wrestling: Is it sport? Or an internal struggle for the self? This story of the twelve year old master Mohammad Amin gives us yet another glimpse of his exemplary character.
Once, his group of young friends invited him to go with them to the wrestling ring to watch some of the matches which were being put on there.
They encouraged him with their description of the excitement of the championships and how much they enjoyed them, until eventually he gave in.
When the boys arrived at the ring the bouts between the older men were already over, and it was now the turn of the younger wrestlers, aged fifteen and under.
That was the way the programme was usually organised. As the first young contestant climbed into the ring the watching crowd began to settle down to watch the match. This boy had a grudge against Mohammad Amin because our young hero was the undisputed leader of all the local boys.
When no opponent entered the ring, the referee called out: ‘Where is your opponent?’
Pointing straight at Amin, the youth said, ‘There he is!’ The jealous, resentful youth had planned this bout in the hope that he would damage Amin’s pride by defeating him and embarrassing him in front of all his friends. He fully expected that being a complete newcomer to the sport Mohammad Amin would lose the match and therefore the great esteem which his followers had for him.
The challenger thought that he would easily defeat our amazing young hero since he was about three years older than him and was already a master of the martial arts; on the other hand the younger boy had no experience of them and, in fact, knew nothing about them whatsoever.
At this point, our hero had fully grasped the real purpose behind the challenge. He was faced with two difficult options: either refuse to enter the ring, in which case they would see this as a sign of weakness and cowardice on his part; or enter it, knowing it was impossible for him to defeat the older boy in a straight fight!
Quick thinking was needed if he was not to lose face!
Within moment he had devised a plan which might just give him the way out of a difficult situation.
Undeterred he entered the ring.
The match began, and the referee approached the boys in order to adjudicate the bout.
The two opponents grasped hands, the aim being for the stronger one to force to the other to the ground. As they drew close Mohammad Amin grabbed the opportunity to whisper in his opponent’s ear, unheard by the referee, and said, ‘Hey, if we finish the round with a tie, I’ll give you two majeedi’(one golden lira).
Since the challenger earned only a meagre living by working at a greengrocer’s shop, his mouth watered when he heard this and his desire to win, weakened in the face of the unexpected temptation of money, especially money he did not have to work for! Soon he had forgotten all about his wish to humble Mohammad Amin because he had given into his low moral standards and the desire for instant gratification.
The older boy knew all about Amin’s honest and trustworthy character, so he believed what he said about the two majeedi and instantly agreed to his suggestion. He loosened his grip and only pretended to grapple his opponent, because the lure of the money was uppermost in his mind. Seeing the older boy momentarily distracted by thoughts of a ‘golden prize’ our hero grabbed the opportunity to stick his leg out and trip him up. And so the older boy lost the round because the young hero, Mohammad Amin, by his clever manipulation and tactics, was able to overcome the older boy who had wanted to bring him down and wrong him without any just cause or reason.
The noble verse states, “Those who plot evil will be ensnared by it.”[25]
As, indeed, did happen! The instigator of this unfair match ‘came unstuck’ as they say. The evil, immoral boy was defeated, and so not only did he fail to achieve his original aim of belittling Mohammad Amin, he also failed to achieve his greedily anticipated aim of the two majeedi.
As for our hero, he came out of the contest with his honour and dignity intact, and Al’lah raised his spirit to an even higher level than it had been before.
As a result, after this incident Mohammad Amin decided never to attend a wrestling ring again for, as far as he was concerned, its purpose was simply for pointless amusement.
The man who said, ‘Brain is better than brawn’, certainly spoke the truth.