Slaimon Khan Shah
SLAIMON KHAN SHAH = SHAOLIN MONK/S OF ISLAAM
Shareef Abdur-Rahim: Muslim faith
During Ramadan, forward fasts in the daylight hours, reads the Quran and doesn't complain
Tuesday, November 09, 2004 JASON QUICK
NEW YORK -- There might be a time when Shareef Abdur-Rahim would fret about the curious way he is being used by Trail Blazers coach Maurice Cheeks, who has benched the prolific forward for the entire fourth quarter in two of the Blazers' three games.
But not now. Not during Ramadan.
Abdur-Rahim, a devout Muslim, is in the midst of a monthlong fasting period when Muslims concentrate on their faith and spend less time on the concerns of their everyday lives. Ramadan -- named after the ninth month of the Muslim calendar -- ends next Monday.
"Everything for me -- and I know my senses are true -- is in God's hands," Abdur-Rahim said. "That's not to say that you don't get frustrated and caught up in the moment, or get upset at somebody, but none of it is really in my hands. So you put your faith in God and work hard for what you are striving for. And the outcome? You deal with it."
Since Oct. 15, Abdur-Rahim has abstained from food, water and sex during daylight hours, while spending longer hours reading the Quran. All while doing his normal five daily sessions of praying to Allah.
There are several purposes for fasting: reminding one of the suffering of the poor; self-control; and cleansing the body and mind. But the Quran says the good acquired through a fast is destroyed by five things: Telling a lie. Slander. Denouncing someone behind his back. Taking a false oath. Or greed.
So although Abdur-Rahim is confused by his playing time -- particularly when he is averaging 18.7 points and 6.0 rebounds while shooting 56.1 percent from the field -- it would be counterproductive to his religious stance to complain, question or sulk.
"There is a saying in the Quran that there are man's plans and God's plans," Abdur-Rahim said. "And God has the best plan."
At 5:30 a.m., Abdur-Rahim wakes up, eats a breakfast at bedside, drinks plenty of water, and returns to bed. Throughout the rest of his bustling days as an NBA player -- practices, games, flights -- he doesn't eat or drink until, as the Quran says, one can not plainly distinguish a white thread from a black thread by daylight.
"It's not like I'm starving, and I don't want to say I'm laboring," Abdur-Rahim said. "But through the sacrifice of not eating, it brings you to a mind-set, to the overall purpose, and I think it brings me closer to God."
The hardest times for Abdur-Rahim are during practices and games, when his sweat-drenched teammates are chugging water. On Sunday, the Blazers played an afternoon game against Toronto.
"It was hard during the day game, my mouth got pretty dry," Abdur-Rahim said. "But I have been doing this since I was 6, so I'm used to it."
During this summer, Cheeks said he was ordered not to eat for 12 hours before undergoing a colonoscopy, and he said he couldn't imagine going any longer than that without food or water.
"So for Shareef to have the discipline to do that, it says a lot about him and his faith," Cheeks said. "And to honor it, that's why he is the kind of person and player he is."
Abdur-Rahim said the fasting does not affect his play, and his statistics back it up. In fact, he had his best game as a professional during Ramadan, with 50 points and 21 rebounds against Detroit in 2001 while he was with the Atlanta Hawks.
"I think of my purpose of doing it and it becomes easier," Abdur-Rahim said. "You can get caught up in the 'Hey, he ain't eating,' but there's more to it than that. You get closer to God and you are strengthening and improving yourself. It's really more of a time of reflection, because it's a time when you try to improve yourself, look at yourself. So you don't just fast from food, you fast from maybe a bad temper, or from backbiting, or senseless talk. You fast from the things that can pull you away from the remembrance of God."
As his teammates rehydrated themselves after Monday's practice in New York, Abdur-Rahim was planning his afternoon, which would include returning to the team hotel for his second of five prayers, and a reading of the Quran.
His Quran is "pretty beat up," and because his wife and family still live in Atlanta, Abdur-Rahim said he is nearing a feat he never has accomplished: reading the entire 114-chapter book during Ramadan.
"I have read all of it before, but never straight through," Abdur-Rahim said. "But I'm on pace to do it this year. It's a lot of reading."
And there is a lot of praying. One of the five pillars of the Muslim faith is to pray five times a day to Allah. Abdur-Rahim said he hasn't missed a prayer, during which he blesses what he has received or accepts the struggles that he is going through, since he was a child.
"It's hard for me to get away from what I believe in if I'm praying five times a day," Abdur-Rahim said. "Regardless of everything else going on, it's what God is telling me to do. I don't want to miss them, and I stay cognizant of that. It's part of me staying in tune to who I am."
Most people know Abdur-Rahim as a former All-Star forward who is an overpowering post player with the added bonus of a delicate outside shot.
