Dear Sir,

Today, with very deep sadness, fond respect and sincere prayers, I remember Ustad Muhammad Yusuf of Astangole, Koghuzi, Chitral who passed away on Friday, July 21, 2006. Innā lillāhi wa innā ilayhi rāji�ūn.
My teacher, I say it with great pride, was a man devoted to his profession, committed to the welfare and progress of his students and strict in disciplining them but very kind at heart. Above all my teacher was a wonderful human being who would rise above religious prejudices at the time of my teenage years in Chitral, late 1960s, when student�s admission to school, his eligibility for financial assistance, his passing and failing, as well as his employment after graduation, almost everything seemed to depend upon and revolve around to which Muslim community of interpretation the he belonged to.

It was at this difficult time for students of my background I found the real humanity in all its generosity in my teacher, Ustad Muhammad Yusuf. I would like to suspend the details for future; however, one example will suffice here to provide a glimpse of what I am talking about. At grade 8, I failed in a compulsory subject, Islamiyaat, in the board examination and had to repeat all the subjects, a ludicrous system of students� evaluation. I was refused readmission to school by a teacher, a local bigot who had failed to dissociate me and some of my friends from practicing Islam according to our interpretation that is Ismaili Muslim interpretation, who had taken charge of the school temporarily on the transfer of the headmaster.

Ustad Muhammad Yusuf, himself a devout practicing Sunni Muslim, stood as a solid rock in defense of his student�s interest. With a gap of six months, on the very first day of the new headmaster�s arrival, my teacher sent me a message to come to school to see him. As I showed up the next day, Ustad Muhammad Yusuf, standing with the new headmaster, pointed his finger to me at a few yards� distance uttering these words in Khowar �Headmaster Saab! Hes ma hate shagerd�, a statement which remained with me until today, and will continue to remind me of my teacher till the end of my life on earth.
I would have wished to stand in my teacher�s namaaz-e-janaaza and rest his coffin on my shoulders, but the distance didn�t permit me. I am most grateful to my friend Muhammad Karam who participated in my teacher�s funeral on my behalf. My family joins me in extending our very sincere condolences to the family, neighbours and friends of Ustad Muhammad Yusuf and we pray: Allah, the most kind and merciful, may grant the departed soul a place in the eternal abode, the paradise.

Dr. Mir Baiz Khan
49 Ridgecrest Drive
Scarborough Ontario M1W 4A3
Canada
(416) 494 4243