Al, in short, is for Haji Ahmad Alhadi. He is two years my senior in age but years more experience than me in the effort of dakwah and tabligh. He hailed from an elite family and went to study in the prestigious Malay College Kuala Kangsar. He was also on scholarship studying accountancy in London, England. It was in England during his student days in the 80's that the effort of dakwah and tabligh had been introduced to him.
He moved in the neighbourhood a year before me. It was then a newly developed housing estates. He was one of the group of people who worked hard in building the small masjid (surau) in our neighbourhood. In fact, he was one of the regular Imams leading the people for the daily solah in our masjid. I was nowhere to be seen then. Perhaps as he was leading the solah, I was in front of the telly going to waste, watching all sort of rubbish at the time when my Rabb, the Creator, commands me to worship Him. Perhaps as the others said "Aamin" to his du'a, I was just lying idle picking my nose, decaying my healthy body and mind in the precious time that my Rabb had granted me.
It still astonished me how I had missed out 'screening' one of the Imams in our masjid for almost two months while I daily frequenting the masjid for solah. What I remember is that whenever Imam Al stood in front leading the solah, it would be performed in brisk, basic, simple and straightforward. It was not arduous and demanding, especially to people like me who was just getting started to stand, bow down and prostrate in sajdah worshiping Allah in congregation along with other worshipers. For people like me, solah is not just about takbiratul ihram to salam, but it goes beyond that. Often an Imam would make wird or du'a after solah with loud voice and even louder with the surrounding loud speakers inside and outside a masjid. To this day I could not understand the rationale behind it when even whenever one is reciting surah Al-Fatihah in the solah, one should recite it in a whispering tone so as not to distract anyone nearest him on the left or right in a saff (line). Some Imam are so loud as if he is leading thousands of people in congregation. Does not the Imam fear that his loud voice would distract people who are in the midst of performing his nafl solah or late-comers who are still in solah making up for the missed rakaat?
Anyway, one day at the iqamat of Isya' solah, Imam Al caught my attention as he was straightening the saff. Only then I've been shown a face of a man with a little goaty beard, trimmed mustache and wearing a sarung above his ankles. After the solah was over and everyone was leaving the masjid, I stood outside the masjid waiting for him to come out. I approached him and fired away the question, "Are you a karkun?" I noticed that he was quite shocked and stunned as he looked at me up and down, perhaps he himself was trying to find any apparent sign of a karkun in me. He then replied reluctantly, "Errr...yes, I had been going out with jamaat."
That was really all that I needed to hear. There was a mixed feeling of excitement, joy, relief and concern within me. I immediately started to bombard him with queries and questions. "When are we going to do our taklim?" "When are we going to do our ghusht?" "Are there anymore karkuns nearby?" "When are we going out for 3 days in tabligh?" I was not aware of the amount or the extent of the pressure which I must have placed on Imam Al in those early days. Perhaps only Imam Al himself could justify how annoying it must have been for him to put up with my constant pestering and harassment. But, alhamdulillah, soon the two of us were sitting at a rear corner of the masjid reading ahadith from the kitaab Fadha'il Amal by Hazrat Sheikhul Hadith Maulana Zakariya Kandhlawi rahmatullah alayhi. That was the dawning of dakwah and tabligh work in our community. And in the same year, in 1997, the first jamaat came to our masjid for 3 days from the Masjid Jame' Seri Petaling, the centre of dakwah and tabligh in Malaysia.
Alhamdulillah, to this date Imam Al remains as a friend, a partner, a colleague, a senior as well as a teacher for me in the effort of dakwah and tabligh whom I had gained tremendous benefits from and I hope to continue to gain benefits from.
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