Assalaamualaikum to all,
During Ramadhan (the 9th month in the Islamic calendar in which Muslims fast and argue about which days Eid is going to be on) I always try my best to sit at the front of the mosque, because as you all know there is alot of reward for those that sit at the front. So finally after 2 weeks of trying I finally got there...I was at the front, yay me!
So I prayed the 4 fard of Isha (the night prayer) with the congregation and then somebody made an announcement from the back: "Abu Funza your wife is ill, please go and see her straight avay" (yes he said "avay"). So I started running like a possesed man out of the mosque, but you have to take one thing to account: I'm not married :P. I'm only 19!
See what had happened was that I got confused by what the "avay" man had said. I thought that he said 'mother' in urdu, but that was my mistake. And also how was I supposed to know that other people were also called Abu Funza?!
So I ran and ran, and finally got outside.....and my dad was there to greet me. He knew that I was the only person crazy enough to run out of the mosque to attend to my "wife's" health.
So you can imagine how sad I was when I realised that there was no way that I was going to get back to the front of the mosque, I had to be content with praying at the back, and boy some crazy stuff goes on at the back of the mosques.
Firstly, the kids are running around like as soon as the prayers begin, it's almost as if they wait for the prayer to start and then begin their activities. Secondly, there are some stinky socks in the back, because some people come directly from work or are just too plain lazy to change their socks and boy they can knock out even the strongest of men, they smell that bad!
So anyhow, the next day I went to pray Zuhr and the Imam of the mosque asked me "beta (i.e. son) is your wife theek thaak (i.e. ok)?" Now I was hoping that the Imam didn't know that it was me who ran out, but since he asked I explained to him what happened. Unforntunately for me, all the other men were listening to our conversation aswell (He and I should have really picked a better location to talk about my "marriage") and began laughing at me.
I was laughing aswell, but then I began to think, it's funny, but there's a point that has to be seriously considered: Imagine this other Abu Funza didn't speak or understand urdu, how would he have know that his loved one is ill?
One of my biggest pet peeves is khutbahs (sermons) given in urdu - I live in England, speak to me in english! Fine I can understand urdu, but what about my somalian/portugese/chinese/english brothers and sisters who don't speak a word of urdu - what about them? They come to the mosque for religious enlightenment to understand their faith and then act, but how can they know what to do if they don't what to do because some committee members couldn't be bothered to find an english speaker. As a youth I have to carry this Ummah in the future, but if I don't know how because everything was being explained in a foreign language , then how can I begin my everlasting duty to Allah?
Alhamdulillah, my mosque is still one of the better ones because they have a deputy-imam who can speak english and allows women in (some don't, and it's not for religious reasons, trust me, watch this Dispatches programme following MPACUK on their quest to show the world how 60% of mosques in England don't let women in, for no reason whatsoever. The programme was called Women Only Jihad).
But what about other mosques? I know for sure that some mosques are very very racist. Shouldn't we do something about this? I mean Allah will hold us to account if we don't do as He says and don't enjoin the good and forbid the wrong, but are we too afraid to hold the mosques who are wrong to account? I say we all make a stand and hold the corrupt committee members (not all are corrupt - but you know what I mean :P) to account.
Fiamaanallah,
Abu Funza
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