The 'Mamba Mentality' of a Muslim Saint
"Wisdom is the lost property of a believer" - Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him).
Kobe Bryant's life was scattered with gems of wisdom, left behind for the world to pick up. His life was a lesson on ambition. Whether yours is athletic, academic, or even spiritual ambition, there's wisdom to be gained from studying Kobe's mentality. Kobe was a straight up obsessive competitor. He was relentless in his drive and ambition, and it stood out in all that he did in his 41 years of life.
He termed his vision, his focus, and obsession as the Mamba Mentality. This mentality is what he wished to impart to others, as it was his greatest gift. When other players, competing at the highest level of the sport, shared that this was the mentality they were ruminating over during championship runs, Kobe said,
"I feel great about it, it means everything that I've done throughout my career, it doesn't just stay in the history books. It doesn't just sit on the mantle in the form of trophies and gold medals, it means that the legacy is passed on. The fact that he was thinking about it means that I've done something more than simply win."
There's a story that I love about Kobe that shows that the bottomline for him was whether he was outworking everybody around him or not. He dreamt of outworking others by a mile, more than he dreamt about the success that follows.
Jay Williams and his Chicago Bulls were set to go up against Kobe's championship Lakers in a regular season game. Jay, having felt like an underestimated player through his career, made it his obsession to outwork everyone that he saw. Going up against the best team in the league that day, Jay's focus was as sharp as a knife, and he got to the gym 4 hours early to put in extra pre-game work. When he got there, he was surprised to see Kobe already there--in a dead sweat, not just casually shooting around. Jay put in his hour and a half of solid work, and decided he'd go cool off now before the game. He looked across the court and saw Kobe still working. Still going at it with game-level intensity.
Jay was bewildered. Why was this guy exhausting himself like this before the game? What left him even more utterly blown away was when Kobe dropped 40 points, completely torching the Bulls that game. After the game, an exhausted and disoriented Jay approached Kobe, asking him why in the world was he working out for so long prior to the game.
Kobe's response? "Because I saw you. I saw you coming in and I wanted you to know no matter how hard you work that I’m willing to work harder than you.”
This level of obsessive competitiveness reminds me of a South Asian story of a Muslim saint named Hazrat Ismail Shaheed¹.
This saint was passing through a city during one of his tours around India. Here, he came across a lot of excited talk that there was a Sikh man in the city who was the best swimmer in the city. He dominated the sport. No one could even come close to him. This roused such a level of competitiveness in the Muslim saint that he said that he could not stand the thought that there wasn't a single Muslim in the city who was outcompeting the Sikh man. Our team, our clan, our faith group, all feel like extensions of ourselves. And if you're a competitor, you cannot stand the thought of someone else dominating a discipline so decisively that your team is totally torched, and there's not even a mention of your side putting up a fight.
So he did what any obsessive competitor would do. He cancelled the rest of his trip, he decided he wasn't going home, and settled in that new city. For years. Just to learn how to swim, to perfect the craft, and learn how to dominate the sport. He literally stayed there just to out-hustle a guy that he didn't know, at a sport that he didn't play. He worked at it every single day for years with an obsession that would perplex any observer, until he achieved his goal. The same kind of way other players called Kobe an alien for the lengths he would go to outwork others. The Muslim beat the Sikh man in a swimming competition, and then returned home with the feeling of having held up the true spirit of his faith--pushing your limits to beat others at their best.
Of course, this story is not about a rivalry between different faith groups. Sikhs and Muslims have had deep bonds of brotherhood for centuries. Such as when the fifth Sikh Guru, Guru Arjan Dev Ji was overseeing the construction of the Golden Temple, and asked his life-long friend Hazrat Mian Mir, a Muslim saint, to come lay the foundation stone for the temple, as a symbol of the mutual love between people of all faiths.
And that's really the point. To outcompete everyone, even the people that you're close to.
The Holy Qur'an states: "And everyone has a goal to which he turns his whole attention. Then vie with one another in good works. Wherever you be, Allah will surely bring you all together. Surely, Allah has the power to do all that He wills." (2:149)
The mention of God bringing everyone together is a subtle reminder to not rest satisfied at just out-hustling the people immediately around you. It's easy to be a big fish in a small pond. Real ambition, by the standards of Islam, is to keep in mind everyone in far off places who are waking up earlier than you to pursue the goal you're still dreaming about.
Sometimes we see people like this and think their brilliance is just on another superhuman level. The reality is that you have it in you too. You've shown glimpses of that same brilliance at different times in your life. Whether it's lack of stability in different aspects on your life, or whatever struggle may be holding you back, you have just yet to make that brilliance a lifestyle. That doesn't mean it's not in you to do so.
All our faculties are from God. And it's only His light that can illuminate those faculties too. Putting in work and using your God-given faculties is itself a form of prayer, because you're expressing gratitude to God for the blessings He's invested you with. You decide what your hustle is, what "good works" your life consists of. Whether you hit the books, or hit the gym, always hit the prayer mat and bow down before the One who gave you all that you are, and breathes life into all that you dream of.
1 - http://www.askislam.org/science_and_technology/health_and_medicine/question_477.html 12:20 mark. This story was shared by the 4th Khalifa of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, Hazrat Mirza Tahir Ahmad (rh), during one of his Q/A sessions.
