Vicente Mota Alfaro: Dari Mualaf Sampai Menjadi Imam Masjid ; Vicente Mota Alfaro: from Mualaf to become the mosque Priest

Vicente Mota Alfaro(foto) menjadi mualaf pertama di Spanyol yang memegang posisi imam di masjid Islamic Cultural Center of Valencia (CCIV) dan memimpin salat berjamaah di masjid itu. Selain imam masjid, Alfaro juga menjadi anggota Dewan Direkur CCIV sejak tahun 2005.

Posisi imam masjid mungkin tidak pernah terbayangkan sebelumnya oleh Alfaro, karena tiga belas tahun yang lalu ia adalah penganut agama Katolik yang taat, rajin membaca alkitab setiap hari dan tidak pernah absen menghadiri misa mingguan di gerejanya.

Ketika ditanya tentang perubahan hatinya dan perjalanannya dari seorang penganut Katolik yang taat menjadi seorang Muslim, Alfaro memberikan jawaban sederhana,"Ini semua adalah kehendak Allah, Islam menjadi pilihan saya dan menjadi hidup saya."

Alfaro memutuskan masuk Islam pada saat ia berusia 20 tahun dan masih menjadi siswa sekolah menengah. "Saya membaca kitab suci al-Quran. Saya menemukan kebenaran tentang kisah Yesus Kristus dan kemudian saya masuk Islam," Alfaro menceritakan perjalanannya menemukan cahaya Islam.

Pada dasarnya, Alfaro memang dikenal religius. Sejak masa kanak-kanak, Alfaro sudah rajin ke gereja setiap minggu dan membaca alkitab dengan teratur. "Saya melakukannya, sementara anak-anak lain pada saat itu tidak punya minat pada agama. Ketika itu, saya tentu saja belum tahu tentang Islam," ujarnya.

Alfaro mengenal Islam dari tetangganya, seorang Muslim asal Aljazair yang sering ia ajak berbincang-bincang. "Suatu saat kami sedang ngobrol dan dia bilang bahwa semua umat manusia adalah keturunan Adam dan Hawa dan kita semua adalah anak-anak dari Nabi Ibrahim," kenang Alfaro tentang tetangganya.

"Kala itu, saya tercengang mendengar Muslim dan orang-orang Arab tahu tentang Adam, Hawa dan Ibrahim," sambung Alfaro.

Perbincangan itu memotivasi Alfaro untuk menggali lebih jauh tentang Islam. Ia jadi sering berkunjung ke perpustakaan dan meminjam terjemahan al-Quran. Terjemahan al-Quran itu ia baca dengan seksama di rumah.

"Saya sudah sering membaca di Gospel bahwa Yesus adalah anak Tuhan dan Tuhan mengirim anaknya ke bumi untuk dibunuh dan disiksa guna membebaskan dosa-dosa manusia. Saya selalu bermasalah dengan hal itu, terutama untuk bisa mempercayai cerita itu," kata Alfaro.

Dan jawaban yang ia cari, ditemukannya dalam al-Quran. "Saya pelajari dari al-Quran bahwa Yesus tidak dibunuh atau disalib," ujar Alfaro.

Kisah Yesus dalam kitab suci al-Quran menyentuh hati Alfaro yang sejak mengucap dua kalimat syahadat mengubah namanya menjadi Mansour. "Saya langsung meyakini bahwa al-Quran adalah kitab suci yang benar yang berasal dari Tuhan. Dan saya langsung memutuskan ingin menjadi seorang Muslim," tukas Alfaro.

Begitulah perjalanan Alfaro atau Mansour menemukan kebenaran dalam Islam. Sampai akhirnya para pemuka komunitas Muslim di kota Valencia sepakat memilihnya menjadi imam masjid Valencia. Alfaro dipilih karena dianggap memiliki kemampuan dan memenuhi syarat-syarat untuk menjadi imam masjid.


"Dia dipilih karena pengetahuannya yang luas tentang agama," kata El-Taher Edda, sekretaris jenderal Islamic League for Dialogue and Coexistence.

