Muadzin

It is usual that in every mosque all over the world must have a Muadzin who oblige to call on muslims for a prayer, five times a day and on Friday prayer as well. Intone of Muadzin as always recall our memory to relieve all occupied brain and body, to rest a while and bow deep in solemn prayer. And this soft and melodious voices that I always hear from a daybreak till the night falls, since I live in this environment eight years ago. Probably I wasn’t quite recognize this ritual at the beginning but as the days gone by, this Muadzin voice become more powerful than my alarm clock to wake me up just before sunrise, and more effective than my boss yelling to remind me that it’s already noontime. Sometimes, it feels like tend to wait his voices to start my day or to remind me that I’m human not a robotic gadget without a soul.
Yes, the voice of 70 years old Muadzin indeed move me, and grows my curiosity to find out who’s the owner of that voices exactly look-like. Like I said, he’s a 70 years old man who live nearby the neat and tidy mosque surrounded by myriad town house. We finally met one day, and I’m little bit amaze with everything he told me that day.
This Muadzin name is Umair, though the power of time has taken all firm skin into wrinkle, but I still recognize he’s strong nerve tinted upon his face. In the middle of wide shining mosque floor, we sat cross-legged and start talking. This old man always give his warm smile, though there isn’t any shinning teeth in that smile. He’s face becoming quite red when I ask about the tattoo I see on his arm, then he smile again.
“How old are you?,” he asked while wiping his fully tattooed arms.
“I’m 25 sir,” I replied.
Precisely the same age he got all that tattoos, he said. Though it is quite unusual for a muslim to have tattoo upon their body, but I don’t ask any further. He just said, that he’s been through so many kind of joy and bitterness jolted down more than a half of his age. As in his youth time, he’s been wandering as many jungle as I can mention here in this country.
“I was warring with my own ego. Far away from home, parents that I’ve never known and finally found part of my heart through that journey. Raising 10 wonderful kids in poverty become a tough challenge that I nearly surrender. Everything goes on unplanned, and I have to start my own way,” the breath of the old man expelled in silent.
As he mentioned before, this old man life perhaps full of challenge that no one could imagine. Work as a labor in the pier couldn’t help his family to live in proper either. Afterward the waves of poverty brought him laboring from town to town.
“I’ve slipped so many times, stumble, and stuck in dark shallow pit stained with many kind of human sins. But, family behind my back always rescued me, no matter how bad the stained colored my days. I understand their anger upon my helpless effort, but they still convince me after a cloudy days will always followed with a brighter ones,” he smile again.
And the moment to harvest those brighter days has come, he finally tasted the sweet of family embrace as his children grown up and uphold their own family honor. Become a Muadzin he said, is more like an expression of gratitude he always want to show as long as his breath couldn’t properly expelled through the air again.
“I know, so many sins have been stained in this life, but compare to Allah gracious there aren’t any differences between social classes, race, even sins that really matters. The most important thing is a total surrender,” he said.
He always said, no social classes, race, or gender that really matters in front of God. Even a slave, Bilal, become the first Muadzin for muslims and become a dear friend of Muhammad. And even Jesus Christ also brief Allah kingdom to all who stay humble and have a willingness to surrender in God.