Pakistan Olympic Association

 

The famous opening monologue by the central character of movie “Bull Durham” establishes a powerful relation between sport and religion as Susan Sarandon narrates: “I believe in the church of baseball. I’ve worshiped Buddha, Allah, Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva, trees, mushrooms, and Isadora Duncan. I know things, for instance, there are 108 beads in a Catholic rosary and there are 108 stitches in a baseball. When I learned that, I gave Jesus a chance. But it just didn’t work out between us. The Lord laid too much guilt on me. You see, there’s no guilt in baseball. And it’s never boring…. It’s a long season ahead and you have to trust it. I’ve tried them all, I really have, and the only church that truly feeds the soul, day in, day out, is the church of baseball.”

 

Viewing the equation between sports and religion is exciting yet complex because it has changed dramatically throughout the centuries. Originally, with the Greeks, athletic completions were mixed with religious ceremony. But with the rise of Christianity and puritanistic beliefs, athletics became a sinful activity scorned by the clergy and religious fanatics.

 

The Greeks were extremely religious. Being polytheistic, they believed that particular gods could provide assistance in all aspects of life. The competitive games of Greek culture grew out of their religious and cultural ceremonies directed to these gods. The Greek held religious festival with feasts, dancing and athletic contests to honor the gods. The most famous of these contests, the Olympic Games, was held in honor of the warrior god Zeus. The entire first day of the games was made of religious ceremony including oaths, prayers, sacrifices and the signing of hymns and the sacrifice of one hundred oxen at the altar of Zeus. 

 

The main sporting activity in the medieval Europe was a grand tournament, seen as a preparation of war. These ceremonies were filled with semi-Christian rituals because of the deep European belief that God favored the strong and just. Because of this belief, the results of these combats were seen as a judgment by God.

 

The Americans have historically institutionalized sport and recreation as an embodiment of national values. The obvious influence on sports in American society is the protestant ethic which emphasizes rational labor, goal directed behavior and competitive achievement. Before 1850 most protestant groups like extremist mullahs of our society condemned sports because they thought that sports diverted attention and consumed energy that could have been spent in the exercise of faith. Simply, sports and leisure deflected attention away from possible service to god.

 

But when society became dissatisfied with a Victorian culture focused on domesticity and threatened by physical decline in sedentary office jobs, Americans men in the late nineteenth century sought masculine company in fraternal lodges and engaged in exercise to invigorate their bodies. This form of newly manly culture, developed out of protestant churches, was known as “Muscular Christianity”.

 

As this movement flourished in USA and west, Theodore Roosevelt pushed for the “strenuous life” as a means of imposing self-discipline and reasserting the culture and interests of Protestants in America and abroad. The YMCA movement, which began in the late 19^th century, was part of a larger strain in American Protestantism, which promulgated a connection between physical health and salvation. They promoted organized sports that can evangelize and effect social reforms. 

           

Sports are believed to be religious in the sense that they are organized institutions, disciplines and, liturgies and also in the sense that they teach religious qualities of heart and soul. Harry Edwards a former professor of Sociology at the University of California once identified thirteen areas where religion over laps sport. They include:-

 

•   Sport also has its “saints” those departed soul who in their lives exemplified and made manifest the prescription of the dogma of the sport.

 

•    Sport also has its ruling patriarchs, a prestigious group of coaches, managers and sportsmen who exercise controlling influence over national sports.

 

•    Sports have its “gods” stars and superstar athletes, who though powerless to alter their own situations, wield great influence and charisma over the masses of fans.

 

•     Sort has its “high councils,” the hundred of sports reporters, broadcasters, and telecasters whose primary duty is to televise and record the ongoing history of sports and to disseminate its dogma.

 

•     Sports have its “symbol of faith” trophies, game balls, bats, gloves and so forth that “ won” this or that game, the clothing, shoes or hats of immortal personages of sports.

 

•    Sports have its “seekers of the kingdom” its true believers, devotees and converts.

 

This is good enough proof that sport is no less than a religious devotion. Though most of sports in subcontinent were introduced by the British Army but it was later patronized and spread in education institutions through a joint effort of missionary schools and YMCA.

