The mini chaos that happened yesterday at the mosque.
September 16, 2007
So I was at Mukminin right, doing Terawih. Mukminin is totally my favouritest mosque in Singapore! FAVOURITEST. The people, the place, the everything! I LOVE it. (okay sidetrack)
We were at the 6th set already and before the imam niat, he made a little announcement that there would be a Sujud Tilawah in the coming first rakaat of the 6th set.
I silently leaped in joy because I told myself, insyaAllah I knew what to do. You know when you’ve learnt something in theory, its always fun to apply it in practice. Haha. I even imagined the scene in my head, to prepare myself for what was coming. While the imam was reading the surah (his voice is..subhanAllah..he was a guest imam), I was listening so hard and intently to the surah, silently anticipating his takbir, for which I knew I had to sujud, and NOT rukuk.
When the takbir was heard, I got ready to get to sujud position – my hands on my knees, my knees were bent to approach the carpet. Until I saw that EVERYONE around me was in the rukuk position. (!!!!!!!!)
So I froze. In the MOST awkward position. I’d like to call it.. the rukuk + quarter sujud. Its like a rukuk position, with your knees bent (I KNOW RIGHT. It really looks ridiculous, I ain’t kidding. Really, go in front of a mirror and try it) – and I was in that awkward position for like 3-5 seconds.
THREE TO FIVE SECONDS!!!! ZOMGZ. (because hey! I was really going to sujud what!). The imam DID say there’s a sujud Tilawah, right? I’m supposed to sujud NOW, right? Oh but wait.
I stopped to think. WHY on earth is everyone in a rukuk position? Why isn’t anyone doing sujud? Could this many people be doing the wrong thing? Or am *I* the one? Could I be wrong? Yeah I could be wrong, plus WHY am I in this horrendous & pathetic position/pose that you won’t find in any solat book?
I was having a mini war in my head against myself and I gave myself a virtual slap and just told myself to sujud for that was what I KNEW I should do. Furthermore the takbir by the imam was a long takbir – which was meant for sujud. The takbir for rukuk is short.
So I got out of that weirdass position and sujud. This makcik beside me followed suit, and so did some people in the front rows. However, the girl beside me still remained in the rukuk position, as did many other jemaah. After that, the imam gave another takbir for us to stand from the sujud tilawah.
TO MY HORROR, as I returned to standing position, the people who were in the rukuk position were now in SUJUD. How could this even be? Where is the iktidal? Did they just conjure it up themselves? Of course when the imam continued reading the surah, the people in the sujud position panicked. (The fact that their solat has batalled is another story altogether)
They raised their head from the sujud position, looked left, looked right and finally stood up. It was like a mini-chaotic situation – I’m totally NOT kidding. (yes I know I’m supposed to be looking at the floor, but I happened to see this through the corner of my eye. heh.) It really was a mini chaos.
I must admit, I was rather disappointed with myself, that I actually was SO sure (insyaAllah) of what I had to do, of what I was going to do, and yet when the time came, I doubted what I yakin because I was busy checking myself against the others and I let that influence what I should have done.
Jemaah is to follow the imam, and not those around you.
Yeap. Lesson well learnt. Well learnt.
Needless to say, after that set, there was a significant amount of chatter in the Muslimah praying area. Well, at least those around me.
September 17, 2007 at 12:45 pm
I think in many cases that I’ve seen, imams assume that the jemaah knows what is going to happen.
I believe though that such problems could be eradicated if people either try to pay attention, or those who knows tell those around them what’s going to happen.
September 17, 2007 at 1:30 pm
Wow. Kau lebih knowledgable daripada makciks! Congrats! But I can’t decide whether this is supposed to be a funny or sad story. It’s hilarious the way you tell it.
Well now *I*’ll know what to do if I ever go terawih-ing anywhere. Thanks Amy! =D
September 17, 2007 at 5:24 pm
Haha ain I think its macam a cross between funny and sad. More of funny, now that I think of it. The whole weirdass pose. Oh God. Haha!
Anyway Hazrul, I just think that this shouldn’t be a problem at all. People who didn’t go to medical school don’t perform surgery on other people. Likewise for jemaah. How can someone who didn’t study about solat jemaah pray jemaah in the first place (or any other ibadah, for that matter)? I just think we usually take solat jemaah for granted. Very easy what, just follow. When there’s actually alot to know…
Well wallahualam.
September 17, 2007 at 6:20 pm
Well, I think it’s also because jemaah muslimah tak biasa pergi solat berjemaah di masjid except during Ramadhan. Jadi bila imam nak buak benda special, jemaah muslimah macam lost lah.
Itu sebab, seharusnya cuba pay attention. Biasanya, I don’t just go through the motion. I wait half a movement before I langsungkan movement yang seterusnya. Coz kadang2 kita terlupa ke, imam terlupa ke, manalah taukan. So during that half a movement, I observe lah that everything’s ok.
It’s easier on the jemaah muslimin side, coz they are nearer to the imam. Jadi kalau terlajak pon, tak terlajak lah sangat.
Itu sebab saf yang kebelakang lagi tu tak sepatutnya terburu2 buat step yang seterusnya.
Ada mike ada speaker everything is taken for granted. Time nabi dulu ada orang repeat2 takbir tu at a length of saf so people tak salah buat.
Another solution since dah ada mike and speaker, they should have turned on the TV sets and just follow the movements of the imam on the tv screen. Jadi orang tak keliru kan?
Kalau I kan, I komplen kat LPM sekali. Jadi they can take the appropriate action. tu pon kalau lpm tu leh trust lah. Kalau tak, tulis kat muis terus je.
September 17, 2007 at 7:02 pm
Haha i asked my dad and he said the guys side was a-ok. and YES the TVs were turned on. But you can’t expect the female jemaah to pray and look at the TV right.
I really don’t think its a matter of paying attention because for sure everyone heard the announcement. It was made loud and clear. I just think that maybe some jemaah didn’t know what sujud tilawah was. Or whatever.
As for what you said about jemaah muslimah tak biasa pergi masjid and jemaah outside ramadhan, I don’t think thats a very fair statement. hehe.
Well I just wrote this entry not to macam complain about the mosque/imam/whatever and I certainly didn’t have any intention to go to LPM or MUIS when I wrote this. Even if so, I really think that this is not the mosque’s fault but our own (the jemaah). Plus I don’t usually blog about serious stuff, I try to keep everything as light hearted as possible. No one likes reading serious stuff the time. We have news websites for that.
I wrote this entry to share what I experienced. Its pretty funny la, now that I think back about it. Also I learnt my lesson, not to follow the people around me and stick to what i know is right.
Plus it made me realise how important it is to learn about our ibadah. because we cannot just perform an ibadah without any knowledge, like how we don’t enter an exam hall without studying for something. Similarly, we can’t just go for umrah or haj without first studying and learning about it.
Same goes for our prayers. We have to pray, yes. But we have to study it first so that we know how to do it the right way, know what to do in what-if situations. These what-if situations rarely happen, but they DO happen, so its good to know what to do when the time comes.
Well I’m certainly not a religious scholar and I totally don’t wanna preach or even sound preachy. Ew. These are just my thoughts and how the situation was viewed through my eyes.
Selamat berbuka
September 18, 2007 at 12:11 pm
eh… why u never leave comments at my blog ah?