After dedicated and selfless services to the Muslim community Al-Haj Dr. Tuan Burhanudeen Jayah peacefully passed away in the Holy City of Medina after successfully completing his sacred mission Hajj. Dr. Jayah was a reformer and pioneer of Muslim education. Today we remember him with gratitude and affection for his dedication to the welfare and upliftment of the Muslim community. His service was immeasurable.
Dr. Jayah was a great educationist, a legislator, active social worker, brilliant orator and an exemplary Muslim leader who sacrificed a lot for the betterment of the Muslim education. From the time he passed the Cambridge Senior he devoted his entire time to the upliftment of the Muslim community in general and the country in particular. He said, "Youths are the trustees of the future". Once in a few generations a man is called upon to guide the destinies of a community.
In 1921 Dr. Jayah assumed office as the Principal of Zahira College which was then a mere secondary school with 6 teachers, 59 students and ill equipped buildings just sufficient for a primary school. Within a span of 27 years Dr. Jayah made Zahira a fully equipped Muslim institution. To use his own words "The radiating centre of Muslim thought and activity". To achieve his ends, Dr. Jayah retained Zahira in an exalted position as a leading institution in the island and also urged Muslim children to fit themselves for the higher and greater responsibilities of life in accordance with the teachings of Islam. Under Dr. T.B. Jayah's dynamic leadership, Zahira College became the cradle of Muslim education in the Island.
Besides education, he played a significant role in politics to free the country from British domination. From 1924 to 1931 he was a member of the Legislative Council and again from 1936 to 1947 he was a member of the State Council. When Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) gained independence in a most amicable manner in 1948, he was appointed Minister of Labour and Social Services in Ceylon's First Cabinet.
Dr. Jayah had the distinction of being Ceylon's first High Commis-sioner to Pakistan from where he consolidated the mutual friendship and co-operation between the two countries. In 1960 as a devoted Muslim Dr. Jayah left for Mecca to perform Hajj as it is incumbent on every Muslim who is physically fit and financially capable to do so. He set off with the idea of erecting a "Ceylon House" to enable local pilgrims to stay during the Hajj season. While at Medina, he fell ill and was treated by a specialist flown from Jeddah by King Ibnu Sa'ud.
I remember my late father Al-Haj M.L.M. Farook who served under late Dr. T. B. Jayah at Zahira College, Colombo once recalled that before Dr. Jayah embarked on a pilgrimage to Mecca in 1960 he said, "I wish I could die in Medina, the city of Holy Prophet Mohamed". Likewise Almighty Allah accepted his Dua (supplication) and on the morning of May 31, 1960, Al-Haj Dr. T. B. Jayah passed away. Such was his true love and immense devotion towards the deen of Allah. Inna Lillahi Wa Inna Ihalhi Rajioon. To Allah we belong and unto him we return. (Ruzaik Farook, President Sri Lanka
Islamic Society)
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