Hafiz Mohamed Ahmed Patel (RA)

In the Name of Allah, the Most Gra­cious, the Most Merciful.

As-salā­mu ‘alaykum wa-rah­mat­ul­lāhi wa-barakā­tuh (Peace, Bless­ings & Mer­cy of Allah be upon You).

Shaykh-ul-Ḥadīth Ḥaḍrat Mawlānā Muhammad Saleem Dhorat ḥafiẓahullāh

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Wifaqul Ula­ma: Assala­mu ‘Alaikum wa Rah­mat­ul­lahi wa Barakatuh Maulana

Maulana: Wa alaykum As-salam wa Rah­mat­ul­lahi wa Barakatuh

Wifaqul Ula­ma: Maulana, I would just like to ask you a few ques­tion and I know that this is an emo­tion­al time but for the ben­e­fit of oth­er Muslims.

Maulana: Inshal­lah

Wifaqul Ula­ma: Maulana, How long had you per­son­al­ly known Hafiz Patel (RA)?

Maulana: Ever since my child­hood from a very young age due to the involve­ment of my fam­i­ly in the work of Tableegh. Then dur­ing my stud­ies at Darul-uloom Dews­bury and afterwards. 

Wifaqul Ula­ma: Maulana, I won’t take much of your time please describe your eye wit­ness account of the Janazah Prayers.

Maulana: To the best of my obser­va­tion, there were 25 Saffs (rows) dur­ing Salah. There were approx­i­mate­ly 5,000 peo­ple there. In excess of 1,000 peo­ple were present at the gravesite dur­ing his bur­ial. The Salah was led by his son (Maulana) Saeed Sahib.

Wifaqul Ula­ma: Maulana, Your arti­cle was the one of the first to emerge on the Inter­net and has gone viral, Wifaqul Ula­ma would like your per­mis­sion to repro­duce it on our site with your permission.

Maulana: Inshal­lah, please go ahead and we make dua to Allah Ta’ala grant him a high sta­tus of Jannah

Wifaqul Ula­ma: Ameen Maulana and Jazāk Allāhu khayran

Tribute to Hafiz Mohamed Ahmed Patel, Rahimahullah (1926–2016):

As the sun sank of Thurs­day 18th Feb­ru­ary 2016, so did the great shin­ing star sink and begin to fade away to start a new jour­ney towards the eter­nal life.

As the blessed day of Fri­day began (after Maghrib), lit­tle did any­one know that Hafiz Sahib Rahimahul­lah, was tak­ing his final breaths and before Esha, he would have tak­en his last breath and depart­ed from this world.

Whilst Markaz was busy with Shab-e-Jummah, he slipped away very peace­ful­ly in his sleep with­out any signs of pain or vis­i­ble dis­com­fort and it was con­firmed before Esha that he had left this world for the next.

With­in a span of 15–20 min­utes, news spread around the globe like fire and shocked all those that knew him or whose hearts he had touched and minds that he had trans­formed into bet­ter beings. Indi­vid­u­als and groups rushed to air­ports from var­i­ous coun­tries to try and book a seat to fly over to pay their final respects and get a pos­si­ble glimpse of the guide and leader who they had revered and hon­oured all their life. They had been lec­tured by him on top­ics of respect, tol­er­ance, love, uni­ty and piety.

Those that were present became help­less in hold­ing back their tears when the shock­ing news final­ly reg­is­tered and they came face to face with real­i­ty. The indi­vid­ual who used to com­fort them at times of dis­tress was no longer any-more. They had lost the shoul­der they were so used to, cry­ing on.

Prepa­ra­tions were soon under­way and instruc­tions were giv­en on how and where the Janazah would take place, in order to best accom­mo­date the thou­sands that would be arriv­ing from all over the globe at such a short notice.

The esteemed body that had trav­elled around the world tire­less­ly prop­a­gat­ing the mes­sage of peace and love for all, had final­ly come to a halt and remained in Markaz that night.

Fri­day morn­ing wel­comed all with bright sunshine’s fol­lowed by grey skies after mid­day which was to lead to Allah’s mer­cy in the sign of slight driz­zle just before the Janazah.

Ghusal was under­tak­en by mem­bers of the house­hold and the body was laid in Masjid Umar for fam­i­ly mem­bers to pay their last respects to the pil­lar of the fam­i­ly, local­i­ty, com­mu­ni­ty and for all around the globe.

