PAK HAJI
Perhaps you have seen the pak haji. Even know of him, this grandfather of a man. His head is kupiah capped and his chin beard is grey and neatly cropped.
He peddles a rust-eaten bicycle, a black and white Raleigh, through the kampung. His plaid sarong and lightly hued Baju Melayu always seem to flow at a pace that belies his age.
Always smiling and kindly too, he raises a hand to greet and wish the passerby, "Assalamu 'alaikum."
By all appearance he is a man of modest means. He has little care for cars and new fangled gadgets. Never is he a man given to fancy Western dress. And never is he given to frivolous chatter.
Everyday in clockwork precision -- long before the bilal can announce the azan -- he mounts his bicycle, sets the gears in motion and cycles towards the masjid. For his life is a time that belongs to none but Allah.
© Breyel, Timm. "Pak Haji". All rights reserved.
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