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Artikel yang disertakan selapas coretan saya ini sebenarnya mengembalikan kenangan saya terhadap pensyarah saya yang sangat saya kasihi iaitu Allahyarham Tan Sri Ahmad Mohamed Ibrahim. Saya antara pelajar sains politik tahun akhir waktu itu di IIUM pada pertengahan tahun 1998 yang perlu mengambil subjek ITL atau Introduction to Law. Paling mengejutkan kumpulan kami ini adalah pensyarah yang akan mengendalikan kami adalah beliau yang memang sangat gah namanya waktu itu dan memegang jawatan besar di IIUM. Bagi kami ini satu penghormatan besar yang tidak tersangka terutama bagi saya secara peribadi dimana Allahyarham merupakan kenalan arwah bapa sewaktu beliau di Universiti Malaya. Malah, kumpulan tersebut merupakan yang pertama dan terakhir dari kalangan pelajar sains politik yang diajar dan dibimbing oleh Allahyarham Tan Sri. Jadual kuliah juga cukup menarik iaitu pada Isnin jam 7.30 pagi (Pada waktu itu jadual kuliah biasa adalah 9.00 pagi). Menariknya, dari minggu pertama hingga ke penghujung semester, tiada siapa dari kalangan kumpulan tersebut yang ponteng ke kuliah walaupun dari kalangan pelajar yang jarang ke kuliah untuk subjek-subjek lain. Mungkin kerana segan atau mungkin kerana sangat menghormati beliau. Secara peribadi, saya sentiasa hadir ke kuliah Allahyarham kerana peluang untuk berguru dengan ikon besar ini sangat teristimewa malah pelajar undang-undang IIUM waktu itu pun belum tentu dapat berguru secara langsung dengan beliau. (Course outline subjek ini sahaja sudah menjangkau 18 halaman!). Mana mungkin ku akan ponteng kuliah beliau. Lagipun, kesudian arwah untuk mengambil kelas kami yang bukan dari fakulti beliau serta di peringkat sarjana muda sahaja sudah cukup membuat kita berfikir dua kali untuk ponteng. Tan Sri semamangnya pendidik yang hebat tanpa perlu banyak berceloteh. Tiada lawak jenaka, tiada hiruk pikuk dalam kuliah tetapi aura dan ilmunya sangat mengkagumkan.
Saya masih ingat tugasan bertulis saya untuk ITL itu adalah perbandingan antara undang-undang Shariah dan undang-undang manusia. Saya mendapat A untuk tugasan tersebut dan hingga hari ini saya masih menyimpan tugasan yang disemak oleh Allahyarham Tan Sri. Menerusi kuliah ini juga saya belajar mengenai apa yang sebenarnya berlaku disebalik isu Natrah dimana Tan Sri merupakan peguam Mansor Adabi, suami Natrah. Pelbagai isu perundangan sivil dan Shariah juga diperjelas oleh Tan Sri. Inspirasi Tan Sri ini jugalah membawa saya hingga menjadi seorang ahli akademik pada hari ini. Besar jasa beliau pada saya. Kenangan bersama Allahyarham tidak dapat dilupakan. Paling menarik, beliau juga peminat setia Liverpool seperti saya :)..... Al-Fatihah untuk Allahyarham Profesor Tan Sri Dr Ahmad Mohamed Ibrahim, Halal dan restukanlah segala ilmu .... Doaku berterusan untuk pensyarahku, moga dalam maghfirah ALLAH dan ditempat di jannah jua.
