Remembering Umm Ibrahim

- SunniSister reflects on the passing of Umm Ibrahim

- Shaykh Yaqoubi recounts the last days of his wife's life:

Sheikh Muhammad al Yaqoubi sends his warm salaams and utmost appreciation to everyone for the ongoing du'as for his family, and for the Khatm al Quran taking place in various parts throughout the world, mashaAllah. He asks that you please keep sending the du'as especially for his children.

Also, Sheikh Muhammad wanted everyone to know that the last couple of days of his wife's life were filled with joy and celebration. In fact there was a mawlid in their home just the day before she departed and that night Sheikh Muhammad presented her with a bouquet of flowers with a profoundly prominent one as the centerpiece. He said that night they recounted the trials of the recent past and forgave each other for everything, he was content with her and she with him. Radi'a 'alayha wa Radi'at 'alayh. They also spoke much that night about the boy they were expecting, the bundle of Aal al bayt in her belly whom they were going to name "Sharif" after Sheikh Muhammad's paternal granduncle, the famous 'Arif bi Allah, Sheikh Sharif al Yaqoubi. Radia Allahu 'anh. Sheikh Muhammad said it was a better night than their wedding night.

Masha Allah. This is why Sheikh Muhammad declared at the funeral that he was happy with her, so that she, insha Allah, would be of those wives whom the Prophet, salla Allah 'alayhi wa sallam said would be in al Jannah if they passed this world while their husband was content with them. As our consummate teacher, he wanted us all to know that he is in heightened gratitude that Umm Ibrahim, rahimaha Allah ta'ala, departed in this tranquil way. He said she shone with a light in the last couple of days that was clearly a felicitous farewell to the Dunya. Subhan Allah.

- Shaykh Gibril Haddad remembers Umm Ibrahim:

Bismillah al-Rahman al-Rahim, we belong to Allah and to Him we shall return.
{Lo! Allah's promise is the very truth. Let not the life of the world beguile you, nor let the deceiver beguile you, in regard to Allah} (31:33).

Glory and thanks to Allah in every moment and state, Glory to Him Who changes everything but never changes!

The wife of our beloved teacher Shaykh Abu al-Huda Muhammad al-Ya`qubi ibn al-Sayyid Ibrahim al-Ya`qubi al-Hasani passed away on Monday April 10, 2006 (12 Rabi` al-Awwal 1427) after a car accident and was survived by their three children who are in stable condition. The funeral prayer was prayed the next day (today) at Jami` al-Badr in Damascus after Salat al-zuhr and she was buried in the turba of Ahl al-Bayt in Bab al-Saghir cemetary.

The Sharif Abu al-Huda spoke shortly before he led Salat al-Janaza and bore witness to the righteousness of his wife Umm Ibrahim al-Ya`qubi Aal Rabbat who had devoted her life to Allah and His Prophet, His Family, and the students of knowledge in the pious service of her husband. He said that it was her unfailing daily habit to pray one hundred rak`at and to do a khatma of Surat al-Baqara and Surat al-Ma'ida. She had asked him five years ago that if she should pass away he insure that she is buried "with you, Ahl al-Bayt, and in your immediate vicinity." He informed those present that she had passed away bearing in her womb a five-month old fetus from Ahl al-Bayt. Less than a week before her passing she had prepared with her own hand food for 150 people at Sayyid Abu al-Huda's home in donation to the departed soul of Mawlana al-Sayyid Muhammad al-Hashimi al-Darqawi's son. The very day before her passing she had prepared food for the students of Abu al-Huda for the specific occasion of the Mawlid of the Holy Prophet, upon him blessings and peace.

The writer of these lines owes a special debt of gratitude toward Umm Ibrahim who kindly hosted my ailing mother and us a few years ago and whose high religion I witnessed recently after a particular incident. Last `Eid al-Fitr (on the first Friday of November 2005) after the Salat al-`Eid at the Umawi Mosque I went to the Ya`qubi house a half hour away, intending to visit Shaykh Muhammad. At his very doorstep I slipped and broke my right tibia bone in two pieces. As Abu al-Huda came out I only had two words, one was "`Eid Mubarak ya Sayyidi" and the other was: "My leg ya Sayyidi!" Sayyid Abu al-Huda drove me to the hospital on the spot, paid for the operation, brought me back home a couple of days later after, and paid all my family's expenses for the subsequent months, in addition to which, every few days, Umm Ibrahim would drive over from her house to ours with plenteous food she had prepared with her own hands. At the time of her accident she was driving to visit her parents for Mawlid. May Allah repay her with the food and consolation of Paradise!

The first visit I made after I could walk again was to the house of Sayyid Abu al-Huda where he told me: "The greatest tests are for the Prophets, after whom, Allah Most High pours down the trials and tribulations of the world on the Ghawth, who carries what mountains cannot carry, and he is charge of distributing them, first in intensity to the Aqtab, then the Abdal, then the rest of the Awliya, then the commonality." And this loss of his is a test of tremendous proportions which the eyes and ears of witnesses saw and heard Abu al-Huda carrying with words of light and glorification from the Book of Allah and the Sunna and serene states of His Messenger, upon him blessings and peace.

May Allah justify the glad tidings of the many signs He manifested regarding his wife, this pious righteous woman who was blessed with the supportive character of our Mother Khadija in love and respect for her husband who bore witness in her behalf of his being well-pleased with her, in illustration of the Prophetic promise that such a wife enters Paradise. May He ease her entry into the earth, widen her grave for her and illuminate it, and receive her into the vastness of His Paradises and the highest company,

{with those unto whom Allah has shown favor, of the Prophets and the saints and the martyrs and the righteous. The best of company are they!} (4:69). Amin.

`Azzama Allahu ajrakum Aala Ya`qubi wa-Aala Rabbat, and may Allah grant you sabr and the highest reward bi-hurmat al-Habib wa-Surat al-Fatiha.
- Gibril Fouad Haddad