Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) leader Sayed Hyderali Shihab Thangal passed the baton of his family’s rare legacy to his younger brother Sayed Sadikali Shihab Thangal on Sunday when he succumbed to an ailment that he fought for months.
The secular legacy of Panakkad Shihab family has been celebrated by the State even when people from different walks of life poured in their grief and messages of condolence over the death of Hyderali Shihab Thangal.
Thangal successfully carried forward the legacy that his elder brother Sayed Mohammedali Shihab Thangal left in 2009; and in the last 12 years of his leadership, Thangal proved that secular ideals, accompanied by love, mercy and calmness, were the strongest bulwark of the Panakkad family.
Even the IUML’s fiercest rivals were in praise of Thangal’s graceful role in preventing communal polarisation in Malabar, particularly in Malappuram. Thangal was not a dashing leader of exceptional charisma. But his calm and affable nature took him to people’s hearts irrespective of their political affiliations and faith.
Like his late elder brother, Thangal became a messiah of communal camaraderie in Malappuram. People of different faith used to reach his house seeking his blessings whenever he was at home. He listened to people’s pleas and woes, and suggested remedies the best way he could.
He was not a spiritual healer; yet he carried an aura of spirituality. People kissed his hand whenever they got a chance, though he did not encourage that practice much.
Leaders and cadres of other parties and social, cultural and religious organisations respected him. Everyone listened to him when he spoke. A man of few words, seldom did Thangal speak nonsense.
He was careful in synthesising religious and political leaderships. As vice president of the Samastha Kerala Jamiyyathul Ulama, the largest body of Islamic scholars in Kerala, Thangal never allowed his political biases to govern the religious body.
The respect he commanded from scholars was visible when the Samastha said their leaders would heed only if Hyderali Thangal asked them during a recent standoff between the Samastha and the IUML over the Waqf Board appointment dispute.
For decades, the IUML State leadership is skippered by the eldest member of the Panakkad Shihab family. That legacy appears certain to continue, with party Malappuram district president Sayed Sadikali Shihab Thangal already officiating in the absence of Hyderali Thangal.