Paper presented at a two-day seminar honoring the late legal giant Ahmad Ibrahim, sponsored by the Institut Kefahaman Islam Malaysia (IKIM) held on August 21-22 at Kuala Lumpur: “Ahmad Ibrahim : Pemikiran Dan Sumbangan Ilmiah” (Ahmad Ibrahim: His Thoughts and Academic Contributions)
From : http://sezakiza.tumblr.com/post/37913263178/the-personal-side-of-ahmad-ibrahim-by-mohamed-sidek
(Posted with kind permission of the author and IKIM)
[Note: Beginning today and on subsequent Tuesdays, I will be posting papers presented at the above seminar. The late Ahmad Ibrahim was truly a towering figure in Malaysia and Singapore. I wish to express my sincere appreciation to the authors and to Wan Azhar of IKIM for permission to post these papers. IKIM will be publishing the entire proceedings in a book due out early 2008. MBM]
I would like to take this opportunity on behalf of my family to thank IKIM (Institut Kafahaman Islam Malaysia) for remembering my late father, Allahyarham Ahmad Ibrahim, and for organizing this grand seminar.
I stand here before you today not so much to laud his achievements and contributions – though they have been many – but to share with you a glimpse of the personal side and nature of the man behind that public persona. After all, as his son, it is this side of him that I know best.
Born in Singapore but living his later years in Malaysia, Ahmad Ibrahim was a man of two worlds. He loved and valued both. However, it is indeed strange that when I read the accolades given to the late Tan Sri, I find that most of them relate to the contributions and achievements he made during his life in Malaysia. Perhaps not many realize that he actually started living in Malaysia only after he retired from the civil service in Singapore. Thus all his Malaysian achievements were after his “official” retirement.
He certainly never forgot his roots. In the days before his death, it was as if he sought to feel again his beginnings. A month before his death, he paid a visit to Singapore, and on a Thursday evening he made his way to Masjid Baalwi, the famous mosque in Singapore that is also the mosque he attended often when living in Singapore. As usual on Thursday evenings, there was a rhatib at the mosque. Immediately upon reaching the mosque, many recognized him, and they treated him as a guest of honor. After the rathibeveryone came and shook his hands, proud to have a distinguished son of Singapore present at the mosque.
The same thing happened the next day when he went for Friday prayers at the Masjid Sultan. Many greeted him and shook his hands. Little did anyone, both at the Masjid Baalwi and Masjid Sultan, know that it would be the last time they were to see him. That was Allahyarham’s last trip to Singapore, and we now realized that it was actually his farewell trip to the land of his birth.
We were all not prepared for his death, for although he was 83, he still worked hard every day, harder than someone half his age. He was extremely fit; during Ramadan he always prayed 20 rakaats Tarawih and 3 witr every evening in the mosque. He continued this right until his last Ramadan.
He hardly was ever sick, and even on the day of his death he was not suffering from any lingering illness. He had gone to work as usual on that day and it was only after he returned home from work did he say he was not feeling well and that he wanted to see everyone in the family. It was as if he had a premonition of what was to come, just like when he made that last trip to Singapore.
Family members living in Kuala Lumpur arrived within a short time while those in Singapore began their journey. While my brothers were driving up from Singapore they were delayed for some reason or other, and they phoned my father to tell him they would be arriving only at about 11.00PM. I can still remember my father’s words on hearing this news: “I will wait for you!”
And he did! When the last stragglers finally came in at 11.00PM, my father was so happy to see us all together. He kept looking at everyone’s face and said he was sorry to have inconvenienced us by asking us to come to the house.
The end came not long after. He went back to bed, telling us to do the same. At 2.00AM that night, my mother gathered all of us together and said my father was not well. My father had told her that his time was up and that he was dying.
At about 2.30AM, 17 April 1999, on the first day of Muharram, my father hijrahed to the next world. He died peacefully.
His death was front-page news both in Malaysia and Singapore. The newspapers paid tribute to him for his contributions in legal and academic fields of both countries.
Very Private Person
My father was indeed unique as he was an expert in both English and Islamic laws. This characteristic of his in having the best of both worlds was also manifested in other aspects of his life. He wore a coat and tie, and topped this off with a songkok. He also loved both eastern and western cuisine.
For all his fame, Ahmad Ibrahim was a very private person who did not seek publicity; in fact he shunned it. He very rarely gave press interviews.