It has resulted in a stellar eight-year career, during which he has posted career averages of 20.1 points and 8.3 rebounds. This season, Abdur-Rahim has moved from power forward to small forward and has emerged as one of the Blazers' most steady and effective players.
But in the season opener against Golden State, and again Sunday against Toronto, Abdur-Rahim did not play in the fourth quarter, despite producing strong statistics in the first three quarters.
After the Toronto game, Abdur-Rahim smiled when he saw a reporter approaching.
"I know you want to ask a controversial question," Abdur-Rahim said. "And I don't have the answers for you. I can only play when the coach asks me to. Don't get me wrong, I want to be out there, but I know he wants to win, and his job is to put in who he thinks can help us win. That's all I can say."
Cheeks said not playing Abdur-Rahim in the fourth quarter has not been a conscious decision, but it has been a decision that has been eating at him.
"It has just been the situations of the games; I guess that is the best way to say it," Cheeks said. "It had nothing to do with him. I was actually talking to Nick (Van Exel) about it today. It's just been tough for me. I would love to have him back in the games, but the way Darius (Miles) and Ruben (Patterson) have gotten us back in games, and the rhythm that was going at the time, I just haven't. And to Shareef's credit, he has never been a problem about it."
Cheeks has gotten into a habit of saying "the person Shareef is" in phrases when he is talking about Abdur-Rahim on and off the court. When pressed to elaborate on what he meant, Cheeks paused.
"I don't want to overstate it, but he is a beautiful person," Cheeks said. "I don't know how else to say it. It's like this here. We have been talking about him not playing in the fourth quarter in two of the three games, when he has been playing pretty good before that. In my time being here, that wouldn't have gone over too well with some people. But him being the kind of person he is, he just kind of goes with it. His personality right now fits with what we have, and a lot of it has rubbed off on players, which we need."
Still, Abdur-Rahim said he has the urges to question why he isn't playing, and his pride tempts his anger to rise. But Ramadan or not, he says the situation will never get the best of him.
"With anything I deal with, I feel my faith can get me through it," Abdur-Rahim said. "Whether it's an argument, or something like basketball, I just try to be the person I believe who I am, and have faith in God. I'm not a person who believes you pray, pray, pray and things will happen. In the Quran, it tells you that you have faith and then you vigorously work. So I have faith and I try to bust my tail and work hard. And from that, good things will happen."
http://www.oregonlive.com/sports/ore...4993133650.xml
Shareef Abdur-Rahim: Muslim faith
During Ramadan, forward fasts in the daylight hours, reads the Quran and doesn't complain
Tuesday, November 09, 2004 JASON QUICK
NEW YORK -- There might be a time when Shareef Abdur-Rahim would fret about the curious way he is being used by Trail Blazers coach Maurice Cheeks, who has benched the prolific forward for the entire fourth quarter in two of the Blazers' three games.
But not now. Not during Ramadan.
Abdur-Rahim, a devout Muslim, is in the midst of a monthlong fasting period when Muslims concentrate on their faith and spend less time on the concerns of their everyday lives. Ramadan -- named after the ninth month of the Muslim calendar -- ends next Monday.
"Everything for me -- and I know my senses are true -- is in God's hands," Abdur-Rahim said. "That's not to say that you don't get frustrated and caught up in the moment, or get upset at somebody, but none of it is really in my hands. So you put your faith in God and work hard for what you are striving for. And the outcome? You deal with it."
Since Oct. 15, Abdur-Rahim has abstained from food, water and sex during daylight hours, while spending longer hours reading the Quran. All while doing his normal five daily sessions of praying to Allah.
There are several purposes for fasting: reminding one of the suffering of the poor; self-control; and cleansing the body and mind. But the Quran says the good acquired through a fast is destroyed by five things: Telling a lie. Slander. Denouncing someone behind his back. Taking a false oath. Or greed.
So although Abdur-Rahim is confused by his playing time -- particularly when he is averaging 18.7 points and 6.0 rebounds while shooting 56.1 percent from the field -- it would be counterproductive to his religious stance to complain, question or sulk.
"There is a saying in the Quran that there are man's plans and God's plans," Abdur-Rahim said. "And God has the best plan."
At 5:30 a.m., Abdur-Rahim wakes up, eats a breakfast at bedside, drinks plenty of water, and returns to bed. Throughout the rest of his bustling days as an NBA player -- practices, games, flights -- he doesn't eat or drink until, as the Quran says, one can not plainly distinguish a white thread from a black thread by daylight.
"It's not like I'm starving, and I don't want to say I'm laboring," Abdur-Rahim said. "But through the sacrifice of not eating, it brings you to a mind-set, to the overall purpose, and I think it brings me closer to God."
