Al-Fatihah: Ali Abdul Rahman..

Ucapan takziah to Aishah Ali and her sister, Saleha (two of my very dearest friends) and their family on the passing of their father, Ali Abdul Rahman early this morning.

I wanted to post on his passing but Aishah's phone was off soon after we spoke this morning and she did not get my text message until much much later.

Pak Ali died peacefully at his Johor Baru home. He was 82. He leaves behind a wife, Hafsah Abdul Rahim, six children and 10 grandchildren.

He used to work as customs officer in Singapore.

Aishah's and her siblings' mother, Rafiah Lajim, passed away in 1986 of lung cancer.

Aishah was the New Straits Times Women's editor before she was appointed editor of the Sunday Mail.
She left NSTP in 2006 and is now a media consultant and freelance writer.

Saleha was NST entertainment and later, features editor before she left the newspaper, also in 2006. She is now an editor with a lifestyle magazine.

Pak Ali was also grand-dad to Joe Flizzow (of Too Phat). Joe is the eldest of Aishah's (and her husband Ishak Nengah's) three children.

I used to see Pak Ali at Aishah's Subang Jaya home during kenduri or other gatherings.

I have been told (by Aishah and Pak Ali himself) that Pak Ali had met Bapak when he accompanied his colleague, Ramli Ishak to the Utusan Melayu office in Singapore way back in the 50s. (The late) Ramli was a younger brother of Yusuf Ishak, the Utusan Melayu boss and Singapore's first President.
(Ramli later married Aishah's aunt.)

AL FATIHAH. My doa for arwah. May Allah SWT bless his soul dan semoga dia berada di sisi orang-orang yang beriman, Inshallah! And to Kudu, Bee, Neng, Aman and the rest of your siblings....hang in there...