Today, we continue to remember and celebrate the exemplary life of the Gambian leader, Member of the Legislative Council, Muslim and Community elder as well as Philanthropist par excellence, Alhaji Sheikh Omar Faye.
Indeed, he bore the true mark of a servant leader, the selfless altruist and even much more.
As a matter of fact, Sheikh Omar Faye was known to have always focused on how he could be of immediate service to the less fortunate and less privileged.
In fact, his selfless and altruistic actions were imbued with his personal values, and the deep commitment to social justice which could also be seen in the various aspects of his life.
Sheikh Omar Faye believed that as members of society, we have responsibilities to each other.
Such core value inspired the philanthropic acts of the man who was so rich in character, so rich in spirit and so rich in his acts.
Undeniably, his life continues to give us hope that there is always a ‘humanitarian’ inside every one of us that can be born and reborn with any act of kindness, be it tiny or great.
As we continue to celebrate such a great and fulfilled life, we also continue to remember how he had impacted many other lives by his countless acts of goodness and generosity in nearly all facets of life and which he believed were only his own humble and insignificant contributions to mankind and humanity.
Indeed, Sheikh Omar Faye was an institution in his own right, having achieved so much in society but also having given so much back to society.
In all truth, he had always been nothing short of amazing and fascinating.
Sheikh Omar Faye’s life journey and who he was had actually been such an inspiration to us, his progeny and indeed a source of honour and pride to be able to say “he was our own flesh and blood”.
As his grandson, for all the things that I could remember, for all the things that I had forgotten, for all the things that I had never had a chance to say, and for all the things I would say whenever I would see him again, these words would be for him – Rest In Perfect Peace, with our unfathomable endless love, our one and only grandpa, “Mam Goor”, as we used to affectionately call him.
You would continue to be our inspiration and you would continue to live on in our hearts and our memories forever.
Today, therefore, we would once again like to honour the life of the greatest grandpa in the world.
He stood out for his qualities of genteelness, honour, uprightness and kindness; in short, for something that we are sorely lacking these days.
In truth, he personified, inter alia, truthfulness, hope and faith.
As such, we have never heard him raise his voice in anger, utter a curse word or even say something negative about others.
Simply put, people loved him because he simply loved people.
In short, he touched so many lives positively in one way or another.
One thing was certain: whenever you interacted with him, you must learn something before leaving.
He deeply penetrated all souls that had interacted with him, even our colonial masters at the time.
At the coronation of King George VI, he met the crown prince of Saudi Arabia who extended to him a royal invitation to personally pay a visit to the Saudi royal family (as shown in the photo above).
The crown prince later succeeded his father as the Saudi monarch.
In the meantime and until we meet again, we say: continue to rest comfortably and peacefully, our dear “Mam Goor”, in the graceful and divinely embrace of your Maker, until we are once again together as one big and reunited family.
Hassan Gibril
Your beloved Grandson
