[Noah] - I’m inspiring to be a Sufi
I don’t think I’ve achieved it
Because I think it’s an ongoing thing, until you die
My name is Noah, which I’m called
I used to be called Naz before that,
for a few years
Sheikh Nazim gave me that name when I met him
about thirty-four years ago
I think it’s an honourable name, people think it is
So I like that name
If you want to improve yourself you need the truth
Even if you are doing something right, it's...
the test is to improve you as a person
[INAUDIBLE PRAYERS]
[SUFI CHANTING]
When you’re in the zone everything works around you,
you know, everything
Your movement is spontaneous
And it’s synchronised with your feelings
and your mind and body is working in one
through the moment you’re connected to the spirit
You know, table tennis is a strange thing where
people think they’re really great,
doesn’t matter what level they are
So you find people who say 'Ah yeah, I can beat you'
They look at me and
' Oh I can- come on, I’ll beat you,' so they queue up to beat me
None of them can beat me
And the kids they don’t realise that I’m actually quite good
I’m not brilliant
but I’m quite good compared to what I look like
I don’t play in a league
I don’t measure myself against anything
I’m just measuring myself with myself
So I want to improve
I realise that I am much happier with myself
when I do other sport
And then I just discovered Bob
He told me to get a table for the Sufi Centre, which I did
So I put a word out, that if anybody can,
if any kid can beat me I’ll give them twenty quid,
and is there anybody who can beat me?
So the word went out, and I got a few challenges,
and then Saleem turned up
At the beginning we were quite equal, you know
But I’d beat him, just about
He realised he’s handling somebody he didn’t expect,
went back to the club he used to play for in Attercliffe
And I know people from there, they come to Zikhr, they said
'Do you know that he’s secretly practising?'
He got this really good bat
And he beat me
I realised that I‘d got to step my game up
And so I got a fresher bat as well
Zikhr really, literally means remembering God,
we’re remembering God together
And that connection is in every human being
has their soul connection with God
It kind of revives me, I start re-examining myself
And I can’t escape that re-examination
And in a way I’m purifying myself by doing that
One day I decided that I’ve had enough of losing
And after that like, for a year he tried hard,
really tried hard, different ways, different shots
Coming up with new things
and every time he came with something new
I created something new from myself, to counter that
We love each other, you know,
but on that, we just go for it
There’s no end to humility, there’s no end to servanthood,
there is no end to love
These are infinite things we’re talking about, you know
The Zikhr culture of my group is a really beautiful one
We're not necessarily I would say, leftovers,
but in a way we are, you know
Sheikh [Mehmet Adil Effendi] is coming and
I actually get a bit worried
You know, all the things I’m not doing right
Even if I feel I’ve been doing right,
it’s just a bit- it’s a little bit nervy
He knows our souls
He knows our connection and what’s keeping us away
[SUFI CHANTING]
The main thing I’m aiming for is the divine presence,
and I know that divine present has to come through divine love
But he’s a teacher of many dimensions;
he’s a teacher from different aspects of life;
he’s a teacher on a very, very deep level
[Sheikh’s assistant] - Insh’allah we are going to make Bayat
Bayat is done with the right hand over the right shoulder,
connecting like a chain
So everyone on the right shoulder
For the women, this side, men on this side please
[Noah] - More and more Western people are disillusioned with technology
And they are really ready to have a higher knowledge
from the Sheikh
[GROUP CHANTING] Allahu allahu allahu hak
[Noah] - He’s especially been told to come to here
My stroke was in like, early April
It was very bad at the beginning
[PRAYER] - la ilaha illallah
[Noah] - I couldn’t stand and I couldn’t use my right hand
Least I couldn’t walk, first I had to learn to stand
In a day, two or three times after an hour, I’d force myself to stand
and fall in the chair again
So I realized that my mind is actually working as it was before
So it’s my body I’ve got to work on
[PRAYERS]
So I learned to sort of tap it back, just about
I couldn’t do any shots
I tried and they were going all over, completely missing the ball
With Bob, he phoned me up, 'Hi what’s happening?'
and I said Bob, I had a stroke
And he played me a game,
then I won the next three or four and he said,
'It’s ‘cause I felt sorry for you'
And I didn’t like that, I said,
'Don’t you dare feel sorry for me I don’t feel sorry for myself'
Whereas, Saleem came back
and he didn’t have one little hint
of the fact that he’s going to feel sorry for me or anything
He came in and was smashing the ball past me like a bullet, you know
And I said wow, you know, I got to pick myself up
I did
Did my best - very best and he thrashed me, you know
He gets excited
And I can take the pace off the ball
Or spin it in a slightly different way to what he’s expecting
The thing is, he might get four points in a row
Smashing it past me, four points in a row
I don’t get ruffled by it
I know that he’s going to start making faults
so I change the pace
or just change the angle and he’ll go for the same shot,
‘cause he can’t help it
He’s conditioned to kill me with that shot
So then I’ll get three or four points before
he realizes that he can’t do that shot
So this time we knew both that this is the final then,
four games each
So we went for it [Noah laughs]
And.. It was very very close
In a way he deserved to win
But he didn't
Yeah!!!!
[BOTH LAUGHING]