He had always kept his professional life separate from his personal. This separation was strictly enforced. In public he rarely talked about his family, to the extent that it gave rise to speculations and rumors surrounding his personal life. There were questions whether he had a wife and family, or even whether he had multiple wives. Well, let me put it on record here that Ahmad Ibrahim had ten children, and all of them from one wife!
At home what was immediately clear about him was that he was a man of very high personal discipline, a trait he picked up from his equally disciplined medical doctor father, Dr Ibrahim Sheikh Ismail. If at work people remembered him for his punctuality and his strict sense of time, it was the same at home. Breakfast was precisely at 7.00AM, lunch at 1.00PM, and dinner at 8.00PM. All in the family knew this and we had to be at the table on time for these meals. He went to bed and got up at the same time every day, as far as I can remember.
Meals were always eaten together at one large table. This never changed, even after most of us were married and had our own children. When we visited him at meal times, we all ate together, with extra chairs and tables added if necessary. Those moments are etched in our memory. Meal times were also for family discussions. It was an opportunity for all to say their piece. Topics discussed at the dinner table were varied, from politics to sports and from moral issues to television programs. Though Allahyarham appeared to contribute little to the conversations, he always listened and laughed at the jokes we made. When he did speak, it was usually very short and to the point. Very effective!
He loved to read, and we always had a library wherever we lived. He had always been a bookworm, with a book never far away from his hands. The house was always filled with books. On his death, we brought back about 300 boxes of books from his office in UIA [University Islam Antarabangsa]. These and the books that were in the house were later donated to the UIA.
His respect for books was very great; even old and torn books were kept and not thrown away. He loved buying books. Every time he went on an overseas trip he would bring back books. He always kept abreast with the latest books and articles on law. Once I bought him a book for his birthday, which I thought was the latest, only to be told that he had already read it.
When it came to books he seemed to have a photographic memory in that he knew where exactly to look for a book in the library and which page of the book to refer to.
Contributions to Malaysia and Singapore
Indeed Allahyarham was no ordinary man; his achievements legendary. His academic excellence is well known. He worked in almost every facet of the legal profession and was an expert in all fields of law.
He loved both Malaysia and Singapore. He never abandoned the country of his birth. He returned frequently to offer his academic services and advice, and to keep in touch with family and friends. He of course had many memories of Singapore.
He was part of the Singapore delegation that negotiated Singapore’s entry into Malaysia, and later Singapore’s independence in 1965. He also drafted the water treaty with Malaysia on behalf of Singapore. And of course he could never forget the famous Natra Case where Maria Hertogh was returned to her natural parents after a custody battle.
Questions had always been asked as to why he left Singapore and migrated to Malaysia, and whether it was because of conflict with Lee Kuan Yew, or some other reasons. We will never know why. But privately he said that he had no quarrel with Lee Kuan Yew and that they still talked to each other.
Upon his death the Singapore government sent an official letter to my mother, expressing deep sorrow over the loss of someone who had contributed so much to Singapore.
Representatives from the Majlis Ugama Islam Singapura attended the funeral. Posthumously, my father was honored as one of the 10 “Tokoh Melayu/Islam” in Singapore. His photograph and biography are on permanent display at the Perkampungan Melayu at Geylang Serai as well as at the Majlis Ugama Islam Singapura’s offices.
Several mosques in Singapore including that country’s main mosque Masjid Sultan held Jenazah Ghaib (funeral in absentia) prayers for him.
Great Piety and Personal Discipline
Ahmad Ibrahim was a deeply religious man. When living in Singapore it was his habit to go to the Baalwi Mosque every Thursday evening. This was a practice he carried over to Malaysia when he moved here where he would attend the rhatib held at private homes in rotations.
From my own observation, he would wake up every morning before fajr prayers to perform the Tahajud prayer. He always performed the five daily prayers on time. Most UIA students at the old Petaling Jaya campus will remember my father as being the first to arrive at the mosque for the fajrprayers. He generally worked seven days a week.
Before setting out for the office every day, he would recite the Surah Al Waqiah and a few other surahs. He did this without fail. He read from a kitab that is very old, yellowish, and tattered, which according to my grandmother, he had been reading since he was young. Strangely and also sadly until today we are unable to locate that kitab. It seems to have disappeared with his death.
