JEDDAH: Thursday was a day of sorrow for the people of Jeddah’s Rehab district. The day dawned with the sad news that their imam of 10 years was among those confirmed dead in Wednesday’s flash floods that devastated many parts of Jeddah.
Sheikh Yahya Al-Qeerat, his wife, two daughters aged 14 and 12, two sons aged nine and eight and the family maid were swept away by the flash floods Wednesday morning.
“Nobody knows what exactly happened. It is presumed that Sheikh Yahya and his family members alighted from their vehicle as the road became impassable and attempted to walk to his home in the Jamea neighborhood when suddenly the flash floods swept them away,” said Ghazi Saleh Shalhoub, a businessman who lives in a villa next to Masjid Abu Bakr where Al-Qeerat had been leading prayers and delivering Friday sermons for the past 10 years.
Shalhoub said the bodies of Al-Qeerat and his wife were recovered several kilometers away from Al-Hamra Corniche. The other bodies were found in the Jamea area.
The news of the imam’s death spread in the neighborhood by noon and people who assembled in the mosque for noon prayers were in deep shock. After Friday’s Eid prayers, they offered funeral prayers in absentia for Al-Qeerat and his family members, who were buried in a graveyard in the Briman area.
“Sheikh Yahya was a very pious imam. He was a caring person; he took interest in the well being of people whom he led,” said Sameer Koyakutty, an Indian who has been living in the area for seven years. Koyakutty, who maintained a cordial relationship with the imam throughout his stay in the neighborhood, said Al-Qeerat used his sermons to tackle issues that affected people’s lives.
Shalhoub, who is president of the board directors of the Saudi Arabian Television Manufacturing Co., said Al-Qeerat was an engineer by profession and worked for the Saline Water Conversion Corporation. He said the sheikh did not take any salary for his job at the mosque. “He even refused to accept remuneration from the Ministry of Endowments,” said Shalhoub, who is one of the managers of the mosque.
Shalhoub said Al-Qeerat was a person of courage and high determination. “In his sermon last Friday, Sheikh Yahya said if he had an intention to go to Makkah, he would go there even if he knew that death was waiting for him.”