Before the funeral, a farewell service was conducted in Millennium Hall today . At the Grand Anwar and Nur (Beni) Mosques, renowned religious leader First Mufti Haji Omar Idris taught Islamic religious instruction for almost 40 years. He also wrote more than fifty religious texts.
He translated the Holy Quran as well. His translation of the Quran was published and distributed on a CD. He taught the Holy Quran with interpretation (Tafsir) more than 300 times throughout his more than 50-year stay in Addis Ababa. By settling religious conflicts that emerged throughout Ethiopia, the First Mufti carried out his duty as a religious parent. He was the Chairman of the Ulama (Scholars) and a member of the Ethiopian Islamic Affairs Supreme Council when it was founded in 19990 He was the Overseer of the Ethiopian Inter-Religious Council and the President of the Ethiopian Islamic Affairs Supreme Council from March 2018 until May 2022. He was married and has four daughters and five sons.
Haji Omer Idris Demeke was born on May 21, 1937, in a village called Genete, in the Legambo district of the former Wollo province. His father was Ato Idris Demeke, and his mother was Woizero Menen Shifaw. At a tender age, a love for knowledge permeated his heart, and with his farmer father’s permission, he began his journey to gather Islamic knowledge.
In Haji Omer’s childhood, a student seeking knowledge would often sustain themselves by begging or by asking villagers, and Haji Omer also began to gather knowledge in his spare time by offering manual labor services to those who fed him, such as herding cattle or chopping wood. This astonishing childhood story, which is a lesson to many, would take a whole night to tell and would not easily conclude. With perseverance—even without the moral or provision support of his family—and despite attempts to tie him down with marriage and farming to distract him from his quest for knowledge, he did not waver from his goal. He managed to overcome all the challenges he faced with tenacity and wisdom to reach his objective.