So Pakistan is aflame with the celebrations of winning its first match against India in ICC T20 2021. And why not ? After all, we have a trail of defeats against India and this match was also expected to be lost to India. So the Pakistanis opened their screens to watch this match only half-heartedly. Even the cricket stadium of Dubai was more filled with Indians than Pakistanis. I had some online task with my nephew in Dubai, so he told me that it had to be done before 6 pm DST because the Pak-India match was starting after that. I asked him why he was not watching it at the stadium … and he replied that because we are expected to lose !
So amidst this atmosphere of almost hopelessness, Pakistan won ! And it was not a struggling win, but a neat, clean sweep. Everyone was shocked, most of all Pakistanis themselves. And India was mad like hell. It is not easy for either India or Pakistan to face a defeat from the other under any circumstances, but the situation was worse this time, for by their recent feats over Pakistan, they had become over-confident and had been trolling the Pakistanis pre-match and boasting of their sure-shot victory. In such a heated environment of victorious expectations, the hit hit really hard, engulfing India in flames.
The Indian cricket team and their captain, Virat Kohli, on the other hand, faced the defeat very decently. He congratulated the Pakistani cricket team and gave them full credit for their game, rather than coming up with blame games. So we must give them full credit for their sportsmanship ! Both teams were quite amiable on the cricket ground and there were no spats between them. So I guess both teams were carrying the sportsmanship spirit that day.
The prayer of Muhammad Rizwan right in the middle of the cricket ground has drawn a lot of attention in the international media and a lot of applaud in the local media. This is actually a simple and straight answer to that religious crowd who piously dislike cricket or any game for that matter giving the reasoning that sports distracts Muslims from their religious obligations and prayers are often wasted than not. That’s not it. The fact of the matter is that a person who is not regular in his prayers in daily life, cannot be expected to suddenly be saying prayers amidst a game. And likewise otherwise. So its not sports which evades prayers but the person himself. If you ask me, sports like cricket are among the Islamic recommendations for sports for it includes aiming and shooting. Let that sink in …
If someone is still adamant that cricket wastes prayers and is a waste of time, well that is ironic really then ! For there are a lot of other things in our society which wastes our prayers but we are not upset about them at all. Our sleep wastes our Fajr, but we have become accustomed to it. The work load and rush at offices sometimes wastes our Zuhr, but that is all fine because that is in the holy path of earning halal rizq. Our shopping sprees often waste our Asr but hey then, what is the injunction of qaza salah for ? Our late return from the park with children does away with our Maghrib. And of course, it is not possible to say prayers in the park because … of some reason I don’t know. Serving dinner and the drag of a whole day’s work takes its toll and often sacrifices our Isha but that’s okay because after all responsibility is responsibility and we cannot shun the responsibility of a whole household just for prayers. Of course, Allah Almighty knows our holy intentions and limitations. Women especially have been stationed to serve religiously … to religiously serve in-laws, their neighbors, their relatives … crowds and crowds of them … don’t these people have their own homes ? And don’t they have any responsibilities at their homes ? Don’t they have any schedules to follow ? All prayers missed by women are carted in the bandwagon of ‘Allah Almighty may forgive His rights but will not forgive the rights of fellow beings …’ Did Allah Almighty promise us forgiveness for all prayers missed as a woman ?
Ah we have wandered far from our topic of cricket. So perhaps we can wander a bit more and touch a very critical thought regarding the Pakistan win against India. Sure Pakistan has won a game against India, but after all, its just a game ! What about the real matches of life ? What about Kashmir ? Can we really celebrate our win against India for long whence soon after the win, India started persecuting the Muslims of India and Kashmiris ? Such is their venom against Muslims and Pakistan. And such is our helplessness regarding the defence of our victory. Its alright ! We can and should celebrate our cricket victory against India, but we should soon get serious and think seriously about the real match in Kashmir !
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