CHARLOTTE, N.C. ? On March 25, 2012, Al-Hajji Imam Salahuddin Hasan passed at the age of 65. Daughter, Hannah Abdul-Awwal, here in excerpt, gave a Fatherhood Tribute to her father:
?? We pray that G-d accepts every prayer made on behalf of our father and our family. And we pray that your hearts find ease in the facts that Imam Salahuddin Hasan lived an honorable G-d-Fearing life; and that we are strong as a family and we are going to be okay.
Some years ago, my daddy had the opportunity to have breakfast with one of his hero?s, The Champ, Muhammad Ali. He came away with this signed napkin that I used to look at often. Muhammad Ali signed the napkin and he left a quote: ?Service to others is the rent we pay for our room here on earth.?
I would venture to say that my dad has been paying rent for a long time now. He has worked hard. He was never just ours. He belonged to the community. You all knew the Imam, the welder, the chicken man, the community organizer; but we knew daddy.
? In our home, prayer was established. As Muslims, we pray five times a day. You better believe that he saw to it that regardless of how young we were, of how tired we were, of how anything we were, we were going to pray.
When we would make our morning prayer, he would be up before the sun. He would make the adhan (the call to prayer) and then he would begin to rally the troops. He?d get my mom up and all six of us. I think I was the most difficult to wake.
? If we were watching television and it was time to pray, he would turn the it off in the middle of a show, and say, ?Time to pray.? If our friends, who weren?t Muslim, and didn?t quite understand why we didn?t eat 30 days out of the year or why we sometimes spoke Arabic, were around and it was time to pray, he would come in and call us to prayer.
? He was more interested in being our father than being our friend. He was establishing groundwork for our future. He knew that those prayers would be a building block that we could stand firm on in times of praise and pain. He led by example. We prayed because he prayed.
Even when we didn?t fully understand why we were doing it, we prayed. When he was in the hospital a couple of weeks ago, he had trouble putting coherent sentences together, but I saw him pull himself up, raise his hands to his head and submit to his Lord.
? Aside from his relationship with G-d, the next best thing he showed us was his relationship with my mother. He loved Linda Hassan. They argued, they had their times, but they showed us a solid loving relationship that defied time and logic. I never saw him put his hands on her, never heard him call her out of her name.
In her moments of sickness, when she couldn?t care for herself, he cared for her. This man that you know that would tell it like it is, that offered unsolicited advice at the drop of a hat, that would challenge you to a debate in a second, was a kind and loving husband.
The work that you did together in the community will be a testament for him as he takes this next journey. And mama, you spent years devoting your life to women who needed your help in their darkest hour. You?ve brought them back from the depths of despair. He loved that in you.
Though he is not physically here, he is here with you reminding you (as he did us all of the time) ? ?you?ve got work to do.? When you can?t find your way through these difficult times, lose yourself in the service of others. You know how to get there. It?s what he would want, and it?s what you need.
I remember a time when he had arranged a performance for Expressions (without our knowledge) on the weekend of Act?s homecoming. I called him to tell him that we wouldn?t be able to make it, because we were going to the concert.
He told me that I didn?t get to decide that, that when we are blessed with a talent, that when you have the ability to touch people, that your gift is not your own. I didn?t have a choice because GOD didn?t give me one.
Finally, I say to my siblings. Daddy is not physically here with us anymore. No amount of crying or pleading can bring him back. I?m pretty sure, that if his life is what we thought it was, he wouldn?t want to come back here anyway. He has done his job.
Now we have work to do. He used to always remind us that when you fight and argue, you lose the power amongst yourselves. I?m so happy that we are all so close, and we can depend on each other to make sure that our power stays strong.
He told us in the letter that he left us that we have three days after his death to grieve, and then it?s back to work. It is our time to carry the torch. It is our time to honor our parents and show them that their work is not in vain.
We must all remember that we don?t get a choice in the work that our LORD has called us to do. He would remind us that to each is a GOAL in which ALLAH turns us to, and the time that we have to achieve those goals is short.
I am offering everyone the advice that I think daddy would offer, If you have a degree to finish, Law school to go to, a business to start, some comic books to design, a song to write, a restaurant to open; or whatever you are being called to ? value your time, use it wisely, get up off of your knees and go to prayer, go to success, and live like he did ? as a champion, as a giant.
May our Lord be well pleased with him, forgive him his sins, and grant him a station closet to Him in Paradise.?
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Source: http://muslimjournal.net/?p=689
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