S

ince the moment Abdurrahman “Gus Dur” Wahid passed away until his funeral was well over, statements expressing condolences and sympathy kept pouring in from many quarters in the society.

In addition, the public have voiced opinions, suggesting honorary titles to be bestowed upon Gus Dur.
This was meant to show their gratitude for what he had achieved during his life.

Two names have very soon become popular in the society, Guru Bangsa (Teacher of the Nation) and Bapak Pluralitas (Father of Plurality).

While these two titles truthfully reflect Gus Dur’s service to the Indonesian nation, I think there is still one important characteristic that is not captured by these two titles.

This is Gus Dur’s love for renewing or refreshing meanings or interpretations about Islam that have existed in the Indonesian society.

No matter how controversial a new interpretation may be, Gus Dur never lacked courage to say it.

“Conservative” people were often upset, while “progressive” ones were delighted by Gus Dur’s statements.

I personally found this habit of Gus Dur very refreshing, even rejuvenating. Every time I heard Gus Dur explaining a new point of view, quite often I agreed with him, whether I was physically close to him or not.

After a while I felt that something was changing in myself. Gradually I had become a different person, a different Muslim to be accurate.

At the end, I felt I have become a very different person from the one I used to be before I knew Gus Dur.

In addition to being a Teacher of the Nation, and a Father of Pluralism, Gus Dur is to me also an expert in hermeneutics and an educator in the true sense of the word. He is not only a teacher, but he is a great educator.

I had many good teachers during my school times, but only a few of them are of the name educator. And then there was this Gus Dur when I was already an adult, and was already considered an educator by the public.

Every one of these whom I looked upon as educators not only taught me things that later prove useful in my life. But they have also shaped my character and thus contributed to my struggle to become a responsible adult.

It is through Gus Dur’s enlightening teaching that I became able to control my fears of making serious mistakes in my present life that supposedly will take me into hell in my life hereafter.

I lost my traditional fear for committing deeds that are forbidden and also my fear for not sufficiently fulfilling my obligations as a Muslim.

In this same process I also lost my feeling of inferiority toward people from other faiths, especially Christians. I no longer feel any kind of hatred or dislike toward Christians, a feeling that was very strong when I was a teenager.

This was and still is one piece of memory of Gus Dur that is very dear to me, especially on the day when we commemorate the fortieth day after his death.

It is one memory that will always stay vividly in my mind as long as I am healthy physically and mentally.

Gus Dur told me the meaning of praying through a story. One day he told a story of Ummi Kulsum — if I am not mistaken — a famous singer from Cairo, Egypt. He told me that in one show she explained the meaning of praying through a song.

“God, I pray to you, not because I am afraid of your hell, nor because I feel greedy about your heaven. I pray, because I want to express my humbleness to you and also because I want to feel an encounter with you.”

If you look at praying in this way then you will be able to pray in a new way and will have a different feeling when you pray.

This story was told to me in such a way that I parted from the meeting with a very new feeling about praying and about God.

May his soul rest in peace.


The writer has a PhD in education from Harvard University.