MANJUNG: Nurul Kamal Zulkarnain managed to whisper the call to prayer (iqamat) into the ear of his newborn daughter at Hospital Seri Manjung before he was tragically killed in an accident yesterday.
The incident occurred at 4.30pm when the Perodua Kembara SUV driven by the imam of the As-Siddiq Mosque in Seri Iskandar, overturned near an oil palm plantation at Km211.8 of the West Coast Expressway (WCE) near Sitiawan.
His wife, Nur Firdaus Salwa Zamrin, 30, said that before the accident, her 37-year-old husband spent about an hour with her at the maternity ward of Hospital Seri Manjung.
"He brought baby supplies and helped with my transfer from the regular maternity ward to the neonatal intensive care unit. I gave birth to our youngest child at 2.30am on Monday.
"My late husband whispered the call to prayer into our baby's ear, held her, and kissed her before heading home," she said when met at the Forensic Unit of Hospital Seri Manjung, today.
Nur Firdaus Salwa, an Islamic kindergarten teacher, added that her husband seemed to be in a hurry to return to Seri Iskandar as he needed to deliver a Maghrib lecture at the Bandar Universiti Mosque, Seri Iskandar, that evening.
"Before he left, he reminded me to engage in frequent zikr. I never expected that to be his last message.
"Yesterday, I was supposed to stay in the ward with the baby due to jaundice, but I was allowed to leave after receiving the news of my husband's death," she said, struggling to hold back tears.
Besides being an imam, her late husband was also a Takmir Teacher for the National Anti-Drug Agency (AADK) in Seri Iskandar, frequently delivering lectures on monotheism at mosques in the Perak Tengah and Manjung districts.
Nurul Kamal leaves behind a wife and three children – a two-year-old son, and two daughters, aged four, and two days, respectively.
Meanwhile, Nurul Kamal's mother, Aminaton Sa'adiah, 64, said her son, the third of five siblings, called her just minutes before the accident.
"He told me that he had just visited his wife at the hospital and wouldn't make it home in time, so he asked me to pick up his children from day-care.
"I told him not to worry, I would get my grandchildren. We live together in Seri Iskandar.
"During that call, he seemed normal. Even when we spoke before he left the house, everything was as usual," she said.
Aminaton said her son's passing would be deeply felt as Nurul Kamal was always helpful and loved to joke with family members.
Nurul Kamal's body is expected to be taken from Hospital Seri Manjung to the As-Siddiq Mosque for the funeral prayers after Zohor. He will be buried at the Seri Iskandar Muslim Cemetery here.