Thank You for your Thoughts, Prayers, and Wishes

On behalf of the extended Ashraf family, from Northern California to North Carolina, to India and Pakistan we'd like to thank everybody for the outpouring of thoughts, wishes and prayers that we have received since September 19th, when we lost one of our patriarchs. From Australia to Norway and from Kazakhstan to Lesotho, it is at a time like this that one realizes, as one family friend put it, how many lives one person can touch and how wide one's support structures are; how many people one can reach out and touch if one cares to.

It's been a very intense few weeks, and we have not been able to reply to many missed calls, emails, and other contacts. We will try to do that as we move forward. Please continue to remember us in your prayers and send good thoughts and wishes our way.

Thank you.

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Inna Lilla Wa Inna Ilaihi Raji'oon

Professor Jamal Ashraf Ansari, RIP. 1934-2007

Please remember us in your prayers. My father passed away today. Apparently fell and hit his head at a shop in the neighbourhood. His passing was painless and in a state of fasting. (He decided to fast, if his blood sugar would allow--my brother, the doctor was literally calling about twice a day to check on his sugar level since Ramazan started a few days ago.) That's the reassuring part.

He was 73. Had a law degree but never practised. (Said he couldn't have lied enough, be devious enough, to be any good in that profession. Which was true.) Brought my brother and I up to be understand politics, law and religion better than most politicians, lawyers, and "clerics" I have ever met. Besides the Kalima, we could rattle off the three branches of government; rule of law; and "innocent till proven guilty" literally before I, at least, could read. All the while living through one empire and almost a dozen military regimes--and one civilian Chief Martial Law Administrator--in India, Pakistan, and Nigeria. (Which is why it isn't even novel for me to think of Muslims not being able to live under a constitutional democracy, for example.)

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