My father would come home for lunch every day to eat my mother’s cooking. No matter where he worked he would always return home for lunch. But that is not to say we never eat out. We often went out for dinners, especially when we were celebrating a family member’s birthday or other occasions.
Allahyarham enjoyed eating and had no pantang concerning any food. Many asked me about his diet and how he managed to stay healthy. Everyone knows he had taken virtually no medical leave. Well, there is no special diet that he followed. Breakfast was usually tea with eggs and toast, except on Sunday when it was roti canai, nasi lemak etc.
Lunch and dinner were usually curry with mutton. Despite eating mutton almost daily, he actually had low blood pressure! He also always ate honey, dates, milk, and juices.
My father never placed much importance on money or luxury. He was a simple man. When he died his personal car was an old Nissan. He never owned more than one pair of shoes at a time. He never wanted to owe anyone any money. He bought everything in cash and avoided debt. Even properties were bought in cash. Most of his money was kept in non-interest bearing current account.
For all the immense talent he had, he did not die a very rich man by today’s standard. He was never the director of any company. To him there were many other things more important than wealth.
He practiced a strict code of personal conduct when it came to using company resources. He was scrupulous in ensuring that there would be no commingling of professional and personal affairs and assets, even if this led to duplications of resources. This meant having two cars and two drivers, an extravagance to some people but a matter of principle to him. The official driver and car allocated were used only for official and work-related purposes. He had his own car and driver for personal use. The official car was parked not at home but at the office. For personal purposes, such as going to the mosque, weddings, shopping or going on holiday, the personal driver and personal car were used.
My father made it a point to attend weddings when invited but would often remark he would rather be invited to the akad nikah ceremony than the bersanding as is the norm.
He was always very positive in his attitude and thinking. He never wished for anything bad to happen, and always told us not to wish for bad things and never say or think we were sick and never to look at the negative side of things. Yet I had never seen him read any motivational books or seen any in the library.
Ahmad Ibrahim was also an avid sportsman in his younger days, playing football and badminton. He liked to watch football on TV, especially the English League. He was a supporter of Liverpool.
Major decisions were never made hastily. He always said he needed to sleep on it before coming to a decision.
Allahyarham was very much influenced by many thinkers and scholars. One such scholar is Muhammad Iqbal, particularly the book “Reconstruction of Religious Thought”. When I was in London he wrote to me saying this book was one of the first book he read while living in England as a student. It was fitting that the Government of Pakistan awarded him the Allama Muhammad Iqbal Medal in 1979.
Being in the legal profession like my father exposed me to many of his former students; all have stories of him. There are too many for me to detail but one stands out in my mind. This concerns a former law student of University Malaya who was just an average student. He asked my father for a letter of recommendation for his application to join a law firm, a request my father was happy to oblige. That former student used the letter to apply for a job at one of the biggest law firms in Kuala Lumpur, which at that time took in only the brilliant students. He was accepted and was later told that he got the job solely on the strength of the reference letter from Prof Ahmad Ibrahim. His former course mates were all surprised he managed to secure the reference letter. Even the former student too was surprised, and when he asked my father about it one day, he was told simply: “Because you needed it!”
Before I end my speech I would like to quote a cliché. Being one however does not make it any less true: Behind every successful man is a woman. This is so in the case of my mother, Salma Binte Mohamed Tahir, who had given my father constant support and companionship for the 57 years they were together. Only the family knows how loving a couple they were.
She was a wonderful wife to him. She always deferred to him, allowed him to make all the decisions, and was always supportive and never contradictory. She was able to run the household successfully and concocted for him many excellent meals that enabled him to focus and devote his time on the contributions he had made to the religion and the nation.
She was of course a fantastic mother to us, her children. Salma Binte Mohamed Tahir passed away on 17 March this year. May Allah forgive them both and shower blessings and have mercy on their souls.
Thank you!
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