The Gema Shahadah Aisyah
Introduce me to Aisyah

Geekvati, 2015

A tall man stood beside his motorbike, his tanned skin glowing when exposed to the afternoon sun. His eyes glared sharply at the person sitting on the terrace of the mosque. The thin beard that adorned his chin was still wet from the water. He should have gone straight in but the girl on the terrace of the mosque stole his attention.

The sunlight did not make him glare thanks to the thick eyelashes framing his net with a pair of thick, mountain-like eyebrows printing his handsome face.

Why is he not ready for prayer?

Why is he sitting there?

Why isn't she wearing her hijab properly? her hair looks dangling from the tip of the veil.

"Ustadz Umar, Sorry." A man who looked younger came to rebuke.

The man named Umar opened his eyes several times before turning his eyes to someone who called him. He is afraid to look at a girl for too long.

"Today Ustadz's schedule for prayer."

"Yes, then let's go inside."

Before entering the mosque Al-Fatah Umar had glanced at the girl who was engrossed with her cellphone on the terrace of the mosque. Somehow he wished that the girl had gone into the mosque instead of hanging out on the porch like that.

Al-Fatah Mosque conducts regular studies led by several Ustadz and Ustadzah alternately every day. Today Umar coincided with his turn to lead the study after Ashar.

The heavy and melodious sound of Umar began to echo throughout the mosque as a sign of prayer had begun. All worshipers establish prayer solemnly. This is a time when they should not worry about the world - facing the Creator with complete serenity.

Umar said hello to open a routine study that afternoon, he will discuss the exemplary story of Aisyah bint Abu Bakr.

Umar's gaze stalled for a while on the girl sitting with other worshippers. After wearing her veil neatly Umar finally remembered that this was not the first time he had seen the girl. The clean white girl seems to be regularly present following Umar's study.

Umar immediately lowered his head as the girl commented a smile on him.

"Who here does not know Sayyidah Aisha the wife of Prophet Muhammad?" Umar circulated his gaze to all the male worshippers, the sentence did not sound like a question because he was sure that everyone knew Aisha.

"Aisha is an ideal woman who is smart, loving and soft-hearted, she is the mother of believers." Umar stopped talking when the girl raised her hand, she was forced to clench her lips in wonder - why did she raise her hand even when Umar was just starting.

"You can ask after the question and answer session." Saying Ilham to the white-veiled girl who stole the attention of other worshippers.

"Leave it." Umar Sahut. "Please, say your name." He let the girl talk.

"I'm Atalie, actually I don't know Aisyah, can I get to know her now?"

The sentence immediately made the other worshippers noisier, they whispered scornfully at Atalie. They even said Atalie should get out of here.

"He deliberately capers the same time Ustadz Umar."

"It is impossible that he did not know the Prophet's wife."

"Just go home and mending."

Atalie was puzzled to hear the other worshippers making a fuss, slowly lowering her hand. His face changed. Shouldn't he have said that.

"Atalie, you forgot what I said before we came here, don't ask anything, just sit sweetly until it's over, shyly know not." A girl sitting next to Atalie whispered, furious that her best friend had not kept quiet during the study.

"Yes sorry Za, I'm let go." Atalie is misbehaving, she wants to disappear right now. "Khanza please save me." Said dramatic.

"Ogah ah, don't mention my name now." Khanza shifted his seat because of embarrassment.

"Great work on your own, help me." Atalie pulls up Ayana's face sitting on her right side.

Ayana is unmoved as if she doesn't know Atalie because people's views are on them.

In contrast to the expressions of the congregation, Umar actually smiled because of Atalie's plain words.

"Sorry, you can't get acquainted with Ayesha but if there's a chance I'll show you who Ayesha is."

Atalie nodded stiffly, in fact she did not know why Khanza should be ashamed of her question but seeing the reaction of the people she was sure she had made a fatal mistake.

People stopped speaking after Umar continued the study. They will definitely continue to discuss this incident even after coming out of the mosque. They had never seen a strange congregation like Atalie before.

"The scholars say that the age of Aisha when married to Prophet Muhammad was 9 years, however she could compensate for the life of the Prophet and become a perfect wife, he said, the hadiths we hear today are narrated by Aisha, at her young age, Aisha narrates thousands of hadith."

Atalie looked at Umar in amazement - not because of the handsome face of the man but because of his story about a character named Aisyah. Atalie wondered why she could not get acquainted with the figure.

******

"Thank you Ustadz for the study today." Several male worshippers shook hands with Umar after the study ended.

Umar replied with a gentle smile, thanking them for taking the time to come to the review today.

Umar was shocked when he saw Atalie take off her headscarf in front of the mosque. Umar could not bear to cover Atalie's beautiful hair with cloth or anything nearby even if there were leaves he would cover Atalie's head with leaves. But Umar could not do it, the only thing he could do was to lower his gaze.

"Ilham, please give this to the girl named Atalie over there." Umar gave a yellow book entitled Aisha.

