Beautiful submission

It turned out that the young and youthful Izzudin was the muezzin in Karađoz-Begova Džamija (mosque), much like an MC in a ceremony. Before and after the prayers, he read out a few relevant verses of the Qur'an to invite the mosque-attenders to a beautiful rememberance of God. In fact the soothing call of prayer I previously described was a product of his sheer effort. It automatically prompted me to recall the sayings of the Prophet about the virtues of a sincere muezzin- a massive reward awaiting.

We waited with the whole congregation to finish an imam-led supplication, from whose tone and choice of words I could fairly recognise his mastery of arabic language. Well, the secret lies in him pleading- not just reading- to God. In this respect, our imams in Malaysia might need to learn from their Bosnian counterparts. Then, with the men dispersing, Nubli and I took to a silent corner to perform 'asr, the next obligatory prayer, a lenience allowed on us travelers. Our extra prayers were however almost indistinguishable, especially when the rest were also performing their additional, optional, supererogatory after-zuhr prayers- and the whole mosque was occupied with scattered worshippers.

Again, in a country distant to other self-declared Islamic giants, I would have expected a deep penetration of cultural practices into religion, if not a complete irreversible mixture of the two. But as much as my senses could gather, there was little of it, if any. Apart from the reading of the Qur'an by the muezzin before and after prayers, which is, while not recorded as the practice of the Prophet, justifiable, there was nothing else to note. What could have maintained this authenticity? I can be reasonably sure that if much of the circumstances are applied to the Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Malaysian, Indonesian, or many other communities, religion will be so intermixed with culture that it will no longer be distinct. Worse, they are taken as one and the same. Anyone who has his senses alerted can not miss coming to this same conclusion; take the majority of the Pakistani and Bangladeshi mosques in the UK- they are so culturally shaped and imbibed that often an 'outsider' will find it hard to adapt. This, I promised myself, is a question I have to answer before leaving Bosna.

After replenishing the spiritual needs, we felt fresh and somewhat anew. Our journey had to continue. Taking our bags (alhamdulillah nothing happened to them) and shaking hands with some random locals, we headed for the door. That was when we bumped into a smartly dressed man in his 60's, who first greeted us with the universal Islamic greeting; salam. Peace be to you!