THE FAMILY of the Bangsamoro Mufti has extended the period of Ta’azia (convergent consoling) for social tribute one day after he died on July 3. He was 85.
Relatives and friends of Mufti Abubakar AbduRahman Abu Huraira Udasan hosted a post-interment convergence for tribute and sympathies on Tuesday. Many among the Bangsamoro have expressed theirs on social media.
Mufti Udasan peacefully died at his sickbed where he had briefly rested in status of physical weakness but had kept his prayerful trait to his last breath.
For the Bangsamoro people, his Declarations of the start and end of Ramadan fasting will be sensibly missed, even as his articulate preaching on Islamic tolerance can no longer be heard.
He had succeeded the late Mufti Omar Pasigan when the latter died seven years ago. Sheikh Pasigan was the schoolmate of Sulu Mufti Aleem Abi Bakri Abubakar and both majored in Islamic Philosophy in Al-Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt in the 1950’s. Some of the school’s programs, like Arabic Studies and language, were also open to non-Muslim students of other religions.
Indeed, the finest lines of a well-written opinion that the late Mufti Udasan had ever declared at the helm of the Bangsamoro Dharul Ifta (House of Opinion) was that of “Islam on Terrorism and Violent Extremism.” I wrote and quoted portions of the opinion in a news story which landed the next morning on Manila Standard’s Page 1, upper fold.
In high Islamic scholarship, Sheikh Udasan took up Da’wah (Popular Preaching) at the Faculty of Usul-ud-Deen (Origin of the System, the Principles of Religion) at University of Madina. He pursued further studies on Comparative Religions on Islam and Christianity in Jerusalem—which explains his eloquence in explaining issues around the faith citing verses of both the Qur’an and the Bible.
Like many among the Bangsamoro, Chief Minister Ahod Ebrahim is saddened by the demise of the Mufti.
“Mufti Udasan has dedicated his life to Islam across the world […] He will always be remembered as a renowned head of the Bangsamoro Islamic Advisory Council and for his life-long service and dedication to the Bangsamoro struggle. He left a void that is impossible to fill,” the Chief Minister said.
Mufti Udasan was one of the pillars of the core foundation of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).
There was only one instance of a “split” from differing opinions between Sheikh Udasan and Aleem Abi Bakri in the most recent Ramadan. The latter had affirmed the announcement from a neighboring region about the sighting of the crescent moon; the first stuck it out with the principle of home-based sighting.
As usual, the Bangsamoro Dharul Ifta which he headed until his death was backed by a pool of ulama and professionals—and by dozens of volunteers at the moon-sighting.
But first, Sheikh Udasan once said that he was a student of pre-war Muslim law scholar Sheikh Muhammad Hussain Paduman when the old man once settled in Kitango (now part of Datu Saudi Ampatuan).
The first name of Mufti Udasan that was Abubakar was not as popular as his second name Abu Huraira, a leading figure in the literal and historical studies of Islam.
His name reverberates in the community of high scholarship and established learning institutions. I never thought that I would find his full name for the first time in the itinerary of the East-West Center Journalism Fellowship Program in 2017.
I had always thought that his full-name was Abu Huraira Udasan before that forum in which he was invited to lecture journalists from different countries and answer questions during that Cotabato City leg of the East-West Center Fellowship Tour then.
Sheikh Udasan’s was the voice that the Bangsamoro listened to as he declared with sheer eloquence the start and end of Ramadhan fasting in each year of his life as the Bangsamoro Mufti.
Indeed, he preached vividly with his citations of the verses of the Qur’an and of the Bible in a bid to make issues clearer to Muslims and non-Muslims alike, and help build understanding thereby.