By Mohamed Sidek Ahmad

(Paper presented at a two-day seminar honoring the late legal giant Ahmad Ibrahim, sponsored by the Institut Kefahaman Islam Malaysia (IKIM) held on August 21-22 at Kuala Lumpur:  “Ahmad Ibrahim : Pemikiran Dan Sumbangan Ilmiah”  (Ahmad Ibrahim:  His Thoughts and Academic Contributions)

(Posted with kind permission of the author.)

(Second of Two Parts)

[Note:  I had intended to post every Tuesday a series of essays honoring the late Ahmad Ibrahim presented at the above seminar.  However after giving me its initial permission to do so, IKIM decided to withdraw it.  This second part, published with permission of the author, concludes what would have been a series.  MBM]

Contributions to Malaysia and Singapore

            Indeed Allahyarham was no ordinary man; his achievements legendary.  His academic excellence is well known.  He worked in almost every facet of the legal profession and was an expert in all fields of law.

            He loved both Malaysia and Singapore.  He never abandoned the country of his birth.  He returned frequently to offer his academic services and advice, and to keep in touch with family and friends.  He of course had many memories of Singapore.

            He was part of the Singapore delegation that negotiated Singapore’s entry into Malaysia, and later Singapore’s independence in 1965.  He also drafted the water treaty with Malaysia on behalf of Singapore.  And of course he could never forget the famous Natra Case where Maria Hertogh was returned to her natural parents after a custody battle.

            Questions had always been asked as to why he left Singapore and migrated to Malaysia, and whether it was because of conflict with Lee Kuan Yew, or some other reasons.  We will never know why.  But privately he said that he had no quarrel with Lee Kuan Yew and that they still talked to each other.

            Upon his death the Singapore government sent an official letter to my mother, expressing deep sorrow over the loss of someone who had contributed so much to Singapore.

            Representatives from the Majlis Ugama Islam Singapura attended the funeral.  Posthumously, my father was honored as one of the 10 “Tokoh Melayu/Islam” in Singapore.  His photograph and biography are on permanent display at the Perkampungan Melayu at Geylang Serai as well as at the Majlis Ugama Islam Singapura’s offices.

            Several mosques in Singapore including that country’s main mosque Masjid Sultan held Jenazah Ghaib (funeral in absentia) prayers for him.

Great Piety and Personal Discipline

            Ahmad Ibrahim was a deeply religious man.  When living in Singapore it was his habit to go to the Baalwi Mosque every Thursday evening.  This was a practice he carried over to Malaysia when he moved here where he would attend the rhatib held at private homes in rotations.

            From my own observation, he would wake up every morning before fajr prayers to perform the Tahajud prayer.  He always performed the five daily prayers on time.  Most UIA students at the old Petaling Jaya campus will remember my father as being the first to arrive at the mosque for the fajr prayers.  He generally worked seven days a week.

            Before setting out for the office every day, he would recite the Surah Al Waqiah and a few other surahs.  He did this without fail.  He read from a kitab that is very old, yellowish, and tattered, which according to my grandmother, he had been reading since he was young.  Strangely and also sadly until today we are unable to locate that kitab.  It seems to have disappeared with his death.

            My father would come home for lunch every day to eat my mother’s cooking.  No matter where he worked he would always return home for lunch.  But that is not to say we never eat out.  We often went out for dinners, especially when we were celebrating a family member’s birthday or other occasions.

            Allahyarham enjoyed eating and had no pantang concerning any food.  Many asked me about his diet and how he managed to stay healthy.  Everyone knows he had taken virtually no medical leave.  Well, there is no special diet that he followed.  Breakfast was usually tea with eggs and toast, except on Sunday when it was roti canai, nasi lemak etc.

            Lunch and dinner were usually curry with mutton.  Despite eating mutton almost daily, he actually had low blood pressure!  He also always ate honey, dates, milk, and juices.

            My father never placed much importance on money or luxury.  He was a simple man.  When he died his personal car was an old Nissan.  He never owned more than one pair of shoes at a time.  He never wanted to owe anyone any money.  He bought everything in cash and avoided debt.  Even properties were bought in cash.  Most of his money was kept in non-interest bearing current account.

            For all the immense talent he had, he did not die a very rich man by today’s standard.  He was never the director of any company.  To him there were many other things more important than wealth.

            He practiced a strict code of personal conduct when it came to using company resources.  He was scrupulous in ensuring that there would be no commingling of professional and personal affairs and assets, even if this led to duplications of resources.  This meant having two cars and two drivers, an extravagance to some people but a matter of principle to him.  The official driver and car allocated were used only for official and work-related purposes.  He had his own car and driver for personal use.  The official car was parked not at home but at the office. For personal purposes, such as going to the mosque, weddings, shopping or going on holiday, the personal driver and personal car were used.

            My father made it a point to attend weddings when invited but would often remark he would rather be invited to the akad nikah ceremony than the bersanding as is the norm.

            He was always very positive in his attitude and thinking.  He never wished for anything bad to happen, and always told us not to wish for bad things and never say or think we were sick and never to look at the negative side of things.  Yet I had never seen him read any motivational books or seen any in the library.

            Ahmad Ibrahim was also an avid sportsman in his younger days, playing football and badminton.  He liked to watch football on TV, especially the English League.  He was a supporter of Liverpool.

            Major decisions were never made hastily.  He always said he needed to sleep on it before coming to a decision.

            Allahyarham was very much influenced by many thinkers and scholars.  One such scholar is Muhammad Iqbal, particularly the book “Reconstruction of Religious Thought”.  When I was in London he wrote to me saying this book was one of the first book he read while living in England as a student.  It was fitting that the Government of Pakistan awarded him the Allama Muhammad Iqbal Medal in 1979.

            Being in the legal profession like my father exposed me to many of his former students; all have stories of him.  There are too many for me to detail but one stands out in my mind.  This concerns a former law student of University Malaya who was just an average student.  He asked my father for a letter of recommendation for his application to join a law firm, a request my father was happy to oblige.  That former student used the letter to apply for a job at one of the biggest law firms in Kuala Lumpur, which at that time took in only the brilliant students.  He was accepted and was later told that he got the job solely on the strength of the reference letter from Prof Ahmad Ibrahim.  His former course mates were all surprised he managed to secure the reference letter.  Even the former student too was surprised, and when he asked my father about it one day, he was told simply:  “Because you needed it!”

            Before I end my speech I would like to quote a cliché. Being one however does not make it any less true:  Behind every successful man is a woman.  This is so in the case of my mother, Salma Binte Mohamed Tahir, who had given my father constant support and companionship for the 57 years they were together.  Only the family knows how loving a couple they were.

            She was a wonderful wife to him.  She always deferred to him, allowed him to make all the decisions, and was always supportive and never contradictory.  She was able to run the household successfully and concocted for him many excellent meals that enabled him to focus and devote his time on the contributions he had made to the religion and the nation.

            She was of course a fantastic mother to us, her children.  Salma Binte Mohamed Tahir passed away on 17 March this year.  May Allah forgive them both and shower blessings and have mercy on their souls.

Thank you!

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