After his release from nine
months prison, Br. Fadlan wanted to go from Jayapura to Weimena to spread Islam
in that area. As he had no money and could not affort to pay plane ticket, he
decided to go there on foot. It would take him three months walking to reach
that town. After one month walking with his nineteen friends they became tired
and returned. But they did not lose hope.
There
was a plane belonging to missionaries that would fly to Weimena, and they tried
to go with it. In order to be allowed to board they changed their names. They
went to the village office bringing their photos. Zainuddin changed his name
with Marcus, and Fadlan himself changed it with Leo Gramatan. They bought
tickets and were allowed to board the plane. It took only 45 minutes to get to
Weimena by plane. They took with them
seven cartons of bath soaps, seven cartons of toothpastes, seven cartons of
shampos, and seven sacks of clothes to be distributed among people there.
In Weimena they were welcomed by the
locals who had never used soap or shampoo, and they only used lard. They taught
their tribal leader to take a bath in the river using soap and shampoo that he
felt very fresh and went to sleep from 3 o’clock in the evening and woke up at
9 o’clock the next morning. Br. Fadlan with his team came to teach them how to
take bath using soap and shampoo. There were 3,217 people from 28 villages came
to bathe in the river. The soaps were divided into four, and they took turns
bathing, starting at early morning till noon, continued after Br. Fadlan and
his team had finished their ẓuhr (afternoon) prayer on a stage they had
built earlier by the river.
While
praying the locals walked around them to see what they were doing. After prayer
the tribal chief jumped onto the stage and asked questions. Br. Fadlan
explained that in Islam a Muslim had to pray five times a day, and he and his
team had just finished praying. He gave acceptable answers to his questions. He
said:
“Raising hands
indicates our total surrender to God the Creator. We talked to Him acknowleging
that He is extremely great, and we are extremely small, we put our left hand on
our chest, and our right hand on our left hand indicating our shame, and honestly
accepting whatever He wants with us, as we have surrendered ourselves to Him,
body and soul..”
“Oooooh,
this is the right religion,” said the tribal chief.
When he
asked why they bowed down, Br. Fadlan said:
“We bow down so that we can see the
sand, the stone, the plants, and the animals, all are created by God for the
benefit of human beings.”
“Aaaaah, you are right,” said the tribal
chief.
When he asked why they kissed the
board when they prostrated, Br. Fadlan answered:
“We kissed the board as we were
weeping for all bad deeds and sins whe have committed, so that we lowered our
head asking for His forgiveness. When we die our body will decay, and before it
happens we weep asking for His forgiveness.”
When he asked why they looked to the
right and to the left while they were talking, Br. Fadlan said:
“We looked to the right side
to see if any of our brothers and sisters have not taken their baths
yet, so that we can teach him or her to do so, and we looked to the left side
to see if any of them is still without clothes so that we could clothe him, or
is sick so that we can treat him, or is hungry so that we can feed him, and in
this way our relation with our Creator will continue, as well as our relation
with our fellow creatures, so that we keep this world in peace to worship God,
Allah the Almighty.”
The tribal chief asked
Br. Fadlan and his team to go down the stage and six chiefs of the tribe went
to the stage. They made a traditional
meeting to discuss Br. Fadlan’s presence and his team. One hour and a half
later the tribal chief gave announcement to his people with their tribal language
unknown to Br. Fadlan. The translation of this announcement is as follows: “Today
we are happy that they have come to teach us the right religion.” On hearing
this good news Br. Fadlan and his team prostrated themselves thanking Allah for
their conversion, and 3,217 people pronounced the shahādah.
One
week after pronouncing the shahādah their names were changed, such as
Paulus became Ibrahim, and Wilhelmus became Abu Bakar. Next, mass circumscision
between the age of seven months to sixty-three years old. There was a physician
called dr Mulia Tirmidhi who was a commander of Lantamal (Main Base of
Indonesian Navy) at Jayapura, assited them in mass circumcision and propagating
Islam in that area. Then he gave a written recommendation to meet President
Suharto in Jakarta. Beforen traveling these tribal chiefs were wearing long
pants with shirts and suits, but were unable to have shoes, as the size of
their feet was too big ( size 47, about 12 inch), so that they wore sandals
with thongs, and off they flied to Makassar. They witnessed the construction
development in that city, and then they flied further to Jakarta, where they
arrived at night. When they saw the flashing lights they started blaming
President Suharto for neglecting them. Br. Fadlan told them to complain to the
President when they meet him, and no need to be fussy inside the car.
The
next day President Suharto welcomed them, not in the Presidential Palace, but
in his house. He smiled, hugged them and welcomed them, and gave them some
advice. He asked them to deliver a speech in return. One of them said in his
local language:
“You are not suitable to be president.
What kind of president are you? You only develop Makassar and Jakarta. In the
coming election I shall speak out to people, so that you Haji Suharto will not
be elected any longer to be president.”
Suharto
asked Br. Fadlan to translate the speech. Here is his translation: “Today, the
tribal chiefs are happy to meet you. They said that you are suitable to be Bapak
Pembanguan (‘the Father of National Development).’”
