Father and son first victims buried, resting together in death
Father and son Khaled and Hamza Mustafa died together in terror, but now they rest together in peace forever, writes
KHALED and Hamza Mustafa were the first of the 50 Christchurch terror victims to be buried at a funeral service in the city yesterday.
Kahled was 44 and Hamza, his eldest child, just 16.
His younger son, Zaid (13), was also badly injured when a gunman stormed into the Al Noor mosque last Friday, opening fire indiscriminately at worshippers.
Zaid, showing signs of his injuries, attended the service in a wheelchair.
As the bodies arrived at Memorial Park Cemetery, silence descended over the already quiet scene.
Hundreds of men, women and children had been gathering in the hour leading up to the service, some hugged, others reflected.
Muslim funeral services, known as Janazah, are usually held in mosques and strict protocol is followed.
However that is simply not possible in Christchurch after the tragic events that unfolded on Friday.
So, instead of a mosque it was a marquee.
Instead of privacy to farewell and mourn, the world’s media
had been invited and were watching from across the road.
The shrouded bodies were contained in simple open boxes and carried aloft into the marquee.
The men moved inside, the women remained in a separate area, according to custom.
A solemn voice came across a specially erected PA system, issuing instructions to the mourners, whose number grew
by the minute.
‘‘Our No 1 priority is the families,’’ said the voice, ringing out across the cemetery.
‘‘This is all about the families
. . . They need a chance to grieve. ‘‘Please respect that.’’
After the bodies were taken inside and positioned according to Muslim custom, the salat aljanazah (funeral prayers) began.
Kahled and Hazma were flanked by their family as their
community surrounded them in numbers.
The silence was heavy, the air still and the magnitude of the grief and tragedy not lost on anyone present.
Everyone else present, gathered in unity under the overcast Christchurch sky was no doubt doing the same in their own way.
As the brothers faced qiblah — Mecca — and prayed, the
words ‘‘Allahu Akbar’’ rang out over the PA, breaking the silence.
Four times it rang out.
Allahu Akbar. Allahu Akbar. Allahu Akbar. Allahu Akbar. ‘‘God is greatest.’’
Then, it was time to place Kahled and Hazma in their graves.
Mounds of earth from lines of graves specially dug this week were visible from the road, a sight noone in Christchurch could ever imagine they would see.
It is a city used to burying its dead, and en masse, but no amount of fatal quakes could have prepared them for the shootings.
Kahled and Hazma were carried across the dusty landscape and lowered into their graves.
Those placing the body in the graves recited ‘‘Bismillah wa ala millati rasulilllah’’ or ‘‘in the name of Allah and in the faith of the Messenger of Allah’’.
Once laid to rest, a layer of wood or stones is placed on top to prevent the bodies coming into direct contact with the soil that will fill the grave.
Those who wanted to filed past, dropping in handfuls of soil and paying their last respects.
And then, it was done.
Kahled and Hazma were buried as they died, together.
But yesterday they lay in peace, without fear, evil or terror.