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.