Father Amir of Qatar Laid to Rest in Doha
Collected Photo
Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, the architect of modern Qatar and the country's Father Amir, has been laid to rest in the capital city of Doha. Following the announcement of his passing on Sunday morning, a wave of grief swept across the entire nation of Qatar.
His funeral prayers (Janazah) were held on Sunday evening at the Imam Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab Mosque in Doha.
Dressed in traditional Qatari attire, thousands of citizens joined the funeral prayers to bid farewell to their beloved leader. With tearful eyes, they raised their hands before Sheikh Hamad’s body to offer their final prayers.
Following the prayers, the body of the Father Amir was carried on the shoulders of his son and the incumbent Amir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, alongside close family members. He was then laid to rest at the Lusail Cemetery, located north of Doha.
Reporting from the scene, Al Jazeera journalist Zein Basravi described the farewell as a deeply humble ceremony. He noted that despite his immense wealth and global influence, Sheikh Hamad was buried in the ground like anyone else.
During Sheikh Hamad's long reign from 1995 to 2013, Qatar’s GDP grew more than 24-fold. His visionary approach to developing the country's vast natural gas reserves transformed the small nation into the world’s largest exporter of liquefied natural gas (LNG) by 2006.
Source: Al Jazeera
