Muslims By Practice

I joined the Kung Fu Club in my campus last year with many objectives in mind. First objective was to improve my health and control my diabetes thus I joined the taiji section. Secondly to indulge my passion about culture thus I enrolled myself in the club’s drum team and finally my objective was just to put myself into that ‘Chinese’ ambient so as to improve my Mandarin since I was taking the paper during that semester.
I was not aware of what awaited in front of me. Only after the first meeting I was shocked at how ‘muslims’ they were in their practice and the longer I stayed and got to know them closer, the conclusion just solidified.
The first was about time management. Every group had their training hours fixed. The taiji started practice every Mondays and Thursdays at 5.00 pm to 7.00 pm while the drum team practiced at 5.00 pm to 7.00 pm on Fridays and 3.00 pm to 6.00 pm during weekends. Sharp at the stated time they will start and finish. I was tutoring Statistics on Mondays during that semester and bound to be late by half and hour. I met the section leader to inform about it.
“Never mind but we will not wait for you. We’ll just start away,” was his answer.
Once I was only one minute late for my Thursday’s training and they had finished warming up and ready for training.
Other than that I was shocked during my first drum training. The leader taught us not less than fifteen beats and we were only beginners! This is what I can say da’wah. You just gave it off hand. Then they proceed with what I am familiar with as tarbiyah. Those who were not getting the beats were helped by the seniors who voluntarily came during training. The patience they had in trying to make us get the rhythm was magnanimous. I was telling myself, if only each and every one of us were patient enough in propagating Islam, if only our seniors were helping us as closely as theirs and if only we were more confident to tell off about Islam without holding back just for the sake of being polite and continue with good follow ups to help people understand Islam better perhaps the story will be different.
Another surprise I had when we had our Master visiting during training. I was then being trained by an exco quite away from the whole team. Then came another exco running to us telling us to stop playing at once and gather with the others quickly. As the Master approached the team, we all stood in attention and bow to him respectfully. When the Master was addressing our drum leader, not a sound was heard. As a junior, we thought, “Why waste time? Let’s practice.” We tried to do a few beats but the seniors quickly came to us and tell us as quiet as possible to be silent. Not only did they stay put until the Master finished his discussion with the leader but until he was off sight.
The same occurred during taiji training and this time it was only a super senior. The way I saw it, this was adab which I found missing in our jamaah.
How much talking were we making when a friend was presenting for our weekly usrah and worse even when an ustaz was presenting we just could not care less.
In Islam we were taught to work together like a well-built stature. In this club we did just that. All of us were responsible to take our drums, arranged it according to the type of drums we were playing and keep them back. No one complained if he or she had taken more than one drum. Of course there was a day when the leader reprimanded those who were late because they had not shared the burden with other teammates. During our intensive week, we walked together all the way from our hostels to the training spot. It was not close though. The distance was a good half and hour leisure walks. Nobody was allowed to take their own vehicle even when they have one. We had our lunch and dinner together and even ate the same food. Their togetherness was so strong that I felt only the word ukhuwwah can best describe it. Were we not taught in Islam about the unity of thought, the unity of conduct and the unity of hearts (wihdat al-fikr, wihdat al-amal and wihdat al-qalb)
It was normal for the Kung Fu Club to conduct Kung Fu Night annually. I had the experience of working with many Islamic organizations. They always had a half-a-year plan or a year plan before hand and yet most of the time the work was last minutes. The experience in this club was on the contrary.
For those who were performing, we were practicing from the very beginning of the semester. Then during the second week we were recruiting people to give us the technical, physical and other supports needed for the performance night. In the third week these people had started working for the Kung Fu Night that was six months ahead of them. What I saw was the concept of ihsan being put into practice. Allah loves those who were meticulous and careful in doing their jobs to the perfection they can best achieved. By starting early they can finish the big chunk of work by cutting it down to smaller bite-size pieces and worked from thereupon. Thus each piece was finished up without haste and with full attention and no compromising on the quality.
After the great performances we had for the Kung Fu Night many would have thought the training would stop or simply slowed down. Well, nothing like that happened. The trainings continued as usual. This was a simple istiqamah or continuity.
What I saw lacked in our jamaah was that we struggled to reach a certain point or mega project and right after that we just stopped or left it unattended. Thus when we needed to do something the like we always had to start again all over from the scratch. This was a waste of time, energy and sources when if only we had had it continued it was not possible that we would have achieved something bigger than what we can imagine.
The last blow I had when I found out the high committee in the club actually used the syura system without noticing it. I asked why not used the usual hands-up vote counting? Why not democracy? They simply said this appointment to a post was not just for fun. The person that was needed was the one with passion and that one who will give his/her all to continue the ‘breath’ of the club in the campus. That person must be selected, carefully picked from the bunch. Democracy only gave way to the popular ones more often than not.
Spending one year with them I asked myself had I shown them how a muslim was. If I had, did I do it successfully or had I failed Allah? I had become more conscious about my conducts and I had understood there was no used for crying out loud of what we had done and wanted to do. All that we needed was a pure muslim’s heart that will show in our each and every practice. I wish Allah will open their hearts towards Islam one day because they are Muslims in so many ways.