Thursday, February 14, 2008

Revitalizing the mosque

Mosque is a predominant place to spread Islam or to teach Islam. Mosques are spreading across Indonesia. Don’t be surprise if you see mosques in every kilometer. Moslems believe that building a mosque will give you continuous reward from God.
What will be the essential step after building a mosque? The answer is to fill the mosque with jemaah (jemaah means group of Moslem). It is not an easy job to invite Moslems to come to the mosque. No wonder if nowadays mosques are everywhere but almost empty. Beautiful mosques are everywhere but some have no jemaah.

According to this issue, there is a movement in my hometown called TASSBEH. TASSBEH stands for Tim Angkutan Safari Shalat Berjamaah (Transportation Service for Prayer Travelling Group). This movement started three years ago and the members are growing larger in number. The movement itself aims to revitalize a mosque. Members visit a mosque which is considered as a retired mosque (a mosque which has fewer visitors) and conduct pray there. They visit one particular mosque for three consecutive days and they hold maghrib pray (evening) and isya pray (night). Between maghrib and isya, there is a lecture from someone who is considered has a deeper knowledge of Islam. Usually, the team members leave their hometown in the afternoon and make convoy to the destined mosque and after isya (at the night), the team will go home and will visit the same place for the next day. They look enjoying their activity and they name this activity as SAFARI. Some of the team members state that it is fun to visit one particular place while trying to engage the community surrounding the mosque to visit their mosque. In addition, the team also acquires new lessons concerning Islam because in every tour they will obtain lecture. Usually, the community surrounding the visited mosque will be encouraged to come to the mosque and to stay with the team until Isya. The frequency of visit is one mosque a week and each mosque is visited three times consecutively.
The members of TASSBEH come from some areas, but usually the members are from the areas where this activity had been held. The number of team is absolutely larger from time to time. This activity is self funded activity means that they collect money from themselves. The car owner usually invites their neighbors who have no ride to join his/her car. The motorcycle owner also does the same. Once, the travel started, there will be a long convoy of cars and motorcycle. When they arrive, the community surrounding the mosque will be curious to know what happens and they will come to mosque to know what is going on.
The other positive point is this activity is conveyed by people with varied backgrounds in terms of occupation, Islam organizations and etc. The members try to ignore the differences among them because mainly the objective is to invite the community as much as possible to visit their own mosque.
I joined this activity last night while I am in my hometown. I got the feeling which I never felt in Jakarta. I feel tranquil, peace and I realize that I am still not able to resist all the temptations I faced so far. I am going to miss joining this activity again, but I also have my duty calls.


1 comment:

BRAJADENTA said...

Hamdallah...
sbenernya gua kurang bgitu ngerti ttg post ini karna english gua emang kacau berat...
kegiatan safari gitu emang banyak di lakuin di banyak mesjid, tapi ga banyak yg ngerti tujuan nya apa (tmasuk gua), selama itu tidak bermaksud riya dan ikhlas melakukan nya untuk Tuhan, insyaAllah akan mendapatkan ganjaranNYA (something beyond) yg mungkin skarang di rasain sama kamu...
selamat yah...