Imam Mass Jah Passes Away

The Imam of Pipeline Mosque, Imam Mass Jah died last Friday and was laid to rest at the Old Jeshwang Cemetery on the same day. He is survived by a wife and several children.

Until his death, he was the Vice-President of the Sheikh Abdoulie Jah Charitable Foundation, which offers free medical treatment to communities in the country at no cost.

The news of his death triggered a mass gathering of people at his Pipeline family home to pay their last respects to the venerable Imam. They included relatives, friends and sympathisers. The government?s delegation was led by the Vice-President, Dr. Isatou Njie Saidy, who stood in for the President of the Republic.

In an exclusive interview with this paper last Saturday at his  family home in Pipeline, the elder brother of the late Imam, Professor Omar Jah (Sr) said his late brother was born in Medina Bai-Mass and brought up in Fass Omar Saho about 74 years ago and travelled widely in search of knowledge.

According to him, the late Imam Mass Jah studied in most of the Daras (Koranic schools) in the Senegambia region, spending some time in Saint Louis, Senegal, then Morocco before going to Egypt and Sudan.

After obtaining a BA in Islamic Studies, the late Imam Mass Jah returned home to start a career in teaching. He taught at Crab Island School and Muslim High School where he established the Dara section which was eventually integrated into the mainstream of the school curriculum, which according to him, accorded the opportunity to people with Islamic background, especially people who came from the Dara and Koranic schools coming from different parts of the country, to have the chance to have formal education which paved the way for them to gain scholarships to universities in different parts of the world, especially in the Arab world and western world.

As part of the contribution of the late Imam to the socio-economic development of the country, Professor Jah (Sr) added that many of the students whom the late Imam had succeeded in securing scholarships are now working in various sectors of the economy, including the judiciary. 

He said that with the support of the people like late Daddy Jobe, M.I. Secka, Alagie Ablie Jeng and Sulayman Massanneh Ceesay and others, he was able to secure a piece of land for the building of the Pipeline Mosque, with financial assistance from donors locally and the Arab world.

In addition, he disclosed that the late Imam with his associates had established Sheikh Mass Kah Islamic Foundation under whose aegis a junior school, a Dara, Koranic school, as well as a Senior Secondary School were built and well managed, all of which he single-handedly implemented successfully.

Meanwhile, the management and staff of the Point Newspaper wishes to extend its heartfelt condolence to the Jah family and pray that the departed soul rest in eternal peace.