I pray we meet face-to-face in Heaven

Now I sat up and requested to see the phone – bearer of such wicked news – with the intention of discrediting the news and with the hope that some Internet jinn had caused a glitch somewhere. However, we all knew that it would be in vain.  Then I started reminding my wife how good […]

Now I sat up and requested to see the phone – bearer of such wicked news – with the intention of discrediting the news and with the hope that some Internet jinn had caused a glitch somewhere. However, we all knew that it would be in vain. 
Then I started reminding my wife how good Sulaiman was to me, to us – not that she didn’t know already. 
When a bad person dies, you say a prayer and go to sleep, but when a good one does, his good deeds take over your mind and the thoughts cascade and tumble from one memory to the other; and as they came, I continued to express them aloud while my wife kept concurring. By the time sleep shut down our thought processes, I had written the first draft of this tribute in my head.
Yet, I woke up with the hope – faint although it was – that either Daily Trust Facebook page or my wife’s phone had made a mistake – probably there’s a news organization by the name of Daily Thrust (not Trust) which had a certain Sulaiman as managing editor?
But with daybreak came other realities, such as checking the email. I noticed that I received a reply from Hajiya Aisha Umar Yusuf, a former general editor of Media Trust. Due to the time difference, she had sent it while I was sleeping. However, the mail – which caused the reply – didn’t need to be replied. It was only my column of the week which I copied her while sending it to the editors – something I had done for several years. 
So I didn’t read it. 
Instead, I went and wasted minutes over unimportant mails. But one must face his fears, so I came to it: “Salam, thanks for the column. How are u and the family?” Hajiya started as she usually does. “Hope Hadiza and Kalim are doing fine. With a heavy heart I wish to inform u about the death of Malam Suleiman, the managing editor. He passed on suddenly this morning when he slumped while talking with friends. May Almighty Allah grant him His mercy, amin. Bissalam.” Haj. Aisha confirmed. That was when a tear broke free.
Now imagine this: someone is worried. But you tell her that, while believing in God, you’ve reported the matter to a certain person.  And due to this new information, the worried person is flooded with relief and goes about her day. Although the problem is yet to be solved, she’s not worried any more. How many people have such effect on people? I know for a fact that I don’t, indeed when you delegate a task to me, my constant cry is: “please remind me”.
However, Sulaiman had that effect.  My wife affirmed it the night we read the news, Mal Mahmud Jega confirmed it in his tribute to him and Haj. Aisha confirmed it in her own tribute to Sulaiman.
Because people like Sulaiman are so few, it’s difficult to replace them with even a bad copy – the world just has to find a way to manage without them.
But should not allow the lessons imprinted by such a monumental loss to go unheeded. One, Mal Sulaiman’s death has caused me to stopping fearing death. Far from daring it to come hither, but that fear is a complete waste of time –it’s better to get ready for it. 
Two, it’s possible to change the lives of people you’ve never met. I never met Sulaiman, I couldn’t describe his appearance with a gun to my head but I can paint his full perfect colours.  How a person’s fine character and peerless work ethics could shine through our pithy conversations through emails amazed me. I can’t even remember how his voice sounded. We tried phone conversation once but it didn’t work out. So emailing became our communication tool of choice.    [email protected] – I’ll never forget that email address!
“Ok. Will pass the information.” Yes, he actually wrote that.  Short. To the point. “It’s being treated,” he wrote that too! If he said he was going to treat and pass information, he would treat and pass the information.
One of the memorable exchanges we had was when my bank alerted that I had received N23 million from Media Trust. I told the bank that although I regularly receive money from Trust, it’s nothing near that much and I in turn alerted Sulaiman. It turned out to be one of those banking shenanigans – Trust’s finance department had not missed any money, yet my bank showed me N23m at the threshold of my account – to make matters worse, my bank froze the little money I had in the account because of the unusual nature of the transaction. It was Mal Sulaiman who worked patiently to solve that riddle.  
Those who knew him better said even if you wanted to, you couldn’t say ill of him. Really? How many people have I argued with this year alone? They certainly can say ill of me when I die?
 I wish I had met, shaken his hand and extracted some secrets from him. However, I pray we meet face-to-face for the first time in Aljannatul Firdaus.
 
Update on Algebra Ninja
Congratulations to Adamawa people: Mal Bashir Ahmad had purchased (from Amazon.com) and donated 50 books to Adamawa students. Also, a friend who prefers to remain anonymous had donated N20, 000. The money has been given to FCT coordinator. May God bless them all with the best of rewards. If you need more information or previous columns on the project please email me.