Judul asli: Robohnya Surau Kami
By; A A Nafis
Looking at this neglected
mosque reminds me of “kakek”, an old man who once stayed and took care of it.
He was unemployed. He fed himself from the alms he gathered every Friday.
He also got ¼ of the goldfish harvest twice a year and once in a year people gave
him obligatory alms or we called it Zakat Fitrah. Well as a Garin (that’s what we
call it) he wasn’t very popular. He was known as the knife grinder because he
was an expert. People usually gave him chili sauce (sambal), cigarettes, or money
for grinding their knives but he never asked for anything. More often, he got a smile and thank you.
I still remember that day,
when I visited him. He was sitting at the corner holding his feet and resting
his head on his knees. He looked so sad even though he didn’t answer my greeting,
something he’d never done before.
“Whose knife is this kakek?”
“Ajo Sidi’s.”
“Ajo Sidi’s?” He was silent.
For a moment I thought about Ajo Sidi. He was an unusual storyteller. He
always told a story on purpose, that is to mock other people.
“What is his story, kakek?”
“He’s a bastard.”
“Why?”
“I hope this knife that I
have ground cut his throat.”
“You are very angry, aren’t
you?”
“ Am I mad? Oh yes..if
only I were young, but I’m an old man.
I’ve never been angry for a long time. I behave myself, pray and keep my
faith to God. God will love us if we’re patient..”
“What did he say kakek?”
“You know me so well, right?
You see what I’ve done, everything about me...Do you think I am a bastard? Do
you think God hates me?” I said nothing. I know he would explain everything.
“ I never think about
myself. I never think about having a wife, or children,...like other people. I
don’t want to be rich, make a house,
etc...All my life, my heart, my soul...I give to God the Almighty. I never make
other people suffer, even I’ll never kill a fly, but he said that I will go to hell. Do you think God will punish me for that? For waking up so early to
worship and reciting the holy Qur’an?...what’s wrong with what I’ve done?
“Was that what he said about
you?”
“He didn’t say that
literally, but I know what he meant by telling that story. Let me repeat his
whole story.....Once upon a time, in the world after, God was awakening and
gathering all the death people. God was asking people about their good deeds
while living on earth. There was Haji Soleh among the people. He was
smiling, since he was certain that he would go to heaven. He smiled mockingly
when he saw some one was entering hell and when he saw some one was
entering heaven he waved his hand as if saying ‘see you later
When it was haji Soleh turn.
He smiled happily. God asked him the first question...”You?”
“I’m Saleh. But because I’ve
gone on pilgrimage, Haji Saleh is my name.”
“I didn’t ask your name.
It’s only useful on Earth, not here. Well, what did you do in the earth?”
“I prayed and worshipped
You, Dear God. I recited Your Name every day, every night, any time and anywhere.”
“Any other else?”
“I did what You ordered and
left what You’ve forbidden.”
“Any other else?”
“I fasted every Monday and
Thursday..I did the Tahajjud prayer at night. And Recite the Holy Qur’an.”
“Any other else?”
Haji Saleh couldn’t answer
anymore. He had told everything he did.”
“So, have you told me
everything you’ve done in the world?”
“I’m afraid yes, that’s all
that I’ve done. I have no other job except worshipping You, my God.”
“Then Angels...Get in
them.!” Haji Saleh was thrown to hell. And he was very surprised when he
saw most of his friends were in hell too. All of them discussed the
strange thing that had happened to them. They believed that God had made a mistake.
“We must remind God about
this mistake. Let’s go to meet Him. We’ll do a protest to fight for our
rights.”
“Protest to God? Is it permitted?”
“We also did this when we
lived in the earth, didn’t we??” Then
they decided to protest against God.
“What do you want?” asked
God.
“Oh, my God. You are The
Greatest one. All of us are the most obedient and faithful humans. We memorize
Your Holy Qur’an. We believe that there must be a mistake...”
“Well, where did you live?
Was it in Indonesia?”
“Yes, that’s right My God.
We lived in a beautiful country named Indonesia.”
“Was it the country which
has fertile soil and rich of mine minerals?”
“ Yeah...exactly that’s our
country.”
“ It was a rich and fertile
country where the citizen was poor and suffered. A country which was occupied
by another country which had taken everything you have and let you die in
poverty.”
“That was what happened to
us, My God.”
“It was the chaos country,
where you were fighting each other. While some of you cheating for their own
benefit and letting your country's wealth was taken by other people.”
“Yes...but we are the good
people. We don’t care about the properties. We just want to worship You, my
God. We are the people who are afraid of Your hell.”
“So, you were willing to suffer
and live in poverty..and because of that your children and grand children were
suffering too.”
“ Yeah, that’s right. But,
as You said Faith is the most important thing. Our grand children were
willing to suffer and live in poverty however they kept their faith aginst You.
They also memorized the Holy Qur’an very well....”
“However they never knew
exactly the meaning of the Qur’an...just like You.”
“Of course we did, My God...We
understand every word”
“If you understand, then why
did you let yourself live in poverty and suffer the whole life so that your
children and grandchildren were also ill-treated and you let other people take
your chance to possess everything for their own children. You would rather
fight and cheat among yourself than work hard for your family. I gave you a rich
country but you were lazy and egoistic. You preferred worshipping to working
hard because it doesn’t cost anything. Don’t you know that besides praying, I
asked you to help the poor. How could you help the poor if you were poor and
suffered?”
“Was it wrong if we were
worshipping You, my God?”
“Of course, not. Your fault
is that you only think about yourself. You were afraid of my hell, that’s why
you prayed..but you forget to take care of your family, your wife, and children,
which is your responsibility. You let them live in poverty.”
That was Ajo Sidi’s story
that I heard from kakek. The story badly hurt his feeling. And the next
morning we found kakek had committed suicide. He cut his own throat with the knife he
had shown me.
------The end-----