From morn­ing onwards peo­ple start­ed trick­ling in, then flock­ing and final­ly pour­ing in to Dews­bury to attend Jummah, all admir­ing the great work of an out­stand­ing leader, regret­ting the loss and men­tion­ing how they had been orphaned.

All the local Masaa­jid were packed out well before time. Food was served before and after Jummah to all the guests arriv­ing at var­i­ous times.

Mus­lims and non-Mus­lims had been touched by the depar­ture of such a great char­ac­ter that had gone in the books of his­to­ry as a ‘Wali of Allah’. The local politi­cians approved free park­ing in all car parks around the town and so had the coun­cil work­ers and funer­al ser­vices shown their kind ges­tures in try­ing to accom­mo­date such a large funeral.

Even though the ground of the sports field was quite soft and damp, thou­sands wrapped in warm coats and hats, merged onto the funer­al ground well before time in hope of get­ting a place at the front to get a glimpse of the cof­fin, when it was to be presented.

Asar Salah took place on the field and in the local Masaa­jid which was fol­lowed by the atten­dees pour­ing onto the sports field from all angles and cor­ners. The right­ful heir, Hafiz Sahib’s son, Maulana Saeed Sahib DB led the Janazah Salaah, in front of approx­i­mate­ly 25k attendees.

Straight after the Janazah, every­one tried to rush towards the ceme­tery to par­tic­i­pate for the bur­ial but the nar­row roads of Dews­bury had not wit­nessed before, such a huge num­ber of vehi­cles all try­ing to get to the same des­ti­na­tion. Whilst dri­ving through some areas it was dif­fi­cult to even see the road due to the crowds of peo­ple try­ing to pass by.

Around 5k peo­ple made it for bur­ial, with many decid­ing to park up and come walk­ing, whilst oth­ers either gave up due to the near­ly stand­still traf­fic at many places or were still on their way.

Dur­ing the blessed time after Asar on the Fri­day and before the day could slip away, Hafiz Sahib Rahimahul­lah was laid to rest in the grave and peo­ple start­ed to leave for Maghrib after Dua was made.

There was a som­bre mood upon the great loss, mixed with exchanges of per­son­al cel­e­bra­to­ry notes and fond mem­o­ries of the great Ameer who was well versed in the art of giv­ing Dawah. He knew when to be stern and when to be soft. He com­fort­ed when appro­pri­ate and con­demned when need be. He hugged when a need arouse and held account­able when tasks weren’t completed.

Every­one will have their lov­ing mem­o­ries of the great spir­i­tu­al father­ly fig­ure that had touched their lives. I remem­ber that he was very fond of my hand­writ­ing would always call upon me for a many years when­ev­er he need­ed to send a let­ters to the elders of the work of Dawah around the world for var­i­ous rea­sons. He had also instruct­ed me to com­pile 100’s of pages of oth­er work includ­ing lec­tures, let­ters and oth­er valu­able work, all hand­writ­ten. Whether it was late night, taha­jjud time or day­time, he always had the same lev­el of wor­ry and con­cern in try­ing to get the mes­sage across to oth­ers about uni­ty, love, respect, and tol­er­ance. He would always show so much love and affec­tion to me and nev­er get angry or frus­trat­ed at any of my short­com­ings. One of the last things I remem­ber him say­ing to me was. “I always tell you what is good for you because I care for you”. The advice he used to give to all the Mak­tab, Madrasah teach­ers was, “Do not think it is great of you that you come to teach these chil­dren (but hum­ble your­selves) and con­sid­er it an Ihsaan of these chil­dren that they come to you to learn”.

He has left many great lessons for us to learn and to fol­low. I am pos­i­tive all of us will be able to recall sim­i­lar inci­dents. To keep his lega­cy alive we need to fol­low and adopt those lessons of love, uni­ty mutu­al respect and tolerance.

May Allah bless Hadhrat Hafiz Sahib with ease on this first night in the grave and make it a gar­den of Jan­nah and bless him with the very best in the Here­after Insh’Allah, AMEEN

Cau­tion (Wifaqul Ula­ma): His legal name as spelled on his pass­port was Mohamed Ahmed Patel, there are var­i­ous spellings and names in cir­cu­la­tion on the Inter­net please cor­rect the mistakes.