Dr Qazi Ashfaq Ahmad OAM farewelled by family and community

Dr Qazi Ashfaq Ahmad OAM, a well known community leader, Chief Adviser of AMUST and its keen proof reader passed away at the age of 91 at Liverpool Hospital, Sydney, Australia peacefully on Thursday 10 February 2022.

Dr Ahmad was a a retired professor of engineering having studied at Aligarh Muslim University, India, University of Wisconsin, USA and University of Sydney, and taught at various institutions in India, Papua New Guinea and Australia.

Arriving in Australia almost 51 years ago, he was involved in the foundation of a number of community organisations and institutions including Australian Islamic Mission (AIM), the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils (AFIC), Islamic Foundation for Education and Welfare (IFEW), Multicultural Eid Festival and Fair (MEFF), Islamic Forum for Australian Muslims (IFAM) and the Australasian Muslim Times AMUST.

He dedicated his life for imparting Islamic education and training, especially learning and teaching of Quran and the Arabic language, interfaith understanding and communal harmony in Australia as well as overseas.

His funeral prayers were held on Friday 11 February after Juma congregational prayers at Rooty Hills Masjid as well as at the Kemps Creek Cemetery joined by hundreds of people before his burial at the Muslim Lawn section of the Kemps Creek Memorial Park.

He is survived by his wife Jamal Are Ahmad, 90, sons, Zia, Najm, Manar, daughters Fauzia, Najia and a very large close knit family of nephews, nieces, grand children and great grand children numbering over 70 members mainly settled in Sydney.

Short informal memorial services and dua sessions were held at his family residence Dar-ul-Islam in Bonnyrigg, Sydney as well as at the residences of his children in Sydney and Canberra.

The Islamic Forum for Australian Muslims (IFAM), a community based Daawah organisation that he founded and guided, organised a condolence meeting for late Dr Ashfaq Ahmad, a hybrid event on Sunday 27 February 2022 at Marsden Park Masjid in Sydney attended by a large number of people via Zoom from many parts of the world.

The program MC’d by the current President of IFAM, Mr Rais Khan included tributes and reflections by local as well as international speakers who had known Dr Ahmad at various stages in life in India, US, UK and Australia.

Mr Rais Khan, President, IFAM.

The Secretary General of IFAM Mr Usaid Khalil, summed up his life by quoting from the Quran, “And whose words are better than someone who calls ‘others’ to Allah, does good, and says, “I am truly one of those who submit.”? (Quran 41:33)

Mr Usaid Khalil, Secretary General, IFAM.

“When our group came to meet him initially in 1990, he spoke about the need for a group of people who could help him further establish Islam in Australia as a way of life. And of course, we all felt the same way and it was under Abbu’s guidance and his leadership we set out to achieve our goals through IFAM. He was well known for fulfilling his commitments that became a matter of life and death for him and he set out to teach us this one lesson among many others,” Mr Khalil recalled.

Mr Kazi Ali, OAM.

Dr Muzammil Siddiqui from Islamic Society of North America talked about his days as a teenager in Rampur, India in early 1950’s where Dr Ahmad spent his most precious five years studying Islam, various languages, literature, religion and ideologies.

Professor Khurshid Ahmad, 92 from Islamic Foundation, UK, a long time colleague of Dr Ahmad in the Islamic movement, Jamaal-e-Islami talked about his collaboration and services in global Daawah movements, his scholarship in Quranic learning and teaching and his contribution in establishing various organisations and institutions in Australia and South East Asia.

Sheikh Abdool Rehman Khan from US, a keen reader of AMUST who recently met Dr Ahmad three years ago in Sydney recalled of his meeting and robust discussion on the responsibilities of Daawah workers in the West.

Mr Zia Ahmad, Editor-in-Chief, AMUST.

Dr Ahmad’s eldest son, Zia Ahmad, Editor-in-Chief of AMUST, briefly summarised landmarks of his long life and his key characteristics that can serve as an inspiration for Islamic workers including strong commitment to tasks, multitasking, punctuality, volunteerism, financial self sufficiency, planning and doing homework before all meetings, talks and teaching.