Be responsible, and come to prayer

Published Saturday, October 15, 2011 by Spider-Fudge | E-mail this post

Goodness me. TWO months of not posting? This has got to be a new record.

The problem is that I've been extremely busy with work/teaching my students/training for long distance runs/all other things that make up my busy life. And when I'm actually free to do whatever I want, I'm just too pooped out to try to knock out a blog entry.

That said, I was induced to write an entry after reading this article:

Entice me and I'll come to pray

To summarize the article, it's all about the experiences of a certain Malaysian Muslim when it comes to prayer. Among other things, he found that the khatib of Friday prayers can sometimes be boring enough to induce sleep in him. On top of that, the poor delivery of the Azan for Subuh by one of his peers during his boarding school days made him cringe every subsequent time he heard the Azan in the years to come. I strongly suggest reading the article in full to get a feel of it so as not to risk misunderstanding the context I am writing this blog entry in.

An example of a khutbah Jumaat.

Well, he has the right to make his thoughts known.

And so do I. Now, let me toss in my dua sen on all this.

MAS doesn't produce one-cent coins anymore, so US cents will have to do.

First of all, it's really conduct unbecoming for one to criticize the poor delivery of the khatib for khutbah Jumaat. Now, don't get me wrong; I do agree that some imams can deliver their khutbahs in a droning, snore-inducing tone of voice, and it can take a considerable effort to stay awake during the khutbah, let alone pay close attention. For instance, I attended yesterday's Friday prayers in a state of illness, sleep-deprivation, and a half-dead brain after a full morning of energy-sapping lab experiments. It was all I could do to not fall asleep during the khutbah when the imam delivered his sermon in a monotone, sleep-inducing voice.

But that said, it does not mean that one should use that as an excuse for falling asleep during khutbah Jumaat. If you truly find it hard to pay attention, then at the very least just focus on staying awake out of respect to the khatib/imam. After all, put yourself in his shoes - would you truly enjoy it should your audience fall asleep while you're giving a public presentation?

'Don't mind Darth Cheney. My Axis of Evil speeches always bore him'.

I also have to take issue with the writer's treatment of the muezzin who could not give the Azan properly due to his sleepiness and grogginess. After all, the muezzin was certainly just as groggy as the writer was, and perhaps even more so, considering that he had to wake up even earlier. Let me put it simply: if you think you can do a better job than the muezzin, then you should ask the muezzin to stand aside and call out the Azan yourself.

At the very least, see it this way: the poor chap who had to be the muezzin woke up earlier and set aside his grogginess and lack of sleep to call on you to perform your religious obligations. Instead of publicly berating him for making you unenthusiastic about prayer, you should be thanking him for reminding you to pray. If what he did was an act of charity towards you, then all that criticism of him was totally uncalled for.

I will agree that worship should not be something that is to be forced. I will also agree that the khatib Jumaat should learn how to deliver his khutbah in an effective manner so as to properly engage the jemaah at the mosque. I will even agree that whoever has to give the Azan should be someone who can do it capably.

However, I will have to stress on this point: at the end of the day, the act of worship is primarily your own responsibility. It may well be the imam's responsibility to engage the jemaah properly during khutbah Jumaat, but it is also your responsibility to stay awake and to pay attention. It may well be the responsibility of the muezzin to call out a proper Azan, but if he can't, then it is your responsibility to either do it yourself or to assign someone else who can do a better job.

We all have our responsibilities. While we may take others to task for not performing theirs, we should never forget our own responsibilities.

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Be responsible, and come to prayer

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