Iqra: A Lesson from My Uncle Salam

[caption id="attachment_74949" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="My Damanik Uncles, Salam is the one who wears the black-peci. (Foto by: LTS)"][/caption] A few years ago, my mother’s second youngest brother came to visit us in Urung Panei, the village where my parents live in North Sumatra, Indonesia. We call him Tulang, which means uncle, but for the Bataks, as I am, we only use that name for our mother’s brother and those who have the same last name as she does. Last names are important for the Batak people since it is one of the ways we address one another. This uncle is Salam Damanik and my mother is Molanta Damanik. You can see how clear it is that I address Salam as Tulang or uncle. I cannot address the sister of my mother’s husband as Tulang, we have a different way of addressing him. My mother is a Christian and her brother Salam is a Muslim. He was born Christian and decided to become Muslim. I haven’t heard any stories about my mother’s family having a hard time with my uncle’s decision to convert. He is my favorite uncle. I like to listen when he talks, and he has a wide range of knowledge about Islam. We respect Uncle Salam Damanik’s family as a Muslim family. When they come to Urung Panei, our village, we know that they need separate halal food that has not been mixed with the other food. The Bataks, or people in Sumatra in general, practice this too. When a Christian family has a feast, there will be a special place to eat for Muslims and those who cannot take food such as pork. When a Muslim family has a feast, the Christians do not have a problem with the food. Today, while watching a few bugs flying in the kitchen, I remembered my Uncle Salam. I used to garden and recognized these bugs. However, just today, I started to think: “Where do these bugs come from?” I took it for granted that these bugs came to places where you put your compost to rot. They also like to hang around vegetables or fruits in open air especially if these things are not fresh. My compost was rotten in the kitchen this week. The window in the kitchen is closed most of the time. I wondered where these bugs came from? Do they come from the rotten compost? Besides bugs, there are also white worms dancing with their funny-looking-bodies. Where do these worms come from? Since I am not an expert in biology, I have no answer. It is just amazing how these beings, such as bugs and worms, seem like they are suddenly born out of the rotten compost. “Iqra” said Uncle Salam, “is the first word in the Qur’an. It means read. Not only written text, but also other things in our life.” I am aware that I spend too much of my time reading books which can limit my ability to read things other than written-text. Yes, I am now a student again formally, but I know each of us, no matter what our profession is, can always be a student of life. Being a student at a seminary like I am now is less important than being a student of life, in my opinion. A student in a formal educational system unconsciously or consciously can be forced to read mainly written text instead of reading life in a wider meaning, like what my uncle once explained to us in his sister’s house. (This piece of writing was first pulished here:

http://www.intersectionsinternational.org/blog/2010/10/20/iqra-lesson-my-uncle-salam)