The King is dead

Writing a dirge for a king is not a difficult task. It suffices to list the important dates of his rein, in addition to a list of his most important accomplishments.

This dirge, however, is not about a king, for it is not concerned with the majesty of the late sovereign. This dirge is about a “Servant.”

At face value, it is not as easy to write a dirge about a servant, unless of course, what this servant served was greater than the majesty of kingdoms.

The late King Fahd was not the first sovereign who was referred to as the “Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques”. The Ottoman Sultan Selim [Saleem] I was known as the “Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques” among his many titles. An inscription on the door of the Ka’abah states that this door was erected during the reign of the “Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques” King Khaled Ibn Abdulaziz [’Kaalid Ibn ‘Abd Al‘azeez.] This title was bestowed upon several leaders in the past.

King Fahd's official and only title was the “Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques”. This was actually a mistranslation, for his choice of title that replaced “His Majesty” was more humble than “Custodian”; it was “Servant”. His title should have been translated into the “Servant of the Two Holy Mosques”, the same way it was translated into French “Le Serviteur des Deux Saintes Mosquées.”

But let us not dwell on semantics; what matters, in the final analysis, is the service he rendered the Holy Sites in and around Makkah and Madeenah.

In my opinion, the legacy of the late King will always be the service he rendered the Holy Sites. In a fashion similar to other past leaders of the Muslim world, the late King was directly responsible for building mosques all around the Muslim globe, and even the non-Muslim globe. In contrast to all other past leaders of the Muslim world who ruled over the Holy Sites, however, the late King’s most glorious legacy was not a grand mosque that he built in the capital city of his kingdom; his legacy was the largest and most thorough service to the Holy Sites in and around Makkah and Madeenah in the history of Islaam.
The expansion project of the Holy Mosque in Makkah, the tunnels -looking like giant wormholes- that were cut through the bellies of the granite mountains that encircle the Holy Mosque to ease the transfer of pilgrims to and from Makkah, and making available Zamzam water to everyone are great achievements by themselves. Those projects, however great, were dwarfed by the expansion project of the Holy Mosque in Madeenah; the magnitude of which is simply mind-boggling.

The service rendered by the late King was not limited to grand structures and beautiful white marble that remained cool even during the hottest summer days when pilgrims circumambulate the Holy Ka’bah. He extended the services to the visitors of the Holy Sites. He spared no efforts in his attempt to better the safety and health conditions of the pilgrims, and to make their Holy Journey as safe, serene, and spiritual as humanly possible. I could go on and on, but there is really no need to do so.

The legacy of the late King will always be that he was the “Servant of the Two Holy Mosques”, and for that alone, I daresay, he will be remembered.

The King is dead, for death is greater even than his majesty.

The “Servant” lives, however, for what he served is greater even than death.

We pray that Allaah the Merciful accepts the services of the “Servant of the Two Holy Mosques.”