Ilham obeyed Umar's orders to approach Atalie who seemed to be in a storm with two friends.

"Ustadz Umar asked me to give this to you." Ilham handed Umar's book to Atalie, thanks to Atalie's strange question while at the mosque, Ilham could immediately recognize him. Plus Atalie did stand out among her friends.

"Thank you, yeah." Ayana represents Atalie saying thank you, she grabs the book first and flips through it.

Atalie did not take his eyes off Umar until the man got on a motorbike and left the courtyard area of the mosque.

Atalie recaptures Umar's handbook from Ayana's hand and hastily puts it in a bag. Apparently Umar kept his promise to introduce the figure of Aisyah to Atalie. Atalie could not wait to read it at home.

******

The roar of Umar's motorbike was heard getting closer with the sound of tires grinding small pebbles along the gate to the house. The arrival of Umar was welcomed by several students who were about to go to the mosque. They greeted Umar.

Umar's residence is one area with Adz-Zaidan boarding school owned by his parents who had stood since a dozen years ago. Adz-Zaidan does not accommodate many santri, there are only about 100 male and female students. Adz-Zaidan entry selection is notoriously difficult and only receives at most 15 students annually.

Umar was the second of three children. His older brother Khalid was married to a woman named Khawla and had a child. Umar's brother named Ali who is still sitting in High School.

Unlike Umar who was often outside the pesantren, Khalid helped Zaid more in guiding santri. Khawla Khalid's wife also played an important role in teaching the santri.

"Assalamualaik." Umar kissed Khalid's hand sitting in the gazebo while feeding the catfish in the pond with Hafiz.

"Waalaikumussalam, have you gone home?"

"Udah Mas." Umar mentowel cheek of his nephew, "follow Om yuk."

The three-year-old boy was buzzing, he was comfortable in his Abi lap while listening to the Quran recitation from the speakers.

Umar again said his greetings when entering his simple house, not too big but enough to accommodate the whole family. Umar saw his Abah sitting on the living room sofa.

"Mosur." Zaid answered his son's greeting, he raised a glance and refocused on the book in his hand.

"Have Umar gone home?" A veiled woman greeted Umar, held a glass of tea and placed it on the table. It is Maryam—Ummi Umar.

"Ummi." Umar kissed the back of Maryam's hand and Zaid took turns.

"Did Ummi make tea too?"

Zaid sipped his wife's warm jasmine-flavored tea accompanied by coconut biscuits.

"No need Ummi, soon magrib." Umar took off his coffee and sat down to join his Abah.

"Where is the study today?" Mary sat before Umar.

"Alhamdulillah everything is smooth Um." Umar suddenly remembered the figure of Atalie earlier. Atalie had made other worshippers noisier but Umar actually felt the girl was cute and—a little weird.

"Why are those smiles?" Maryam noticed the change in Umar's expression, though thin, but she learned that Umar was smiling because he thought of something.

"It's okay Um, there was just a strange girl in the mosque."

"How weird?"

"Umar is explaining that today's study we will discuss the example of Aisyah then suddenly someone raised the hand of—"

Zaid, who was interested in the story of Umar reflex, put his book on the table and saw his son.

"She said, actually I don't know Aisha can I meet her now?" Umar repeated the sentence exactly as Atalie said earlier. He couldn't even help but smile when he remembered that.

Zaid frowned as well as Maryam. Actually the story is not funny but Umar actually smiled widely and even laughed.

"What do you need to answer?" Now Zaid spoke, he understood when the study did have many unexpected questions from pilgrims.

"Yes Umar said that he could not get acquainted with Aisha but Umar gave her a book about Aisha, hopefully it could help her."

"Is that funny, why are you laughing?" Maryam was astonished to see Umar laughing just because of such a story.

"That's funny Ummi." Umar insisted that it was the funniest incident during his studies.

Maryam also smiled behind her veil to see Umar still faithfully develop a smile.

"But why did she suddenly remove her headscarf just after coming out of the mosque?" The smile on Umar's face vanished considering Atalie immediately removed the hijab when out of the mosque.

"He was?" Maryam's eyebrows shot up in disbelief.

Umar nodded.

"Maybe she's not used to wearing a hijab yet."

"That means you have to discuss the obligation of veiling for Muslim women." Timpal Zaid, according to him it is the most important discussion in the midst of the changing times as it is now.

"That's Ummi's job." Umar felt that Maryam had more authority to discuss it.

"Ummi's been talking about it a lot but maybe he never came to Ummi's study." Maryam always conducts regular studies after dawn three times a week in the same mosque as Umar.

"When he routinely participated in Umar's study." Umar seemed to think, but he did not understand why Atalie did it.

"What's this?" Ali came to join, he also wanted to know what they were talking about.

"Let's get ready to pray magrib." Zaid patted Umar's thighs up from his seat, ending Umar's story that afternoon.

Ali was disappointed that he had just joined but Zaid and Umar had disbanded. Stay Maryam who only carelessly look at the behavior of her husband and son to judge the youngest.