"Al Maghrib" Special edition. Commemoration of the 40th day after the loss of Said Hajji, sixth year - No. 937 April 29, 1942

This text was written on the occasion of the passing of one close and dear to us, may Allah the Omniscient shower his grave with the fine mist of His Grace.

The passing of people we cherish is a big misfortune but the loss of those who are worth more than precious jewels is a real catastrophe and the departure of great men for the eternal world is a cruel calamity. You all know the standing of our beloved deceased in Moroccan society as well as the great activities he initiated. And by the immeasurable pain he endured through his sacrifices for the general good and for having a goal to disseminate as widely as possible the tools of science and knowledge across the fabric of (our) society.

This generous soul and character of high nobility, joined with a valid honorable aspiration as well as a permanent quest to be highly considerate are some of the gifts the heavens endowed on him. He was a prodigy among prodigies of his era and Lord knows if exceptionally gifted men of all eras were made of such a rare commodity which generally emerges only in unique circumstances. They have a disconcerting originality and represent a type of character different from the ordinary. This observation could be corroborated by the (historical) appearance at one time or another of a number of geniuses each made known by the (ancient) Arab tribes as a sudden emergence of a great poet. He would evoke their wonder as much by his fluidity and ease in reciting orally as by his poetic inspiration as he translates his beautiful artistic creations. He thereby assures a kind of literary power and a rise of morale for his tribe, forcing all to admire him and awaken in him a profound sense of pride.

Divine will endowed Said with exceptional gifts distinguishing him from those around him. Circumstances were such that at a very precocious age he came bearing a message for renewal, for progress, for the permanent search for knowledge and for unconditional respect for moral principles. he taught us how to navigate the seas of the human sciences as well as those of life with its multiple facets and contradictions. He sought to understand the cosmic laws that govern the general order of the universe. From these laws he derived lessons which he soon shared widely with his contemporaries here and abroad. His published writings are a goldmine of extraordinary comments, advice full of wisdom, enticements to fight the blight of laziness and to see one's endeavors always from their usefulness; never to give in to futility nor be swayed by alluring rhetoric. He always advocated honesty in what we do and what we say, a true testimonial of our beloved's graceful mind and noble soul.

The man was a preacher and counselor in all he said. People do not (fully) appreciate how zealously he dedicated himself to serve his nation; nor how sorrowful he felt seeing the deterioration of morals and mindless loss of time and money with no profit to oneself or to the community. So many times he expressed his astonishment at seeing the deep slumber into which Morocco has plunged, heedless to the ills gnawing at it and doing nothing to seek some remedy through the sciences that heal the most simple of ills to the more complex. We see him in the throes of agitation, thinking about the best therapy to treat the ills suffered by his people. He found out that there was nothing better to fight their ignorance than through his guidance in the articles he wrote, his useful recommendations that he proliferated endlessly and laid out in a journalistic style well within the grasp of one and all. His words penetrated the ears of the deaf and guided the groping blind on their journey. He never stopped reprimanding the heedless youth and awaken their careless minds selfishly dealing with the world around them without concern for the disastrous consequences of ignorance and vanity. Oh how he launched appeal after appeal with the hope they would be heard by the living!

If we say this man uniquely held such extraordinary qualities and took advantage of a unique way of thinking even though his friends and companions of the same age also did not live in need and drew (experiences) from the same sources of knowledge and yet did not attain the maturity that distinguished him, we must agree there is a cause that reason alone can not ignore. In fact among the influences that contributed to develop this exceptional mind and noble character was fundamental and a very powerful urge to reach new heights.

Said was the fruit of an alliance between two prestigious families; his father's lineage which harks back to the pious Sheik Sidi Ahmed Hajji, may Allah rest his soul and that of his mother, the Msattas of Salé. His paternal branch was always keenly interested in science and steadfast in its goodwill. It almost always included amongst its ranks a man of knowledge or a saint. As for his maternal lineage, knowledge was transmitted from generation to generation and very high morality was bequeathed from father to son. Hence our beloved Said living in this virtuous environment could only be pure in all tasks and without vice.

To this one might add that he was able to further complete and enrich the knowledge he acquired in Morocco thanks to the years spent studying in Syria and Lebanon where he absorbed much from Middle Eastern culture, a culture that markedly influenced his adolescence. His skills expanded and his thinking became well developed. He was in constant contact with those on the high summits of Middle Eastern Arabic culture appreciative of their manner of expression in a chastened language which differed little or none at all with the written Arabic. He saw men and women, boys and girls communicating in a dialect close to classical Arabic at home, in the marketplace, in clubs, in meetings and especially in the schools. For schools were not only the main forum to spread Arabic but also the cradle of contemporary Oriental (Arabic) literature of the (modern) renaissance and renewal period which lifted youth from their slumber to divert them to adopt modern ideals which were a total break from tradition.

We can only have admiration for this young Moroccan, intelligent, talented, cultured and well bred who knew how to integrate into Syrian and Lebanese society and absorb their culture so he could better understand the enormous gap between our two lands. It is there where he perfected his development and completed his education. it is also there that he learned the Arabic of those who awakened our ancestor's language from its sleep. For it was the Lebanese who can take credit for printing in our language allowing it to take off and shine (once again) across the Near East and Egypt. For otherwise it was threatened to fade away not long for a burial alongside the dead languages. Thanks to them that Arabic found new youthful vigor after being in full senescence and it found a new life after being on the edge of annihilation. Listen to what a Lebanese said in one of his speeches:

Said returned to Morocco his cup full of knowledge due to the tools of culture that his thirst for understanding allowed him to acquire. But that was not enough for him. What he wanted foremost, was to see his people attain the same level of progress as that reached by the Middle Eastern countries. His goal was to bring his fellow citizens to have the necessary urge to aspire for greatness. He glanced across the generations of Moroccan society and noticed that they had a total misunderstanding of what lay ahead in the future and they were ignorant of what could befall them. He therefore took it upon himself to do all he could to awaken the slumbering minds and to bring about a desire to work to those who let themselves slip into the laziness of a nonproductive and easy lifestyle. With a pilgrim's staff in hand, he marched patiently, giving advice or recommending against, sometimes demanding more than human efforts on himself for the sake of others. He lifted a most overwhelming burden during his all too short life until all his energy was spent, fatally comprising his health before being exposed irrecoverably to divine sentence.

Said totally dedicated his life in the service of his country and fellow citizens. May it please Allah to bless his soul and keep it in His Grace so he may live in eternity in the heavenly gardin.

Mohammed Doukkali, Historian