Literary Response: Robohnya surau kami by Ali Akbar Navis

BLINDNESS OF HEART

Mahatma Gandhi said that Selfishness is blind, blind to what? Most people said it cause heart blindness. Thanks to Ali Akbar Navis for giving us the answer through his cosmic short story Robohnya surau kami. The story began from narrator`s memories about the faithful old man in the mosque. He was the mosque keeper until he died mysteriously there. Ali Akbar Navis carefully carved the quite complex conflict in the story, makes his theme about selfishness spread widely along the story.

In the beginning, the conflict was come from people around kakek (the old man). Kakek gathered money from his Sharpening service, but sometimes people gave him cigarettes, sambal, or a stingy smile with thanks tone. “Orang-orang perempuan yang minta tolong mengasahkan pisau atau gunting, memberinya sambal sebagai imbalan. Orang laki-laki yang minta tolong, memberinya imbalan rokok, kadang-kadang uang. Tapi yang paling sering diterimanya ialah ucapan terima kasih dan sedikit senyum”. (Navis 1) People just exploited Kakek as the Sharpener, pretending like they were doing nothing. The Selfishness of people also explained when kakek died, the mosque was ownerless and perished. They were forgot, they also have an obligation to take care of the mosque and not to perish it. “anak-anak menggunakannya sebagai tempat bermain, memainkan segala apa yang disukai mereka. Perempuan yang kehabisan kayu bakar, sering suka mencopoti papan dinding atau lantai di malam hari.” (Navis 1) How people could be like that? Child played around the mosque, and the lady took woods from every edge of the mosque. They just think about themselves, think about they own will. Thus, People thought was a small conflict that has an influence to the story.

Before kakek died, He had a fight with his own faith because of Ajo sidi`s story. His faith became loose, not tighten anymore. Related to Mahatma Gandhi quote that Selfishness is blind, Kakek selfishness wobbly the entire faithful thing that he did before and made a thousand of doubt impaled in his mind. Before that, how selfish he was? “Tak kuingat punya isteri, punya anak, punya keluarga seperti orang lain, tahu? Tak kupikirkan hidupku sendiri. Aku tak ingin cari kaya, bikin rumah. Segala kehidupanku, lahir batin, kuserahkan kepada Allah Subhanahu wataala”. (Navis 3) The answer is Very bad. Kakek didn`t want to have a wife, child, or a house. He gave his life and heart to God. He forgot he lived with many people around him, because he just stayed in the mosque pray and pray. Those selfishness successfully created a huge conflict, a huge impact to Kakek`s faith. “Tadi subuh Kakek kedapatan mati di suraunya dalam keadaan yang mengerikan sekali. Ia menggoroh lehernya dengan pisau cukur” (Navis 7) Kakek`s mind was blind because of his selfishness, he had no clue to solve the conflict. He died just because he imagined that he were Haji Saleh, if his heart wasn`t blind he will just think it`s just a story or It won`t happen to me because I will seek a job now.

Navis successfully carved the conflict inside the story and made his message about selfishness was sent to the readers. This is the role of selfishness, Selfishness creates conflict, and conflict will be solved in different way depending on your heart. Kakek`s heart was blind so he choose the bad way to solve his conflict, and his devotion thing to God was useless because he did one of the most ten biggest sin in life. Back to the Mahatma Gandhi`s quote, Selfishness is blind. It darken our heart, makes them tintless unless we color it back with the colorful benevolent.