A tribute to giants of service and sacrifice

ABDOOL CARRIM GANI AND DR SHAWKAT ALI THOKAN

by SHAFIQ MORTON

IT is not often that a community has to mourn two great stalwarts in the space of a few days. It is like a forest losing two of its biggest trees.

Messages of tribute from far and wide have poured in for Abdool Carrim Gani (75) and Dr Shawkat Ali Thokan (76), who both passed away last month, ironically within days of each other.

As close friends, theirs was a special, lifelong relationship, seen in their unselfish vision and activism that spanned more than four decades.

From the front rooms of their houses in Rustenburg grew the first shoots of the Muslim Youth Movement, which in turn saw the establishment of iconic institutions such as Sanzaf, Awqaf, the Islamic Dawah Movement, the Islamic Medical Association, the Islamic Research Institute, the Media Review Network and many others.