Like it or lump it – The Soccer World Cup is here to stay!

It was 9 June 2006 – The start of the 2006 Soccer World Cup and this is how the day was for some people… Pupils gathered around the VW Kombies at 10:15am in preparation for their journey to Soweto, whilst in Soweto itself, Moulana Mohammed Abbas Moekena** (not his real name) prepared the pupils of Fontunas High School for our arrival. In the background the anticipation of going to the Hector Peterson Museum, donating a wall clock to the curator, visiting Fontunas High School, performing Juma Salaah in a small Masjid with accommodation for women outside in a small tent, going for meals in Fordsburg and watching a ‘The Black Dog’ at the Market Theatre were the dominating issues in the minds of these 30 young people and the 5 teachers. The feeling was momentous! Soweto – here we come.

As the VWs snaked out of our small suburb, the excitement grew and the chat was a mixture of school work, the grade 12 exam stresses and how this journey is just the prelude to their end of their school life. The conversation then sparked on THE SOCCER WORLD CUP and these were some of the comments: ‘Eish! the opening ceremony will be soooo cool… The game will be a humdinger… I want my team Brazil in the finals…Guys you will check my team…’ The comments flavoured the mood and then a comment startled me when one pupil said, ‘I don’t mean to be a spoil sport but, just how will the World Cup benefit our iman and akhirah?’ It put a different spin on discussions and children, like their impressionable nature are free of prejudice they are not taught of, entertained the discussion with so much of fun yet, seriousness. The most important thing that came out of the discussion thus far was, ‘If we were not so occupied now with our Soweto trip and all, our minds would be mad with world cup fever!’

The World Cup is here to stay and no one can deny it! We then entered Soweto and visited Fontunus High School. The pupils were astounded at the way we were accepted as guests and were amazed at the poverty that surrounded everything – pupils wanted to know where is ‘White Jabvu City’ the area mentioned in the poem “An Abandoned Bundle” by Oswald Mtshli and some cried at what they witnessed, whilst others looked aghast at how people responded to them. In all of this the fever of the World Cup was knocked out by the real life antibiotics that came rushing in big doses! The pupils witnessed the Fontunus grade 12 pupils write their math exam and were then allowed to mix with them and all fever broke – The HUMAN FEVER broke out.

Indian Muslims suddenly realised just how much they don’t know of their own country yet know so much of the World Cup players that would make commentators jealous. Nevertheless, these Muslims then broke their fever when that realised that they are not the only pupils writing the grade 12 exam, they realised that they are not the only South Africans waiting in anticipation for the KICK OFF! at 6:00pm, they realised the beauty of Islam when they met with their brothers and sisters in Soweto and they felt immersed for once into ‘the real world’ – a world where poverty beckons, numbers overwhelm you, opportunity looks a distant mirage, life looks gloomy yet, people have the spirit to live. The Soccer World Cup’s fever for now was distant as a dream but, its presence could be felt in the air when the distant sound of the VUVUZELA filled the air as a calling card for KICK OFF!

The Soccer World Cup is here to stay and KICK OFF time was just hours away and the fever was once again suppressed with call to Juma salaah! The pupils made their wudhu in a small ablution block at the back of the Salaah area in the open air where the cold water seemed to burn the skin. Huddled in the Salaah area, Molana Mohammed began his speech on ‘NEEDS’ – he outlined how a need will drive a person to get want he wants and it drummed the mind and heart to know that we have made it a need to love the Soccer World Cup as a fountainhead of life’s experience therefore, we will exploit all our time to give full credence to the KICK OFF of every match and master our ‘zikr’ (remembrance) of every match such that our lips are moist with THE GREATNESS OF WORLD CUP TALK.

The need to know which match is played or to be played overshadows the need to know Allah. The pupils were overwhelmed with this talk yet, the WORLD CUP FEVER was now gaining a new life. Upon entering the Hector Pieterson Museum, the pupils in their own minds began a new life of realisation despite the WORLD CUP FEVER gaining a fast and rapid recovery…Pupils commented when they immersed themselves into the museum that, ‘The youth of those days carved a unique purpose for themselves – they wanted freedom, they wanted peace, they wanted a relevant education and were willing to die for it and they changed the history of South Africa so that we could enjoy life and enjoy a pleasure like the 2006 World Cup and to be the host nation in 2010! Like it or lump it – The Soccer World Cup is here to stay!

Mandela’s house – yes a passing glance and a photo of it will forever be etched in the minds of the pupils. Why a passing glance? It was very close to KICK OFF TIME! Fordsburg Nescafe – here we come! The tremendous history that we emerged from felt like a cold that left the body and the WORLD CUP FEVER began to warm the body like hot chocolate on a cold winter’s night. As we huddled into Nescafe, the gentle persuasion to make the boys go for Asr then Magrib salaah was tough but, they obeyed – All Praise is for Allah. Plasma screens, loud commentary, hot coffee and food filled the air – luxury and soft living beckoned all of us to a point of frenzy and the WORLD CUP FEVER was now playing off side with every body – eyes sparkled, people who were outside wanted to be inside and those inside dared to go outside because of a fear of losing their ‘space’. Like it or lump it – The Soccer World Cup is here to stay!

After meals and the first half of 1st match was over, we were off to the Market Theatre to watch ‘The Black Dog” – a play that depicted the lives of youth in 1976. It was riveting and the pupils met John Kani, the famous drama actor, an actor from ‘7de Laan’ and other people and were amazed that these people had no high WORLD CUP FEVER. They, in very short conversation, spoke about LIFE and the will to live it by doing something for the benefit of humanity. For most of the pupils, watching a play in theatre was a first time experience and when they came out of ‘The Black Dog’, I could not stop listening to the semi-intellectual discussions the pupils were now involved in and the WORLD CUP FEVER was gone – until later when it would resurface again. On the way home, most of the pupils were now talking of every thing else but the world cup. I was amazed. The surprising thing was that the pupils said that now, they were so fired up for life that they would ‘hit the books’ with new life! But …. Like it or lump it – The Soccer World Cup is here to stay!

