Ustaz Jaafar bin Ali – Ladang Fatima’s resident Ustaz
Uztaz Jaafar bin Hj Ali, with his trusty motorcycle.
Maybe I should not call Ustaz Jaafar Ali our resident Ustaz, but as the imam of the nearby Surau Kampung Hilir and as my partner Zai’s former Guru Agama, he is as much a Ladang Fatima family member as the rest of us.
Ustaz Jaafar bin Ali, 49 is better known as Ustad Japar, Ustad Ateh or as Ustad Japar Ateh. Born in Kampung Jus, which is about 6 kilometres from our farm, he now lives in Kampung Hilir, where our farm is located. The ties of friendship between him and Zai’s family goes back 4 or 5 generations. Well before piped water, electricity and motorable roads came to the vicinity.
Ustaz Jaafar has 5 children, 3 boys and 2 girls. The eldest boy is 18 whilst the youngest daughter is 7 years. They are all presently schooling. The children, too, have been inculcated with religious education and the two eldest children are capable of leading a congregation in prayer. Alhamdulillah!
His day starts after Fajr prayers when he starts work as the gardener in one of the local schools, from 7 a.m. – 4 p.m. Then he starts his second shift as the Guru Agama for students in Tingkatan 1 – 5 in Sekolah Integrasi Selandar from 5 p.m. – 6.30 p.m. Then it is back home to have a bath and freshen up and he takes on his third job as the Imam of Surau Kampung Hilir for Maghrib and Isyak. In between the two prayer times, he teaches the Al Quran to the kampong people, both young and old.
He has been rearing cows, on a small scale for more than 20 years, a business handed down from his late father. Ustaz Jaafar has recently added some sheep to his herd.
Ustaz is also known as the “guy with the 99 occupations”, as he also takes on many other part time jobs like rubber tapping etc during the weekends or school holidays.
Ustaz at the surau with the Bilal
Ustaz studied in a sokolah pondok, those informal religious schools which are low in facilities but noted for imparting serious religious education to their students. It was during these times that Ustaz started his first experiences in the art of “sembilih ternakan”.
Ustaz Jaffar has now more than 30 years experience in the delicate art of performing the “sembilihan”.
He is and has been the person the whole kampung, in fact the whole area, depends upon to do the “sembilihan” when it came to kenduris, aqiqah and korban. Be it chickens, ducks, goats, sheep or cows. Ustaz Jaafar’s methods, his doa and special abilities are believed to result in great tasting meat from the animals he “sembilih”. The biggest number of animals he has slaughtered at one time was 11 cows for Hari Raya Korban in 2004.
It was Ustaz Jaafar who did the “sembilih” when we did the Ibadah Aqiqah for our children and the various times we have done our Ibadah Korban in Kampung Hilir.
Ustaz Jaafar also conducts courses on the correct way to slaughter animals as prescribed in Islam. Most of his students are from the Sekolah Integrasi Selandar. Once Ustaz passes the students they get a certificate authorising them as capable of doing the slaughter themselves.
20 – 30 years ago, the ritual slaughter for Ibadah Korban and Ibadah Aqiqah was done house by house. Ustaz remembers those days when he had to cycle from house to house doing the slaughter. Other kampung people would take over the task of skinning the animals and cutting them up, and he would move on to the next house in the list.
These days, Ibadah Korban is done on a “kelumpok” or group basis. The animals are brought to the mosque compound or an area selected by the mosque committee and the slaughtering, skinning, meat cutting and distribution is done from that one place. Naturally almost all the men from the kampung will be there pitching in the other tasks.
Ustaz has known Zai since Zai was born. Zai considers Ustaz a family elder, having been his Guru Agama as well as his mentor in the various agricultural activities.
Ustaz Jaafar is whom we call whenever we have a request for any goats to be slaughtered. And, Alhamdulillah, we have had only excellent feedback on the taste qualities of the meat.
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