Banjarmasin, The Veranda of Medina

Tuesday morning, 11th December 2007 I landed at Syamsul Noor Airport in Banjarmasin, where I was greeted by the delegation of The Regent of Hulu Sungai Selatan, and we were then headed for Kandangan area, around 110km from the city of Banjarmasin. Previously, on Saturday 8th December 2007 I have visited Banjarmasin to respond to the invitation from The Regent of Tanah Laut, a very modest and polite Regent. This Regent also sends 6 Moslem students to study at Darul Mustafa Tarim Hadramaut every year in order to make his regency successful in the near future, may Allah increase the number of such leaders who love Allah and His Prophet and make Islam grow in prosperity. I returned from Tanah Laut that night to spend the rest of the night at Ma'had Yasin, led by Dr. KH Ahmad Fahmi Zam zam Al Banjari, and fortunately his ma’had in Kota Baru is only 4km from the Airport. Sunday morning, 9th December 2007 I went back to Jakarta, and returned to Banjarmasin Tuesday 11th December 2007.

I arrived at Kandangan that noon and met and had lunch together with The Regent of Hulu Sungai Selatan, The Head of Police Resort (Kapolres), Commander of Military District (Dandim) as well as the local chairman of DPRD. I attended three events, in Barabai, then in Majelis of Guru Muda Ustaz Muhammad Ridwan, followed by the last event on Wednesday afternoon in Majelis Ihya, led by Tuan Guru Syamsuni, a Great Ulama whose Majelis attended by tens of thousand people every Wednesday afternoon. My presence this time around is to attend Haul for Syekih Muhammad Samman bin Abdulkarim Al Madani, a Moslem scholar in tasawwuf (mysticism) knowledge from Madinah Almunawwarah who passed away on 2nd Dzulqaidah 1189 H and been buried in Baqi, Madinah Almunawarah side by side with Ahlul Badr.

One of Syeikh Samman’s students was Syeikh Abdurrasyid Al Banjari who latter on conducted religious sermons in Banjar, and some of his offspring were Tuan Guru Zaini, Guru Muda KH Ridwan, and many more ulama in Banjarmasin from his offspring. I gave title to South Kalimantan as The Veranda of Medina, for their remarkable an enormous majelis held and attended by tens of thousands people every week, coming from far places, riding motorbikes, cars, and even hundreds of motorboats crossing the rivers, simply to attend the Majelis Taklim from Tuan Guru Syamsuni diNegara, Guru Muda Ridwan Banjari etc, performing shalawat and qasidah that will touch all souls. The people living there were born in tarbiyyah shalawat and Mahabbah towards Prophet s.a.w, grow up and grow old the same way, and pass away will also be surrounded by shalawat.

I returned from Hulu Sungai Selatan on Wednesday night and headed for Banjarmasin together with a well-known Young Da’I in South Kalimantan, Sayyid Ali Alkaff, he was also the alumnus of Darulmustafa Islamic boarding school in Tarim. That night I spent the night at the residence of Hajj Ahmad in Banjarmasin, and went back to Jakarta with the first flight at 06.25 am.

I left the Land of Banjarmasin with a Silent Prayer towards Allah, O’ Rabbiy kindly make this Land of Banjarmasin an Ardhul Mahabbah, the earth of all the lovers of Sayyidina Muhammad s.a.w, make all their majelis prosperous, make their souls even more longing for Sunnah from the Prophet s.a.w, and pour them with the greatest blessings, Rabbiy, You have made the Land of Banjarmasin like the Emerald of Mahabbah in this Archipelago, thus make this glory contagious amongst other regions on this earth, Rabbiy kindly protect the South Kalimantan from the destructiveness of akidah, also from the rafidhah group, amiin.. amiin.. Kindly grow the generations of Rabbaaniy, Muhammadiy, and Sunniy amongst them, and for all the regions of Moslem people from West to East, amiin.. amiin..