Dear Editor,
Although the roosters may have started to crow and answer each other from near and afar, the first light of early dawn would not have even begun to penetrate the eastern sky by the time he was up. Andy had begun his day by rising early, as early as the roosters. He was observing the six days of Shawaal fast, a sunnan act that many Muslims observe in the month following Ramadan. He would have had his suhoor, a pre dawn meal and then without fail, as was his wont and practice, he would have gotten on his motorcycle, said Salaams to his wife and rode from his home at Albion to the Rose Hall Masjid. Andy would not return home alive.
Rajendra “Andy” Khadaroo, May Allah be pleased with him, was struck and killed on the Corentyne public road yesterday while returning from Fajr (early morning) prayers. He fell victim to the reckless actions of a drunken woman driver. This is a Guyana, a country and nation where indecency, drunkenness, vulgarity and irrationality thrives. This is a country and nation where those who contribute to this immorality are the loudest and most incoherent. They drown out the voices of reason and sanity and they are given licence to do as they please by those in authority for they turn a blind eye and a deaf ear to this banality, lewdness and criminality.
I have seen the bars open late at night. I have seen the drunken revellers dancing to loud, vile music with vulgar lyrics that assaulted the peace and quiet of the early dawn. And I have also seen imbibers, smokers and users behind the wheels of speeding cars, atop unsteady motorcycles and bicycles after their drunken sprees. We have all seen it. Yet, as this immorality pervades the land, there is a voice. There is a rising voice comprising of a cross section of common people, decent folks and God conscious men and women who have had enough. This madness must stop!
This immoral culture of drunkenness, bacchanalia and lewdness must be tempered. The rise of a nation and its people demand as much. Civil society demands the riddance of this disease that is antithetical to the greater good of humanity. While the voices of many decent people are attempting to rise above the cacophony of incoherent noise and while those voices are garnering the attention of a minority so entrusted to enforce and uphold the laws and safeguard the rights of the citizenry, there remains an urgency of corrective actions to remove this scourge.
So while officials make meaningless statements and become culpable by their inaction, many innocent lives are impacted and lost. Rajendra “Andy” Khadaroo is the latest in a long list of victims of impairment. Surely Allah will hold to account those who are responsible for the criminality and the resulting death and mayhem of this social disease. Rajendra (Andy) Khadaroo is no longer with us. His life was snuffed out by a drunken driver. Although she may eventually be held criminally responsible, those who served her, those who watched her get into her car and drive away, those who turned a blind eye or aided and abetted her actions would be equally culpable.
As a Muslim, I am consoled and find comfort and solace in the promise of the words of Allah in His Glorious Quran. I hope and pray that the grieving wife and family of Rajendra “Andy” Khadaroo will draw strength from these assuring words and the promise of Allah. I pray that Allah grant them the patience and forbearance to cope with Andy’s absence, their loss and that He may remove their hardships and ease their difficulties. May Allah, enter our brother Andy into Janatul Firdaus among the shuhada and the saliheen.
Sincerely,
Jay Mobeen
