By Mohd. Ismail Khan, TwoCircles.net,
Hyderabad: Maulana Abid Khan, a well-known cleric of Hyderabad and face of Tablighi Jamaat in Andhra Pradesh passed away Thursday morning after a brief illness. He was admitted to the Apollo hospital two weeks back after a kidney failure. Few days back his health got deteriorated and he went into coma, and breathed his last at 5 am on 6th September. He was 70 years old and is survived by two sons and four daughters.
The news of his demise spread like a wildfire. The command he enjoyed over Hyderabad Muslims was witnessed in Eidgah Bilali compound at Masab Tank where more than 50,000 people gathered from around the city and neighboring districts to attend his funeral prayer. The Namaz-e-Janaza which was scheduled for 1:30 p.m. had to be delayed to 2:30 p.m. as crowd became uncontrollable and Hockey ground which was used as Eidgah saw much more crowd than for Eid prayers. As hockey ground filled to its capacity, many queues were made out on the main road.
Ameer of Tablighi Jamaat Andhra Pradesh Maulana Naymatullah Khan led the funeral prayers. After the funeral prayers the body of Maulana Abid Khan was taken to Tolichowki in a vehicle from there it was given shoulders to the Hakimpet where he was buried in his family graveyard.
A great orator and philosopher Maulana Abid Khan was associated with Tablighi Jamaat from his student days. He was Khateeb of Jama Masjid Mursheedabad, and regular speaker in the Tablighi Jamat Markaz at Mallepaly. His powerful oration and deep thinking of Islamic philosophy gained him respect in all the sects of Islam. He devoted his entire life in bringing the wrongdoers into the right path of Islam, many Muslims reportedly changed their behavior and became religious after listening to his speeches.
He always made his sermons on the basic principles of Islam, in his speeches he always used to say that Muslims should not hate their own Muslim brothers, because it is sins which have made him bad, so one should hate those sins not a Muslim himself.
Minority affairs minister Mohd Ahmedullah expressed his condolence with the family members of Maulana and the whole Muslim community. In his press statement minority affairs minister described Maulana Abid Khan as a great Islamic preacher who spent his entire life for the wellbeing and service of Muslim community.