OCT 14 — “The azan sounds horrible!” I screamed as I dragged myself out of bed.

“Don’t say that. That’s not nice,” said my bunkmate.

“But it’s true. How do they expect people to get up that way?”

“Just get up!”

That was the common banter I would have most mornings at 6 with my bunkmate in boarding school many (many!) years ago.

I used to cringe every morning when I heard the call to prayer, usually done by another sleepy and groggy student.

In fact, I continued to cringe every time I heard the morning azan years after I had left my boarding school. Thank God not anymore!

This memory was triggered recently by something that happened to me a few weeks ago when I went for Friday prayers at the mosque near my parents’ house.

I hadn’t been there for quite some time. As I stepped inside, the imam had just begun his khutbah (sermon), which is the part of prayers that I look forward to the most.

It started quite usually as he stated the topic of his khutbah, which was about the influence of the West on Asian culture.

But after a few sentences, I was totally knocked out. Most probably I was also snoring loudly as I fell leaning on the wall at the back of the hall.

I did manage to open my eyes a couple of times and I noticed there were quite a number of people who were snoozing away like me.

At one point, my father, who was seating a few rows in front, scooted over to me and whispered discreetly into my ear.

“You have to be careful of this imam,” he said.

“Why? Be careful of what?” I asked.

“He has been known to stop his khutbah and reprimand people who talk in the hall.”

“What?!?”

I don’t like the idea of the religious authority forcing people to go and pray or to do anything religious at all.

Islam has always said that what counts is the niat, or intention. And if someone is being forced, how is that a sincere intent?

Just like when I was back in school, I was taught by the teachers that we must be excited to go to the mosque and pray since it is a joyful experience.

But how joyful is it to be woken up at dawn by someone who sounds half dead and probably not feeling too joyous either?

When I was in Damascus, Syria, I heard the call to prayer at the Umayad Mosque and it was so beautiful that I immediately abandoned my sleep and went to pray.

It was so beautiful that the bilal who called it could have probably kicked Mawi’s butt in the 2005 Akademi Fantasia.

It was so enticing and it made me so happy to want to join the mass prayers that I went there everyday throughout my stay in Damascus.

The same is to be said for the khutbah during Friday prayers. How do you expect people to listen and pay attention if you deliver it like you were talking to the wall.

And to think that the particular imam that put me to sleep actually yells at people who get bored and chat away during his khutbah.

Well, I’m not saying that we shouldn’t go to the mosque and pray and be all religious just because we find it boring.

All I’m saying is that religion should be something that brings joy to us. It’s suppose to inspire, excite and enlighten us. So we should strive for that.

* The views expressed here are the personal opinion of the columnist.