Wrestling and Archery: Forgotten Sunnahs – Shaykh Ibrahim Osi-Efa

Before UFC was a thing, before pay-per-view ever existed, Islam encouraged wrestling. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) himself wrestled and as did his companions.  When the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) was challenged by the greatest fighter in the Arabian peninsula, Rukana, the fight doesn’t go as the champion expected it to go, Shaykh Ibrahim Osi-Efa explains:

He wrestles the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), and it’s not even like….At least put up a fight or something! At least let us hear they were going back and forth, and half an hour later the Prophet has him in a headlock, but no! It’s over as soon as it starts! The man is on the ground wondering, ‘How did that even happen!?’

Then Rukana asks for a rematch and you can guess how that went for him.

It’s not every day you hear Marcelo Garcia mentioned in an Islamic talk, but here Shaykh Ibrahim uses Marcelo to explain what Rukana might have been thinking when he asked for a second fight.

Shaykh Ibrahim then discusses the importance of archery and how not only did some of the greatest scholars of Islam practice it, but rather they perfected it.

May Allah forgive us for our shortcomings in following the way of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and allow us to emulate him.