By Mumtaz Alam Falahi, TwoCircles.net,
New Delhi: About 10:45 pm last night the former Shahi Imam of Delhi’s Shahjahani Jama Masjid and father of present Imam Ahmad Bukhari, Abdullah Bukhari (1922-2009) was put to final rest in the family graveyard in the shadow of the mosque on north-west side.
At 9:30 am Abdullah Bukhari took his last breath in All India Institute of Medical Sciences. As soon as the news reached the Jama Masjid area in the Walled City in Delhi, people shuttered down their shops and rushed to the mosque to offer condolences to the bereaved family of late Abdullah Bukhari. People from every part of city and many from neighboring states thronged to the Jama Masjid to have a glimpse of the coffin of the late Bukhari. Dozens of women from the locality were also seen visiting the coffin put in the Jama Masjid for public view.
People offering Isha Prayer before Funeral Prayer
Soon after, people from higher sections of the society also queued up to offer condolences to the sons of Abdullah Bukhari – Ahmad Bukhari, Yahya Bukhari and Tariq Bukhari. The chain of arrival of politicians – from Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit and her Cabinet colleagues including Haroon Yousuf to Union Cabinet Ministers Ghulam Nabi Azad, Farooque Abdullah to former Cabinet Ministers Subodh Kant Sahay, Zafar Ali Naqvi and newly elected MP Muhammad Azharuddin to J P Aggarwal, D P Yadav and M S Bitta – ended only around midnight.
Muslim religious leaders including Jamiat Ahle Hadees General Secretary Ali Asghar Imam Mehdi, Jamiat Ulama-I-Hind leader Maulana Mahmood Madani and Jamaat-e-Islami Hind leaders – Ameer Maualana Jalaluddin Umri, General Secretary Nusrat Ali and Central Advisory Council Member Syed Qasim Rasool Ilyas also visited the Bukhari family and offered condolences.
Downed shutters mourning the departure of Abdullah Bukhari
Thousands of people gathered in Jama Masjid to offer Isha Prayer and then Funeral Prayer that followed. The Funeral Prayer was led by his son Shahi Imam Ahmad Bukhari.
In his condolence message, Vice President of India Hamid Ansari expressed his grief at the demise of Abdullah Bukhari. He described his as the leader of millions of Muslims. “He was not confined to mosque, he was the leader of crores of Muslims and had a distinct place among the Muslim leaders in the Sub-Continent.
People waiting for their turn to have a glimpse of the body
UPA Chairperson and Congress President Sonia Gandhi also expressed grief at the death of Abdullah Bukhari. “He will always be remembered in the history of Jama Masjid and the country,” she said in her message.