بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمٰنِ الرَّحِيْمِ

Assalamu alaikum everyone.

On behalf of my entire family, I would like to start by thanking each and every one of you for coming here today to pay your respects to my beloved father, Falah Uddin Khan.

A few months back, once I started to sense that his time here with us may be limited, I starting writing. Nothing in particular. Just a journal with notes on different pieces of his life. Mostly things that made me feel happy or reminded me of all of his insanely wonderful qualities.

Over the past few days as I witnessed his health rapidly decline, I somehow managed to put my words into a eulogy to express to you all who and what my father was to this world.

Please bare with me as I will do my best to compose myself…

What Allah gave us…

On December 6th 1943, Allah gave us Falah Uddin Khan, born in Ludhiana India, son of Aziz Uddin Khan and Amtul Aziz.

Second of his siblings, he proved to be a brother that dreams were made of. Although a few have now passed, the ones that are here today would do nothing but agree with me… Shams Uddin, Nasreen, Salah Uddin, Tasneem, Saeed, Shaheen, and his youngest Naveed. Please know that the love he had for each of you was unparalleled. It was shown to each of you not just through his words, but also through the mountains he moved anytime you ever needed him.

His love and support was equally extended to all of your spouses as well, Nazi, Farrah, Shafiq, Saima, Fahim and Faiza.

Starting work at a young age, Allah directed him into the field of electrical engineering which is a career he would continue to pursue once he immigrated to the US in 1976.

While in his late 20’s, he was introduced to and ultimately betrothed to his beloved “Baby.” Baby being her nickname given by her family at birth, not just something cute he called her as a term of endearment, although now it became his sweet calling of her.

My parents truthfully had an arranged marriage and here’s a fun fact actually; my mom once saw my dad at the bus stop and asked her friend “why does that guy look so familiar?!” To which her friend responded… umm, that’s your fiancé (lol!) but that’s just how things went back home in those days.

But, Allah turned this union into one of the greatest loves I’ve ever witnessed in my entire life. He wed his “Baby” in 1973 and about a year later they expected their first child. This child however was not meant to be with them in this life as he was delivered full term stillborn. As my dad valued the human life so much, he gave him a proper burial even though the child never took a single breath.

A year and a half later…

Allah then gave us Neman Ahmed Khan. Falah’s oldest and oh so special son. Special not only because he was their first (living) child but special also because he was the first grandson to carry the Khan name. Dad would tell us all the time that the sound of Nomi’s cry when he first entered the world was the absolute sweetest sound he ever heard in all his life. The apple of his eye, his pride and joy, I will never have enough words to describe his love for his Nomo.

Just 2 months after Neman was born, my parents made the difficult transition to move to the U.S. from Pakistan in 1976. My father didn’t wait so much as 24 hours after stepping foot in this country to go to work and start his career as an electrical engineer at the company ED&C.

He was so fortunate to have the support of his sister in law Hafiz along with her husband Audil to make this move as easy as possible. He would ALWAYS tell us that those two are the reason he made it here and was able to build such a wonderful life for us.

Then 5 years down the road, came his daughter Asima Noreen. Dad being the one to choose my name and also being the first one to feed me honey, ensured that we’d be more than soulmates all his life. Not only did he have a mini version of himself that looked just like him, but also one that would inherit so many of his traits.

From fashion to food to photography, I couldn’t be happier to have followed in your exact footsteps.

Because what Allah gave us was a fashion icon of his time. A man who dressed so impeccably no matter what the occasion was. The way he dressed and carried himself is still something every single person that knew him talks about. With special attention to his suave hairspray and his safari cologne.

His love of photography and capturing real time moments allowed us to relive our childhood with him over and over again.

As a jack of all trades, he had so many talents and so many interests, it would honestly take me days to go over all of them, so today, I’ll just talk about a few:

⁃ He was a self taught handyman. He could literally fix anything using random things he’d just find around the house.

⁃ A master chef, who’s specialty was bbq. If you ever had the privilege of eating his tikkas then you knew they were nothing short of life changing.

⁃ A gracious and most hospitable host, he always wanted people over his house and would find so many excuses for them not to leave.

⁃ He also had such a green thumb as gardening was one of his greatest passions.

⁃ He was Baby’s hairdresser and groomer as she only ever liked the way he did her hair.

⁃ He was an inventor (many contraptions were always displayed around the house.)

⁃ He was a doctor at times / and a healer.

⁃ A therapist (both physical and mental.)

⁃ A wanderlust who loved to travel. So many road trips come to mind that he took us on in our burgundy station wagon.

