AhlulBayt News Agency (ABNA): Bismillahi al-Rahamn al-Rahim. Allahumma Salli 'ala Muhammadin wa Alihi al-Tahirin. Yesterday night at 9:00 PM local time I received the sad news that my teacher, Sayyid Muhammad Husayn al-Husayni al-Jalali had passed a way that night after 'isha'.
إنا لله وإنا إليه راجعون
This is a great loss for me and the entire Muslim Ummah. Sayyid Jalali was a man of very great erudition and of equal humility. I first met him in person on July 5, 1997 in Chicago along with a another dear friend and mentor, Shaykh Abdullah Nooruddeen Durkee who also recently passed away (My most recent posts were about him).
I learned many things from the Sayyid over the next 23 years, during which we remained in touch, mainly by phone, e-mail and even written letters as my own journey took me to numerous cities of Allah's vast earth. It is with great difficulty that I am writing these lines and as many people are sharing their memories of the Sayyid on various media I would simply like to say, that were it not for the Sayyyid's words of support, encouragement, scholarly guidance, and prayers I would never have been able to finish my PhD dissertation and graduate from Princeton. Shortly after I did finish, I went to visit the Sayyid in Chicago in the freezing cold of November 2000, and stayed with him for more than a week during which he gave me an intensive course in Qur'anic studies. I still have my handwritten notes to this day. Some months later I left the US to begin teaching abroad. I did not return to the US until 15 years later and met the Sayyid for the last time in July 2019.
It was Sayyid Jalali who initiated me into the world of Islamic manuscripts and manuscript research (Tahqiq تحقيق) regarding which we had hundreds of conversations over the years. He would always share with me the copies of any manuscripts he had and over the years I visited many manuscript collections around the world and obtained copies of various works for him. It was the Sayyid who also paved the way for me to conduct manuscript research in Istanbul through one of his contacts there.
There are many anecdotes I could relate but there is one in particular which I can never forget. In 1999, I became extremely ill and was unable to study at all. Even reading became impossible. I phoned Sayyid Jalali and asked him to pray for me. He said that he would not only do this but that he would come and visit me. America is a large country and he was four hours away by plane. Despite my protestations, he came to see me and pray for me in person.
Sayyid Jalali was buried today in Chicago, Illinois, USA after the Zhur prayers. May Allah have mercy on his soul. I humbly request that those who read this to recite al-Fatiha for the departed.
الدكتور السيد نظام الدين احمد - كندا
Dr. Nizamuddin Ahmed - Canada
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