الجوائز والتكريم
Chapter 07
Awards & Honors
Eleven decorations, and the one thing he did with all of them
Between 1986 and 2010 he was decorated by heads of state, by a royal prize committee, by universities and by emirates. When the largest of the prizes was paid to him, he did not take it home.
The first
1986
Three years after he left the hospital, the Gulf noticed
He had given up gastroenterology for a continent, and the decorations began almost at once. The earliest on record is the Medal of the GCC Heads of State, presented in Muscat for charitable work.
| 1986 | Medal of the GCC Heads of State | Muscat |
| 1999 | Order of the Two Niles, First Class | Sudan |
| 1999 | Service to the scouting movement | GCC |
Riyadh
1996
The prize he gave away before he got home
The King Faisal International Prize for Service to Islam is the most senior honour of its kind in the Muslim world. He put the whole of the money into an educational endowment for African students. Numbers of them went through university on it.
750,000
Saudi riyals — the full prize
0
of it kept
1
endowment, for the university education of African students
1996
King Faisal Foundation · confirmed by the prize’s own records
Brother, we do not wait for anyone’s certificates. We work in the field, and we wait only for God to accept it from us.
Sheikh Muhammad bin Hamad Al-Khamees · seminar «السميط شمس أضاءت إفريقيا» · reference biography, p. 125
The decade of medals
2001–2010
Ajman, Omdurman, Cotonou, Dubai, Sharjah, Doha
In his last working decade the honours came from every direction — an emirate, a university, a West African president, a medical prize, a foundation. He was in the field for most of them.
| 2001 | Sheikh Rashid Al-Nuaimi Award | Ajman |
| 2003 | Honorary doctorate | Omdurman |
| 2004 | Knight’s medal | Benin |
| 2006 | Hamdan bin Rashid Award | Dubai |
| 2009 | Award for voluntary work | Sharjah |
| 2010 | Knight of Charitable Work | Sharjah |
| 2010 | Award for charitable work | Qatar |
And meanwhile
He hated it
What he did when he was praised
A donor sat beside him at the reception desk and began to praise him. When the man had made his gift and left, Al-Sumait disappeared. A member of staff went looking for him and found him cleaning the lavatory.
Didn’t you hear what the man said? He praised me. I wanted to teach myself not to be taken in by it.
Yousef Al-Kandari · «عبد الرحمن الفاتح» · reference biography, p. 97
أدَّبتُ نفسي فلم أجد لها أدباً
بغيرِ تقوى الإلهِ من أدبِ“I schooled myself, and found no schooling for the self but the fear of God.” — p. 98
The record
The eleven, and the twelfth
All eleven are attested by two independent Arabic sources — the Marefa encyclopaedia and the Kuwaiti daily Al-Jarida, 16 August 2013.
1986
GCC Heads of State
Muscat
1996
King Faisal Prize
Service to Islam · Riyadh
1999
Order of the Two Niles
Sudan · first class
1999
Scouting movement
GCC
2001
Sheikh Rashid Al-Nuaimi
Ajman
2003
Honorary doctorate
Omdurman Islamic University
2004
Knight’s medal
President of Benin
2006
Hamdan bin Rashid
Medical sciences · Dubai
2009
Voluntary work
Sharjah
2010
Knight of Charitable Work
Sharjah
2010
Charitable work
Qatar Foundation
2013
The one he never saw
A prize in his name ↓
Also on record, undated: a certificate from Egypt’s Council of Voluntary Organisations, and an award from Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum.
Ceremonies
The photographs we hold
Two, and neither is documented. The Riyadh 1996 ceremony and the Omdurman conferral have been requested from Direct Aid.
After he was gone
What now carries his name
$1,000,000
Three months after his death, at the third Arab-African Summit in Kuwait in November 2013, the late Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad announced an annual prize in his name for African development — a gold medal, a certificate and one million US dollars, awarded at Bayan Palace.
- Food securityالأمن الغذائي
- Healthالصحة
- Educationالتعليم
A pioneering humanitarian figure in Kuwait, the Arab world and the African continent — he left a humanitarian legacy that will go on making a great difference in the lives of the poor.
Valerie Amos · UN Under-Secretary-General · Al-Rai, 23/9/2013
A street in Kuwait
Named after him by order of the Amir. Street and governorate — to be confirmed.
The medals were his. The prize that carries his name is not — it is paid, every year, to someone still doing the work.
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