4 Things About Imams People Don't Talk About

The idea of writing this post suddenly popped out to mind when I came back from Friday prayer last week. Watching the situation in the mosque during the 'khutbah' was really a deja vu experience.

To my left, from 5 people, 3 of them were dozing off. Heads can be seen going up and down frequently.
To my right, children were talking loudly,some of them were poking each other. Looking down across the hallway to the outside compound,my sight rests upon groups of teenagers and adults and even senior citizens having conversations while relaxing on benches and on their respective motorcycles.

Well, for your information,this is what really happens every week. The loud voice of the khatib (preacher) seems to only become the background music for all these activities. A lot of people just doesn't seem to care about it. Don't know who to blame. But for me , it;s the imams and and the system itself that need to uphold the utmost responsbility.

1. Some Imams are Bad Orators.
Just like the situation that I had described. For me, Imams need to have great skill in public speaking and delivering speech. This is to ensure that people will listen to them with great attention and the message is well received by them. Not merely reading text the whole time as in giving khutbah and other speech. I once stumble upon a khatib who is a great orator at Masjid Alur Pasir,Pasir Mas, and I can see that no one, yes, NO ONE had ever sleep during his preach. Friday preach should be a time where muslims are given reminders, and an enlightenment on current issues involving the ummah and the time to increase one's faith. But,with this kind of delivery, it will be a time to sleep and rest!

2. Some Friday Preach Texts are Ancient
Well, listening to it made me imagine that the author wrote it during his 'pertapaan' at some caves or what. It's so outdated and does not engage the current issues. Apart from that, the text are full of slogans and cliche remarks. It does not really explain to the listeners what is it all about,what to do about it, and how significant is it. For example, the issue brought forward is about how teenagers should be the driving force of Islam, and what the khatib was harping throughout his speech is just saying , "Remaja adalah harapan bangsa dan agama" , " Remaja adalah benteng....blablabla",
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3. Some Imams' Recitation are Boring.
Seriously, I think this is one of the factors that created the gap between the people and the mosque. It played a siginificant role in creating the khusyu' that all of us would have wanted. Sometimes,when we listen to a beautiful recitation, we tend to get immersed in the solah itself, remembering nothing but Allah . And sometimes,great recitation can make us broke into tears. With the same kind of boring and monotonous recitation of the holy words during solahs, people will get bored and their minds wander around. Eventually, the desire to solat berjemaah will fade away and there will be less and less people interested in it.



4. Some Imams' Talks are Politically-Driven.
Hm. This one' really tarnishes their credibility. When giving ceramah or tazkirah, they tend to be politically biased towards a particular party. We need to know that the audience are made from various people with a plethora of backgrounds.So, a careful and safe approach must be used to avoid offending someone or some groups with different ways of thinking. I once listen to an old man's rambling about how he really hate when the imams started to talk politics. People want to listen to religious teachings to add their knowledge, not to hear some slanderous politics talks.





REVAMPED
I really think that the current system should be revamped.

1. Imam should be made as a serious position equivalent to a District Officer and given a real salary.Not just merely 1000 and below.

2. There should be an academy to train this future Imams in terms of public speaking and oratory speech. Not to mention the recitation skills and styles.

3. The text should be made by the khatib or imam itself so that they will not be too text-dependant and know what they are talking about.




RESPONSIBILITY IS UPON US
I wrote this not to criticise or making a bad image out of Imams but to remind myself and other male muslims out there to improve ourselves. Why? Because we are going to be the future Imams, at least Imam for our wife and children. Another cliche remark, " we are the next generation imams", so we need to prepare ourselves as early as now because the youth phase is the optimum time to earn as much knowledge and skills as we can especially concerning our religion.

We Need To Change. Peace!