Blue Eye Witness

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A young man was spread out in a sea of ​​fierce battle to defend independence in the city of Surabaya. His legs, hands and chest were shot by one of the British troops. His breath began to gasp, a flash of his mind remembered the heaven that was longed for by the martyrs, by Allah he would never regret his death. His little regret was only because he would leave someone he loved alone and leave his students.

A message from Kiai Hasyim Asyari to all Indonesian citizens. Making it his principle. His whole body began to feel cold Will it finally be over? or even this is the beginning. Will we win? I want to make sure. But what can I do, even though this life is only a cubit long. These eyes are starting to get tired of staying open. Slowly, the window of this life begins to close, until peeking, until everything becomes dark.

The story begins one morning at the end of 1935. The city dwellers were seen busy trading, the beautiful city view, full of sturdy buildings, towering in front of tall European doors.
This seemingly peaceful life, turned out to be not as beautiful as the conditions of the native people who were still under Dutch colonial rule at that time. Only classy people and conglomerates could live peacefully. The rest, the residents were only servants and lackeys of the Dutch high-ranking officials who exploited their energy.

The sun had just risen a little at that time. From the city intersection, the latest classic car, the Citroen C4G 1932, was visible. The car was shiny black, with two large turn signals like two frog eyes, inside a husband and wife and also a cute and sweet five-year-old girl. Looking out the window. While pointing at something. She then turned to her mother.
"Mom...! Look at that old man, poor him. Thin, but carrying a heavy burden on his shoulders." The girl's eyes narrowed.
Her mother laughed and stroked the girl's head.
"Don't worry, Annabeth. They are stronger than they look. They are used to carrying heavy loads up and down vehicles, even one of them, the thinnest, can lift a load heavier than the gatekeeper at our house."

Before we knew it, the journey began to move away from the city of Surabaya, moving eastward, they began to enter the wilderness. The car was guarded by six Dutch officers on horseback.

The sun was getting higher, the air temperature was getting hotter, in the shadow of the tall trees, it was still powerless against the fierce heat of the afternoon. From behind the bushes, someone was seen with a sharpened bamboo in his right hand. Lurking in the pitch-black car and its guards.
Anna and her mother were in the car, cheerfully singing the Dutch national anthem, suddenly from two o'clock a bow was launched that pierced one of the Dutch officers.
The situation became more panicked when dozens of people from the bushes came out and attacked the Dutch officers, they were outnumbered by the bandits. The car tried to escape, while some of the attackers chased the car. The car sped into the wilderness, all the family inside panicked.
Anna could only scream and hug her mother, one of the attackers aimed an arrow right at the driver of the car, until the car stopped, and hit a big tree, from inside the car, Anna's father came out with a gun, he shot the group of robbers alone, but his father's fate was the same as the other officers, now only Anna and her mother were inside, seeing her husband dead full of arrows, her mother immediately gripped Anna's shoulders tightly.
"Listen to mother, Anna. Run as far as possible, live, bring this necklace and bracelet." Then her mother came out and took her husband's gun.
"Mom, mom!" the girl screamed, continuing to cry,
The little girl's cries became louder. She could no longer see her mother clearly. Her red eyes were full of tears that flowed down her cheeks which were flushed red. Suddenly her vision became increasingly blurry. Slowly but surely until everything turned black.

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After the morning prayer, while still prostrating at dawn, the students who filled the mosque, chanted the holy verses of the Quran until the time for Dhuha came.
After praying Dhuha in congregation, the kiai came down from the mosque. He was warmly welcomed by several residents and one of the young men wearing a black cap approached the kiai, he explained about the attack carried out by the robbers yesterday afternoon against one of the Dutch colonels. He also said that he found one of his daughters still alive, and is now being treated in one of the residents' houses.

"Then, what are you going to do with her?" The kiai asked in a calm tone, holding the young man's hand, while walking side by side, he turned towards the young man.
"What if we make him a prisoner, kiai?" He tried to suggest.
"Don't! Didn't the Messenger of Allah always warn his friends during the war to leave women, children and religious people alone, not to hurt them, isn't that what I have taught you too?" The kiai sighed, the young men just nodded.
"Then what should we do?" He was a bit confused.
“Put him in a boarding school!” Kiai assured.
“Returning him to the Dutch is also very risky for us, one way is to hide him, didn’t the prisoners of the Islamic troops in the past, actually understand Islam well when they lived with Muslims?” Kiai tried to explain and advise him wisely. The young man just nodded. It was indeed common in the world of Islamic boarding schools, a kiai was always a role model and his words were an absolute price for his students.
“So is kiai serious about wanting to put him in a boarding school, even though there is no guarantee that he will convert to Islam?”
“Religion is a choice, there is no coercion, the Messenger of Allah was only sent to perfect morals and character, guidance comes from Allah, even though he remains with the religion of his ancestors, but remains educated and noble, at least he will be a good person unlike the colonizers, even though his goodness is only limited to the world.” The kiai's last words ended their conversation when the kiai arrived in front of his house.