Short Story- A Translation of Robohnya Surau Kami

The Fall of Our Prayer- House

Author; A A Nafis

Looking at this neglected prayer- house (Indonesian= surau) reminds me of “kakek”, an old man who once stayed and took care of it. He was an unemployment. He fed himself from the alms he gathered every Friday. He also got ¼ of 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 ask for anything. Moreoften, he got 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 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 story teller. 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 grinded 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 since a long time. I behave my self, pray and keep my faith to the 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, 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 the 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 deed while living in the earth. There was Haji Soleh among the people. He was smiling, since he was certain that he will go to heaven. He smiled mockingly when he saw some one was entering the 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 with the first question...”You?”

“I’m Saleh. But because I’ve gone pilgrimate, Haji Saleh is my name.”

“I didn’t ask your name. It’s only useful in the 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 any where.”

“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 pray 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 the hell. And he was very surprised when he saw most of his friends were in the hell too. All of them were discussed the strange thing that has 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 demonstration to fight our right.”

 “Demontrate the  God? Is it permitted?”

“We also did this when we lived in the earth, didn’t we??”  Then they decided to demonstrate against the God.

“What do you want?” asked God.

“Oh, my God. You are The Greatest one. All of us are the most obedient and faithfull human. 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 were poor and suffered. A country which was occupied by other 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 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 that 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 were also memorize the Holy Qur’an very well....”

“However they never knew exactly the meaning of 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 grand children were also ill-treated and you let other people took your chance to possess everything for their own children. You would rather fight and cheat among you than work hard for your family. I gave you a rich country but you were lazy and egoistic. You prefered worshipping to working hard because it doesn’t cost anything. Don’t you know that beside 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 that badly hurt his feeling. And the next morning we found kakek had killed himself. He cut his throat with the knife he had showed me.

------The end-----

The moral message: from the story we can learn that: First, Tongue doesn’t have bone: we must be careful with what we said. Second,  We must be humble and willing to learn, because there are so many things to learn if we want to live safely. Third, over confident often drives us to the wrong direction. Fourth, We must accept criticism as a good point to improve ourselves