In Memory of Professor Eltigani Abdelgadir Hamid

With hearts that believe in God’s decree and His measure, and with profound sorrow and grief, I mourn a dear brother, a scholar and an original thinker: Professor Eltigani Abdelgadir Hamid, who has departed our world after a journey full of scholarly, intellectual and human giving.

I knew the departed closely, and I was bound to him by a good relationship I hold dear. He was a model of sincerity, humility, nobility of character, soundness of judgement and wisdom. He was a man of deep thought, whose research and writing were marked by originality and freshness, and by the ability to join a deep knowledge of Islam to sober rational enquiry and an awareness of the challenges and questions of the nation’s reality.

The passing of Professor Eltigani is a great loss for Sudan and for Islamic thought, and it comes at a time when our country needs, more than ever before, men of his kind: men of sound thinking, rationality and wisdom, able to rise above polarization and agitation to the breadth of thought and the insight of considered opinion.

He has departed in body, but his mark will remain present in his books and his research, in the minds and hearts of his students, his disciples and his colleagues, and in everyone who knew him or drew from his thought and his learning.

I offer my sincerest condolences and heartfelt sympathy to his noble family, his kin and those who loved him, to his disciples, his students and his colleagues, to the people of Sudan entire, and to the Islamic nation and the scholarly and intellectual community in this grievous loss.

I ask God Almighty to receive him in the best acceptance, to forgive him and enfold him in His vast mercy, to honour his resting place and widen his entry, to place what he offered of knowledge, thought and righteous work in the balance of his good deeds, and to grant his family, those who loved him and his disciples patience and solace.