Along the Siak River
Graves
Next to the Mesjid Raya are the graves of two famous sultans of the former Siak kingdom. A cement platform with elaborately carved, varnished wooden markers indicates the gravesites of Sultan Abdul Jalil Alamuddin Syah and Sultan Abdul Jalil Muazzam Syah. Many Muslims in Riau Province come here to pray, hoping to acquire some of the mystical power of these influential Muslim leaders.
What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs - beautiful on the outside but filled on the inside with dead people's bones and all sorts of impurity. Outwardly you look like righteous people, but inwardly your hearts are filled with hypocrisy and lawlessness.
Matthew 23:27-28 (NLT)
- Pray that the graves would remind people to prepare for death, which awaits us all.
- Pray that Muslims would not seek supernatural power, but instead rely on the all-powerful God.