Matters of the heart from a daughter to her father.

ISLAMABAD: Dr Hasan Murad, if he were here with us today, I would show gratitude to him for being a wonderful combination of strength, warmth, kindness, laughter and love.

My father lived a life that many dreams of. His discourse is so expansive that many aspire to this. He achieved acclaim that inspires so many. The simplest thing I can say about my father is: he was a force of nature, a storm of a man. In his path, things moved. Nothing stayed still. He was primal, preserving, and on fire with the possibility that something good was just about to happen if only you worked hard enough to make it so.

Summing up his life, I keep coming back to one thought. Never will you meet a man who more faithfully lived his values. At any age, when faced with an ethical dilemma, after reflection, study, or even rationalization, I find myself coming back to one simple question. What would HE do? His character is the foundation of my conscience. My father's teachings are endless. My father had a mission in life: to be able to create a Pakistan and the Muslim ummah through ilm. He was cause-minded, mission-driven, value-oriented and would not compromise. He spent every day, every minute and every second for this cause. He valued his life and his life is the best manifestation of Islamic principles and professionalism. The most important attribute of my father's life was that he considered himself the servant of Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala at the core. He worshipped Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala, he found his freedom by surrendering to the will of Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala. His choices, his preferences, his likings, his aversions, his decisions, his deliberations, everything was according to the traits as to what would please Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala and what would earn His maximum pleasure, not just His acceptance or his indifference, but His utmost love and mercy.

My father was a seeker of the love of Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala endorsed further by his relation with the Quran. He discovered Quran in his early life. His mother imbibed in him the message of Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala. He absorbed it to the extent that it became his intuition. His hobby was to recite the Quran. If he were alone and not doing anything, he would sit somewhere and recite the verses. He had memorized half of the Quran and he knew the other half very well. He had a grasp of every verse in terms of its meaning and context. He was charmed by the beauty of the Quran and was unflinchingly...