“If you are hungry on the road, you have no money, you only pay, focus until you are hungry”, p.

GARUT, KOMPAS.com – Muhammad Ghifari Akbar (16), a teenager whose photo went viral while reading the Koran on the eaves of a shop in Jalan Braga, Bandung, has been looking for his mother for more than 5 years who went to find work in Saudi Arabia .

“His mother went to work in Arabia since Akbar was 8 months old and his brother 18 months,” Akbar’s grandmother Uti (71) explained when they met her at her home in Sodong Village, Muarasanding Village, District from Garut Kota, on Thursday (11/5/2020) Tomorrow.

Since then, Akbar has never met his mother named Siti.

After his mother left, according to Uti, Akbar lived with his father’s uncle in Singajaya, Garut.

After his father remarried, Akbar lived with his parents in a house not far from his grandmother.

Also read: Photo of teenage scavengers reading Al-Quran in Viral Emperan, for years looking for mothers but not meeting

However, it was not long before Akbar asked to stay at Uti’s house, because he felt uncomfortable in his father’s house.

After that, Akbar decided to leave his grandmother’s house and quit school.

“At first I liked to sing, but people took the guitar from him,” he said.

After leaving school, Akbar felt even more uncomfortable at home.

Since then, Akbar started traveling to various cities, from Bantul Yogyakarta, Lampung to Bandung city. In Bandung city, Akbar was photographed reciting recitations in the courtyard of a Jalan Braga shop.

“I can only order that I not go five times (prayers) and read the Quran to be safe anywhere,” Uti said.

Akbar has this mandate from his grandmother and father. Whenever he wanders, he always wears a sarong and a Koran. With that disposition, Akbar never felt fear and worry wherever he went.

“If you are hungry on the street you have no money, I only pay the salary, concentrate until the hunger disappears,” he said.

Akbar cannot remember exactly when he started living on the street.

Without a doubt, during his life on the street, he never lived like any other child with the same luck.

Akbar chooses a mosque as his resting place. If there is no mosque, find a place that is comfortable for you.

Akbar never wants to remember his experiences while living on the street.

However, when asked about the harshness of life on the streets, Akbar admitted that he had been bullied by his colleague. However, he never defended himself.

“Just love it, it could be sustenance from there, let it go,” she said.

After five more years of wandering and wandering in search of a mother, Akbar gave up. Now he admits that he no longer wants to meet the woman who gave birth to him.

“Let him go, if you want to see us, just come here, if you still remember,” she said, suppressing her emotions.

Wants to study in a pesantren

Akbar admits that he will stop living on the streets and will study at the Islamic boarding school he has always dreamed of.

Furthermore, after his photo went viral on social media, many contacted him, including someone who claimed to be a representative of the Islamic boarding school Yusuf Mansyur Ustaz.

“I want to go to the Islamic boarding school now, I have always wanted to be a masseur, but only those close to Garut,” he said.

“I have no aspirations, but since I was a child, I wanted to start my own Islamic boarding school, that’s the intention since childhood,” he said.

Also read: I do not know the photo of rummaging through the garbage while reading the Koran in the Viral Store, Akbar: I know it from the Police

Makmun Gunawan, an official from the Garut Regency Education Office of the Non-Formal Education Sector, saw that Akbar’s desire to study at boarding school was a good intention that should be supported. He also advised Akbar to join the bundle program.

“It would be nice if you want to build your own pesantren, you will live later while you join the package program to have a certificate as well,” he said.