Kobe Bryant's life was scattered with gems of wisdom, left behind for the world to pick up. His life was a lesson on ambition. Whether yours is athletic, academic, or even spiritual ambition, there's wisdom to be gained from studying Kobe's mentality. Kobe was a straight up obsessive competitor. He was relentless in his drive and ambition, and it stood out in all that he did in his 41 years of life.
He termed his vision, his focus, and obsession as the Mamba Mentality. This mentality is what he wished to impart to others, as it was his greatest gift. When other players, competing at the highest level of the sport, shared that this was the mentality they were ruminating over during championship runs, Kobe said,
"I feel great about it, it means everything that I've done throughout my career, it doesn't just stay in the history books. It doesn't just sit on the mantle in the form of trophies and gold medals, it means that the legacy is passed on. The fact that he was thinking about it means that I've done something more than simply win."
There's a story that I love about Kobe that shows that the bottomline for him was whether he was outworking everybody around him or not. He dreamt of outworking others by a mile, more than he dreamt about the success that follows.
Jay Williams and his Chicago Bulls were set to go up against Kobe's championship Lakers in a regular season game. Jay, having felt like an underestimated player through his career, made it his obsession to outwork everyone that he saw. Going up against the best team in the league that day, Jay's focus was as sharp as a knife, and he got to the gym 4 hours early to put in extra pre-game work. When he got there, he was surprised to see Kobe already there--in a dead sweat, not just casually shooting around. Jay put in his hour and a half of solid work, and decided he'd go cool off now before the game. He looked across the court and saw Kobe still working. Still going at it with game-level intensity.
Jay was bewildered. Why was this guy exhausting himself like this before the game? What left him even more utterly blown away was when Kobe dropped 40 points, completely torching the Bulls that game. After the game, an exhausted and disoriented Jay approached Kobe, asking him why in the world was he working out for so long prior to the game.
Kobe's response? "Because I saw you. I saw you coming in and I wanted you to know no matter how hard you work that I’m willing to work harder than you.”
This level of obsessive competitiveness reminds me of a South Asian story of a Muslim saint named Hazrat Ismail Shaheed¹.
This saint was passing through a city during one of his tours around India. Here, he came across a lot of excited talk that there was a Sikh man in the city who was the best swimmer in the city. He dominated the sport. No one could even come close to him. This roused such a level of competitiveness in the Muslim saint that he said that he could not stand the thought that there wasn't a single Muslim in the city who was outcompeting the Sikh man. Our team, our clan, our faith group, all feel like extensions of ourselves. And if you're a competitor, you cannot stand the thought of someone else dominating a discipline so decisively that your team is totally torched, and there's not even a mention of your side putting up a fight.
So he did what any obsessive competitor would do. He cancelled the rest of his trip, he decided he wasn't going home, and settled in that new city. For years. Just to learn how to swim, to perfect the craft, and learn how to dominate the sport. He literally stayed there just to out-hustle a guy that he didn't know, at a sport that he didn't play. He worked at it every single day for years with an obsession that would perplex any observer, until he achieved his goal. The same kind of way other players called Kobe an alien for the lengths he would go to outwork others. The Muslim beat the Sikh man in a swimming competition, and then returned home with the feeling of having held up the true spirit of his faith--pushing your limits to beat others at their best.
Of course, this story is not about a rivalry between different faith groups. Sikhs and Muslims have had deep bonds of brotherhood for centuries. Such as when the fifth Sikh Guru, Guru Arjan Dev Ji was overseeing the construction of the Golden Temple, and asked his life-long friend Hazrat Mian Mir, a Muslim saint, to come lay the foundation stone for the temple, as a symbol of the mutual love between people of all faiths.
And that's really the point. To outcompete everyone, even the people that you're close to.
The Holy Qur'an states: "And everyone has a goal to which he turns his whole attention. Then vie with one another in good works. Wherever you be, Allah will surely bring you all together. Surely, Allah has the power to do all that He wills." (2:149)
The mention of God bringing everyone together is a subtle reminder to not rest satisfied at just out-hustling the people immediately around you. It's easy to be a big fish in a small pond. Real ambition, by the standards of Islam, is to keep in mind everyone in far off places who are waking up earlier than you to pursue the goal you're still dreaming about.
Sometimes we see people like this and think their brilliance is just on another superhuman level. The reality is that you have it in you too. You've shown glimpses of that same brilliance at different times in your life. Whether it's lack of stability in different aspects on your life, or whatever struggle may be holding you back, you have just yet to make that brilliance a lifestyle. That doesn't mean it's not in you to do so.
All our faculties are from God. And it's only His light that can illuminate those faculties too. Putting in work and using your God-given faculties is itself a form of prayer, because you're expressing gratitude to God for the blessings He's invested you with. You decide what your hustle is, what "good works" your life consists of. Whether you hit the books, or hit the gym, always hit the prayer mat and bow down before the One who gave you all that you are, and breathes life into all that you dream of.
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| A Gurdwara (Sikh Temple) in Fresno, California offering a prayer service for Kobe Bryant and all the victims of the January 26th helicopter crash |
1 - http://www.askislam.org/science_and_technology/health_and_medicine/question_477.html 12:20 mark. This story was shared by the 4th Khalifa of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, Hazrat Mirza Tahir Ahmad (rh), during one of his Q/A sessions.
Drop here!
Very moving post!
ReplyDeleteJazakAllah!
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