Murdered pharmacist David Rahaman had a heart after God and was certainly a son of God.
This was how Roman Catholic Priest Fr Harold Imamshah spoke of Rahaman during his funeral service at the St Theresa’s Roman Catholic Church in Woodbrook yesterday.
Rahaman was shot on January 8, while he was reversing his vehicle into the yard of his St James home. He died on the scene.
Delivering a very emotional homily, Imamshah recalled the help Rahaman rendered to him in dealing with a CDAP issue for his 92-year-old mother which he said showed him the kind of heart he had.
“I find it very hard to be at this funeral, at this death, at this passing but you are showing me there is still joy, yes in the way this son of God lived and died,” Imamshah said.
“I first met him, in my mother’s last days when the pharmacy was struggling to get CDAP records in order. And there she was, having retired at 92 and no longer had an ID card that was up to date. Her passport had expired, when she travelled to Grenada to see me, be ordained a priest.
And one day, in desperation I went to David. And I said I cannot get the ID does that mean she won’t get the medication that she needs? And David – Sammy as you know him – he said no, of course you can get it. I said how? He said, all I know is that a 90-year-old needs this. That was all he needed. That was the heart he had,” the priest added.
Imamshah also recalled that Rahaman’s spiritual journey had climaxed.
“I asked him once, why did he want to become a Catholic. It seemed he searched for a calling in more than one place, and this climaxed his spiritual journey,” Imamshah said.
For this, the priest said he believed this would have strengthened Rahaman’s belief in God which resulted in him being fearless.
Imamshah also said the attempt on Rahaman’s life in December of last year was not the only attempt.
“December 10 was not the only attempt on his life. So he did fear no evil. But I would thought that a man who lived as if others stalked his life, that he would have been more fearful but he wasn’t. He feared nothing,” the priest said.
“I just found out from a friend of his, that he believed he should use the Psalms as his weapon, his guide and staff, and his friend told me that I gave him an app with Psalms. But Sammy kept that and guided his path. The word of God was a lamp that lighted his steps. Even when he got robbed at gunpoint for his car, ‘it was only a vehicle’ he told me,” he added.
Imamshah sympathised with the bereaved family saying that he too “struggled with all of you, his family, to even try to understand why now, why him? Because I know that the Lord took him to his heart in that moment. And I cannot offer that as consolation because you too struggle with this untimely death. I can only suggest that the Lord will help us to make sense of this slowly but surely.”
Minutes after the funeral and the casket placed in the hearse there was an accident involving three vehicles.
Though in mourning Rahaman’s brother, Andrew Rahaman, president of the Pharmacy Board of T&T, along with many mourners quickly made their way to the victims and were seen attempting to console two of the female drivers who remained in their vehicles but visibly shaken and crying.