fu"ft as7:rt#u{t'er*e,fi3#:f;ft *E?.4;.&r;t:a'g4*s7,"'+m'r+= Pcmss$axXXy and fineXXy Allah granted his euery aish Jrr-. rhe third week of December 2002, I the rvorld lost a great Muslim writer, Ischolar and the last citizen of the State of Hyderabad. I lost rny beloved Dada (grandfather), m,v spiritual guide, mentor and teacher, mv adopted father, my surrogate mother, my best friend and confidant, my big brother and rny favourite poet'. We belong to Allah and to Allah rve all return. Grief stricken as I am. Dada will insist that I answer all ,vour calls and messages, ans\\rer every salaam sent to me, as he alrl'a1's did. So with a broken heart I am rvriting to teil you about the final hours of his life. We had dinner tosether on the night of Monday 16 December 2002. I rried to cut his hair and trim his beard. He allowed only his moustache to be trimmed and r,vent to bed shortlv after 11.00pm as usual. Tuesday morning I helped hirn to get up at.4.00am and began the usual rnorning routine. He l-alked u'ithout help to the bathroom, shorvered, had breakfast in the dining area and walked back to bed on his own at 6.00am. He rvas sitting on the bed as I rvent to get ready to go to $.ork. \4ihen I looked into his room. as I was ready to leave the house at 6.45am, he l'as already sleeping peacefully on his ga\re the necessarv permission. When I walked in I knew he was gone side with his face tor,vards the rvall. Hollever, the next morning, to the because he always slept with his legs \\rhen I returned home about 1.l5pm, amazement of his doctors, he was sitting close to his body. he had kept his promise that he had up on his orvn, eating his breakfast. He I called Irfan Khaliluilah, my brother, .jokinglv made in Paris in 1996 that he lvanted to start fasting because he had at r,r,ork and Dr Yusuf Ziva Kavakci, rvould not let the Angel of Death take not missed a fast in Ramadan since he Dada's student from Turkey and the his soul in my presence. (He had was nine-years-old. Imam of Dallas, in Dallas': to come and breathed his last at around 11.00arn He was apologetic that I had to suffer attend to Dada's fina1 needs. After Irfan according to the doctor.) the pain of gir,ing permission for his arrived in a fen, minutes, we called Dr Saturda,v 20January 1996, he had been departure fron-r this rrorld and in an Sadia, a Hyderabadi physician rvho lives rushed to a Paris hospitai almost half attempt to make hirn laugh I clen-randed in the neighbourhood. She confirmed alive suffering from hypothermia. I that he would not die in front of me. what rve already knew. With her help, reached Paris the verv next morning. He rvas amused at such a request but Irfan and I re-positioned his bed He rvas on a life support s1,stem. Next said that was not possible. bur if it rras. mindful of the direction of Makkah al- day, lvhich r,r'as a Mondav, I was told that he lvould make rvhaterer bargi,rin rhat N{ukarramah, with his head lifted his body system was no more functional may be necessary r,ith the angel of slightlt', as rve had seen our elders do in and he could not be sustained anv death and the people r,ho calne to take Hvderabad. more. I was, therefore, asked to give m,v him for his last journev, and rr-\' r-lor ro \\-e also cailed his attending physician, consent for the tubes to be removed depart in mv presence. Dr Obaiduilah Ahmad, who had and the system switched off. He had departed todal'. There rr as :i prorided medicai care and home I'isits It took me three days to agonise and slight smile on his face; hls legs riere since rte moved to Jacksonr,ille. Indeed grapple rvith this difficult dilemma bur stretched out r'r'ith his hands folde d as if r'ithout his loring personal care for the , E, after a great deal of soul searching, I he was standing in salat (pralers . la:t three \earsj \\ie may have had to impact TNTERNAIoN,\L :: JAN - MAR zoo3 hospitalise Dada. After talking to the police, Sister Nailah Bolden, whose mother, Rajah * Like the Thames or Seine, Musi Matthews, was buried recently in the MY DADA or Musa Nadi flows through the capital, also called Hyderabad; its same graveyard, and Sister Najmah by Sadida Athaullah Shabazz, occasional flooding has been mv friend and colleague, part called funeral home of folklore. One of it worst the and the floods had happened in 1908, The beloaed of