Marghoob Quraishi
Remembered
By A. Salam Qureishi
Via Email
I
mourn the death of a dear friend of mine, Marghoob
Quraishi, who in the late 1980’s was an associate
at Sysorex and then a Consultant to Sysorex until
1990. In 1998, we became related to each other
through the marriages of our daughters, Leila
and Amira to the family. I met Marghoob and his
wife, Renae Iffat in 1962 when I first came to
the Bay Area from Cleveland, Ohio to work for
the IBM Corporation.
I
was overwhelmed by their warmth and kindness.
When Naheed and I got married, February 3, 1963,
our wedding ceremony was arranged by Marghoob
and Iffat at our apartment in San Jose. Naheed
and I had no relatives in the Bay Area and they
became our relatives. Since then, our families
became very close. Our daughters, Lubna and Leila
went to Sunday school with their daughters, Asifa,
Haleema and Amira. The Islamic Sunday school at
Stanford was founded by Marghoob in 1968.
There
were hardly a dozen students then; now, there
are some 250 students on roll, with just as many
on the waiting list. Marghoob also started a Muslim
youth Summer Camp in 1965, which continues to
this day. He was very active in the community
affairs throughout his life. His home in Palo
Alto was open to all the new Muslim arrivals in
the area. Many stayed in his house for days and
weeks before they found places of their own.
I
know it for sure; because of our having the same
last name, strange people used to call my telephone
number at odd times, by announcing their arrival
and wanting directions to the Quraishi home. In
view of his deep involvement in the Muslim community
affairs, one of our good friends, Mahmood Raz,
nicknamed him AM (short for Ameer-Al-Momineen,
the leader of Muslims in the Bay Area. Later,
when he was told about it, he remarked that he
“was just doing his duty”. Extending the joke,
Raz also nicknamed two other fellow Muslims as
BM (black Muslim) and CM (crazy Muslim). Marghoob
was very honest in his business dealings.
In
the 70’s I acquired a small OTC company in Los
Angeles. Vice President, Jim Murphy, ran it for
two years. When he came back to the Bay Area,
I asked Marghoob to run it. Being the company
that supplied sensitive equipment for the Ministry
of Defense of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, I looked
for a very honest, reliable and hard working executive
to run it. It was very hard for him, because it
meant his spending three days a week in Los Angeles,
away from his home in the Bay Area. He continued
managing it until 1987, the year I had my first
heart attack and stroke.
He used to admonish me, saying that I was burning
the candle at both ends. In 1979, he prepared
quite extensive documents for my company’s Saudi
operations, including the income tax returns for
the Saudi Arabian authorities. He had to travel
to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia to present them. Whatever
Marghoob did, he did a thorough job. In 1990 when
Saddam Hussain attacked Kuwait, and in 1991 when
United States attacked Iraq, he got very upset.
He then arranged a conference of Muslim activists,
intellectuals and scholars in Palo Alto, California.
Iraq was thoroughly discussed in this conference
and the events of 2002 were predicted.
The
need for the shared knowledge led to his founding
of the Strategic Research Foundation, a major
Muslim think tank. The Strategic Research Foundation
published a quarterly journal “Geopolitics Review”,
with thought provoking articles. One of the recent
noteworthy items was his article on the part of
9-11 on the Muslim Americans. In 1994, he also
founded the Muslim Student Network, whose primary
aim is to train the best and brightest of the
Muslim youth by placing them as interns in the
Executive and the Congressional branches of the
US Government. He was also one of the founders
of UMA (United Muslim of America), a national
Muslim organization. Marghoob was stricken by
lung cancer last year. His family and non-smoking
friends were after him for some time to quit smoking.
He did not do it until last year.
His
son, Kaleem, even told him that he would get all
A’s in his BS Program if he quit smoking. Well,
Kaleem got all A’s, but Marghoob really never
quit smoking until last year. In October, 2004,
he went to perform Umra for the last time. The
non-stop trip to Mecca, also took its toll; he
felt weaker after the trip. On Sunday, January
23, 2005 (he passed away on Wednesday, January
26), Naheed and I went to see him. We had a pleasant
talk. We discussed many things. He told me he
had sold his business last week but he was still
involved in the training of the new owners. He
wanted to come to my office and asked me about
the time we could meet.
On
Tuesday, our mutual friend, Razi came to see him
from Los Angeles. Razi told me later that he had
a coherent conversation and they prayed together.
On Wednesday, his wife Iffat called our common
friend Haseeb, and said that Marghoob was saying
something in Urdu which she could not understand,
so if he could come over to help her. Haseeb went
to see them at 4:30 pm. Iffat went out to do some
errands. Haseeb was with Marghoob for over two
hours. Later he told me that Marghoob did not
say anything. He kept on staring in vacuum. Haseeb
did all the talking and asked Marghoob just to
say yes or no. This was not unusual for Haseeb.
When
he talks, people listen, because his conversations
are interesting. Iffat came back at 6:30 pm and
Haseeb left shortly thereafter. Iffat later told
that Marghoob became very weak. He kept on looking
toward the door as though he was waiting for somebody.
She took him to his bedroom. There he slipped
into the bed. She then called the hospice. They
came and tried to help in lifting him. Then they
decided he had passed away. Later, I surmised
his waiting for that somebody was the waiting
for Ezrael, the Angel of Death. Now, Iffat laments,
she was getting mentally prepared for taking care
of him until his perhaps painful death. But he
went so suddenly and peacefully to his Creator!
“Inna li Allah wa inna ilaih rajeoon” Truly, Every
being belongs to God and in the end returns to
Him.
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