Mohammad Mehboob remembered as 'a man of passion'
By: Amanda Stewart | Inside NoVA
Published: July 06, 2012 Updated: July 06, 2012 - 1:00 PM
http://www2.insidenova.com/news/2012/jul/06/mohammad-mehboob-remembered-man-passion-ar-2036549/
PRINCE WILLIAM COUNTY, Va. --
Family members use a lot of words to describe Mohammad Mehboob. Passionate. Caring. Dedicated. Open-minded.
But one word describes him best of all, they said.
“He was very humble,” said his wife, Samia, “If I could describe him I would say he is the humblest man I have ever seen.”
Days after a funeral service was held for Mehboob at Dar AlNoor -- the mosque he helped to build as part of the Muslim Association of Virginia -- his wife, four adult children and other family members gathered at his Manassas area home to share their memories of him.
Police found the 58-year-old Mehboob’s body in the Occoquan River June 29, less than 24 hours after family members reported him missing. Fairfax County police are investigating it as an “unattended death” and are awaiting the medical examiner’s report to determine his cause of death, police spokesman Don Gotthardt said Thursday.
Now, about a week after his death, Mehboob’s family members said they are focused on remembering his life.
Much of what Mehboob’s four children now know about him came to light after he passed away, said his son, Sherafgan.
“People have been coming up to me and telling me that he helped them,” he said.
Sherafgan said his father would often give money to people in need, something encouraged in Islamic teachings. And, also taught in Islam, he would not tell anyone about it.
“He would give people money from his own wallet and we had no idea he did that,” Sherafgan said.
“I’m so proud of him and I’m so thankful to Allah that he did that,” Samia Mehboob said.
Family members said that after Mehboob’s death they are also coming to learn how much he meant to people in the community. They’ve learned that he once spent time patiently answering questions for a middle school student doing a class project on Islam, that he donated boxes and boxes of Qur’an to prisoners who asked for them, that he was who many turned to when they needed money for burial services.
“He was very humble,” his oldest daughter, Sehr, said. “Whatever he did, he minimized it.”
Over 2,000 people attended Mehboob’s funeral prayer service, and his funeral procession stretched three miles long, his youngest daughter, Sara, said.
“I think that’s when we all started to see how he reached people,” she said. “People loved him.”
Sherafgan said people of all ages came up to him at the prayer service, telling him how his father was like a father to them, too.
“We are his kids, so we will always say nice things about him,” Sherafgan said of he and his sisters. “But I have not come across anyone who had anything negative to say.”
Throughout his life, Mehboob was passionate about everything he did, his family members said.
“He was always learning,” Sara said. “If he was passionate about something he wanted to learn about it.”
Mehboob would study a topic until he mastered it, his wife said.
“Whatever he started, he took it to the highest level,” she said.
One of his first passions was photography, and framed prints of images he captured around the world hang in the Mehboob’s house.
“He took the most amazing photographs,” Sara said. “We have boxes and boxes of beautiful pictures he took.”
Mehboob and his family moved from Pakistan to Virginia in 1993, and his passion then turned to his children’s education, his wife said.
“He always used to tell us to do our best,” his daughter, Saba, said.
Many in the Northern Virginia area remember Mehboob as a leader in the Islamic community, but religion wasn’t always a big part of his life, his son said.
When Mehboob’s oldest daughter, Sehr, read the book “Mohammad” by Martin Lings in high school, she told her father it was an interesting book that he should read, she said. He did and that sparked his passion for religion, his family members said.
His family members said Mehboob wanted to learn everything he could, not just about Islam, but about other religions as well.
“A lot of people of any religion don’t want to experience other religions,” Sehr said. “But he did. He treated them all with respect.”
Sherafgan said it seemed that his father had reached a new level of religious understanding in recent years.
“He was walking and talking the Quran and living it,” he said.
Mehboob’s wife said he was dedicated to his role as a leader in the Muslim Association of Virginia, often dropping everything to take calls and offer help to people from the group who needed his help.
“He never missed a call,” Samia Mehboob said. “I would ask him why and he would say, ‘I don’t know. Somebody needs me. I don’t want to miss a call.’”
In a news release, Raffi Uddin Ahmed of the Muslim Association of Virginia said Mehboob “was a man of peace, who sought to increase the bonds of friendship among Muslims and non-Muslims alike.”
In the news release, Muslim Association of Virginia officials dispute initial reports that indicated that Mehboob was possibly suicidal at the time of his disappearance and asked police to “perform a thorough investigation into the circumstances of his demise.”
Fairfax County police said Mehboob’s death is under still investigation.
“At this point there is nothing to indicate a crime has occurred,” Gotthardt said.
In their news release, Muslim Association of Virginia officials said Mehboob, who was president of the association for seven years, was “a steadfast and God-fearing Muslim” who “worked tirelessly to help build the Dar AlNoor Islamic Community Center.”
“All those who had the privilege to meet him can attest to his upright and unwavering character,” the news release said.
Family members said what they will remember most about Mehboob is his passion and how he worked tirelessly at whatever he was doing.
“He never sat still. He was a man of immense passion,” Sherafgan said.
His children said they will also remember the things their father taught them.
Saba said she remembers what he told his children as they prepared to go to college and become independent.
“He would say I have taught you everything I have to teach you now you have to use your mind and act on it,” she said.
Staff writer Amanda Stewart can be reached at 703-530-3908.
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