26 Sha’ban 1435 / 24 June 2014

Al Marhum Prof Mofeed El-Mokhallalati past dean of medicine Islamic University Gaza (IUG) and past minister of health Gaza passed away yesterday 25 Sha'ban 1435 / 23 June 2014. A surgeon par excellence, Fellow Royal College of Surgeons Ireland, he had Irish PR but chose to build the medical services and initiate the medical faculty of Gaza.

On many occasions he was asked by the Prime Minister, Dr Ismail Haniyeh to be Gaza's minister of health but he politely refused saying he must first graduate his medical students. Once his first few cohorts of medical students graduated he had no choice but to accept the appointment.

I first visited his medical faculty in IUG in October 2010, during our Viva Palestine V international convoy to Gaza. And visited him again during our Miles to Smiles convoy 2011.

IMA Malaysia & FIMA invited him to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in 2012 for the international IMAM/FIMA conference in Istana Hotel. During this visit we arranged for him and his Ministry of Health entourage to meet our deputy minister of health, National Heart Institute and National University Malaysia & Cyberjaya University College of Medical Sciences where he had his students doing post-graduate studies.

Al Marhum Prof Mofeed is a true mujahid. Islam and the love of the ummah was so deeply entrenched in his heart. We love this brother very much. He has inspired us to love this work, to give our very best and to be always conscious that Allah is with us. The legacy that he has left behind is simply awesome and testimony to his everything that he has devoted to Islam. May he be in the company of the syuhada in the highest of His paradise

Of these men Allah says in Surah 33. Al-Ahzab, Ayah 23:
Among the believers there are men who have been true to their covenant with Allah: of them some have completed their vow through sacrificing their lives, and some others are waiting for it, and have not changed their determination in the least.

Nanos gigantum humeris insidentes
We, his students are but “dwarfs standing on the shoulders of giants”.

And as Syakh Prof Malik Badri has often described these examplary Ikhwans:
“They walked on earth and served the ummah like His angels"

[To the righteous it will be said], "O reassured soul,
Return to your Lord, well-pleased and pleasing [to Him],
And enter among My [righteous] servants
And enter My Paradise."

Al Fajr. 89:27-30

Our sincere condolences to his family and friends and may He bestow them patience and perseverance in their hour of need.

Dr Musa Mohd Nordin
Chairman, FIMA Advisory Council
Past President, FIMA (2005-2009)