Edda juga menegaskan bahwa penunjukkan Alfaro sebagai imam masjid Valencia merupakan pesan yang jelas tentang integrasi para mualaf ke dalam masyarakat Muslim.

Jumlah mualaf di Spanyol terus meningkat beberapa tahun belakangan ini. Menurut laporan media massa lokal, warga Spanyol yang masuk Islam bahkan dari kalangan intelektual, akademisi dan aktivis anti-globalisasi. Saat ini, jumlah warga Muslim di Spanyol dipekirakan sekitar 1,5 juta jiwa dari 40 juta total penduduk negara itu. Di Spanyol, berdasarkan undang-undang kebebasan beragama tahun 1967, Islam diakui sebagai agama resmi dan menjadi agama kedua terbesar setelah agama Kristen

Vicente Mota Alfaro became the first Mualaf in Spain that held the position of the priest in the mosque of Islamic Cultural Center of Valencia (CCIV) and led prayers gathered together in the mosque.
Apart from the mosque priest, Alfaro also became the member the Direkur CCIV Council since 2005. The position of the mosque priest possibly had not been imaginable beforehand by Alfaro, because of thirteen last year he was the follower of the Catholic religion that obeyed, hard-working read the holy scripture every day and never absent attended the weekly mass in his church. When being asked about the change in his heart and his trip from a Catholic follower that obeyed became a Muslim, Alfaro gave the answer sederhana,"Ini all was Allah's desire, Islam became my choice and became my life. Alfaro decided to enter Islam when he was 20 years old and still became the secondary school student.
"I read the Al-Koran holy scripture.
" I found the truth about the story Jesus Christ and afterwards I entered Islam, Alfaro told how his trip found the Islam light.
Basically, Alfaro was indeed known to be religious. Since childhood, Alfaro has been hard-working to the church every week and read the holy scripture by being arranged. "I was carrying him out, while other children at the time did not have the interest in the religion." At that point, I of course did not yet know about Islam, he said. Alfaro knew Islam from his neighbour, a Muslim from Algiers that often he asked discussed. "At one time we chatted and he said that all humankind was the descendants Adam and the Climate and all of
us were children from the Prophet Ibrahim," recalled Alfaro about his neighbour.
"That time, I baffled heard Muslim and Arabians knew about Adam, Hawa and Ibrahim," continued Alfaro. The discussions motivated Alfaro to delve more far about Islam. He was still often visiting to the library and borrowing the Al-Koran translation. The Al-Koran translation he read thoroughly in the house.
"I often has read in Gospel that Jesus was the child the Lord and the Lord sent his child to the earth to be killed and tortured in order to releases human sins." I always had problems by that, especially to be able to trust the story, said Alfaro. And the answer that he searched, the discovery in Al-Koran. "Studied by me from Al-Koran that Jesus was killed or crucified," said Alfaro.
Jesus's story in the Al-Koran holy scripture touched the Alfaro heart that since saying two confession of faith sentences changed his name into Mansour. "I immediately believe in that Al-Koran was the true
holy scripture that came from the Lord." And I at once decided to want to become a Muslim, accused Alfaro. Such was the Alfaro trip or Mansour found the truth in Islam. To the end the leaders of the Muslim community in the Valencia city agreed to choose him to the Valencia mosque priest.
Alfaro was chosen because it was considered had the capacity and filled conditions to become the mosque priest. "He was chosen because of his knowledge that was wide about the religion," said El-Taher Edda, the secretary-general Islamic League for Dialogue and Coexistence. Edda also stressed that penunjukkan Alfaro as the Valencia mosque priest was the message that was clear about the integration of the convert (mualaf) into the Muslim community.
The number of converts in Spain continued to increase several years in recent times. According to the report on the local mass media,
the Spanish resident who entered Islam in fact from the intellectual's circle, the academic and the activist anti-globalisation. At this time, the number of residents of Muslim in Spain around 1.5 million souls from 40 million of the total inhabitant of the country. In Spain, was based on freedom of religion regulations in 1967, Islam was acknowledged as the official religion and to the second religion biggest after the Christian religion.