On 26.06.2023 corresponding 08th Zulhijjah 1444, the last month of the Islamic calendar at about 7:00 pm I was in a motel beside GT road at Bhoor Chauraha, Bulandshahr, UP, Delhi, NCR, to take evening tea with some snacks. I opened my WhatsApp screen to check message updates of my professional contacts and that of my near and dear ones. My eyes went to the messages of my younger brother Waseem Akram – Dada ka inteqal hogaya hai
Abhi abhi 10 mts pahle
“Our grandfather is no more! He has breathed his last just 10 minutes ago.”
This news was the most sorrowful of all communications I received on WhatsApp because when my mother Amina Khatoon d/o Mohd Zafar Siddiqui left us for heavenly abode about two years back, I was with her. For a while, I turned numbed and felt intense emotion a person feels at such moments in his life and some memoirs of my grandfather began flashing to my mind back.
It was 1988. I was merely 10 years of age memorizing the Holy Book of Islam in Darul Uloom Naimia in the heart of the city of Chhapra, the headquarter of Saran division. My maternal uncle Mufti Maulana Saghir Ahmad Noori was the Head Teacher and Imam-o-Khatib at the Jame Masjid of Chhapra situated within the campus of Darul Uloom Naimia Chhapra. My grandfather had been appointed a religious teacher and Imam at one of the mosques in the nearby towns with efforts of my maternal uncle Maulana Saghir Ahmad Noori, his maternal nephew and brother in law of his son Mohd Mushtaq Ahmad Siddiqui. He came almost every week to Darul Uloom Naimia to meet with his grandson Hamid Siddiqui (me) a ten years student of the Holy Quran who was soon to become Hafize Quran. One of his purposes was to give some money to his grandson and meet with his maternal nephew.
During this period, he was in his sixties. He taught children basic religious books on Islam leading Friday and five time prayers in a mosque. Was he a graduate from Islamic Seminary to act in this capacity i.e. working as a teacher in Islamic schools, leading prayers in the mosque, performing as a Qazi in Nikah and being Imam in Eid and Baqraeid prayers? No. He would narrate an anecdote whenever he got an opportunity to persons gathered around him in this regard.
“I do work as Imam and preach in Miladunnabi but I have not studied in any Madrasa so how I started doing these things. It was that I was present in the gathering at one of the marriage functions but the Maulvi who had to solemnize Nikah ceremony did not come for any reason. When people considered what should be done, one person suggested that the son of Maulana Ishaq Siddiqui, Ashfaq Sb is present here. He certainly can perform Nikah Ceremony. A man came to me and asked to accomplish this work but since I know nothing like perfuming Nikah Function and other religious rituals I bowed my head down and told I cannot do it. It was very embarrassing moment for me and I decided that such moments of embarrassment must not happen in future and I self learnt everything needed for a man to lead Islamic rituals buying necessary books and learning essentials.”
My grandfather, the son of a famous religious scholar locally, Maulana Ishaq Siddiqui, was two brothers and two sisters. His alone elder brother was Maulana Akhlaq Ahmad Siddiqui, who was a formal Islamic scholar graduated from a distinguished Islami Seminary in UP and Pesh-e-Imam of his village Tehai Urf Dharmpur Narayan and taught at various Islamic schools in the country. His younger sister Mustaqeem Khatoon was married to Maulana Zafar Siddiqui, founder of Darul Uloom Gulshan-e- Madina Jamia Nooria, which is an advancing Islamic institution in Tirhut division of Bihar under the leadership of their son Mufti Maulana Saghir Ahmad Rizvi and his son Mr Madani. The elder sister of late Maulana Ashfaque Sb, Halima Khatoon was married in Balthi Mushahri. Now all four siblings Akhlaq, Ashfaq, Halima Khatoon and Mustaqima Khatoon are no more.
My grandfather could not read formally for a valid reason. There was considerable farming land in title of his maternal parents in Tehai Urf Dharampur Narayan in addition to his ancestral properties in Brindavan. He was stout and handsome and worked hard so his health was good.
My grandfather was married to Jamila Khatoon with whom he had many children some of them died in infancy and other outlived him. Two of his sons Mohd Mushtaque Ahmad Siddiqui (my father) and Mohd Shamim Ahmad Siddiqui have outlived him having sons and daughters. Their elder daughter unfortunately went mad in her teenage, whom the couple took care of properly entitling a lot of rewards to be awarded in the life hereafter.
One unforgettable memoir which I never forget of him was our journey (Hamid Siddiqui and Shahid Siddiqui) with him to Basti in 1891 to get admission in Darul Uloom Islamia Basti. He took us by train to Basti and after getting us to be admitted there when he was to come to return, my younger brother Shahid Siddiqui began weeping and welling so he came back with his grandfather home.
One of his characteristics was that he was hardworking and always wanted to work. When I came of age he was of the retirement age i.e.60 years old but I never saw him sitting idle for months and months at home without doing any work. He worked still in his eighties in some helmets near his village but in his nineties he returned his home.
He had performed Hajj as well. I do not remember the year when he journeyed to Mecca to perform Hajj but frequently he narrated his travel by sea to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and how his ship on which he was journeying got saved from a calamity.
After controlling my emotions and since my other two brothers Mohd Khalid Siddiqui and Waseem Akram and my elder sister Mehrunnisa in addition to a number of dear ones were in Delhi, the option of participating in his Salatul Janaza was taken into account but Muzaffarpur being 1000 km away and as there are instructions in Islam to perform the Salatul Janaza of a Muslim as soon as possible, we decided not to go there to perform the functions due to a person, who has left for heavenly abode.
He is no more after living his full life of about 95 years now but a number of his sons, grandsons, daughters and granddaughters and their male and female children are to keep his race continue. I pray wholeheartedly for his salvation and high status the life hereafter.
By Hamid Siddiqui, CEO at Muslims of India Portal
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