Muslims make pilgrimage to Sunan Ampel

ID Nugroho , The Jakarta Post , Surabaya | Fri, 09/26/2008 11:01 AM | East Java

Thousands of Muslim pilgrims of different ethnicities and backgrounds have crowded the city's Ampel Grand Mosque and its one-hectare shrine to Sunan Ampel.

While kneeling, Muslim families, many of them from the city and its outskirts, prayed and recited Koranic verses until dawn of the first night of the "1,000 months", so-called because prayers made at night during the last ten days of Ramadan are said to bring blessings equal to a 1,000 months of praying.

The Letter of Al-Qodar first declared the final nights of the fasting month auspicious in this way, and for this reason they are also known as the Lailatul Qodar nights.

"Because of that belief, the province's holy sites, including the grand mosque and the Ampel grave compound, will be filled by thousands of pilgrims during the last ten days of the fasting month, just as in past years," A. Nasir, a senior cleric at the grand mosque, told The Jakarta Post on Saturday night.

Over the past few days, the mosque and grave compound has seen an increase in the number of visiting pilgrims, many of them small-scale vendors offering religious relics, Muslim food and attire such as sarongs, prayer rugs and caps.

Visitors can also be seen purchasing dates and perfume before heading home.

For many, the pilgrimage began Friday evening with the Isya prayer, followed at 9 p.m. with the Tarawih. At dawn on Saturday, the faithful then worshiped, reading the Koran, both inside the mosque or by the shrine, some of them dozing slightly while waiting for the 2 a.m. Tahajud prayer to begin, followed by the Sahur meal just before sunrise, and then a morning prayer with the sun's first rays to begin the fasting day.

Firman Basuki, along with 14 fellow villagers from Mojosantren village in Sidoarjo, said he had been making a Ramadan pilgrimage to the compound for the past few years.

"We come here to receive the merits of the 1,000-night prayer," he said.

Mohammad Yatim, gatekeeper of the Ampel shrine, said some pilgrims came from as far as Jakarta, Banjarmasin in South Kalimantan and Pontianak in West Kalimantan.

"All Muslims are allowed to come inside the grave compound to pray," he told the Post on Tuesday. Hundreds of thousands of the faithful from numerous provinces have visited the grave over the past four days, he said.

Sunan Ampel, after whom the mosque is named, was one of the nine spiritual leaders who first spread Islam across Java in the 15th Century, for which he is revered, particularly regarding his religious work in the province.

Born in 1401 into the family of Ibrahim Asmarakandi, in Champa, Cambodia, Raden Rachmat -- as he was called at birth -- moved to Java at the age of 20, when Surabaya was ruled by the Majapahit kingdom, on whose throne sat king Brawijaya. The king lent him a 12-hectare plot of land on Ampel Denta, on which the mosque was constructed using Javanese and Arabic architectural styles.

About the old mosque on Jl. KH. Mas Mansyur legends abound, including one about Mbah (grandfather) Sholeh's grave.

According to the story, Ampel buried Sholeh in nine separate graves inside the mosque because the former longed for more friends and students. During his lifetime, Ampel prayed to God to resurrect Sholeh. "He was revived nine times and nine times he came to the aid of Ampel," Nasir quoted the tale.

Another legend concerns Mbah Bolong, known for pinpointing from the mosque the exact direction of the Ka'bah in Mecca by making a hole in the wall through which an imam was able to peer out.

Water from the mosque's seven ground wells, dug by Ampel himself, are believed to heal the sick.

"However, most Muslims come here not to cure their illness, but to practice their faith and pray to God," Nasir said.