Sunan Ampel Mosque a witness to religious devotion

Sunan Ampel Mosque a witness to religious devotion

By Santi W.E. Soekanto and Wisnu Pramudya

SURABAYA (JP): It's 3:50 a.m. Only minutes before the call for the subuh (dawn) prayer was sounded by the muezzin of the Sunan Ampel Mosque. An elderly woman with mukena (white cloak worn for prayer) fingered her prayer beads so rapidly that her movement looked fluid. Eyes closed tightly, she was lost in her devotion.

The separate room to the side of the main hall of the 15th century mosque was packed with women who either came from other towns and who stayed the night there or women who lived nearby. Discreetly veiled, all were waiting for the adzan (call to prayer).

A woman in her early twenties paused from her dzikir (praises of Allah) and smiled. "I came from Sidoarjo (24 km south of Surabaya) yesterday. I have a two-day vacation from work, so I think it's better for me to spend it here," she said. "Paying my respect to Sunan Ampel. My teacher said it's good, it will strengthen my faith."

"Oh yes, I also went to Mbah (Grandma) Muning's grave yesterday, not far from here. To pray," said Ani, who is a factory worker, "Also to strengthen my faith. And...I don't know...may be I can finally get a husband."

A woman in her early thirties scrambled to get up when the congregation finish praying. Noiselessly, she left the room and headed to another part of the mosque complex filled with tombs. In front of the grave of Mbah Bolong, a disciple of Sunan Ampel, and right under a frangipani tree, she spread a woven bamboo mat, placed a well-read Koran on a small pillow she had brought with her, and started to chant the verses.

"I come here often because I live nearby," Sofia said. "People say that praying here is much more fruitful. I hope Allah will give me His blessings here...I've been married for 10 years and I still don't have any children."

Meters away from Sofia, a group of boys scurried to fill dozens of bottles with water drawn from a well in a part of the mosque which is currently being renovated. "This water is blessed, because it came from the Sunan's well," one of them said. "It's not for sale. But if you want it, you can give me Rp 1,000."

"What's the water for? Oh, for many purposes. You can use the water to take an oath. For instance, if you want to say you're innocent of some accused crime. You say your oath, and then drink the water," the 14-year-old boy said. "If you're really innocent, nothing will happen to you. But if you're not, who knows what will happen to you?"

The boy said he "gave" the water to most of the pilgrims who come from just about every corner of the country to pray at the mosque and pay homage to the grave of Sunan Ampel, one of the nine respected Moslem scholars who brought Islam to Java centuries ago.

"Because the water is blessed by the Sunan," he said, indicating a great understanding of just how great a standing the Sunan had among Indonesian Moslems.

The mosque and the graves of the Sunan and his disciples have been for hundreds of years witness to this curious mixture of religious devotion and elements of local beliefs and rituals.

Bid'ah

Some Moslem scholars may consider the elements bid'ah (rituals which were never taught by Islam) but many of those visiting the mosque have no trouble combining their religious devotion with those elements.

The Prophet Muhammad, for instance, never taught followers to request anything, including blessings, from anybody but Allah. Nobody, not even a Wali (or an Islamic "saint" such as Sunan Ampel) could grant anybody any wish but for the permission of Allah.

Iyyaka na'budu waiyyaka nasta'in, says a verse in the Sura Al- Fatihah, which means "Only You Allah we worship, and only to you we turn to for help".

But when one speaks of Sunan Ampel and the mosque it's easier to understand why so many people combine their religious devotion with local rituals. It's because of the legends surrounding the Walis; the following are some of the legends:

In a plot east of the main hall of the mosque, one can find nine graves all belonging to Mbah (Grandpa) Sholeh, a disciple and hard-working janitor of the mosque during Sunan Ampel's lifetime. It is said that the man died nine times.

Once, after Sholeh died, Sunan Ampel said he wished Sholeh was still alive because only he could sweep the mosque as clean as the Sunan wished. Suddenly, Sholeh appeared in one corner of the mosque, busily sweeping. Several months later, he "died" again and was buried not far from his first grave. This happened nine times, people said.

Another famous disciple buried inside the compound is Mbah Bolong or Shonhaji. As legends have it, Shonhaji was the man who ascertained the kiblat (the direction Moslems face when saying their prayers) when the Sunan Ampel Mosque was being built.

It is said that during construction, some workers asked Shonhaji whether the mosque was facing the right direction, to the Kaaba in the Holy Mosque in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. Shonhaji bored a hole in the western wall of the mosque, and said, "There's Kaaba!". Sure enough, the workers saw the black-draped Kaaba through the wall.

Mosque

The mosque itself, formerly known as Ampel Mosque, is said to have been built in 1421. Even now, despite several expansions and renovations, the original construction remains.

It is located in Kampung Arab, an old city quarter of ethnic Arabs from Yemen, squeezed in among small alleys packed with small traders. Dede Oetomo, a sociologist in Surabaya, described the community in the May 1995 issue of Discovery magazine as follows: "Kampung Arab is where the sailors and traders of Arabia first settled, bringing with them their culture, their cuisine, and, above all, their religion...

"Branching off the narrow confines of Jalan Ampel Suci are tidy alleyways lined with neat, prim, iron-fenced houses....Strolling through the bazaar that is Jalan Ampel Suci, one's senses are assailed by a symphonic blend of brilliant colors, heady scents and Arabic-sounding music.

"Crouching women mix and blend spices and vegetables for meals and snacks. Arabic-looking men in sarongs brew coconut water and brightly-colored liquid to serve as sweet delights to eagerly waiting children.

"Lengths of brightly hued fabrics and batik flutter in the breeze. Hats from every corner of the Indonesian archipelago...Worry beads hang like strands of colored pearls alongside glittering golden-toned bangles and necklaces of semiprecious stones."

The mosque itself was built by the disciples of Sunan Ampel, including Mbah Shonhaji and Mbah Sholeh and other santri (strict adherent of Islam) who, compared to the Hindu majority, were only a handful then. The original 2,068-square-meter construction was supported by 16 ebony pillars, 17 meters in height and without joints.

In 1926 it underwent renovation, followed by a second renovation in 1954. In 1972, it was expanded by 1,320 square meters, and the then House speaker KH Idham Chalid officiated the project.

In June 1992, business tycoon Probosutedjo agreed to finance the next renovation of the mosque at an estimated cost of Rp 500 million (US$218,150 by current exchange). The project was finished a year later and was officiated by Minister of Information Harmoko.

However, there were other parts of the mosque needing renovation. So the East Java administration set a budget of Rp 1 billion for the project. There were some reports of complaints by local residents who would lose parts of their houses to the project, or whose houses had to be demolished. But all was eventually resolved.