Yesterday, Ladies as Leaders organised an indoor sports session for women of all ages. It was a great event and everybody had a lot of fun!

We had women of all kinds: old and young, girls and teens, people who play sports regularly, and those who don’t. And what was beautiful about this is that on the court, these differences dissolved and the only label that mattered was ‘fellow player’. Although there was definitely a lot of friendly competition between teams, we had people of different teams compliment each others’ skills and tease each other affectionately. We even cheered for the other team when they got a goal! In a world where the intergenerational gap is growing ever wider, we had a space in which we all, mums and daughters, felt like friends on an equal playing field (pun intended :p). None of us were professional basketball players, but somehow, the game had its own kind of perfection. There was no judgment and we all felt comfortable, just being ourselves. And then, when one of our dear players sustained a minor injury, we all stopped the game impulsively and rushed to her aid. The score didn’t matter anymore. It was a metaphor for how Muslims should be with one another; it’s ok to have our differences but when someone is in need that all becomes irrelevant. It was a physical manifestation of this hadith by the Prophet Muhmmad (pbuh):

“The Believers, in their mutual love, mercy and compassion, are like one body: if one organ complained, the rest of the body develops a fever.”

If we can exhibit these qualities on the court, why can we not in the real world? 

The Indoor Sports Event was held on the 10.1.2018