Oft-repeated verses of the Qur’anic
recitation with the melodious voice of my mind, after the imam’s, though he was
reading silently too. I raised my eyes to look ahead as I did before and the
name of that famous footballer immediately came into focus again, ready to
engage my thoughts and so resume its distinctive distraction of my prayer, but
then I recalled one of the sayings of Prophet Muhammad, Peace be Upon Him, that
while in prayer do not raise your eyes up, looking ahead or around, but look to
the ground, particularly at the point where your forehead would rest in the
prostration position and immediately I complied. Behold! I was instantly
rescued from the diversion and remained in focus for the rest of the salaat.
After
the prayer was concluded with the tashahud
and salaam, the congregation started
to disperse one by one. It was then that I saw the football hero was no more
that some young man in the area who happened to be wearing a fan jersey with
the name and position number of the famous footballer. Who was it? It does not
really matter, does it? Ok! It was this…em…em French guy, that prolific goal scorer…oh
what’s that his name again? He
plays for that English club Arsenal. Gosh, his name kept flashing into my mind
and just when I was about to grab it, it slipped away. Now you see how the Devil
works. When I was in salaat, he kept the
name ringing in my head with every tic of the clock, but now that I am not in
prayer he sees no benefit in reminding me of the name of the footballer in
question. Should it still matter? No! But come to think of it, why not
frustrate him, I mean the frustrated and the accursed that he is. I’ll try to
remember……em….Yes! The footballer’s name is “Thierry Henry!” So, Mr. Distracting
Whisperer, go eat your heart out!
By the
way, Thierry is not the only one I have seen praying in several mosques, scattered among the congregations at various times,
in different towns and cities across the world. I have seen many equally
famous names all bowing down in prostration to Allaah during the five (5) daily
prayers. In actual fact, I have seen in some instances two or three of them in different
rows of a single congregational salaat.
I have seen Ronaldinho, Ronaldo, Michael Jackson, Zidane, Eto’o, J.J Okocha,
Tupac, 50 Cent, Kanu, Ballack, Owen, Kanoute, Diouf, Messi, Weah, Abedi, Drogba
etc. I have also seen presidents of countries of the world on one or two occasions
at one time or another do the same thing. Powerful people like Nelson Mandela,
Bush Jr. Obasanjo, Putin, Castro, Chavez and so on.
In the
past I use to see Maradona, Pele, Platini, Michael Jordan, Shaquille Oneal,
Olajuwon, Muhammad Ali, Magic Johnson and many more. So long as a person or a star
was popular enough to have his name and or photo on a t-shirt or in the media,
I use to see them bowing down in total submission to Allaah, in salaat. So it has been, so it will
always be. Interesting to note is the fact that some of these persons have
actually been witnessed to have embraced Islam and did bow down to Allaah in
humility and self humbleness before they died. Several others, male and female
are accepting and practicing the Din,
just like many more will return to the true creed, before they exit this world in shaa Allaah.
This
singular act of worship i.e. As-Salaat, is essentially that which differentiates
the Muslim from the Non-Muslim, so said to his Ummah, the last Prophet and Messenger
of God (Muhammad SAWS) to mankind. Now, as we all know, only Muslims bow down
to Allaah in prayers. So in essence, these names, each is a Muslim in its
spirit, even though in their physical fame and fortunes, the persons think
otherwise. Thus their names bow down to Allaah and there is nothing any of them
can do about it. For me, the only thing that makes such famous names bow down
to Allaah is the realization by those names of ALLAAH’s Supremacy over and
above all things, their owners inclusive, even if the personalities are too
proud to submit to His Glorious Majesty.
So, as
powerful as leaders are, as talented and skillful as football and sport stars
are, as famous as some personalities are, as iconic as certain statesmen are, as
legendary as inventors are, as idolized as music and film stars are, as rich as
business tycoons are, as historic as Discovers are, they all know that their’s
is just an illusion, and to Allaah belongs the sovereignty and master keys of
all that they have become and to Him is their final return.
©® 2008
Tijjani Muhammad Musa
Revised
2012 All Rights Reserved
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