Umm Muhammed Umar

Today I received the sad and frankly, stunning, news that Abdool Gafoor Mia had passed away (May Allah have Mercy on his soul). I once dragged out of him an amazing story of an act of virtue that he had done. It was almost akin to squeezing blood out of a rock. He was reluctant to talk about it, and I begged and pleaded until he shared it to me. At the time it was published without him having gained credit (or so I thought, but it turned out that many people recognized him through his description, and the story went viral – something he scolded me for every time I ran into him), as he had wanted to remain anonymous.

Most Lenasians would be familiar with Ghafaar Bhai’s tall figure, turbaned, with his red, henna dyed beard, walking along the town’s roads, wrapped in a shawl, staff in hand. This is the wondrous story of a great act of charity by Ghafaar Bhai, himself by no means a wealthy man. More importantly, perhaps, his astounding act was a lesson in the importance of keeping one’s word.This is how  Abdool Gafoor, aka Ghafaar Bhai, Mia’s story went:

Ghafaar Bhai had a sister who passed away many years ago. He was in possession of a packet of costume jewellery, which had belonged to his sister. He decided, one day to finally try and sell some of the items, and make something out of them. He said all the accessories were in a simple plastic bag, the kind one buys bread in, and he took it all to a local sweet wholesaler, where he sat outside and tried to sell the items at a mere R5 each. He narrated how he had not managed to sell even a single item and decided to call it quits. Ghafaar Bhai said that the next Saturday he went to see an elderly lady he knew, to give it all away to her. She was reluctant to take it, perhaps as she, being 75 years of age, was unlikely to use it. She did, in fact, protest, saying she did not want the jewellery, but Ghafaar Bhai had become tired of the matter and insisted she accept it. He said, “Take it, and if you do not want it, just give it away.” So, she agreed. Just then, a pair of bangles caught Ghafaar Bhai’s eye. They appeared somewhat different from the rest of the jewellery. Perhaps covered by a little grime over the ages, he had not noticed anything special about them before. He pointed them out to the lady he had gifted them to, and asked her if he could have them back for a short time, to check if they had any value. I remember lucidly how he gasped, to demonstrate how the lady had done so, in excitement, and she asked him: “What if it’s gold??!’

He replied to her in a loud voice, “I’ll GIVE it to you!”

Ghafaar Bhai muttered, barely audibly, that his late mother had always told him that the tongue has thirty-two soldiers (teeth) guarding it, and yet it cannot be controlled. He had given the lady his word. Ghafaar Bhai took the bangles to a jewellery store in the Oriental Plaza, in Fordsburg, and had them evaluated. To his astonishment, they were indeed gold. He said his sister had always told him she owned gold, but he never took note of her words as they were not a wealthy family. The jeweller, meanwhile, offered Ghafaar Bhai R20 000 for the bangles.

Ghafaar Bhai decided to get a second opinion, at a jeweller whom he knew was both a Haafidh and an Aalim. The man told him to leave the bangles with him and return after 10 days. He left Ghafaar Bhai with a scrap of paper on which he had scrawled ‘IOU R25 000’. When Ghafaar Bhai returned to the jeweller, he was handed an envelope full of cash. In it, Ghafaar Bhai found R31 800. He immediately had the outstanding zakaat on the jewellery calculated, and distributed. What remained was roughly R28 000. He says he could not sleep at night, because all he could think about was the verse from Surah al Faatihah: Maaliki Yawmiddeen, Master of the Day of Judgement.

What must have gone through Ghafaar Bhai’s mind for such a verse to haunt him? A man not wealthy, a man of little means… Who would blame him if he were to keep the money? After all, the bangles had belonged to his sister, and he was her only heir… Who would blame him if he were to keep half of the cash and give the lady the other half? He had no assets of his own, and besides, how would she possibly know? Who would blame him if he were to part with R5000 and keep the bulk of the money for himself, did he not also have needs?

‘Maaliki Yawmiddeen’ continued to haunt Abdool Gafoor Mia.

The following Saturday, Ghafaar Bhai again paid the old lady a visit. He gifted her the entire amount the jeweller had given him for the bangles, minus the Zakaat. The old lady tried, in all modesty to refuse the money, she offered to share it with him, and eventually succumbed and accepted it all. Who wouldn’t? Ghafaar Bhai, meanwhile, in concluding his narration, said, “I lost nothing.”

Yes, an eccentric man he must have seemed to many. But that Saturday afternoon, after speaking to me, Ghafaar Bhai opened the carry-all that always accompanied him. the memory that remained with me, even more so than his story about the bangles, was what he pulled out of it. Amongst the many sweets he always carried around to gift to children, and various small items to gift to adults that he met along the way (myself being one of them, over the years, all the while grumbling that everyone knew him now), he removed a kaffan, or burial shroud. It was his own. He had kept it prepared, and with him at all times, in the clear awareness of ‘al Mautu Haqq’ – Death is Real.

The Janaazah salaah of Abdool Gafoor Mia was performed on the night of Wednesday, June the 1st, 2022, followed by his burial  at the Lenasia Qabrastaan. The town will most certainly be at a loss.