The hardest times for Abdur-Rahim are during practices and games, when his sweat-drenched teammates are chugging water. On Sunday, the Blazers played an afternoon game against Toronto.
"It was hard during the day game, my mouth got pretty dry," Abdur-Rahim said. "But I have been doing this since I was 6, so I'm used to it."
During this summer, Cheeks said he was ordered not to eat for 12 hours before undergoing a colonoscopy, and he said he couldn't imagine going any longer than that without food or water.
"So for Shareef to have the discipline to do that, it says a lot about him and his faith," Cheeks said. "And to honor it, that's why he is the kind of person and player he is."
Abdur-Rahim said the fasting does not affect his play, and his statistics back it up. In fact, he had his best game as a professional during Ramadan, with 50 points and 21 rebounds against Detroit in 2001 while he was with the Atlanta Hawks.
"I think of my purpose of doing it and it becomes easier," Abdur-Rahim said. "You can get caught up in the 'Hey, he ain't eating,' but there's more to it than that. You get closer to God and you are strengthening and improving yourself. It's really more of a time of reflection, because it's a time when you try to improve yourself, look at yourself. So you don't just fast from food, you fast from maybe a bad temper, or from backbiting, or senseless talk. You fast from the things that can pull you away from the remembrance of God."
As his teammates rehydrated themselves after Monday's practice in New York, Abdur-Rahim was planning his afternoon, which would include returning to the team hotel for his second of five prayers, and a reading of the Quran.
His Quran is "pretty beat up," and because his wife and family still live in Atlanta, Abdur-Rahim said he is nearing a feat he never has accomplished: reading the entire 114-chapter book during Ramadan.
"I have read all of it before, but never straight through," Abdur-Rahim said. "But I'm on pace to do it this year. It's a lot of reading."
And there is a lot of praying. One of the five pillars of the Muslim faith is to pray five times a day to Allah. Abdur-Rahim said he hasn't missed a prayer, during which he blesses what he has received or accepts the struggles that he is going through, since he was a child.
"It's hard for me to get away from what I believe in if I'm praying five times a day," Abdur-Rahim said. "Regardless of everything else going on, it's what God is telling me to do. I don't want to miss them, and I stay cognizant of that. It's part of me staying in tune to who I am."
Most people know Abdur-Rahim as a former All-Star forward who is an overpowering post player with the added bonus of a delicate outside shot.
It has resulted in a stellar eight-year career, during which he has posted career averages of 20.1 points and 8.3 rebounds. This season, Abdur-Rahim has moved from power forward to small forward and has emerged as one of the Blazers' most steady and effective players.
But in the season opener against Golden State, and again Sunday against Toronto, Abdur-Rahim did not play in the fourth quarter, despite producing strong statistics in the first three quarters.
After the Toronto game, Abdur-Rahim smiled when he saw a reporter approaching.
"I know you want to ask a controversial question," Abdur-Rahim said. "And I don't have the answers for you. I can only play when the coach asks me to. Don't get me wrong, I want to be out there, but I know he wants to win, and his job is to put in who he thinks can help us win. That's all I can say."
Cheeks said not playing Abdur-Rahim in the fourth quarter has not been a conscious decision, but it has been a decision that has been eating at him.
"It has just been the situations of the games; I guess that is the best way to say it," Cheeks said. "It had nothing to do with him. I was actually talking to Nick (Van Exel) about it today. It's just been tough for me. I would love to have him back in the games, but the way Darius (Miles) and Ruben (Patterson) have gotten us back in games, and the rhythm that was going at the time, I just haven't. And to Shareef's credit, he has never been a problem about it."
Cheeks has gotten into a habit of saying "the person Shareef is" in phrases when he is talking about Abdur-Rahim on and off the court. When pressed to elaborate on what he meant, Cheeks paused.
"I don't want to overstate it, but he is a beautiful person," Cheeks said. "I don't know how else to say it. It's like this here. We have been talking about him not playing in the fourth quarter in two of the three games, when he has been playing pretty good before that. In my time being here, that wouldn't have gone over too well with some people. But him being the kind of person he is, he just kind of goes with it. His personality right now fits with what we have, and a lot of it has rubbed off on players, which we need."
Still, Abdur-Rahim said he has the urges to question why he isn't playing, and his pride tempts his anger to rise. But Ramadan or not, he says the situation will never get the best of him.
"With anything I deal with, I feel my faith can get me through it," Abdur-Rahim said. "Whether it's an argument, or something like basketball, I just try to be the person I believe who I am, and have faith in God. I'm not a person who believes you pray, pray, pray and things will happen. In the Quran, it tells you that you have faith and then you vigorously work. So I have faith and I try to bust my tail and work hard. And from that, good things will happen."
http://www.oregonlive.com/sports/ore...4993133650.xml
Shareef Abdur-Rahim: Muslim faith
