The Muslim News

March 2013, Issue 9

Receiving life time service award

Attending UK convention
Join us to celebrate 100 years of Propagation of Islam in the UK Friday May 3, starting 1300 Dar us Salaam Wembley Sat May 4, starting 09:30 H G Wells Halls, Woking
for hospital for investigation. He also expressed much concern that he had not been able to cover Hazrat Ameers tour after Hazrat Ameer left for Trinidad.

Attending annual jalsa Lahore

Broadcasts On www.virtualmosque.co.uk Every Friday khutba at 12:30 Dars at 13:15 Sunday Meetings at 15:00
diately informed his brothers and his children. Br Akbar had already bought a plot in the Greater Sacramento Muslim Cemetery. The janaza prayer for the deceased was announced for Monday, 19th November at 1.30 p.m., immediately after the Zuhr prayer. All the funeral arrangements were made at the funeral home by the cemetery management. Maulana Mumtaz Qasmi is the Imam of the Muslim Mosque Association of Sacramento at 411 V Street, California, 95814. He supervised the arrangements and led the janaza prayers. In spite of Monday being a working day, all Br Akbars brothers, his children, members of the Hayward Jamaat, and other relatives and friends gathered to pay their last respects to this noble and helpful brother. Coffin of the late Br Akbar Abdullah in the Mosque in Sacramento, California, USA Relatives and friends paying

Next Meeting
Sunday, 3rd March 2013 At 15:00 exactly

A tribute to a very dear friend and colleague...

by Nasir Ahmad B.A., LL.B.
The late Brother Akbar Abdullah laid to rest in Greater Sacramento Muslim Cemetery, California, USA. Br Akbar Abdullah silently breathed his last in the early hours of 17th November, 2012. For the last couple of weeks of his life he was not feeling well. It was suspected that he was suffering from some kind of haemorrhage and consequently he was becoming weak. I spoke to him on the evening of Thursday 15th November. He told me that he was just leaving

He was confident that after the hospital investigation some kind of treatment would start and it would improve his health and then he would be able to give readers an upto-date resume of Hazrat Ameers long tour. Alas! This proved to be his dying wish. I understand from Bhabi Parveen that on the Friday he was quite down and did not eat much. Before it was bedtime Bhabi Parveen asked him if he would like to have some juice, but he declined and went to sleep. The next morning at six oclock she went to his bed as usual to wake him and to give him something to eat before he could have his insulin injection. But he did not respond to her call and when she shook him she realised that he was dead. She imme-

Ahamdiyya Anjuman Ishaat Islam Lahore

15 Stanley Avenue, Wembley, UK, HAO 4JQ aaiiLahore@gmail.com

their last respects to their beloved brother who was so close to them. He leaves behind three sons and two daughters. A bouquet was sent by the grandson of the late Elijah Muhammad, Wallas Deen Muhammad-II (President of Mosque Cares, Ministry of W. Deen Mohammed for Imams, and proprietor of W. D. Publications, P.O. Box 1061, Calumet City, Illinois 60409) with a condolence note: With loving thoughts, we pray his soul may rest in the bliss of Paradise and that Allah (swt) may give his family patience, strength and support. Br Akbar Abdullah was born in 1931 to Master Muhammad Abdullah and Mrs Hamida Abdullah at Suva, Fiji, where Master Muhammad Abdullah was sent by the Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement as a preacher and teacher on the request of the Fiji Muslim League. For almost four years of his early childhood Br Akbar was not in good health, but eventually he passed his Matriculation from Suva Mission High School. On 11 December, 1959 Master Muhammad Abdullah, along with his two daughters and two of his sons, migrated to San Francisco, California. His wife and four of his sons had already gone a few years before. The last two sons, Saeed Abdullah and Zafar Abdullah, went on 10 April, 1961. Here, Master Muhammad Abdullah got a job at the Wells Fargo Bank of San Francisco. It was in this very city that the Central Ahmadiyya Anjuman (Lahore) had started the Muslim Society of the USA Inc. at 870 Castro Street in 1947, headed by the well-known Ahmadi missionary, Maulana Bashir Ahmad Minto. Br Akbar Abdullah became the secretary of this first Islamic organisation in California in 1949. During his tenure he was able to organise receptions in honour of the first Prime Minister of Pakistan, Mr Liaquat Ali Khan, Ch. Muhammad Zafarullah Khan, then Foreign Minister of Pakistan, and Mr Muhammad Saleem Khan, the first Consul General of Paki-

