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'We have completed his journey': Sheikh Mohammed pays touching tribute to late father

Sheikh Rashid is credited with transforming Dubai from a fishing village and desert backwater port into the thriving global city it is today

Published: Fri 6 Oct 2023, 3:48 PM

Updated: Sat 7 Oct 2023, 12:11 AM

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The Ruler of Dubai paid a poignant tribute to his late father — whom he also called as the Father of Dubai — who passed away 33 years ago.

Posting a short video on microblogging platform X on Friday, His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, said: “May God have mercy on my father and the father of Dubai, Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum. May he rest in peace.”

“May God have mercy on those who founded nations, built structures, and transformed mankind,” Sheikh Mohammed tweeted in Arabic.

Sheikh Rashid, who became the ruler in 1958, is credited with transforming Dubai from a fishing village and desert backwater port into the thriving global city it is today. He ruled Dubai for 32 years until his death in 1990. He also served as the first Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE.

Sheikh Mohammed said of his late father: “33 years have passed since his passing. We have completed his journey and carried out his vision… His people will continue to remember him and pray for him. His legacy and his work for the city will endure. May God have mercy on him and grant him the highest paradise in heaven. Amen.”

Beyond the stars

Sheikh Rashid's legacy has also reached the stars. In a book by Sheikh Mohammed launched last month, titled, ‘The Journey From the Desert to the Stars’, he wrote: My father (Sheikh Rashid) taught me a lot about the desert when I was young, how to live in it. He instilled in me the skills of survival in the desert, coexisting with its wildlife, its camels, and other animals in its cold and heat, and navigating by the stars in its skies."

“And now that we have reached space, I wonder, did I ever imagine in my childhood, as I gazed at the stars with my father on desert nights, that one day we would reach Mars?," the Ruler added.

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