Posted by On Tuesday, Flight Lieutenant Ibrahim Adamu Abubakar’s body was laid to rest. He was the pilot of a Nigerian Air Force MI-171 jet that had crashed in Niger State.
Following a prayer at the Haruna Danja Jumma’at mosque in Tudun Wada, Zaria, Kaduna State, he was buried.
Numerous mourners and family members joined the Chief Imam of the mosque, Sheikh Muhammad Sani Gumi, in leading the prayer.
Earlier, at Tudun Jukun, Zaria, the late pilot’s family offered a proxy funeral prayer (Salatul Gha’ib) for the deceased.
Abubakar Adamu, the deceased’s elder brother, revealed that the family had previously had a proxy funeral prayer for the deceased when they were unable to receive the body.
“Salatul Gha’ib,” he said, “is a prayer observed in Islam when the body of a deceased person is not found; as relatives, we have a religious obligation to perform the prayer with or without the corpse.”
Adamu stated that since the body had been found, a new burial prayer for the deceased was now required.
He added that the family was in deep shock and sadness at first, but that they subsequently found hope in the fact that the deceased pilot had been blessed with a Shahada that could bring him Aljanna (heaven) in the afterlife because he died fighting for the liberation of his people and the entire nation.
The deceased’s mother, Hajiya A’ishatu Adams, described her son as a “Hafiz” (someone who memorized the Holy Qur’an) who was always quiet and composed.
She prayed for Allah to have pity on him and grant him eternal rest in Jannatul Firdausi.