I was just finishing my cup of coffee and about to leave when I got a call from the office saying that there was no work today. Why, I asked. The Amir of Kuwait had died earlier in the morning.

Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah had ruled this tiny oil-rich Emirate for 28 years after taking over the throne from his father in 1977. He was, they said, a simple man who eschewed ostentation as he guided his country through its transformation into a modern state. He ruled during tumultuous times in its history brought about by the lengthy Iran-Iraq war. The worst part of it though was the invasion and occupation by Iraq for 7 months in 1990. He, along with the royal family, had to hastily escape to Saudi Arabia - before Saddam Hussein’s thugs got to his palace – and live at the Sheraton Hotel until Kuwait was liberated by allied forces cobbled together by the Americans.

A 40-day official mourning period was decreed and for 3 days, both government and private offices, shops and schools will be shuttered. Kuwait City will practically be a ghost town with very few people and little traffic in the streets.

The Amir was buried later in the day in keeping with the Islamic requirement of burying the body as quickly as possible. Although located in a separate section of the cemetery in the outskirts of the city, his tomb was a simple mound of earth. It was a poignant sight to see the most powerful man of the country that is one of the richest in the world, buried in such austere surroundings.

Well, in death, we are all equal. And it reminded me that….For dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.