VANISHED INTO THIN AIR

VANISHED INTO THIN AIR

AS the muezzin uttered the iqamat, thousand of pilgrims and I, quickly joined the rows in the Al-Masjid al-Haram for 'Isya prayer. Before the Imam lifted his hands for the Takbiratul Ihram, I shuffled along with the other pilgrims to adjust our line. Then, I inched my shoulders closer to those standing on each side of me to ensure that there would no gaps between us.

     It was at that time that I felt a presence of a very tall man standing to my right. He caught everyone's attention because of his green robe. All other Arabs were clad in white robes while the Hajj pilgrims were attired in their Ihram wear. However, I wasn't really observing him that closely as I wanted to concentrate on my prayers.

     As soon as the Imam lifted his hands for takbir, I followed suit. As too, the man and the rest of the congregation. Standing, I was immersed listening to the recitation of the surah al-Fatihah. As the Imam recited the fourth verse, which means 'God possesses the judgement day', the images of the chaos and congestion of thousand of people in Mahsyar sprang to mind.

     I felt so tiny and weak at that point, so apt with the meaning of the ensuing verse, 'To You we worship, and upon You we ask for help'. The imam's reading deeply touched me. Once he had completed his recitation of the Al-Fatihah, I immediately read that surah.

     Allahukbar! The imam called out takbir to signal the transition to the second action, rukuk. The other members of congregation and I bowed together. My lips moved fervently as I read in praise of Allah. The imam spent quite a while in the rukuk position but for some strange reason, the man on my right continued to remain standing upright.

     It wasn't possible that he hadn't had the chance to complete his al-Fatihah as the Imam had chosen quite a lengthy surah to read.

     "Sami Allahu liman hamidah!" proclaimed the Imam, followed by the Bilal in the loud and clear tone for us to rise. The rest of the congregation followrd in unison. Strange... the man next to me remained standing. He continued to stay that way even as I was following the Imam as he prostrated and then read the Tasbih. In terms of the rules, the man's prayer would be considered void as he had intended to do his separately instead of following the imam.

     "This Arab is doing it all wrong! Why isn't he bowing at all?" I asked myself, confused.

     His behaviour was really strange. After all, there was no thoughts from any school, which stipulated that a person could do his prayer just standing through out. All the pillars of the Qauli and Fi'li needed to be carried out for the prayer to be right. Those who are weak or sick, are allowed to do either sitting down or lying down, using their eyes as indication of salat movement.

     The man had not progressed to the other movement despite the imam had moved on for the second rakaat, and subsequently for the the rukuk, iktidal, sujud and tahiyat. So many questions coursed through me as I wondered why he was behaving that way.

     He remained standing throughout salat.

     "Perhaps, I'll just wait until I've completed my prayer and then I'll ask him why he's just standing like that. What school is he following?" I told to myself.

     While I was doing my prayer, I promised myself to approach the man later. After I had prostrated during the fourth rakaat, I sat in the iftirash position, placing my left foot on the ground and sitting on the ankle, while keeping my right foot standing vertically on my toes, which were pointing towards the direction of qiblat.

     At the time, the tahiyat was being read, with a sense of humbleness as it was the final ritual before ending the solat with the salam. While waiting for the Imam to conclude his tahiyat and give salam, I was getting more impatient to talk with the man. Assalamualaikum warahmatullah...

     As soon as the Imam gave the second salam, I immediately turned to my right, and did the same. The was the first time that I really had the chance to have a good look at the man.

     Then I turned to the left and offered my second salam. But when I turned again to the right, the man was no longer there. I was stunned, wondering where he had actually left. He couldn't have been the fast. It hadn't even been more that two seconds when I had turned to give salam to my left. My eyes were frantically scanning the place, hoping to catch sight of him in between the thousands of pilgrims. My eyes combed the whole mosque, yet could not locate the man in the green robe.

     For a while, I was lost in thought as I stared at the ground where the man had been standing before. I couldn't have been dreaming or imagining it. I was aware of his presence because he was really standing just next to me. I was even more confused when I realised that the others around me were oblivious to my confusion. Surely I'm not the only one who saw him, I whispered to myself.

     However, I was too speechless to ask the other pilgrims. Furthermore, as soon as the salat was over, the Bilal immediately proclaimed the "al-solatu jamiah 'ala amwat!!" the call to perform a prayer for the deceased. Everyone immediately rose to perform the prayer together. Meanwhile, others scrambled to get nearer to the Kaaba to do their tawaf, while some gradually left the mosque.

     'Astaghfirullah' I repeated several times asking for Allah's forgiveness. But the questions remained inside me; Who on earth was the man?

     When I recounted the story to my friends, they offered all kinds of explanation and theories, some of which were quite funny. The man's identity was no longer so important to me. On hindsight, the presence during the prayer times motivated me towards self reflection.

     I told myself that Allah would indeed test His servants first to check on the strength of their iman. That was also true of me. After the incident, only then did I realise that it doesn't the man that was in wrong, it was actually me. How easy it was for the heart of man to divert.

     Despite having some semblance of religious knowledge and having delivered religious talks for years, it seemed that my faith had yet to reach the desired level. I felt embarrassed that instead of humbling myself in prayer. I allowed my thoughts to wander, thinking about the man. To humble oneself in prayer is after all the pre-requisite towards our prayers being accepted.

     In fact, during salat, your whole soul and being must be surrendered to Allah, and not to any other. But when I was in His presence, I was easily distracted, thinking about unnecessary things. That's why until now every time I'm about to do my prayer, I will look to my right and left, feeling as if the man is standing next to me.

N / F : FROM "THE BEST COLLECTION OF STORIES FROM MECCA", BY MASTIKA.