With
this strategy, President Suharto called directly the Minister of Religious
Affairs to arrange ḥajj (pilgrimage to Makkah) for the tribal chiefs. He
also called the Minister of Social Affairs to build 412 units of houses for
them, to give them 1000 sacks of new clothes, as well as 600 cartons of
shampoo, tooth past, and tooth brushes. He also recommended them to use the
Hercules planes from Halim Perdanakusuma airport in Jakarta to Weimena. With
his own Yayasan (social foundation) he donated 28 mosques for the
Muslims there. Its location is two days
walk from Weimena. He had also donated 400 mosques in Nu waar (Irian, West Papua).
Br. Fadlan continued his
propagation journey to Biak. After five days preaching he met a clergyman, who
told him not to talk about Islam in that area. But Br. Fadlan told him that
Islam had come first to this land, and he had no right to prohibit him from
preaching. He said that Irian (West Papua) had been bought by Jesus Christ. When
Br. Fadlan asked him, “Then where is the receipt from Jesus?” he was ashamed
and went away.
After
three months propagating there a celebration of isrā-mi‘rāj (the Prophet’s
ascention) was held and Br. Fadlan was invited to deliver a speech on that
occasion at Dharma Wanita building, Biak Lumpur regency. One of the
invited guests was the clergyman Alexander. When Br. Fadlan saw him sitting at
the front raw, he changed the topic of his speech. The original topic of his
speech was the significance of prayer for human beings, and he changed it with
that there was no religion with special privilege by Allah for people except
Islam.
Then
Br. Fadlan stressed the importance of prayer. He said that a person who missed
the fajr (dawn) prayer, the ẓuhr (early afternoon) prayer, ‘āṣr
(early evening) prayer, maghrib (early evening) prayer, and ‘ishā’
(night) prayer, would be in a grave loss, worse than losing his home, or his
wealth being stolen, and this is found only in Islam. Our brother belonging to
another religion said that the duty of God was only to create the world and its
contents, and then He took rest in Heaven. After that, God did not have
anything to do with the affairs of the world.
After
delivering the speech the glergyman approached him telling him that he was also
invited, and that he was offended wih his speech. Br. Fadlan told him that he
was invited to give a speech for Muslims, not for non Muslims, and did not know
he was there. The clergyman offered him to conduct an interreligious dialogue,
but Br. Fadlan rejected it, because he said that the followers of each party
might create conflict. If the dialogue has to be done, it should be with two
conditions: (1) between the two persons only, in a rented room with AC and two beds, and at the
clergyman’s expense; (2) the dialogue will be exclusively on the Bible and
Christianity, not on the Qur’ān and Islam.
If the Bible indicates that Christianity is the right religion, Br. Fadlan will
agree be taken to the Church to be baptised, and then it will be announced that
Ustadh[1] Fadlan has become Christian. But if the
Bible and the Christianity indicate that Islam is the right religion, the
clergyman Alexander will become Muslim, not at Biak, but in Jakarta, and Br.
Fadlan will give him the facility needed for his conversion to Islam in
Jakarta. That night the dialoge started after ‘ishā prayer.
The clergyman Alexander came to pick
up Br. Fadlan with a car where it was written Laskar Kristus (“Christ’s paramilitary
unit”). Br. Fadlan got into the car citing Bismillāh majrehā wa mursāhā (بِسْمِ اللَّهِ مَجْرَاهَا وَمُرْسَاهَا), meaning “In the name of Allah will be its (moving) course,
and its (resting) anchorage,” (Q. 11:41). He was referring to Prophet
Noah’s supplication when he boarded his ship. With this supplication Br. Fadlan
expected to collapse “the Christ’s paramilitary unit” that night.
When they reached the hotel they
started the dialogue. Following Br. Fadlan’s suggestion, as a host the
clergyman Alexander started his prayer, as follows: “Our Father who art in
Heaven, hallowed be thy name, on earth as it is in heaven [See Matthew 6: 9-10].
Thank you for introducing me to a lost sheep, which I wish to convert in your
name Jesus the Saviour the everlasting.”
Br. Fadlan made his ḍu‘ā which
was a ruqyah[2]
(supplication for the purpose of self-protection against magic, etc) by
citing sūrat al-Ikhlāṣ (Q. 112:1-4), sūrat al-Falaq (Q. 113:1-5),
concluded with sūrat
al-Fātiḥah (Q. 1:1-7). Then he said: “Please explain to me what date and where
the Bible was revealed and what did Jesus say when he received the Bible, and I
want to know where it is written in Paul, Mark, John, Isaiah, and Deuteronomy.”
After opening the Bible the clergyman Alexander said that he could not find it.
(CIVIC, 27 January,
2017)
Sources:
Dakwah di Bumi Papua, a video lecture published on
July 4, 2013
5/inspiration-day-berdakwah-lewat-sabun-mandi
[1] The term ustadh is originally from Arabic أُسْتَاذ, meaning “master; high school teacher; a form of address to
intellectuals (lawyers, journalists, officials, writers, and poets)”; it also
means “full professor, professor (academic title).” It is commonly used in
English like “Mr, and sir,” so that “Ustadh Fadlan” here corresponds to English
“Mr. Fadlan.”
[2] It is the recitation of the Qur’an, seeking of
refuge, remembrance and supplications that are used as a means of treating magic,
sicknesses and other problems.
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