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'He raised many orphans': Son shares memories of late 107-year-old Emirati father
Abdullah Duha Askar Al Kaabi used to walk five kilometres to check on his children at school, and never stopped saying ‘Alhamdulillah’ even when he was on life support
- PUBLISHED: Fri 7 Aug 2026, 6:00 AM
Sharjah is mourning the loss of Abdullah Duha Askar Al Kaabi, a 107-year-old Emirati who passed away after a six-year battle with bladder cancer.
Born in 1919 in Sharjah’s Al Fili area, Al Kaabi was a living testament to the UAE’s remarkable transformation, witnessing everything from the pre-union era to the modern development of the nation. He spent his final month and a half on life support in the intensive care unit at Shakhbout Hospital, where he passed away surrounded by family.
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Abdullah has two sons, Mohammed and Salem, ten grandchildren. Among members of the community, he is remembered as a man of uncommon warmth and moral stature.
‘I am proud that this man is my father’
When asked about his father, Mohammed did not pause. “I am proud, truly proud that this man is my father,” he said in an exclusive interview with Khaleej Times. “He was a wise man, a tolerant man, a humble man. A man who loved goodness for all people.”
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Mohammed described a father who was beloved by everyone he encountered, from elders to children, from neighbours to the owners of small shops in the area. “God gave him acceptance wherever he went,” Mohammed said. “Whoever spoke with him, loved him.”
The lessons Mohammed learned from his father were simple but profound. “I learned from him wisdom, patience, and to be good to all people,” he said. “To be patient with words, patient with circumstances, and to always be kind.”
A father who raised orphans
Al Kaabi's two sons were born to him late in life. Yet his role as a father extended far beyond his own household. “My father raised many orphans,” Mohammed said. “Wherever there was a child whose mother had died, he raised them. Wherever there was a child whose father had passed, he raised them too.”
During the long years before his own children were born, Al Kaabi channelled his paternal instinct into caring for those who had no one. “He was generous to people, and kind, truly kind,” Mohammed said. “His qualities are so many I cannot count them all.”
He was well known throughout the Al Fili area, a figure of quiet authority and deep community trust. “He was known in Al Fili, known throughout the whole settled area,” Mohammed confirmed. “He would work to bring people together, to resolve disputes, to help arrange marriages.”
‘Pray for me’
Al Kaabi’s devotion to prayer defined him throughout his life and never left him, even in his final days. “He was very committed to prayer," Mohammed said. Even while lying in the intensive care unit, connected to ventilators and life support machines, his thoughts remained fixed on worship. “He would tell me, ‘My son, please pray for me. Pray for me.’ That was all he thought about,” Mohammed recalled.
When visitors asked how he was feeling, his answer never changed. “Even on the machines, on artificial respiration, with everything going on around him, if someone asked him how he was, he would only say, ‘Alhamdulillah. Alhamdulillah,’” Mohammed said.
A memory that spanned a century
Al Kaabi’s mind remained sharp until the end. According to Mohammed, his father could recall events from 80 or even 90 years ago with vivid clarity. He could recall the exact locations where each of some old people was born.
Al Kaabi had never received a formal education, yet his son described him as a man of exceptional perception and natural wisdom. He worked in the desert and ran his own business, and was known for his ability to mediate disputes and counsel those around him with a clarity that came not from books, but from a long life lived with intention.
The teacher who never forgot him
The depth of Al Kaabi’s character is perhaps best captured through the eyes of Abdul Hafez Al Hawarat, a distinguished Jordanian educator and researcher at the Ministry of Education in Jordan. Al Hawarat, currently in Jordan, is a recipient of the Sharjah Award for Educational Excellence in the category of Outstanding Teacher and later served as a member of its judging and advisory board for five years.
In the summer of 1999, Al-Hawarat arrived in the UAE for his first teaching assignment at Al Thameed Secondary School for Boys in the Al Fili area of Sharjah. Among his students in Grade 11 was Mohammed bin Askar, Abdullah's son. “He (Abdullah) treated teachers with the utmost reverence and respect,” Al-Hawarat told Khaleej Times. “In a way that was truly remarkable.”
It was not long before Al Kaabi himself appeared at the school. The guidance counsellor introduced them, then quietly stepped out of the room. “I found myself alone with this elderly man, and sitting with him was a gift,” Al Hawarat said. “This man enters the heart of whoever sits with him,” he added.
Kaabi did not drive. While virtually every other parent arrived at the school by car, this elderly man would walk sometimes four to five kilometres on foot simply to check on his children. “He would walk all that way just to check on them” Al Hawarat said. “And when you sat with him, there was no trace of tiredness on his face. You felt safe. You felt joy. You felt the positive energy he gave to everyone around him.”
When Mohammed and Salem eventually graduated, Al Hawarat admitted to a bittersweet feeling. “I used to wish, honestly, that they would not finish school just so we could keep seeing that beautiful old man. So we could keep drawing from his positive energy, from his wonderful prayers, from the way he would pat us on the shoulder and wipe away the exhaustion of a long teaching day.”
The memories, he said, will never leave him. “Abdullah bin Askar was not merely the father of two students. He was a representative of an entire society, the Bedouin society, the Emirati society. The values he passed on to us are engraved in our hearts, and they will remain there forever.”
Ruqayya Alqaydi is an associate editor with an endless curiosity to learn. Like a journalist on a caffeine overdrive, she is fuelled by passion and on a mission to uncover every gem in the UAE.