For 25 years in a row, a UAE citizen has been setting the table in his tent so that everyone can enjoy a meal during the month of Ramadan.
For 25 consecutive years, Saker Al Mehairabi, the former head of the Abu Dhabi police, has given an opportunity to all the fasting during the month of Ramadan to make the traditional iftar meal in their tent for free.
Walking along the Al Meharbah district along the Al Khalij Al Arabi highway, you will stumble upon the tent of Mr. Al Mehairabi, who daily receives about 500 people who can have a meal here during the month of Ramadan.
The tent is located near the benefactor’s mansion, next to the mosque and a grocery store named after him. This year, Mr. Al Mehairabi will continue to set the tables for all believers.
“We established this tradition 25 years ago. We covered iftar on the porch of a mosque next to the house,” said Al Mehairabi, a former police director and co-founder of Abu Dhabi in 1975.
"Neighbors joined us, they brought dishes with us. Together we shared a meal."
More than five years ago, the month of Ramadan began to fall on the summer period, so Mr. Al Mehairabi set up a tent where everyone could make iftar.
Al Mehairabi invites sons and grandchildren living with him, as well as brothers and sisters who moved out of the house several years ago.
“Only for this tent I hired four cooks,” the philanthropist said.
In order to feed hundreds of people flocking to his tent, Mr. Al Mehairabi ordered to kill 15 goats and ordered more than 350 chicken carcasses.
Virtue claims to have adopted this tradition from its ancestors and UAE leaders, to whom it was very close.
In the Mejlis of the house of Al Mehairabi, portraits hang, which depict himself with his children, Sheikh Zayed. In the room opposite, there is a photo of Abu Dhabi in 1962.
"The first school in Abu Dhabi is depicted here," the owner proudly declares, pointing out the photo with a cane. - She was called Al Falahiya. And here is the first clinic, here is Al Hosn Palace. Then there was practically nothing. "
Mr. Al Mehairabi is also famous for his good deeds in Yemen, where he has been serving every Ramadan for 15 years for 150 worshipers in five mosques.
Unfortunately, last year he was forced to interrupt this good tradition - he could not transfer money there because of the war.
“I hope that this year I will be able to help,” Mr. Al Mehairabi sincerely declares.
