Updated 21 March 2012 

I feel truly honoured to have been given this opportunity to write about my experiences of working with Marhum Mulla Asghar Saheb. I’d like to use this opportunity to celebrate his life and his works, look at the growth of the works that he had started, his vision, and to see how he has contributed to our spiritual growth and how till now, twelve years after his passing away, he continues to inspire us and contributes to our progress.

In that honour and with those thoughts, I’d like to set the theme for this article, based on one of his very eloquent lectures: THE QUALITIES THAT MAKES A LIFE SUCCESSFUL.

Mulla Saheb  often used to say that no two lives are the same and that you cannot compare two lives by their length. Sixty minutes of the life of a man who spends his time in play and slumber and in the affairs of the world, is not the same as the sixty minutes in the life of a man who commits to charity, or teaching religion and good Akhlaq to his children or as the sixty minutes in the life of an Aalim who spends his time in producing work that will benefit the society for many generations, long after he has died.

He used to say that the man who only lives for this world, dies when his life in this world ends but the man who spends his life doing work for the posterity, his life is timeless and even when he has passed on, he leaves a fragrance behind. In reality, that kind of a man is actually alive for as long as his work is benefiting the society.

Without a doubt, it can then be understood, that in the twelve years in which Mulla Saheb’s physical presence has been void, he is still very much alive and still an inspiration to us; individuals and the community at large?

What I find most difficult, is to encapsulate the personality of Mulla Saheb, and its many facets in a short write up; enough so that I do him justice and also  give a true representation of this very unique and larger than life personality.

Unity and Relief of Poverty were the two main topics that Mulla Saheb was extremely passionate about. Therefore, it was natural for him to instigate the formation of the World Federation of Khoja Shia Ithnasheri Jamaats. This was a means by which all the Khoja Jamaats worldwide could put their efforts and resources together and establish centres around the world and also lend a helping hand to each other in terms of resources.

Mulla Saheb was on a mission to eradicate poverty and ignorance amongst the Shia population at large, and he was almost impatient to roll up his sleeves and get on with the task as far as poverty and injustice and ignorance were concerned.

I was blessed to be part of his team as a volunteer in the ZCSS since 1986, when I joined the team as a volunteer for two weeks and remained on the team until 2003, three years after his passing away! Such was the impact Mulla Saheb had on me!

Mulla Saheb himself used to say, that any work done with the right Niyyat of Qurbatan Ilallah, has a unique energy of its own. Our work  is only to try our best and deliver the best we can and then it’s up to Him for whom the work is done, to nurture it and the success or the failure of that work is in His divine hands.

As is protocol, departments of the World Federation are bound to have records of the work that is still being carried out. However, as far as ZCSS is concerned, I am aware that since 1982, approximately 50,000-55,000 students have participated in the scheme and are literate as a result. Many hundreds have also graduated with degrees in various professions from Universities.

I am often asked by my young friends as to what it was like to work for Marhum Mulla Saheb…

Well, from my recollection, the qualities that immediately come to my mind are : his attention to detail, his irritation at wasted time and opportunity, his memory regarding every small detail including the names of people and often even their children, his impatience to get on as far as helping the poor was concerned, his ability to speak various different languages and the ability to bring himself down to the level of the person he was speaking to, his interest in poetry and the ability to deliver the right couplet at the right time, his wealth of knowledge in religion and theology at large and most of all his sense of humour when he was relaxed!

In conclusion, if I was asked to summarise the main lesson that I have learned from the years I have spent working with Mulla Saheb, it would be:

‘ The poor who come to us, asking us for assistance should always be viewed as an opportunity for us to do good, and therefore we should never consider them to be a liability, and the money that we collect from the donors, may it be Khums or donation, is never an opportunity; it is always a responsibility!’

Contributed by Br. Mohamed Visram; who worked side by side with Marhum Mulla Asghar Saheb  in the ZCSS programme