Tribute
Feb 12, 2023
A tribute from Dr. Faizan Mustafa
Indian academic and legal scholar, former student and protégé of Prof. Siddiqi
I had gone to AMU with the sole purpose of studying history. Zakaria Saheb taught me Indian Penal Code in the first year. He was an excellent teacher — I opted for his elective in the second year, and by LLM he had become quite affectionate towards me. He encouraged me to join academia. I have said many times that I was appointed as lecturer only because of him.
I got a Commonwealth scholarship due to my dissertation under Prof. Zakaria Saheb. Within a year of my appointment, Zakaria Saheb left for Malaysia. I was feeling sad — we used to have long conversations in the evening in his house in medical colony. Mrs. Zakaria herself was a faculty member of the Dept. of Sociology and used to shower her affection on Zakaria Saheb's students. I do not know how many hundreds of cups of tea I took from her.
Zakaria Saheb was a gem of a human being. He rarely got angry. He had a great sense of humour and I used to love his classes. He was the first to start sentencing as a course. He was passionate about teaching and used to teach even criminology diploma students for hours. My LLM classes even in June's Ramzan used to be of three hours or more — he wouldn't leave us even for noon prayer, saying "let me first finish this discussion and then you can pray in your rooms."
Whatever little I am today it is because of his training and because of him. Legal fraternity has lost a great teacher. My heart and mind are with the family.
ہزاروں سال نرگس اپنی بے نوری پہ روتی ہے
بڑی مشکل سے ہوتا ہے چمن میں دیدہ ور پیدا
For thousands of years the narcissus weeps its blindness — rarely does the garden bring forth one with true sight.
Remembrance
Feb 19, 2023
A short address at a prayer service
By Faisal Zakaria Siddiqi, son
He was trained in the humanities and law but at heart was a true engineer. As a teenager in the 1950s, he once made a full working model of a steam engine locomotive. He was great at bookcraft — he made a custom album for old coins, from scratch, that still houses coins from the 1800s. He was a great handyman about the house and would tell me I didn't even know how to hold a screwdriver, what kind of engineer I was training to be.
He loved gardening, and would spend hours every week tending the grass. Our garden in Medical Colony University housing in India was famous for a great grass patch. Since we all moved to America, Abbu would come over and plant fruit trees. Even today, one of the sweetest peaches in our home is from a tree Abbu planted. Quite literally, the fruits of his labor will be available for years to enjoy, InShaAllah.
Last but not least, Abbu's creativity with words and his highly sociable personality showed in the many family wedding parody songs he wrote for close family members. It was a unique skill and it made him extremely well liked among our extended family. Always smiling, always with a sense of humor, and always humble.
He always said: "You should aim to plant a Tikli in the sky" — Tikli was his word for a medal. It was his way of dreaming for outstanding success for his children. We are still trying.
Abbu got to live a full and accomplished life and it was our privilege that the last several years of his retirement he was surrounded by all his loved ones. May Allah forgive his sins and grant him entry into Jannatul Firdaus. And may He give us the patience to live without Abbu, and continue to support his legacy.
