Currently Playing: Mat Kearney - All I Need.
I love congregational prayers in mosques, especially if
the Imam on duty recites beautifully. The jema’ah prayers are also a
sign of brotherhood and sisterhood because everyone’s standing next to
one another, equal in status before Him. We stand shoulder to shoulder
to show our unity in both prayer and faith.
Or do we?
I’ve noticed that some people have a habit of stubbornly staying rooted
to their spot during the formation of the saf. I don’t know; is it a
favourite spot or something? As a result, there are usually big gaps
left in between the jema’ah people that for some reason many are
reluctant to fill. It irks me when the sisters refuse to budge when
there are big gaping spaces in the saf. It looks wrong, it feels wrong.
What is the big deal with moving a few steps? This happens almost every
time, most significantly during Terawikh prayers in Ramadhan. Now
that’s just sad.
I watched an ‘Asr jema’ah prayer once at the UIA mosque. The first
saf was already filled, so when the next sister came, she started a new
saf at the back, standing in the middle. Another sister then comes along and joins in the new saf from
the far right, leaving a huge hole in between her and the first sister.
As more and more sisters enter, some join the first sister, while
others join the second. In the end, the second saf throughout the
entire prayer was disjointed with two groups of sisters at the back.
Come on lah wei.
You know, people oft wonder about why the Muslim Ummah today is so
divided and languishing in disunity. Reasons that are commonly cited
are things such as the existence of various sectarians, the Sunni-Shia
separation, the glorification of Western values that leads to the
erosion of belief in our own civilisation, the never-ending suspicions
we have of one another and the constant bickering over minor matters
without looking at the bigger picture. The ultimate failure, ENMS Prof.
Arif once said, is the lack of prowess and skill in playing our
political cards.
For me though, I don’t have to look far. Taking a look at mosques today
is already enough to tell me that if we keep this up, this
unwillingness to stand together in prayer for reasons unknown, then the
disintegration of the Ummah will continue to grow, and we will be no
more. Mark my words. Start fixing the small things first, because if we
can’t even be in the same saf in our prayers, how are we going to be on level field once the real battles begin?
The scary part is that the real battles have already begun, my friend.
Chew on that.
Enough said here.
