Pengajian Golden Week Indonesian Muslim Society Tokyo 2009

Note : Pengajian is an activity of learning deeper about Islam teaching by having lecture from Ustadz (Islam Teacher) who has a deeper knowledge about Islam.

Have you ever heard about Japan’s golden week? It is a series of Japan’s national holiday within seven days. Combined with well placed weekend, the golden week becomes one of Japan’s three busiest holiday seasons, besides New Year and the Obon week. Just like in other national holiday in Japan, most activities such as work, school, or government services are off. Peoples are busy doing their vacation. This year, Japanese started the golden week holiday from May 2nd until May 6th.

This golden week is a good chance for Indonesian Muslim Society in Japan (Keluarga Masyarakat Islam Indonesia– KMII) to gather Indonesian Muslims from all over Japan. Therefore, KMII Japan held a two days Pengajian for all Muslim especially in Japan’s Kanto Area. This occasion was held from Saturday to Friday, 2-3rd May 2009 and took place in Indonesian Republic School in Tokyo (Sekolah Republik Indonesia Tokyo – SRIT).

Every year KMII invite ustadz from Indonesia. In this year’s Pengajian Golden Week, KMII invited a well known Ustadz from Indonesia, UstadZ Yusuf Mansyur. He often gives lecture about the importance of Shadaqah for our life. Shadaqah means to donate our wealth for good things in Islamic way.

This Pengajian golden week can be divided into 4 kinds of activities. The first one is lecture from resource person such as Ustadz Mansyur. The second one is Quran Recital. The third is Islamic movie screening and its discussion. The last one is general activities such as communicating with each other, having meal, sport. Around 350 peoples attended the first days of this occasion. The second day participant was around 200 peoples. Even though the second days participant was lower than the first day, average number of participant in this year pengajian golden week was bigger than previous year.

The opening ceremony was held in Saturday at 14.00 PM by opening speech from KMII committee. After that, we had the first lecture about Shadaqah from Ustadz Yusuf Mansyur. He is well known for his unique way of giving lecture. He spoke smoothly, fluently, and sometime explicitly. His Betawi dialect and joke (originally from Jakarta, Indonesia) made us laugh many times. Sometime he made harsh joke just like many Betawi comedian in Indonesian television. However, He then gave explanation that his way of speaking was mostly because he was born and raised in Betawi culture of Jakarta.

In this lecture, I was very amazed for his ability to motivate people to pursue a great success in this life and in after-death life. He also taught us that shadaqah combined with other good deeds can be a great help to achieve our success. He said that it was mentioned in Hadith (the collection of the Prophet Muhammad’s statements and actions coupled with the statements and actions of his companions) that by doing shadaqah one time, we can get back ten times of our shadaqah value in the future or near future in the way that we never imagined before. He mentioned us many example about people who gained success through shadaqah and doing many good deeds.

In this session, we collect shadaqah by giving a piece of paper to the participants and had their shadaqah value written in the paper. The participants then were supposed to transfer their shadaqah after the occasion with the same value as much as they wrote in the paper. The committees collected the paper and counted its value. The value was really amazing. It reached 13 Million Yen or around 1.4 Billion rupiah. This shadaqah will be distributed to an Islamic foundation lead by Ustad yusuf Mansyur and to the Indonesian Muslim Society (KMII).

After this session, we watched a movie titled “Kun Fayakun” produced by Ustad Mansyur. It is a movie about a person who gains a successful life through doing shadaqah and many good deeds. The story itself was closed to the real story happened in Ustad Mansyur’s life.

After that, we rested and sleep at around 12.00 PM. Then, in Sunday at 2.00 AM, we woke up and did Tahajud Prayer continued with Shubuh Prayer. After those prayed, we had another lecture from Ustad Mansyur.

After the lecture, we were divided into 6 groups. Each group did light physical exercise together then they cleaned the room and other places used for this occasion. It was a good chance to interact with other Indonesian muslim in Japan. After we had our breakfast, we watched another movie titled “The Miracle” produced Ustad Mansyur. The movie was also about a person who gains a successful life through doing shadaqah and many good deeds.After that, we had a lecture from Mr. Irwanda about spirit and motivation.

The occasion was closed at 16.00 after the last lecture given by Ustad Mansyur. Short after the closing ceremony in Tokyo, Ustad Masyur went to travel to Nagoya, Kyoto, Hiroshima, and Sapporo to give lecture to Other Indonesian muslim society in that area before going back to Indonesia. It was the first experience for me doing Pengajian outside Indonesia. I learnt many valuable things about Islam. I also interacted with many Indonesian people whom I never meet before. It was really a great occasion.

Further readings :

http://www.muslimheritage.com/

http://www.eramuslim.com/