March 27, 2026, arrives to awaken in our hearts the memory of a man who was not merely a sheikh for the city of “Jaramana,” but its moral compass and impenetrable spiritual fortress.
Five years ago, the knight “Abu Hammoud Fares Katbeh” dismounted from the steed of this world, leaving behind a legacy that runs deep into the history of this land. His story began in the “Kuttab circles,” where he was not just an ordinary student, but a seeker drinking wisdom from the great sheikhs of the Unitarians. The retreats of knowledge refined his soul, and he made “Al-Khader Street” and his ancient religious assembly—which has spanned over 120 years—a theater for his piety. For him, the sheikhdom was not a position, but a “cloak” of divine and social duty; ever since he succeeded his father, Sheikh “Abu Fares Hammoud,” in the seventies, he embodied the true meaning of a “steward,” combining the purity of work on the land with the trade of honesty and certainty.
Sheikh Fares was a safety valve whose balance never faltered; during the lean years of war and the intensification of trials, he held onto the helm of decision-making, gathering divided hearts, strengthening weary resolves, and speaking for the city with complete honesty and sincerity, overcoming bodily frailty and advanced age to remain a servant to all.
Sheikh “Abu Hammoud” departed, yet his specter remains a guardian of values, and his memory a beacon guiding travelers to the path of truth, confirming that those who plant goodness in people's hearts are never harvested by oblivion, but remain alive in the prayers of the loving and the chants of those who remember.
