al-Ishs

the title line seems to be a not-so-frequently asked question for me and my wife lately. well, not really. some actually phrase the question more unambiguously, replacing “home” with “indonesia.” but, to all (if not most) people that i know, the word “home” means “indonesia.” while i can accept that, that word doesn’t mean the same… quite literally.

i’ve lived here for about 6.5 years. this already feels home for me, and i’m a legal permanent resident here, and also, legally, i’m considered a foreign resident in indonesia (although i still retain my indonesian citizenship). so, i can call melbourne my home, in all sorts of points of view.

however, i still consider jakarta as my home, like my wife considers sukabumi as her home, and i consider her home as mine, and vice versa. (and daud has currently no choice other than following our definition of home.)

so, am i going home this year? well, i’m already home!

i heard from dayang this afternoon that changi village [url now defunct] would close down. i visited the restaurant (i know the people running that place) and saw the announcement that today would be their last day. too bad, it’ll be replaced by a non-halal one, but the good news is that they haven’t given up hope. they intend to open another restaurant again. so, i got myself my favourite dish, mie goreng.

it was celebrated at the melbourne naqshbandi haqqani zawiya on 21 apr. other than us, it was attended by the big chief’s and hisham’s families. habib hazem and nur did most of the hard work organising the celebration. my wife and i were (and still are) grateful to them.

it was a small party in size, yet brought us a fond memory. we have considered them to be part of our family. and we can tell that daud has been comfortable as well.

may our children always be servants of the truth. happy birthday, my son. we love you.

last friday up to monday, the naqshbandi haqqani murids of sydney and melbourne flocked together in the melbourne zawiya [map].

it was a great, long weekend with (almost) non-stop zikr parties, in various forms: the ultimate khatm khwajagan, hadrah, whirling, and so on, including fixing the zawiyah gate. the sydneysiders started coming on friday. there were some reading sessions. the first one was the biography imam bahauddin naqshband as written in as-safi’s “beads of dew from the source of life”. the second was the biography of imam ja’far as-saddiq as written in shaykh hisham’s “the naqshbandi sufi way: history and guidebook of the saints in the golden chain”. if my memory serves me correctly, that was followed by the biography of shaykh sharafuddin ad-daghestani from the same book. we had khatm khwajagan everyday (except monday, when most sydneysiders had flown back home). saturday evening was extraordinarily crowded, as many usual melbourne frequenters also came. on sunday, we had a barbie. my wife cooked some food for the first three days. and of course, everyday was filled with zikr, zikr, and zikr.

i felt rest in my heart throughout the activities. i didn’t actually want to occassionally leave the zawiya, but it wasn’t realistic to do so. even the atmosphere gave me such an extraordinary comfort that i kept attracted to it. in the past, when i still involved myself with some other islamic sects, sometimes i also joined get-togethers. but it was different. with fellow spiritual sunni muslims, i feel love, not politicised religion (you can guess which sect this is) nor finding faults in other people (you almost likely know which sect it is). and that was exactly what i felt. i saw noone at all with dark or gloomy aura. here, it was just working together fighting the ego and seeking the pleasure of god and his messenger (peace and blessings be upon him), asking blessings from god through his messenger through the saints, and particularly through our master, the king of saints.

support us, o, our truthful master…

i’ve spent my last 5 years in melbourne. those who have lived there and used its public transportation system must be familiar with the zoning system. if you don’t belong to this cohort of people, here’s a brief explanation.

areas in melbourne belong to at least a zone. some belong to two adjacent zones. for example, see the melbourne train map [pdf]. the stations with a yellow line only belong to zone 1 only. the ones with a blue line only belong to zone 2 only. the ones with both belong to both zones. for example, the flinders street station (see the city loop) belongs to zone 1, the upfield station (in the north) belongs to zone 2, the sunshine station (in the west) belongs to both zone 1+2. to travel in zone 1 areas, one needs a zone 1 ticket. to travel in zone 2 areas, one needs a zone 2 ticket. to travel in the overlapped area, one can choose to use a zone 1 or 2 ticket. to travel from a zone 1 only area to a zone 2 only area or vice versa, one needs a zone 1+2 ticket. however, if one travels from a zone 1 area to an overlapped area, only a zone 1 ticket is needed. similarly for zone 2.

the zones where one travels determine the price of the ticket. a full fare daily zone 1 only ticket currently costs $6.10. a full fare daily zone 2 only ticket costs $4.30. a full fare daily zone 1+2 ticket costs $9.70 (if travelling on monday to friday after 9 am, an off-peak ticket is available at full fare for $9.00). now here comes the weirdness. suppose abraham travels from williamstown (refer to the williamstown line in the south) to glenroy (refer to the broadmeadows line in the north) and david from murrumbeena to clayton (for both, refer to the pakenham line in southeast). see that abraham travels far farther than david, yet he spends less. if both take a taxi, abraham has to spend much more than david.

hmmm…