Introduction:
Indonesia was hit by a Bloodshed between
Muslim-Christian, Year 1999/2000. When unexpectedly,
starting from 19th January 1999, the Muslim community
was attacked by the Christians who went on a rampage,
burning houses and killing Muslims in the provincial
capital i.e Ambon city, as well as the villages in the
islands of Ambon, Haruku, Saparua, Buru and Seram. The
Christians were envious of the Muslims who transmigrated
from the nearby smaller islands and in a way started to
have better control of the business and economy. The
result, thousands of Muslims were killed and tens of
thousand others were forced to flee and leave town.
The following is a narration of real events in the arena
of jihad, about the brutality of the Christian rebels
and the unforeseen and extraordinary events (karomah)
that come along to help the Muslims. This record is also
a real evidence of the malignancy of the Christian
community who reside in around Muslims.
A month has
passed since the Ambon tragedy. But, the smoke has not
completely cleared yet. Although gradually recovering,
the pulse of life in Ambon is still not normal.
Moreover, blood continues to be spilled in several
places around the Islands of Maluku. Furthermore, as is
well known, in the turbulence of Ambon, the Muslims
became the victims of the barbarity of the kafireen.
They were butchered and tortured in the most nasty ways.
A number of Muslim women were raped. While tens of
thousands of people became refugees as their houses and
shops were burnt down. Not to mention the dozens of
masjids being destroyed or burnt.
However, not many people knows that amid all the horrors
that has happened, amazing events took place. Allah SWT
sent down His army when the Islamic ummah were
nearly becoming victims. The verses of Allah SWT that
came down when the Battle of Badar was raging a dozen of
centuries ago, are proven again in the Ambon jihad:
"Remember you implored the assistance of your Lord, and
He answered you: 'I will assist you with a
thousand of the angels, ranks on ranks.'"
(QS Al-Anfaal: 9).
The amazing events were related by K. Hajj Abdul Aziz
Arbi, MA, Chief Imam of Masjid Jami' Al-Fatah, Ambon, to
the journalist of SABILI, M. Lili Nur Aulia and Rizki
Ridyasmara who met him on Sunday morning (20/2) in
Jakarta. In the half an hour interview, Ustadz Abdul
Aziz recounted of his personal witnessing of the descent
of the help from Allah, in the form of a troop of little
children Mujahideen, dressed in white robes and skull
caps. "I was forced to evacuate my wife and five
children, as the situation is still very vulnerable in
Ambon. But I will back there soon", this alumnus of
the University of Ummul Qura, Makkah, said. The
following is his narration:
Thousands of Young Jundullah
On the first night of
the riots in Ambon, 19th January 1999, which coincides
with 1st Shawal 1419 H, I was at home with the family in
the complex of Masjid Jami' Al-Fatah. The atmosphere
that night was very tense. Sounds of the electricity
poles being continuously beaten could be heard every
half an hour, it was a sign that there were attacks by
the Christians. The mothers and children were all
gripped with intense fear. The attackers were using all
kinds of weapon and they were screaming fiendish yells.
That happened day and night. Never stopping. We could
just hold back their attacks.
On the second night, I was picked up by twenty soldiers
from the KOSTRAD (strategic reserve command army ed).
I was told that I would be the first person to be
killed. At that moment, a severe enough attack on Masjid
Jami' Al-Fatah was on-going. From the night till the
early morning, the Christians were attacking us in
waves. They were armed with fire and poisonous arrows,
machetes, spears, woods, stones, steel, shotguns,
Molotov bombs, even fish bombs. The Muslim forces were
only armed with makeshift weapons: machetes, woods,
stones and whatever they could get their hands on. There
were times when we were pushing them back, but most of
the times they were the ones pushing us back.
At around 24.00 to 01.00 hour local time, the Muslims
were forced to withdraw. The enemies of Islam i.e. those
Christians advanced until they could reach the gates of
the grand Masjid. They were really hell-bent in
wanting to destroy the grand Masjid, the pride of Ambon
city. Inside the masjid, thousand of refugees gathered
to take shelter, which consisted mostly of mothers and
young children. Those attackers appeared to be already
close to the gates of the masjid. A number of
them had even jumped over the fences. The Islam
ummah panicked, mixed with anger. The refugees were
hysterically terrified. The image of the destruction of
the masjid and the the massacre of the refugees
were already pictured in front of the eyes. The
situation was so grave. There was almost no more hope.
