MJC mourns Imam Yaseen Harris, 84
THE Muslim Judicial Council (MJC) said it mourned the passing of its member Imam Yaseen Harris, 84, who died yesterday.
He was the youngest person elected as a member of the MJC and the first imam to be elected to its Imaarah (Senior Council).
“Imam Yaseen was born on October 11, 1934, in Woodstock.
“His father, imam Sulaiman established the Sulaimania Pre-School, which served as the first Madrassa in the area. His father, in conjunction with the Woodstock congregation, bought a four-bedroomed house at 19 William Street and built a masjid on it,” the MJC said yesterday.
At age 15, Harris was appointed as a teacher of the Madrassa and became the imam of the masjid upon his father’s death in 1963, the council said.
Harris matriculated from Livingstone High School and then pursued a Bachelor of Arts Degree with an LLB specialisation, but did not complete it.
Writer Jasmine Khan describes imam Yaseen in the 2016 Kayfee edition, “I found it refreshing to hear from a man who is over 80 that one never stops learning.”
The MJC said that in 1958 after his father fell ill, Harris was forced to work.
He took up a position at Pepsi Cola Company as an accountant and later at Monviso Knitwear after the former dis-invested from South Africa in protest against apartheid.
“He worked at Monviso Knitwear from 1974 to 1984. He was persuaded to leave Monviso to take up full-time employment at the MJC on the behest of the then MJC president, Shaykh Nazeem Mohamed. Imam Yaseen assisted his father in administrative duties and subsequently became the MJC’s youngest member at the age of 26.” Harris leaves behind his widow, Kamillah, four sons and one daughter. |