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By Samira Gutoc, Moro times managing editor
The missionary and “guro” (teacher) who rose
to be the country’s most powerful Muslim religious leader and
Lanao’s longest and highest-serving politician was an uncle, a
husband to five wives and father to many poor Muslims.
Aleem (learned Muslim) and Dr. Mahid Mutilan
died a tragic death after meeting a car accident on the way to
Cagayan de Oro (CDO) in December 6 speeding to catch an early seven
flight, after praying the Subuh (four in the morning) in Marawi (two
hours away from CDO airport).
Every year, my Eid celebrations in Marawi would
be special with congregational sermons laced with Bapa (Uncle)
Mahid’s jokes and moniker laughs. Listening to his Arabic was like
romancing the unknown. I could only appreciate the glory of the Holy
Qur’an’s message with his Maranao anecdotes and fiery quotes.
This year, Muslims will be celebrating Eidul
Adha (the Feast of Sacrifice, without Mahid, the president of the
Ulama (plural for aleem) League of the Philippines and co-convenor
of the Bishop-Ulama Conference of the Philippines.
I realized how important he was even to foreign
guests when I was organizing the Environmental Conference on Lake
Lanao in Marawi City last year with my group, the Philippine Muslim
Women Council (PMWC) . This was to be the first Marawi visit for US
Ambassador Kristie Kenney. His staff always reminded us to invite
Mahid Mutilan.
During the first Southeast Asian Forum on Islam
and Democracy at the Manila Hotel on December 10, former President
Fidel Ramos asked the delegates for a minute of silence to remember
Mutilan. Marawi hosted national leaders who paid their respects to
Mahid. Secretaries Norberto Gonzales and Jesus Dureza, former
Senator Santanina Rasul and former ARMM Governor Parouk Hussin were
in unison that the country had lost a national figure, a bridge
between Muslims and Christians.
Former dean of King Faisal Center for Islam,
Arabic and Asian Studies Hamid Barra, who is writing a book about
Mutilan, said Mutilan was unique in that he “filled many shoes”
—as Grand Mufti of the Philippines, Ulama League President,
Bishop-Ulama Conference co-convenor and OMPIA party chairman.
When his body arrived aboard a chopper flown
from Cagayan de Oro at the Campo Ranao in Marawi, a mourning crowd
from Lanao’s 39 towns had gathered to see his body wrapped in
white (in Islam, the body is buried in white, symbolic of man
returning to his natural state). Calls came from Sulu and as far as
the Middle East, where many Maranaos are working, to inquire his
time of burial.
Just a day before, he had called on all Muslim
leaders to support the Mindanao Week of Peace with caravans and
gatherings. Last month, he had distributed sacks of rice to the poor
for the Eidul Fitr celebrations.
Nobody can fill the shoes by a man just a little
over five feet. He had an aura that made him larger than life with
his gift for gab. Although he was a busy man usually entertaining
ulama in his house in Marawi, he provided specific time for his
wives (after an Egyptian wife, he had married the five Maranao wives
at different times) and inspired the brood to study hard. My cousins
who were accountants and medical doctors finished their degrees with
his support.
Orphaned by the father and from far-flung
Tamparan, Lanao del Sur, Mutilan was schooled in the madrasah and
obtained a scholarship to study English and Islam at the world’s
most prestigious Islamic university, Al-Azhar University in Egypt.
He organized the Muslim Filipino students in Egypt to recognize the
Bangsamoro struggle. Elected president of the multi-tribal
Philippine Students Association in Cairo or PHILSAC, Mahid assisted
many students who came to Cairo for studies. Many students were able
to enroll and seek scholarship grants in various educational centers
abroad through his assistance.
He served in Japan for more than 10 years as a
Muslim missionary. He helped build Islamic schools in the secular
society. Mutilan was fluent in Nihonggo as well as Arabic and
English.
But he is best remembered as a politician and
ulama. When Lanao politics was dominated by the traditional elites
with large clans in the 1980s , Mahid was a nobody in local politics
coming home from abroad. He organized the Ompia (Reform) party in
1986, the first Islamic populist party, that banked on the growing
Islamization by ulama of the Maranao public in the ‘80s. Ompia
helped him to become mayor of Marawi, three-term governor of Lanao
del Sur and even Vice-Governor of the Autonomous Region in Muslim
Mindanao and concurrently held the controversial post as Secretary
of Department of Education (DepEd).
As a political leader, Mahid was appointed as
Secretary of the Committee on Preamble and National Identity at the
Philippine Constitutional Convention in Manila; he assisted in
drafting the constitution. In this present GRP-MILF talks, Mahid is
supposedly assisting the Moro leadership in convincing the
government of its demands.
Former Representative Michael Mastura said Mahid
tried to balance secularist politics with dialogue in peace with
religion. UNESCO Commissioner Taha Basman said his legacy for peace
advocacy/interfaith dialogue will remain with us for a very long
time. Former Mindanao State University—General Santos Chancellor
Moner Bajunaid fondly remembers Aleem Mutilan when he once argued
that power lies not in the knowledge of men, but in the will of
Allah who is the source of power and knowledge.
The Moro Times Editor Amina Rasul recalls Aleem
Mutilan as one who believed Muslim women could contribute to good
government, advising her to run for the Senate in 2004, contrary to
the belief of many that Islam prohibits women from seeking elective
positions.
He will be missed.
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