But, don't know why, suddenly those attackers turned
back and ran head over heels. They seemed to be very
scared. We had not expected it. We had no clue of what
really happened. Apparently, they were witnessing
something that we could not see. This, we found out
through the story of a Christian whom we managed to
capture: "I saw thousands of children who are about
ten years old, wearing white clothes and skull caps,
sprinted out of the masjid heading towards us. An old
man in white robe and turban with a stick in his hand
was leading that troop. They are in large number and
their bravery was so extraordinary. That's what made us
frightened and turned away to leave the masjid".
Subhanallah, Allahu Akbar! It happened
on Wednesday night.
The Blowing by the Angels
On Thursday night,
Masjid Al-Fatah was again attacked. This time, they were
attacking from Baru Street this street is located in
front of the masjid. By taking advantage of the
wind that blew in the direction of Masjid Al-Fatah, the
attack was done by burning a number of houses at the
southern end of Jalan Baru. Flaming arrows were used.
However, when they rained down the houses of the Muslims
with hundreds of flaming arrows, those arrows had
instead fallen onto the neighbouring Christians' houses.
But since the wind at that time was blowing so strongly,
the adjacent houses of the Muslims also came on fire.
The fire spread quickly towards the masjid. The
blowing wind speeded up the spreading of the fire. The
residents all poured out heading towards Masjid Al-Fatah
in order to escape the fire. The male Muslim residents
fought under the raging fire, that had risen so high, to
resist the waves of attack by the kafireen who
attempted to break through into the Masjid. Inside the
Masjid, the refugees were again in panic. The mothers
screamed hysterically and the children cried in terror.
The weather that night was getting so hot. Mixed with
the feelings franticness and despair.
Seeing such a situation, I ordered all the women in the
masjid to put on their prayer garments. I commanded them
to shout takbeer to glorify the name of Allah
SWT. Allahu Akbar! Allahu Akbar! Allahu Akbar!
The thunderous takbeer rumbled louder and
louder with times. The takbeer, shouted by the
souls who were in total submission and really hoping for
the help of Allah, reverberated to outside the
masjid. The residents at Diponegoro and Batu Merah
Alley, which are located near Al-Fatah, cried when
hearing the takbeer that was so heartbreaking.
We recited the takbeer from 23.00 to 01.00 hour
that night.
On that night full of fear, the people around the
masjid were suddenly shocked by a pang of bright
light, which was blue in colour, falling from the sky.
The ball of light split the darkness of the night, and
glided just above the Masjid Jami' Al-Fatah.
God knows for what reason, the wind suddenly reversed
course and blew very ferociously. When earlier it was
blowing towards the Masjid, it now turned one hundred
eighty degrees and blew in the direction of Silo Church.
Supposing the wind was still blowing in the direction of
the masjid, it would have been possible that the entire
houses of the Muslim would be destroyed. But with the
permission of Allah SWT, the wind reversed direction and
eventually burnt Silo Church which is about three
hundred meters away from Al-Fatah.
The unfairness of the Pemda (local government) of Ambon
was obvious, especially the fire fighters, who parked
parked two units of fire trucks beside Silo Church, but
none at Masjid Al-Fatah. They extinguished the fire that
licked Silo Church, but not Masjid Al-Fatah.
We, the people in the Masjid, kept on shouting
the takbeer aloud. It had made the kafir
crazier. They were increasingly fiercer in their
attacks. One of the refugees said to me, "Ustadz,
stop the takbeer. They are increasingly desperate in
their attacks." The takbeer was stopped
for a while. But after we stopped, they were still
attacking us. So we continued the takbeer. We
re-arranged our defence. With the accompaniment of the
takbeer, we raised the spirit of jihad amongst
the comrades. Eventually, we managed to push them back.
Somehow, along with the withdrawal of the kafir
forces, the the wind was blowing hard again in the
direction of Silo Church. The fire burned the church and
the fire trucks tried hard to extinguish the fire again.
It happened on Thursday night, 22nd January 1999. We did
not burn the church, they themselves brought the fire.
Thousands of Mujahideen In White Robes
On Saturday, 23rd January 1999, the people of Hitu
Village more or less 25 km away from Ambon wanted to
go to Ambon to unite with the rest of the Muslims in
defending the Religion of Allah which had been trampled
by the kafireen. They had just understood, the
dispatching of the Christian people from the villages
into Ambon before E'idul Fitri turned
out to contain a rotten scheme. On the days of the
E'idul Fitri, the number of Muslims in Ambon was
drastically reduced as many were going home. Whereas,
the number of kafir was increasing. That was
the reason why they dared to attack the Islamic
ummah.
