Harithy, the 50-year-old university professor whose body was found on Friday hanging from the ceiling of his office at home in the Alwali district of Makkah, have said that his will contains 16 pages of advice and instructions to his family, including the handing over of certain papers to a specified member of Board of Senior Ulema. The deceased also purportedly instructed them to care for the grandmother responsible for Al-Harithy's upbringing following his father's death while his mother was still pregnant with him. Al-Harithy's mother, meanwhile, has rejected preliminary police analysis which points toward a verdict of suicide in her son's death, saying that she suspects “foul play”. Other relatives are equally suspicious, and say that the mere two hours between the discovery of his body and news reports on the incident should serve to cast doubt on the suicide hypothesis. The relatives also recalled Al-Harithy's character as one that would not point to such drastic measures, saying he “was a rational man who rejected violence and pain in any form”, evidenced – they say – in his refusal to see a dentist for seven years. Friends and colleagues gathered at Al-Harithy's home in Makkah Saturday to offer their condolences as forensic experts continued their investigation into his death. Al-Harithy's body was found, along with an apparent suicide note, with the cloth of a headdress around his neck after police broke down the locked office door. The professor, who was known for spending long hours in the office, had reportedly remained inside for two days. While police were confident Saturday that suicide was the cause of death, the Commission for Investigation and Prosecution began its own investigation taking forensic samples from the scene. A report on the death of Al-Harithy, who was only last week promoted to head the History and Islamic Civilization Department at Umm Al-Qura University, is expected to be made available to his family Tuesday.