Nomi and I couldn’t have been more blessed to learn even an ounce of these things from you.

Our life growing up was that out of a storybook. When I was 5, we moved just one street away from our beloved cousins/siblings, Halima Sadia, Sabahat, Bilal, and Meriam. These are the children of his sister Tasneem (who really was his sidekick throughout life) and his brother in law Shafiq Mirza who is my moms brother. Yes, it was a cross marriage.

There were some extremely hard times that were endured because of this situation but dad made everything better at all times for us. He was the calm, the logic, the solution to every bad situation to ever come our way.

You 4 were his children. Period. And as you grew up to find love and bring your wonderful spouses into his life, Shakeel, Dory, Aisha and Aniq, they too were his kids more than ever being just his nieces and nephews.

Neman found and married the love of his life, Hadia, in 2005.

A few years after they were married, Allah gave dad his continued legacy, Ayaan Yousif Khan and then 2 years later came his Aanya Merheen Khan. Mixed with all of the other children from all of those he saw as his kids, his life was full of love and laughter.

Hadia, know that you were so special to him. He saw you as so much more than just a daughter in law. He saw you as one of his closest friends. Someone he could talk to for hours just about anything.

The greatest gift I am so happy that at least one of us was able to give to him was the honor of making him a grandpa.

Ayaan and Aanya, know that Grandpa will always be with you in everything you do. He will be right there to witness all of the wonderful things we know you’ll accomplish. Each of you enriched his life so much and gave him nothing short of what a grandparent could be blessed with.

This goes for all his other precious kiddos, Sonia, Sabrina, Danial, Eyal, Ibrahim, Yaqub, Emaan, and his newest love Armaan who gave him so many smiles these last few months of his life.

P.S. Ayaan, your Honda is waiting for you the second you are old enough to drive. 😉

As I don’t have hours to list every single person he so wonderfully loved, you all know who you are and what joy you brought to his life. Some of you helped him so much at the most difficult times when he just didn’t have the strength to do all the things he loved.

Popi, you are without a doubt one of those people. You were his son more than just his little brother in law. Thank you for being there to help everyone in his place now. He did his best to help you as much as he could with his mother in law that he so dearly loved but never had to worry as he knew you always had things handled.

Asad my dearest brother, I wish I could put into words how much your khalu loved you and wished that he could have spent more time with Arshaan.

This love goes for the rest of you as well. Anser, ALL of bhardi Khalas kids, their spouses and their kids, Shams Thai Abbus daughters, spouses and kids, Ali and Zenab, Harris and Nabeel, Osmaan, Umer, Hina, Hira, Saira, and many many more spread throughout the world.

Ali, your help towards the end of his life is something we will be forever grateful for. Please know that.

If I’ve left anyone out, it was not my intention rather the undeniable fact that he had an army of loved ones. He was the most respected and admired person to walk among us. And if you had the privilege of knowing him or being connected to him in any way, please take a moment to think of a fond memory as I’m sure you have an abundance of them to choose from.

Dad, You embraced every role you were given by God from being the best son, to the best brother, the best husband, best father, best grandfather, best uncle, best friend and an exemplary Muslim who even completed Hajj and Umrah.

Lastly I want to share with you all what Allah gave me…

Allah gave me… TIME. He gave me 40 years of such a beautiful life spent with you.

A life where we experienced so many wonderful things together.

You taught me to love whole heartedly no matter what. Even if that love for some reason wasn’t reciprocated back by someone.

You were my:

Angel.

My Support system.

My Rock.

My Foundation.

My Superhero &

My Soul mate.

Please know that being your caretaker was the most extraordinary role of my life. And I would do it 100 times over if I had to again.

Nomi and I are honored to be your children and we will continue to make you proud. I promise.

We also promise that we will do everything in our power to take care of mom just as wonderfully as you did.

The image of your cute pudgy fingers hitting the keyboard as you scroll FB and dial numbers on your phone will be imbedded in my mind forever.

Daddy, I did my best to look as nice as possible for you today as I knew, seeing me dressed up was one of your greatest joys.

Know that you transferred your strength and your courage to me in every form which is the only reason why I was able to carry out your every last wish.

Laying next to you with your hand in mine with my head on your chest, listening your very last heart beat and saying everything my heart needed to say to let you go as you took your last breath with all of your loved ones around you is a gift from God that I will never be able to pay him back for.

I love you my sweet angelic father…

Allah Hafiz Meri Jaan, Allah de Sapurth, Allah nigehban.

Allah de Havalé.

Inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi raji’un 🤲🏼