A.L.I.F: Plus One

Alhamdulillah It’s Friday and Alhamdulillah in this blissful Friday, I add another year in my journey to the end. I’ve been living these many years and yet, how The Almighty gave His blessing still surprises me. It’s not about my half one but it’s about how God had given me another year to breathe to see my homeland, my family, to see how the community grew and to see within myself how my Iman has been tested many times this year.

This milestone was a bit different and once again I saw how Allah Azza wa Jalla gave me many surprises today. For some people, birthday celebrations are often done with partying, well, thank God, my parents never teach me that. I mean, how can I waste my money to throw a party to celebrate the age-adding while in Egypt, lots of people are fighting for their life?

That’s why I was super happy today that I finally got a chance to celebrate it in my own way.

My first gift was the ability to breath, to open my eyes in normal way, in short, Alhamdulillah I am physically healthy despite of the unstoppable runny nose due to influenza.

My second gift was my intention to do the jumuah mass prayer and celebrating it with hundreds of people, really came true. This is the interesting part.

Long march in front of American Embassy in Jakarta, 16 August 2013 to protest the conflict in Egypt.

This morning I saw on my twitter account that there will be an long march by many muslim organizations in Jakarta as a form to protest of what happened in Egypt. The hashtag #prayforegypt filled my twitter account’s timeline. They said that the action will be held not only in Jakarta but altogether at the same time all over Indonesia.

The more I scrolled down the more I found the reason of why we, Indonesian, should stand up for the Egyptian. It’s not only that we’re muslim but I found out the fact about our independence, which will step on its 68^th year by tomorrow on August 17^th 2013. In fact, Egypt was the first country that giving their recognition for our Independence in 1945. So, in short, Indonesia owe Egypt.

So, I decided to do jumuah prayer at Istiqlal Mosque in Central Jakarta. I thought that it will be an ordinary jumuah prayer but indeed it’s not. It was a bit special, not only our vice president was also present but also because the Imam read Qunut Al-Nazila at the second raka’ah and then performed Salatu janaza ‘ala al-gha’ibin for those who lost their lives due to conflict in Egypt. Everybody was in silence, some were in tearfull.

After the prayer, everybody gathered at the parking lot of the mosque, preparing for the long march. At first, I was hesitated (I got terrible headache since the morning) because I was alone while others came in groups. But when I saw their spirit while walking, yelling “Allahu Akbar!” in an extreme heat (oh yeah,  and Jakarta was quite boiling today), I just can’t stand still.

They divided the acts at some places in Jakarta. They gathered since 6 am in the morning at University of Indonesia and marched down to central Jakarta by 9 am. We gathered at 13.00 after the jumuah prayer at Istiqlal Mosque, Jakarta. Our first stop was the American Embassy and continued to our presidential house. Meanwhile, other group held their act in front of Egyptian embassy in Jakarta.

Swarm of hundreds of people gathered in front of the American Embassy, as the sun climbed up higher, i saw more people, young, old even family with children came to join the oration. I was forcing myself to get a good pictures, so I tried my best to make my way to the front. It’s hard to move, not even a single step since there were hundreds of them. It was even harder to breathe out, so I need to calm myself for not faint out. After quite a struggle to make my way and to catch some air, I manage to get out from the swarm. It’s good to be able to breathe.

I was catching my breathe when I heard someone called my name and it turned out to be a long time friend from the university. Not only that, when I moved to where the wall of police officers to take the flag carriers from the front, someone also called my name, “is it Eka, right?” and it turned out to be two friends from my junior highschool whom I haven’t seen for many many years and they still recognize me among hundreds of people.

To tell you the truth, I was happy to have all these experience. It’s always nice to tie back the silaturrahim with old friends who are in the same idea with us. It’s unexpected. Two months ago, I was quite sure that I will celebrate my birthday in the mountain, but how human made plan and how we can only make plan but the executor is not us and Allah Azza wa Jalla has changed all my plan and here I am today, in a swarm of people, joining protest, all by my own.

Funny how everything in life doesn’t always go your way. In short, today August 16th 2013 was dedicated not for me but for Egypt. May the conflict ends soon. Innallaha ma’ana.

Jazakallah khair.