JEDDAH, SAUDI ARABIA

Sheikh Omar ibn Muhammad Al-Subail, 43, who was imam and khateeb of the Grand Mosque in Makkah for the past 11 years, died at the Armed Forces Hospital in Hada near Taif yesterday after entering a coma two weeks ago following a traffic accident.

Funeral prayers for the imam will be held at the Grand Mosque today after Asr prayers.
Sheikh Omar, who was the youngest of the Haram imams, is survived by his wife and seven children - four sons and three daughters.

Sheikh Muhammad Al-Subail, former head of the Presidency for the Two Holy Mosques' Affairs, has received messages of condolence from a large number of people within the Kingdom and abroad.
The accident that led to Sheikh Omar's death took place while he was traveling on the Taif-Riyadh Expressway with his family.

Born in Bakeriya in the Qassim region in 1958, Sheikh Omar received his religious education from prominent Islamic scholars, including the late Sheikh Abdul Aziz ibn Baz. He received his doctorate from Umm Al-Qura in 1991.

In 1992 he was appointed a lecturer at Imam Muhammad ibn Saud University in Riyadh. The following year he moved to Umm Al-Qura and was appointed imam of the Grand Mosque and head of the Shariah College.

In 1995, Sheikh Omar was named director of the Higher Islamic Studies Center and undersecretary of the College of Shariah and Islamic Studies at Umm Al-Qura. Two years later, he was appointed principal of the college.