Written by: Farid Sayed
Inna Lillahi Wa Inna Ilayhi Rajiun
May Allah Allah grant our beloved Boeta Ali the highest place in Jannah.
A dedicated, humble servant of the community. He was the type of person who seized every opportunity to do a good deed. An understated embodiment of the Sunnah; not an ostentatious manifestation of it.
Boeta Ali served every sector of the community. Of course, best known by callers to Radio 786 for his chirpy voice when answering the phone or greeting visitors to the radio station, making them feel they are truly part of the community the radio embraces.
I have cherished memories of Boeta Ali from the time when anchoring the morning show at Radio 786. His bright smile – and very firm handshake (which even my arthritic hand welcomed its embracing grip) – was the tonic to shake the slumber of an often half-asleep anchor.
And then I looked forward to my monthly visits to Radio 786 to drop off copies of Muslim Views. I smile as I pen this: without fail, he would grab a piece of paper to receive the newspaper; “It’s mos hot off the press.”
Serving Radio 786, serving City Tramways as a voluntary ombudsman (the self-effacing Boeta Ali didn’t use that fancy title; “I’m just helping out”), serving mosques and madrasahs by doing their annual Ramadaan collections; Boeta Ali was service personified. Regarding the latter, he would travel by bus to the northern provinces, and from town to town during Ramadaan, and take public transport to get around town, doing collections for organisations on the Cape Flats serving the marginalised. Surely every cent collected was blessed with the barakah of Allah SWT.
While we are deeply saddened by the loss of Boeta Ali Isaacs, we are comforted, however, by the fact that we shared moments with a remarkable personality. We are comforted by the fact that whenever he bid farewell to someone it was a warm greeting and a du’a for one’s well-being.
We make dua that Allah places sabr in the hearts of the family of Boeta Isaacs as joins the company of the Prophets, the truthful, the martyrs and the pious.
