- Sunan Kudus
Sunan Kudus (or Ja'far Shadiq, d. 1550), founder of
Kudus , is considered to be one of theWali Sanga ofJava ,Indonesia He is said to have originated the
wayang golek , and founded themasjid atKudus using (it is said) the doors from the palace of Majapahit. He took the place of his father,Sunan Ngudung .History
He was Jaafar As-Sadiq son of Sunan Ngudung and Syarifah (sibling of Sunan Bonang), sons Nyi Ageng Maloka. It is said that he was a son of the Egytian
sultan who migrated to Java. In the kingdom of Demak he was appointed asCommander in Chief of the army battalion. He went forth with Sultan Prawata, battling against Adipati Jipang, Arya Penangsang.Dawah
He learned a lot from
Sunan Kalijaga and apply most of the methods in dawah taught by Kalijaga. Kudus then fled toCentral Java to the most empty place there such asSragen ,Simo and alsoGunung Kidul .He was so tolerant to the local culture and even more softer than the other wali up to the point that if someone said to have be having difficulty making dawah in Kudus they will refer back to Sunan Kudus as the most successful person in this area. He makes good use of the symbols appeared in
Hinduism andBuddhism and manifested it into architecture especially mosques, minarets, entrance gates and ablutions symbolizing theNoble Eightfold Path of Buddhism. This is a compromisingkowtow made by Kudus to his people.On one occasion he deliberately called the locals to listen to his sermon by tying his cow named "Kebo Gumarang" in the mosque courtyard, the Hindus whom revered cows as their deity soon became sympathetic after listening to the explanation made by him in Sura
al-Baqara . Up until then those people in Kudus refuse to slaughter bulls and cows because of their ancient beliefs in the sanctity of cows.Sunan Kudus also complied stories on
tawhid into series and made the crowd became enthusiastic in listening to those stories. This is the Javanese version of 1001 Arabian Night prior to theThe Book of One Thousand and One Nights during the Abassid Caliphate.ee also
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Islam in Indonesia
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