Alkrh cemetery officials. We received only seven months after Dada's permission to keep Dada at home and birth. After Muhammad Hamidullah the floods there was take him direct to the graveyard as soon an outbreak of disease killing a as the grave was ready'. large number of infants and old Aryiaed at darun in 1908 We turned on the AC, packed the people. Many Hyderabadis who room with ice and turned on the fans to had survived the floods died of The Sun rising oaer riuer Musi disease later. cool the room. Dr Yusuf Kavakci from Dada said his elders used to tell Dallas and Reihan, mv brother, from Heard gurgles of a bafu with him that they thought that as he Lancaster Pennslyvania, arrived in did not die at that time, even Jacksonville by 10.00pm and a few local big beauti,ful eys though a sickly baby, it must Muslims, probably well under 50, called have been for good reason and to pay their respects. As yet uncrware 0f life. God wanted him to do Reihan and I sat all night with Dada as something in his life. Musa Nadi Irfan got the burial shroud, arranged hfy beloued Dada was, therefore, very important to Dada. We would stroll by the for the grave digging and made all the departed, in the afternoon 2002 River Seine in Paris and he would arrangements to wash and prepare the call it the Musa Nadi of Paris, The sun st&jed behind clouds and body next morning rvith the help of make up some verses about the local brothers. the rhilly Sl Johns riuer refugees and homeless having to Junaid and Muzaffar Adil, mi' cousins no substitute for Musi find their Musa Nadi wherever from New and Chicago, arrived they happened to end up. Jersev proaiding the sand and silt the next morning. When I brought him to Wilkes After Fajr on Wednesday, Dr Yusuf Barre, Pennslyvania, I took him After almost a centur) to the River Susquehanna when Kavakci, hfan, Reihan and two or three Liaing, breathing, writing we shared the old jokes about neighbours washed Dada in the patio the Seine. After we moved to and laid him out in the dining area, in To please Allah Jacksonville on the banks of the the same spot \'vhere he had his last 5t Johns river, in summer I used touched, meal, less than 24 hours ago. We then Haaing the world to take him frequently to sit by waited for the final arrangements. the Susquehanna river. At 12.15pm Dada began his last by the rest of humanity journey to his resting place on StJohns Bluff. Irfan, Reihan, Junaid, Dr Yusuf Kavakci and other brothers carried him in their arms to the van, and wrapped in an additional sheet to prevent his he is shaded by a grand old live oak tree Please keep me in all your prayers. I burial shroud touching unclean and I plan to plant a pomegranate tree surfaces. by the fence. Sadida Athaullah He arrived at Chapel Hill Cemetery. He is buried in the first row of graves Brother Adam Ferreti applied 'llr so there is no one above him. He is at (natural scent extracted from flowers), the end of the row, so no one will be '1. See Confessions and Conversations which he had received as a gift in buried next to him on the left. On the 2. Former Dean and Professor of lslamic Law Makkah al-Mukarramah rvhen he had right, he is in the company of a 83-year- at the College of lslamic Studies, Ataturk accepted Islam. old female writer', a Muslim writer- University, Erzurum, Turkey, and now There were about 70 men and five activist and young motherl, who died of director and imam at the lslamic Centre of women at the graveyard. And Dr Yusuf complications giving birth to nvin boys, Dallas, Dallas, Texas. Kavakci led the prayers. and a fi'vo-year-old childo. It seems Allah 3. Sister Rajah Matthews who recently The Imam, Hafiz Zaid granted Dada his every wish, inciuding Jacksonville passed away after suffering from cancer for Malik, Irfan and others \{ent into the the occupants ol neighborrring graves. a few months. She had returned to lslam grave and Dr Yusuf Kavakci, Dr for writers and children were alnays his late in life and loved lslam so much that she Muzaffar, Dr Junaid and Dr Reihan preferred companions. wanted to share it with all whom she met. lorvered Dada into it. He u'anted to be 'that fortunate man She wrote a book on lslam and published it Whenever I would say, 'I think you who lived and rvorked and died in herself and gave all proceeds to the local lslamic school.