Poetry: Ashraf AboArafe
Indeed, to God we belong,
and to Him we return.
You who carved a homeland from narrow dreams,
Who shaped a renaissance from fragile history,
Rest in peace—
For the land you awakened will never sleep.
Farewell, Mahathir,
Wisdom of the East in times of blindness,
Spark of faith
When nations stumbled through ashes.
You raised Malaysia
From the margins of poverty
To the heart of the world,
From the silence of the oppressed
To a voice that commands respect.
You were not merely a leader—
You were a nation’s vision,
A people’s prayer,
Years of patience
Transformed into glory.
Ninety-seven years
Of struggle and construction,
Of hope defeating despair,
Of will creating a renaissance.
Today we bid farewell to the body,
But the idea lives on,
The achievement bears witness,
And history bows in honor.
O God, grant him vast mercy,
As vast as the hope he planted,
Grant him Your highest gardens,
As he planted pride in millions of hearts,
And reward him for sincere service to his nation.
Farewell, great Muslim leader—
Rest in peace,
For what you built shall live on
As long as the sun rises over Malaysia
And as long as nations believe in rising.