The news that was circulating amongst the community in
Hitu Village and its vicinity mentioned that, during the
Wednesday attack, Masjid Jami' Al-Fatah had been burnt
and I as the Imam of that Masjid had been killed by
the Christians. Those Muslims in Hitu Village said,
"If Masjid Jami' had been burnt and Ustadz had been
killed, what else are we living for! Let's do jihad fie
sabilillah altogether!"
In Ambon, if people want to conduct jihad fie
sabilillah, they would perform the ritual ceremony
first: they would bathe to clean the body from every
filth that might still be sticking, followed by taking
ablution and then wearing battle outfits in the forms of
white robes from the villages of Hitu, Mamala, Maurela,
and Wakal the group of about forty men started to make
a move. There were not many of them. The people who were
really ready for jihad fie sabilillah were not
just any people. They must understand exactly the
haqeeqat (nature and reality) of jihad fie
sabilillah.
Once arriving in Paso, they were confronted by a
barricade of Brimob (Mobile Brigade). Those Brimob
troops told that Masjid Jami' Al-Fatah was not burnt.
But that information did not make the spirit of the
forces in white robes lessened. They were already
prepared for jihad. Since they did want to return to
Hitu, in the end the Brimob troops blasted several shots
at them. But strange, not even a bullet could penetrate
their cloaks. The last bullet fired instead rebounded
and turned toward the officer who had shot it. This was
admitted by the shooter himself.
The member of the Mobile Brigade recounted, "After
shooting at them, the bullet instantly rebounded and
turned towards me. Lucky I could avoid it quickly. After
that, my body trembled violently. I was so shaken. The
weapon that I was holding fell. In the end, I told my
commander that these are not ordinary people". In
the sight of those Brimob forces, the forty-men force in
white robes, appeared to be thousands in number. Four
older men in white robe and turban, each riding a white
horse, appeared to be leading the massive forces.
Whereas, the Muslims did not see anyone else except
themselves the forty people from Hitu and its
surroundings villages, and none of them was riding a
horse.
Upon their arrival at the outskirts of Ambon, they were
intercepted again by the army. They were advised to just
return to Hitu, as Masjid Al-Fatah was not burnt and
Ustadz Abdul Aziz was still alive. After making sure
that the news was true, they eventually returned in
peace. On their way back to Hitu, they were intercepted
by the Christians. A great battle ensued. In a short
time, the entire kafir people were successfully
suppressed by the Mujahideen. The battle caused the
entire village of the kafireen and a number of
churches destroyed. If only the white robed forces were
not obstructed and attacked, this would not have
happened. He who sows the wind will reap the
storm.
The Young Jundullah
There were also events at Belakang Kota,this is the name
of an Arab village in Ambon, the place where timbers
were sold. On the fifth night, the township was also
attacked by the enemy. Whereas, many of the inhabitants
of the village had been evacuated. When it was attacked,
the Belakang Kota village was only occupied by some
young men. Nevertheless, the attacks by the kafireen
did not frighten the Muslim youths. They fought bravely
while shouting takbeer. But due to being
outnumbered, whether in terms of personnels or weapons,
the youths were gradually forced to withdraw. However,
again and again, extraordinary occurrences transpired.
The attackers who were very large in number, suddenly
retreated and ran helter-skelter.
People were talking about it the next morning. From the
story of the attackers, words got out that they withdrew
because of the presence of a bunch of young boys dressed
in white uniforms and skullcaps. Those children were led
by an old man dressed in an all-white outfit, holding a
staff. The all-white troops attacked them bravely. Just
like what they saw at Masjid Jami' Al-Fatah a few nights
ago. They said, "We are surprised by the people of
Islam. We already have the equipments, plans and weapons
which are strong enough, and we also have the complete
readiness, but it turns out that all those were unable
to destroy the Muslim people. We don't know where those
children were coming from."
In the Ambon riots, the first target of the Christians
to be killed were the ulama's, then the Arabs,
Islamic leaders, and only the fourth are the BBM (a
reference to three of the non-Ambonese major ethnic
groups i.e. Buton, Bugis, Makasar from South and
Southeast Sulawesi, known for their inter-Island trading
and settlement outside their homeland ed). Evidently,
after many of these 'BBM' had fled to their villages,
the Christians were still attacking the Ambonese
Muslims. This happened in Pelauw. Apparently, the BBM is
not just the Buton, Bugis, Makasar, but more to "Bakar,
Bunuh Muslim!" (which means "Burn, Butcher
Muslims!" - ed.) That is the present understanding of
BBM, because it just kept happening. The situation there
is still tense, especially in Paso, about eight
kilometers from Ambon city.
To be continued...