Two weeks ago, I went to a jamaat. It was my second jamaat. The semester ended on the 14th of December on paper but had to stay at the university until the 19th of December to complete a group project. I reached the Mohammadpur Markaz Masjid on the 20th of December during the evening. There I was expecting familiar faces of my fellow IUT brothers. But with a little bit of mixed reaction, what I saw were some guys whom I had never seen before. Only one of them was familiar to me, familiar as in, I played table tennis with that guy once in IUT. As always had been the case, I had to take a lot of time to slowly exchange greetings with these unfamiliar faces.
Around ten pm, we left for Shere-Bangla Agricultural University. We stationed ourselves with our beddings and bags in the masjid of Kazi Nazrul Islam Hall. Here I met with two amazing people who are currently studying at that university. At night, another brother from IUT joined us there.
I was observing everything that was happening around me with as much silence as possible. The weather was very cold. After completing the esha prayers, we had some little discussions within ourselves. It was mostly about getting to know each other. I was a bit surprised to see that each of the people was of very different backgrounds and was of different age. Allow me to gossip a little bit more on this, just to let you know the diversity of these people. There was a class ten student, two masters students, a graduate, a job holder, a businessman, and three more uncles who were quite old. And all of them came from different parts of the country. I didn’t want to take stay awake until deep night. Shortly I prepared my bedding and went to sleep.
I woke up at fajr and prayed the fajr prayer in jamaat. After that, a short council-like session called mashuara was held. In mashuara, all the tasks of the jamaat of that day were distributed among different brothers. I was given the task of narrating the maghrib boyan(short sermon) in Bangla. Translation in Bangla was required because a brother from IUT was given the responsibility to give the sermon in English. He was from Somalia. Some brothers were given the responsibility to cook the food. After the cooking was done, we sat in groups of four to take our breakfast together, sharing a common plate that was quite big. The food was fresh and good.
As time progressed, I started to have more friendly conversations with the jamaat brothers. For the first time in my life, I was spending a good amount of time with people whom I had never seen before. I realised how diverse the lives of different people are. All these people are from different corners of the country, different ages, and different professions. I wouldn’t have been surprised to see some bit of disagreements between them or any sort of miscommunication. But what I actually saw really surprised me. All of these people, all of them, were behaving so nicely with each other that I can’t find any example to compare this with. Even the members of a family don’t interact with each other, the way these strangers were doing. I felt something strange and special must be present here. Not something that you would find anywhere in books or streets. Time and again, I wanted to find that out.
I don’t know how you will take this. But it really was unreal. Two days passed, and thanks to my Lord, I was able to complete my tasks smoothly despite being relatively new. I also met with two amazing students, who were currently studying at that university. The weather was cold. I caught a slight bit of cold. The food that was being cooked and served might not appeal to you. The place where I slept was not that comfortable compared to my hall room or home. It’s very easy to guess that I wouldn’t want to pass days like these. But no. There was something different present there. Something you wouldn’t see. Something I didn’t see. But I felt it right after passing some time there. And I am sure others felt that too. All of the brothers were smiling always. All of them were almost on the verge of completing their forty days of chillah (jamaat).
And hold firmly to the rope of Allāh all together and do not become divided. And remember the favour of Allāh upon you – when you were enemies and He brought your hearts together and you became, by His favour, brothers. And you were on the edge of a pit of the Fire, and He saved you from it. Thus does Allāh make clear to you His verses that you may be guided.
[3:103]