stan in San Francisco. He also arranged a grand reception on the eve of the nikah ceremony of the daughter of Queen Nazli and sister of King Farouk of Egypt. The ceremony was performed by Maulana Bashir Ahmad Minto and witnessed by Br Akbar Abdullah. On 23 June, 1953 a reception was also organised by the Muslim Society to celebrate the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II of England. Br Akbar Abdullah studied Chemical Technology and Agricultural Chemistry, and he did his M.Sc. At California Polytechnic State University of San Luis Obispo, California, in 1955. Then he went to Pakistan and worked as Divisional Manager in Ferozsons Laboratories Limited, Nowshera, from 1960-1970. In Pakistan, he married Zakia Butt, daughter of Mr Ahmad Din Butt, Inspector of Schools, Punjab. He later returned to the USA with his family and settled in Chicago. Here he worked for eight years as a Chemistry teacher at a High School of the Nation of Islam. His wife, unfortunately, became ill and was bed-ridden for almost six years. Br Akbar Abdullah took all possible care for his ailing lifepartner, but she died in 1993. His older daughter, Ranaa, got married and she and her husband moved in with Br Akbar, who was lonely, to look after him. He later he developed a heart problem and also became diabetic. A stage came when he needed constant care and companionship. In 2007 he went to Fiji and by chance met Parmil Lata through a friend. She was a Hindu, but during several meetings and discussions about Islam she became very interested in the religion. Br Akbar Abdullah convinced her about the universal teachings of Islam and told her that all divine reformers in any country or among any people were raised by God, and similar is the case of the Hindu Rishis. She ultimately entered the fold of Islam. Parmil Lata was a divorcee with children, but Br Akbar Abdullahs

friendliness and straightforwardness impressed he and they got married in 2007 in Fiji. From Parmil Lata she became Parveen Abdullah. As Br Akbar was also asthmatic and the Chicago climate was often very cold and damp, he moved from Chicago to Sacramento, an area of comparatively mild weather. He bought a house at 7740 Laurie Way, Sacramento, CA 95832. In April 1996 he published an eight-page well-documented issue of The Zeenat Report on the 90th birthday of his revered father, the late Master Muhammad Abdullah. On its title page was a beautiful photograph of his father with a caption, Imam Muhammad Abdullah A distinguished Teacher and a dedicated Preacher. On pp. 2, 3 of this first issue is a very impressive and precise tribute to his father under the title, A Tribute to 90 Years Legend. On pp. 5, 6 he has given very impressive details of his own tours in 1954 and 1956 of the USA, Canada, Holland, Germany and the UK. His visit to Berlin, Germany shows how much love and concern he had for the Berlin Mosque . The style and pattern of that issue of The Zeenat was what he later adopted in The HOPE Bulletin. It appears that afterwards The HOPE Bulletin was his next project, to which he devoted day and night, and even his strained financial resources and fading health. During Hazrat Ameers recent tour of the Bay Area, California, Br Akbar made special efforts to be present with his wife at every function and meeting, travelling by bus, train and taxi, though his failing health did not allow such a strain. In short, in his last days he made every effort to see the HOPE carry the joys and sorrows of everyone to the Jamaats all over the world. May his soul, which was devoted to the cause of Islam and sharing the joys and sorrows of people, live in peace with the Merciful Lord! Ameen!