The next day…Pupils informed me that all is well and they are going for their normal tuition, extra study classes and the thing that they were thinking about was how so many other thousand students were going to write the same exam and who would be successful. The World Cup Fever was there and for some the 9th of June 2006 was a day that was spent in front of the plasma after Juma salaah until 11:30pm whilst for these pupils it was mixed bag and the WORLD CUP was just a small prize in LIFE’S LUCKY PACKET.

The point in the above true account points us in the direction that we have decided what our needs are for life. If in your home, you purchased new plasma now/today/this month, it sends the message to your kids that the WORLD CUP FEVER can only be cured with more sensational material goodies and that life peaks every four years. The need you have taught your kid is that you need to feed your ‘nafs’ (desires) with your health, wealth and time such that you must not make space for other meaningful events and life experiences. It was a brother who just returned from a 40 day Jamaat stint locally on 10 June 2006 and he mentioned to the effect that, ‘if you made the ummah your concern and how every Muslim must perform salaah and how all people must know and practice the deen of Islam, you will think that the World Cup is just a loss of time’
Very Allah says in the Holy Quran, Sura Al-Asr
By the time
Verily Man is in Loss
Except such as have faith
And do righteous deeds,
And (join together)
In the mutual enjoining
Of Truth, and of
Patience and Constancy.

Look, like it or lump it – The Soccer World Cup is here to stay! So you need to focus and take the World cup as an event but not as a religion. Know that your children will want to watch it, you want to watch it, old people are suddenly mainstay referees and mothers are suddenly commentators whilst fathers are suddenly football stars instructing players from his plasma thinking he is making a world of a difference. So keep in mind that you have to muster up the courage to leave the plasma when the adhaan goes, leave the plasma when a beggar comes a knocking, leave the plasma when your child needs something because Allah says in Sura Al-Maun:
…So woe to the worshippers who are neglectful of their prayers
Those who (want but) to be seen
But refuse (to supply)
(Even) neighbourly needs.

In this situation take a look at what need you have made to drive you. It was the need of the hour that Muhammed (S.A.W) cried to Allah at Badr that Allah should not allow the band of 300 to be killed because Muhammed (S.A.W)’s need was to know who would take Allah’s name if that came to pass that his (S.A.W)s army of 300 were to perish. So in this hour, what is our need? Is it only the World Cup which has a life span of 1 month? Or is it the other life experiences that are wholesome? Ponder over the above anecdote and ask yourself the question: “Did those pupils miss out?” No! They did not. Their day was punctuated with so much of other valuable experiences like being in company of the Ulema, sharing a meal with teachers and ulema, cracking a joke or two with the ulema and teachers, watching a drama of life and sipping history from the well of real life events. Therefore, if you want your child to be wholesome in life especially with Islam, you must be prepared to take out valuable time to do things with them.

Allah says in the Holy Quran in Sura Ta-Ha, verse 2: “We have not sent down the Quran to thee to be (An occasion) for thy distress therefore Islam is a way of life. Muhammed (S.A.W) said to the effect that we should make the Deen easy for Muslims therefore, show your child how to live Islam and be comfortable with it. Islam does not teach you to be a hermit, or that you must divorce yourself from the world. No! The world is your farm for your good deeds so that you can harvest a good crop in the Akhirah. So take your child and show him/her the good things in this world and how to experience the world keeping Islam as the focus. Remember, your KICK OFF started when you were born…play the game of life but never be offside with your deen. So, are you prepared to make your children’s life your world cup or, is the 2006 world cup going to determine how you shape your children’s life to the world?

Sayyid Qutb in his Milestones says something so apt of the times we are living in and it sums up all what we think if we relate it to our current reality. The following is quoted as parting advice knowing full well that as you are reading this, the WORLD CUP FEVER is at its highest.

Muhajid Sayyid Qutb writes… “Another aspect of this religion ought to be considered. This is a practical religion; it has come to order the practical affairs of life…Islam is not a ‘theory’ based on ‘assumptions’; rather it is a ‘way of life’ working with ‘reality’. Thus, it is first necessary that a Muslim community come into existence which believes that “There is no deity worthy of worship except Allah,” which challenges the legality of any law which is not based on this belief. Only when such a society comes into being, faces various practical problems, and needs a system of law, then Islam initiates the constitution of law and injunctions, rules and regulations. It addresses only those people who in principle already submitted themselves to its authority and have repudiated all other rules and regulations.”

Iqbal the renowned poet of Pakistan sums up the world we experience today so aptly when he says that: “The Modern Age is your Angel of Death, Deprived you of soul by giving you Anxiety for Bread”. South Africa – 2010 World Cup, for many like us weak souls we have ‘booked our tickets’ and we are hoping to be there! Yes, your heart desires so but, do you have the guarantee that you will be alive tomorrow? So live life in three and from today love Allah. Ali (RA) said to the effect that yesterday is gone forever, tomorrow is not in your hand and today is all you have. Therefore, save today and don’t make the World Cup the end all and be all of LIFE!
You don’t need to give your life for a goal, lose your temper for a failed penalty, cry for a bad decision and you don’t have to give up your happiness for a ball – You have been created for Akhirah so when the final whistle blows to end your match in this world pray that your goods deeds are 10 nil up against your bad deeds!