PADA suatu Jumat, selesai salat, Teungku Yusuf bertemu Walikota. Kebetulan walikota itu salat Jumat di masjid yang sama. Walikota mengajak guru sang ngaji makan bersama di sebuah warung mewah. Tentunya beserta sejumlah pejabat yang mendampingi si walikota.

Teungku Yusuf menolak ajakan walikota itu. Dia gagap dan risih bertemu pejabat, apalagi jalan bersamaan dan makan berhadapan di meja yang sama pula. Sedangkan baju dan surban yang dipakainya cukup pudar, beda dengan pakaian walikota dan pejabat-pejabat itu yang baru dancerah. Belum lagi yang terlihat di kaki Teungku Yusuf yang menggenakan sandal jepit tua begitu kontras dengan sepatu-sepatu kulit yang mengkilap dan mahal.

Penolakan walikota itu tidak serta merta dilakukannya, tapi dengan berbagai alasan yang berwibawa. Teungku Yusuf beralasan ada undangan kenduri di kampungnya. Dia terpaksa berbohong untuk menghindari musibah lebih besar.

Pasalnya, guru ngaji itu memiliki banyak teman orang-orang miskin. Meskipun dia mengajar guru ngaji, sehari-harinya dia sibuk bekerja sebagai buruh bangunan. Dia tidak pernah memungut bayaran apa pun dari murid-muridnya, sebab baginya mengajar baca Alur’an bagi anak-anak adalah ibadah semata.

Untuk menutupi kebutuhan keluarga, guru ngaji itu harus berkerja sebagaimana buruh kasar lainnya. Teman-temannya sering berkeliaran di kota, dan juga dia banyak mengenal lapisan masyarakat. Barangkali lebih banyak guru ngaji itu mengenal masyarakat ketimbang walikota sendiri.

Maka ketika walikota mengajak makan bersama di sebuah warung, hal itu menjadi musibah besar baginya. Teungku Yusuf kahwatir saat menyantap makanan nanti ada temannya yang bercelana pendek dan berbaju kaos pudar masuk ke sana dan melihatnya sedang makan.

Tentunya Teungku Yusuf tidak mungkin mengajak temannya itu bergabung di satu meja. Dalam suasana begitu, biasanya orang pura-pura tidak kenal. “Batinku akan tidak tahan. Aku terbeban. Orang akan menudingku sombong,” ucapnya.

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Refused Mayor's Lunch Invitation

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ON a Friday, finished the prayer, Teungku Yusuf meets Mayor. Incidentally the mayor was praying Friday at the same mosque. The mayor invites the ngaji teacher to eat together in a fancy shop. Of course, along with a number of officials who accompany the mayor.

Teungku Yusuf refused the mayor's invitation. He stutters and is uncomfortable to meet officials, let alone walk together and eat face to face at the same table. While the clothes and turbans are wearing quite faded, different from the mayor's clothes and officials are new and bright. Not to mention that seen at the feet of Teungku Yusuf who wore old flip-flops so contrast with shoe leather shoes and expensive.

The rejection of the mayor was not necessarily done, but for various authoritative reasons. Teungku Yusuf reasoned that there was a merry invitation in his village. He was forced to lie to avoid greater calamities.

Because the teacher of the Ngaji has many friends of the poor. Although he teaches a teacher of the Koran, he is busy working daily as a construction worker. He never picked up any fees from his students, because for him to teach Alur'an to the children is a mere worship.

To cover the family's needs, the teacher of the Koran should work as any other manual laborer. His friends often roam the city, and he also knows many layers of society. Perhaps more of the Koran teacher knows the community than the mayor himself.

So when the mayor invites to eat together at a stall, it becomes a big disaster for him. Teungku Yusuf kahwatir when eating food there will be friends who are shorts and dressed in faded shirts go in there and see him eating.

Surely Teungku Yusuf could not have invited her friend to join at one table. In such an atmosphere, usually people pretend not to know. "My heart will not stand it. I'm burdened. People will point me arrogant, "he said.()

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