A MAN has been called a “pillar of the community” for the support he has provided to families up and down Bradford who have suffered bereavement.

For the last seven years, Hafiz Junaid, 25, has been working for the Muslim Funeral Service (MFS) on a permanent and voluntary basis.

As a funeral director, Hafiz would arrange funerals, take the deceased to the mosque and then the cemetery.

It was during this time that he met Amjad Malik who tragically lost his son, Saliq, 15, in a car crash in 2014. Hafiz collected his son from the mortuary and prepared him with the family for his final departure (ritual washing).

Amjad said: “Hafiz’ kindness and compassion through such a vulnerable time meant I struck a bond with him instantaneously, which has grown ever since.”

Throughout the pandemic, the pair have supported hundreds of families who have sadly lost their loved ones. They have done this by working alongside MFS, Janaza Announcements and Council for Mosques.

For the last two years, whilst volunteering at MFS, Hafiz has also worked on behalf of the Coroner for Bradford Council, where he is responsible for attending the family homes of deaths, across West Yorkshire. He works closely with the Emergency Services, ensuring families are treated in a compassionate and empathetic manner.

Another example of Hafiz’ work was highlighted by Abid Hussain. He recalls when his uncle passed away and Hafiz did all the paperwork and running around while the family was grieving. After this Hafiz stayed at the mosque for hours with the family when all his job permitted him to do was drop the body off.

Abid said: “He has been helping me out ever since I have known him as a young lad. When he got into the funeral game, he has turned into a pillar of the community.

“There are so many examples of the good work he had done, you could probably write a whole newspaper about him. He always goes out of his way. It’s not a business for him. He will treat that funeral like it’s his own. He does not just go the extra mile, he goes the extra 10 miles. He is wise beyond his years.

“We are that close now, he is like my son. He is one of them kids that I could call, and he would come running to me. It is a big game changer having that kid around.”

Despite contracting Covid-19 twice over the last 18 months or so, this has not deterred Hafiz in supporting families during the hardest of times.

On his current role, Hafiz said: “You see different things, disturbing sides, tragedy. I thought it would have been a piece of cake as soon as I took on board the forensic side of it, but the first death hit me. I was used to seeing them laid in bed, a hospital bed or on the floor. When I dealt with my first case, it was manhandling the deceased yourself, and going into these awkward situations and disturbing sights.

“Once I got used to it, I was on board and wanted to go into detail with each case. Every death that we attended had a different story. Whereas in funerals it was somebody passed away and you were arranging funerals, taking the deceased to the mosque and then the cemetery. This was more contacting the police and the coroners office who would explain the scene. Not being disrespectful but it was really interesting, you would be amazed at what people are capable of doing and how they fell into that situation.”

Hafiz missed helping families out directly by arranging funerals so, after liaising with his managers, it was agreed that he could go help out at MFS at the weekends. This has been a big aid during the pandemic where funeral directors have sadly been at their busiest.

Hafiz added: “Funeral directors have been more affected than ourselves because we deal with tragic deaths like suicides, road traffic collisions, murders etc, and Covid stuff would go directly to them. We had a build up in deaths at first, there were a lot of patients that were resting at the public mortuary in Bradford and funeral directors were struggling with space. We put something in place where we would swap every deceased that would come into our care, if the person had Covid, which would be stated on their death certificate. There was a certain time when we had a hike in cases but eventually it was the funeral directors that needed support.”