Da Bears Iftar

SubhanAllah. SubhanAllah. SubhanAllah. Seriously, that's the only way I can possibly try to put how I feel right now.

It's been a while since I posted about the Bears winning. The wins became habit forming and unquestionable, so therefore assumed...

But the unquestionable became suspect when we faced a hot-headed rookie QB and the now 1-5 Arizona Cardinals who played MNF against the Team of Destiny -- the Chicago Bears -- like it was the last Super Bowl ever.

Let's set this up:

We were all at Aladdin's for a great iftar party. As usual, Alaa killed it with his great hosting mashaAllah. Tons of good Arab food and amazing desert (the tiramisu was definitely the favorite). Oh, and let's not forget about the huge projection TV (in HD). Amazing, mashaAllah.

All the guys were there. The Arab crew. The Desi crew (who ironically enough segregated themselves from everyone by staying within 2 feet of the computer -- i.e. 2 feet away from facebook.com). And even the less noticeable Saint Louis crew.

So finally, the game started and the next thing we know we were down. 20 - 0 at the half. We gave up two touchdowns in what seemed like a matter of seconds. It was mind-blowing and very surreal to witness. Bears haters like Taha Ghani, Ahmed Hassan (the STL T&A), and even Faisal Raja were basking in our misery.

And then there was my man Rex. Oh man...let's not get into that, shall we? Needless to say, it seemed like we were heading into oblivion and inevitable ridicule. To the point where I told Hassan and Taha that if they made dua for the Bears, I would return the favor and make dua for the Stl Cards. But Hassan kept a big ol smirk on his face and said, "I told you...at least one team with the name Cardinals will win tonight."

Of course, the fricken ESPN announcers didn't hesitate to make light of the compairsons between the '85 Monsters of the Midway and Today's Monsters of the Midway. And they definitely didn't hesitate to practically bow down to Matt Leinart. It seemed as though at one point all we were watching was a show dedicated to Leinart's USC days. To add to things, they had Leinart under the wire, so they would play his reactions. "They're giving it to us." "Yeaaaaahh!!" Etc., etc., etc. It was down right sickening...

But then Da Bears got angry. Or should I more accurately say that Brian Urlacher got angry? Urlacher most noticeably during the second half of the game decided to take things into his own hands, thereby encouraging his fellow Midway Monsters (Mike Brown, Tillman, Lance Briggs) to make plays, too. The first came when we knocked Leinart into Week 7 resulting in a fumble and Mike Brown TD recovery late in the 3rd qtr. After being down 20 -3, we were back in it now at 23 - 10.

But then the game seemed to fade quickly once again. Hope was leaving the die hard Bears room. In fact, some people couldn't take it and went home. Like Sami Haque mentioned in so many words...Yeah, sure, we may be bound to lose a game, but NOT to the Cards. The gloom and despair cut through the room like a dagger. No, actually like a flippin missle launched from a military base in Arizona and right through to our hearts. Something like that, anyway.

Yet, hope remained. Duas were shot out. And time was on our side. In the last few minutes of the game, we did the unimaginable. Urlacher ripped the ball out of Edgerin James as he was going down and Tillman picked it up to run in for a TD (~40 yds). Yes, that made two unreal plays in a row...all courtesy of the Bears Defense. Even more amazing and unreal was our new man -- Devin Hester. With under 3 minutes left in the 4th Qtr and things looking really, really bad, Hester runs 83 yards for a TD return! Pandemonium broke out in the quiet town of Burr Ridge. The room went crazy. The roof was on fire. We were now approaching the last two minutes of the game and then we slowly saw the Cardinals positioning themsevles into field goal position. By the time this happened, there was only ~50 seconds left. As if we controlled the game with all our mental energy and focus, Neil Rackers -- a Pro Bowler kicker -- CHOKED by missing an easy 40-yarder. Wide left. Again...more pandemonium, hysteria, shock erupted...

And so the rest, as they say, is history. It was really amazing. A true act of some MAJOR hook-up from The Rabil Alameen to allow for that to happen. Guys like Badie yelled out at the end, "We all need to go to the masjid and pray 100 rakats for taraweeh." It was difficult to hear him, though, because of the hugging, crying (no joke -- we had a brother tear up because he was so happy), yelling, and chants of "Allahu Akbar!" We piled up on one another. I bear hugged guys I didn't know. I mean, they probably heard us out in Arizona.

To conclude, this was the best iftar party I have EVER attended. A-Moose said it best...Imran, your iftar party was good, but this was the best. What will add to all this phenom-ness is that Aladdin caught a lot of the celebration on his camera. Stay tuned for the YouTube video...

And Allah Alone Gives Success. May Allah bless the Bears. Ameen.