VIDEO IS GRAPHIC. VIEWER DISCRETION IS ADVISED
KUALA LUMPUR: The expression “trembling before God” took on new meaning for an unflappable imam in Denpasar, Bali on Sunday evening.
The religious head was leading the Maghrib prayer at one of the city’s mosques when a mammoth magnitude 7.0 earthquake backhanded neighbouring Lombok, killing nearly 100 people and laying waste to towns and villages far and wide.
But as the ground convulsed and the mosque wobbled, the holy man remained steadfastly stationary and ploughed on with his prayer – as if what was happening was only mildly irritating, like being circled by a peckish mosquito.
Vivid footage of the incident has rumbled across cyberspace, with Muslim netizens posting comments positively quivering with admiration.
The two-minute-long viral video opens with a direct view of the imam who is absorbed in worship and mellifluously reciting a prayer. Squeaks and creaks begin to mar the audio, before the imam and several worshippers start to sway violently in place, and a nearby lectern and room partition dance a jig.
As some in his congregation dart off in terror, the unruffled imam casually raises his left arm and rests his hand on a nearby marble wall for support. His recitation, meanwhile, does not skip a beat – in fact he cranks his voice up several notches, as if to banish fear from his presence.
This far-from-ideal situation for worshipping goes on for a full minute, before the trembling abates – and the Chuck Norris of imams is able to continue leading the Maghrib prayer with supreme composure.
The markedly different effect the tremblor has on the imam’s congregation is fully demonstrated at the 1:19 mark, when the video cuts to CCTV footage from elsewhere in the immaculate mosque the instant the quake strikes.
After a moment’s hesitation, worshippers whip around and stampede for the exits – just seconds before ceiling panels break lose and crash heavily onto the blood-red carpet.
A number of salty online commenters, snug and secure in buildings which don’t twerk or do the nae nae, derided the fleeing worshippers for giving in to fear (talk about not giving them a fair shake!). They blasted the escapees for not emulating the imam, who was rooted to the ground.
But this is a one-in-a-million imam, folks. This is an imam who (literally) rocks!