 

Muslim clergy mostly remained unaware of the social potential of sports. Cricket grew next to religion in subcontinent not with the support of religious missionaries but through the interventions of media and support of corporate sector that promoted cricket with religious fervor in every nook and corner of Indo-Pakistan.

 

As stated in Sunan Abi Daud and narrated by Uqbah Ibn Amir: I heard the Apostle of Allah say: Allah, most high, will cause three persons to enter Paradise for one arrow: the marker when he has a good motive in making it, the one who shoots it, and the one who hands it; so shoot and ride, but your shooting is dearer to me than your riding……. The Apostle of Allah further said, if anyone abandoned archery after becoming an adept trough distaste for it, it is a blessing he has abandoned; or he said: for which he has been ungrateful. 

 

“Teach your sons the art of swimming, sharp shooting and horseback riding” said Hazrat Omar the second Caliph of Islam. The importance of organized sport was realized in Islam in medieval times as it helped them to do well in other areas of life, such as war, leadership, and business. Archery was very popular as a sport amongst Turks and Mongols and riders use to demonstrate their skills before the Sultan of Ottoman and foreign visitors.

 

Throughout the twentieth century, Muslim countries have been involved in international athletics events and have achieved some success. The Organization of the Islamic conference established the Islamic Solidarity Games as a means of encouraging cooperation among Muslim states. The first Islamic games were held in 1980 in Izmir, Turkey and included both men’s and women’s events from nine countries including Pakistan. It was decided that next Islamic games would be held in Saudi Arabia in 1983 but it is sad to note that the games never took place again. However, Islamic Women games were held in 1993, 1997, and 2001 in Tehran with the whole hearted cooperation of Iran.

 

Lida Fariman who competed in 1992 and 1996 Olympics as a shooter in the traditional Islamic robe and hijab and Manije Kazmi who competed in 2000 Olympics in traditional Iranian clothing and Hassiba Boulmerka of Algeria who won the gold medal at Barcelona games are few success stories of Muslim women in international sports. Beside women the three Muslim athletes who helped promoting the cause of Islam world wide are Kareem Abdul Jabbar and Hakeem Olajuwon of basketball and the all time famous world heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali. 

 

The clergy in subcontinent however restricted itself to conventional methods of Tableegh and did not try the modern tools like sport which are more popular and easily acceptable amongst the youth. The recent trend of roping-in the Cricketers for promoting Tableegh, to my mind were orthodox and not well thought, that met resistance from different quarters because of vested interests, external pressures and poor packaging of the product.

  

In the absence of finer understanding of the subject and their inability to understand the social potential of sports as a vehicle of spreading the message of Islam amongst the youth, the golden opportunity was missed by the myopic clergy who were unable to conceive a strategy of “Muscular Islam” as done by protestant Christians. Never the less they are not the only ones to blame as the government and other stake holders including sports federations and boards also remain clueless about the use of sport as a vehicle of tapping the youth for a larger social change in the country.

 

The humans need organized belief systems, rituals and places to come together in large groups for purposes of finding safety, security and meaning the sports and religions help fill that need. Unfortunately we failed to recognize the larger potential of sport in spreading the powerful message of Islam in a softer manner amongst the rural and urban youth and gave way to the extremist and more fundamentalist mind set in the society, resulting in today’s chaos and extremism.

 

Had we seriously thought and understood the true potential of sport and applied this powerful tool it in a holistic manner, the youth of Madaris would have been the true champions and representatives of religion and sports, thus spreading the true message of Allah’s last apostle based on peace and social justice as visible and acceptable icons of the society.

 

One sincerely hopes that the government agencies responsible for sports and Madrissa reforms may like to come up with workable, long term and practical strategies where by organized sports can be introduced in the Madaris curriculum and efforts should be launched to revive the Islamic Solidarity Games to personify the grand image of Ummah through competitive sports on the lines of Common Wealth and Olympic games.      

 

 

Aamir Bilal

02 Nov 2009