December 18, 2006

a patriarch dies

As if the skies wanted to pour the first tears. To be ahead of the mass funeral in bidding a solemn farewell for a man who rose to be a patriarch and a symbol of an era. And a true man of the people all along.

He wasn’t the elite’s hero, but the good folks saw in him a good father, an elder brother who best symbolized their hopes, their virtues and their failings.

Like them, he was born poor. Like them, he was gracious and kind-hearted. Like most of them, he grew to be a caring father, a loving monogamous husband, but Najaf infatuated.

In him, they saw their millennial thirst for justice. As much as their continual wish of peace. And so his story, like their history, was a pendulum oscillating between yearning for justice and settling for peace.

But he and they were ruled by a family that saw the two as an eternal trade-off. Before finally settling on a plan to deny them both justice and peace, permanently.

For almost a decade, it fell on his lone shoulder to lead the balancing act. Not always successfully, but he did it to the best of his abilities. And to the dearest of his sacrifices.

For this was a ruling family that spared no one. And he certainly was not spared.

Today, Sheikh Abdulamir Al-Jamri is with us no more as heavens chose to spare him this last chapter of indignities.

May he rest in peace, and may we live to see a sliver of justice.

3 Comments:

At 10:38 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Amen.

 
At 3:10 PM, Blogger AbuRasool said...

He remains the only turbaned figure in Bahrain whose name is prefixed by all of us with 'alshaykh almunadhel' or 'alshaykh almujahid'. A great soul indeed. AbuRasool

 
At 4:29 PM, Blogger MR said...

The last 5 years were a sad evidence, dear doctor, that this rare and perilous title remains unfilled. Fractions just won't do.

 

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