SHEIKH ABDUR RAHMAN ALSUMAIT
AND 7,500,000 NEW MUSLIMS.
AND 7,500,000 NEW MUSLIMS.
(BY ABU TARIQ HIJAZI)
He was basically medical Practitioner, who procured his Medical Degree from Baghdad, Diploma from Liverpool and researched in Liver Cancer at Kings College London. He served as Physician at London, Kuwait and Montreal, and presented Research Paper at Royal Physician College of Canada. Leading the Medical profession prominently, he turned towards the service of suffering humanity and established his name highest in the Humanitarian field. It is reported that he helped over 1,000,000 destitute children including orphans, starving sick and needy students.
His area of operation is the neglected continent of Africa. While Middle East is renowned for riches, its western neighbor Africa, stands for poverty, hunger, diseases and deaths. During the earliest days African King Nejashi supported Muslims in need. But Muslims have not paid back this gratitude, honestly. The region in front of Arabian Peninsula consisting Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti, Kenya and further south like Mozambique, Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe upto Angola are suffering with famine and hunger and disease.
It was a fortunate occasion when a generous lady from Kuwait deputed him to build a Mosque in Malawi. When he visited the region he was perplexed with the scenes of hunger and disease. Further there was missionaries’ onslaught in the region, who were inviting the innocent people to sell their religion for a loaf of bread. Dr. Sumait sacrificed his profession and dissolved himself into the problems of suffering humanity.
In 1981, when he was 35, he established Africa Muslim Agency (AMA) which was later renamed as DIRECT-AID where he served as Chairman from 1981 to 2008. He devoted his whole life for this noble cause. And now, after the strenuous efforts of 30 years for saving life and faith of the poor in Africa, his net earnings are:
Distribution of 160,000 tons of free food, medicine & garments
Digging 9500 artisan wells in draught stricken areas
Financing 95,000 students for schooling
Establishing 200 Women Training Centers & 102 Islamic Guidance Centers.
Distribution of 51,000,000 copies of Holy Quran.
Dr. Sumait in Africa
He is not man of mere words but Man of Action. He established a net work of help to the poor. Subsequently the men flocked to him in thousands. Tribes after tribes and clan after clan embraced Islam at his hand. Whenever he entered a region the people thronged to him for Guidance. Millions of people from African countries embraced Islam at his hands including bishops and clergyman. He cries with the cry of new converts who say: Where you were, O, Muslims before our parents died on Kufr as pagans”
It is reported that once while he entered a country, the people embraced Islam in hundreds. The local Catholic Bishop came to him and said, “Me and my father were born here, my grand-father came here as a missionary, about hundred years ago but we Christianized only a few and you spent here few days and hundreds embraced Islam at your hand.”
Dr. Sumait feels that African continent is ripe for work of Dawah. There are millions of people ready to embrace Islam. But we should share their woes and sorrows. Missionaries are spending millions rather billions on Africa. He narrated that when “once he tried to approach a township by his old car, which stopped on the way, and he walked on foot with broken sandals and reached the village, he found that the missionary reaches there, surprisingly, by aero plane (helicopter).
He praises the missionary philanthropists. Bill Gate of Microsoft donated billions of dollars, so did the billionaire of Holland. One missionary in New York declared his plan to deliver one Bible to every house of the world and collected $ 41,000,000 in one night. Muslims are not poor, they are equally rich. It is estimated that Arab investment inside and outside the region, reaches $ 2275,000,000,000. If even 2.5% Zakat worth $56.875 billion is extracted from this amount annually, it can suffice for ten million families (SR. 21000 each) in need. It should be noted that a life saving soup diet in Africa costs, 17 halala and cost of ten tablets of Chlorquin to cure Malaria costs 12 halala and people die daily without it.
Dr. Sumait narrates many heart rending stories of our brothers in Africa. In one instance when he entered a hut, he found that the family had not eaten any-thing for the last three days. When his wife donated a bag of one kilo flour to cook, the lady was wonder struck and she said, Alhamdo lillah we are well off. We have not eaten any-thing for the last three days but the other family behind our hut has not eaten any-thing for the last eight days, please give it to them.
In another story he narrated that when we visited a village in Ethiopia on Friday a child named Miyar Mohammed of 5 years died that day. Five months ago Miyar’s mother named Safya with her husband and five children walked on foot for four days to reach that village. Her elder daughter Fatima aged 12 years died after two months. Later her son Mohammed aged one year died then died Imraan aged 6 and after two weeks Miyar died on that Friday. Finally none remained from her five children except Noor aged 9 and she was merely a skeleton of bones. Dr. Sumait said it is very easy to say that some one died. But it is very painful to see a child dying in your lap. Dr. Sumait concluded that about a million children die annually in Africa and 60 to 70 percent of them are Muslims. A child dies every 30 seconds in Africa because of hunger while price of a meal is only 17 halalas.
Dr. Sumait is the “Champion of Islamic Services” in Africa. The primary vision of his organization is to uplift the standard of life, morality and education of the most deserving and the needy persons in the continent. They provide food to the most starving and hungry, water to the thirsty, shelter to most destitute, medical care to the most sick, education to the most needy and above that establishing poverty relief development projects, towards ultimate self sufficiency and thereby with the help of Almighty Allah restoring the dignity, respect and honor of our Muslim brothers throughout Africa. May Almighty Allah support them all. He also authored few books about his mission like “Labayyk Africa” (We are here to help you, Africa). Instead of Africa Year Book, he compiled Africa Tear Book.
The services of Dr. Sumait have been honored by leading organizations. Islamic University Umm Durman (Sudan) conferred Honorary Doctorate upon him. Likewise GCC, UAE, Kuwait, Dubai, Sudan, Oman, Benin, and Egypt decorated him with many prestigious awards. On the top he was decorated with International King Faisal Award in 1996 for the Service of Islam. As per information on his sites like (www direct-aid africa.org), 7,500,000 persons from 40 African countries embraced Islam through his efforts. This is the highest number ever recorded in the World Muslim history. Whenever a word of appreciation is said to him, he replies: “My dear brother, we do not await certificate from any person. We are busy in the field work. We just wait and pray that Almighty Allah may accept our sincere efforts and support us in our cause. (We say) Ameen, Ameen, Ameen. (Dr. Abdur Rahman Sumait visited Batterji Medical College Jeddah, on May11, 2011).
DR. SUMAIT IS GONE
It is a heart rending news on Aug16, 2013 that Dr. Abdur Rahman Alsumait born in Kuwait in 1947 who besides other activities, built 5700 Mosques established four universities, and sponsored 15,000 orphans in Africa is gone. Our media had no much place for such persons engaged in humanitarian activities. His death is a big loss to Islamic Ummah. But the question is who is the next Sumait to fill the gap. Who is the dedicated person from Arab and the Islamic world to take up his task in hungry and sick Africa.