Once upon a time, we learn how to pray.

Once upon a time, most of the people in the peninsular profess Hinduism. This is evidenced by the excavation of numbers of place of worship and temples. Other sign of Hinduism was the culture that was molded into the our culture like chewing on the betel leaves and some official ceremony such as the “bersanding” (during marriage solemnization) etc.

So, sometime in the 10th century (or may be later and the argument is now purely academic) we, people in the peninsular were taught the Islamic pillars and Islamic way of life. One of the pillars in Islam is prayer. We are required to pray five times daily day. That includes Subuh (at dawn), Zohor (afternoon), Asar (evening), Maghrib (dusk) and Isyak (night).

So, this story happens in a small village, somewhere up north. A preacher was teaching a group of people how to pray. He says; when the angel Gabriel came to the Holy Prophet Muhammad S.A.W. (P.B.U.H.) to teach him how to pray, Gabriel says to the Holy Prophet pray as I pray. So the Holy Prophet says muslims at his period, “pray as you see me pray”. That’s the approach taken by the preacher to teach the people there how to pray.

The Preacher said to the group of people: -

“just follow what I do and that’s how you pray. I’ll be your imam and you just follow behind me”

So, he started praying, with takbir and then started reciting Surah Al Fatihah. In the middle of reciting surah al fatihah, he felt something creeping on his thigh. The preacher stomped his leg so that the thing fell off.

When the people behind him saw what he did, they did the same thing remembering him saying do what I do. So, all of the people in the group behind the preacher stomped their feet. Still, the creeping creature didn’t fall off the preacher’s feet.

So he started jumping up and down hoping that the creeping creature would fall off his thigh. The group jumped up and down following his act and thinking that he was teaching them how to pray and that’s how people pray.

Still, the unlucky preacher couldn’t have the creeping creature off his thigh now up his crotch. He said to himself, “I must do something before this thing bite all my manhood”. So he ran off to the field just in front of the place where they were praying and started jumping up and down. All follow suit. The preacher thought, “why are these idiots are following me?”

Then the creeping creature bit the preacher’s crotch. “Ouchhhh he goes”. Then “Ouchhhh” the group goes thinking the act is still part of the prayer. Then the preacher goes, “Stop following me” and the group repeated after him.

He gave up with the group and sprint to the river (funny right all at the same place, river field etc). He then jumped into the river and the group jumped into the river with him. Still the pain was there (you know where lah) and he opened his pant to take the creeping creature off…

Somebody from the group following him said, “uhhhh… wouldn’t it be embarrassing? I am not going to strip naked and I don’t think this is part of the prayer anymore”

The End.

So that was it and they all started the prayer afresh… moral of the story… make sure you know what you’re doing even if you are following somebody.