Going to Friday Prayers with My Crack Pipe

[Qaarxiye]

Going to Friday Prayers with My Crack Pipe



As the Imam of the mosque reads the Friday ceremony (Khudba) and people are glued to his speech, Ahmed—30 years old Somali crack(the smoke-able form of cocaine) addict struggles to focus, and continues to be restless, and distractive.

However, once the Imam reads DU’A, Ahmed clutches his fist like angry freedom fighter in Palestine, Chechnya or Somalia and screams: “Allahu Akbar”—God is great. And while he clutches his right hand fist, he holds his left hand with his crack pipe.

Since Ahmed sits close to the entrance of the mosque, he continuously greets every brother that walks in with Asalamu Alaykum, but when he sees a Somali person he would stand up and give him a big hug. From a distance he would wave his hand when he sees a Somali person looking at him.

Evidently, although crack has taken its tall on him, he still maintains passion towards his people. Perhaps, this is his way of appealing to them, and asking them for help, or may be he just wanted to say hello to his people. Whatever the case is Ahmed greeted every Somali like he would greet his own brother.

On the other hand, while the expression on the Somali brothersÂ’ faces showed their heartfelt sympathies for Ahmed, however; only few offered him some comfort.

He might be a crack addict, but unlike millions of Muslims he goes to Friday prayers. He struggles but he pays attention to one particular part of the Khudba and that is the DUÂ’A. Maybe he needs our DUÂ’A and that is why he comes to the mosque, or maybe he knows despite his misgivings, he still has to continue praying.

Ahmed is a father of two beautiful children and was once a hard-working man, who earned a decent living, but somehow, somewhere, everything crumbled right in front him and his life deteriorated rapidly. No one knows exactly how he ended up being a crack addict but everybody knows at one point in his life he was a hard-working, white-collar worker who made good money.

AhmedÂ’s story is not unique; perhaps there are other Somalis out there who are also suffering and struggling to break the nearly unbreakable habit. However, you canÂ’t help but to sympathies with Ahmed!

One day Allah would give him the strength to get rid of his bad habits and he would come to the mosque all by himself, not with his crack pipe. But for now, he continues going to Friday prayers and brings along his crack pipe to the mosque. He struggles but remembers Allah.


Somaliuk.com