FOR the family of Bauchi-based internationally acclaimed and renowned Islamic scholar, Sheikh Dahiru Usman Bauchi, last Saturday will remain a black Saturday because the cold hands of death snatched away seven members of his family, including his eldest daughter, Hajiya Aishatu Yalwa, through a fatal automobile accident which occurred on the Yola-Gombe road.

Reports had it that the car, in which the late Hajiya Yalwa, three of her children (Khadijat, Hadi and Safiya) and her four disciples (almajirai), (Saidu, Dahiru, Ibrahim and Imam) were travelling from Yola to Bauchi and other towns for the celebration of the last Maulud Nabiyy, had a head-on collision with another vehicle.

Immediately after the collision, the car went up in flames, consuming all the occupants.

Reports said the deceased and her three children died on the spot while the remaining three people died at the Gombe Federal Medical Centre.

Hajia Yalwa (41) took after her father, an Islamic scholar based in Yola, impacting Islamic education on young people thereby having her own followers including many almajirai (quranic students) who she was said to be taking care of just like her own children.She had the reputation of not allowing them to roam the street as is done by many Islamic scholars in the northern part of the country.She was also said to have established several Islamic schools in Yola and other towns.

The funeral prayers for the dead were held in the family house of Sheik Dahiru Bauchi along the Gombe Road, Bauchi, last Sunday. A role, which many would have declined to perform, was taken up by the octogenarian scholar himself to the surprise of many who turned up for the prayers. Though he was in a state of shock, Sheikh Dahiru Bauchi led the prayers after which late Hajia Yalwa was buried with her one and a half year-old daughter, Khadijat, at the burial ground inside the family house.

While speaking after the funeral rites, the octogenarian said: "The death of mother, children and disciples should be a lesson to all of us because through it, Allah has left two things to remind mankind about the fear of Him: first the Holy Quran which always guides and tells a Muslim what to do; second is death, lying permanently and not talking."

He, therefore, used the occasion to advise Muslims to fear Allah and prepare for the life in the hereafter because, according to him, death does not give any notice of visitation.

Husband of the deceased and father of the three children, Abdulkarim Yola, who is still in a state of shock, said: "it was an act of Allah who gives and takes life anytime, anywhere," adding that he was in far away Cairo, Egypt, on an Islamic course when he was informed of the tragedy and so had to come back, stressing that he had no option but to submit to the will of Allah.

Two sons of the scholar, Alhaji Sanusi Ahmad Dahiru and Alhaji Muhammad Mushiri Sheikh Dahiru, while speaking on behalf of the family after the funeral prayers, said late Aishatu Yalwa, until her death, was the eldest female child of the scholar.

"She was a true mother to all and ensured that nothing about Islam was allowed to waste as she did everything possible to see that people practised Islam the way Allah wanted it practised," Alhaji Sheik Dahiru said.