The investigation into the suicide of history and archeology professor Nasser Al-Harithy came to an end Friday when the body was buried here in Al-Ma'ala graveyard Friday. Dr. Waleed Abu Al-Faraj, President of Umm Al-Qura University, and Abdul Wahab Abu Sulaiman, member of the Board of Senior Ulema, attended the funeral prayer at the Grand Mosque. Al-Harithy's family said their last goodbyes to the noted scholar at 7.00 A.M. Friday ahead of the funeral procession in the presence of a large number of mourners. The authorities confirmed that there was no criminal motive behind Al-Harithy's death as the autopsy results showed that it was a suicide; something the family rejected at the beginning. Basim, Al-Harithy's eldest son, denied earlier suspicions of the involvement of the family's housemaids in the death of their father as they had left the Kingdom before his death. Al-Harithy's sons Basim, Muhammad, and Ali said their father was suffering from acute depression that he briefly told them about three days before his death. Al-Harithy showed his children a medical report of his mental case, they said. The medical report said that his brain was scanned to examine his mental health condition that deteriorated after he stopped taking the medication. Al-Harithy sought the help of traditional healers through recitation of the holy Qur'an or “Al-Ruqya Al-Shar'iya,” but he later discovered that they were merely sorcerers and did not rely on the Prophetic principles governing this traditional healing. The police are believed to question the sorcerers whose phone numbers were found saved in Al-Harithy's cell phone, his sons said. The sons were planning to show their father's will to some judges and seek their opinion about its implementation according to the Islamic Shariah. Basim appealed to the media not to disfigure the image of his father for committing suicide as it was his deteriorating mental condition that drove him to end his life. Meanwhile, Al-Harithy's creditors have written off at least SR200,000 of his total debts of over SR700,000, said Basim. “Most of the money he borrowed went into financing his research,” he said. Umm Al-Qura University has earlier formed a committee to determine Al-Harithy's total debts to be paid off. Waleed Abul Faraj, the university president, said “Despite the relatively short time I knew Dr. Al-Harithy, I saw in him an honest and sincere man, very dedicated to his work,” adding that the university has lost one of its prominent scholars but it finds its comfort in his legacy in the field. The university said it will nominate Al-Harithy in the future to any prize in the field of his specialization, Abu Al-Faraj said. One of the halls at the museum management at the university will be named after Al-Harithy as a tribute to his name and his contribution to the university. Dr. Sulaiman Al-Zaidi, member of the Shoura Council and one of the deceased's close friends, said that during his lifetime Al-Harithy was not given his due appreciation by Umm Al-Qura University as he was one of the serious scholars who dedicated himself to academic research. “I accompanied him to a number of historical sites looking for inscriptions and archaeological stones to send them to one of his students in Malaysia. It was very generous of him to send study materials to fellow researchers abroad,” he said. “He was a humble, judicious, and helpful man as manifested in his simple clothes, residence, and car, which was driven by most of his students.”
