New calls to pray in a nearby the mosque is different from the ones in the village

By David Khoirul

Thursday, January 29, 2015

In Jakarta, where the majority of the people are members of Nahdhatul Ulama or NU, I hear different ways of calling to pray or perform adzan. The person who calls to pray recite shalawat or greetings to the prophet Muhammad before he performs adzan. At first, I felt it's weird, but as the time goes by, I can enjoy it. In my village Blimbing, where terrorism becomes plague, we don't usually do that.

In fact, in Blimbing, I see many people grow beard and wear short trousers to follow the footsteps of the prophet. Blimbing is known as fishing village because the main job of its residents is fisherman. They go fishing on Fridays or Saturdays and goes home on Thursdays. They don't usually go fishing on Fridays because they have to go to the mosque.

When I tell this to Sury, she is scared and surprised. I tell her about how people attack each other in the name of religion and how people claim other Muslims as disbelievers just because they have different doctrines and ways of conducting Islamic rituals. Living in Jakarta is a relief for me. I can avoid all those bad things in the village. There is a time when I was put in the blacklist by those Muslim extremists. I was thought to be a liberal, which I really am.

Tag : diary, islam