Picture this: HRH Prince Charles, HRH Princess Badiya El Hassan of Jordan, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Chief Rabbi and sundry representatives of various faiths all sitting together in a lecture theatre at SOAS (the School of Oriental and African Studies in London) with a number of senior Muslim figures, muftis and imams, to celebrate the life and mourn the passing of one of Britain’s most prominent Muslims.

Well, I was there, sitting next to Bryan Appleyard from the Buddhist Society and Anil Bhanot of the Hindu Council during this long memorial programme. I saw a number of my inter-faith friends from different religions, including Brian Pearce of the Inter Faith Network, Revd Fergus Capie of the London Inter Faith Centre, Sidney Shipton of the Three Faiths Forum, and Imam Abduljalil Sajid of the Muslim Council for Religious and Racial Harmony. As far as I know, I was the only Baha’i.

Over the years that I have been involved in inter-faith work I had met Zaki on many occasions. He was a significant figure in the Muslim community. He was a significant figure in the inter-faith world. He had dedicated himself to moderation in the Muslim world, to training imams, and to education. I can’t say that I knew him well. He was frequently the representative Muslim at State events and services, on inter-faith bodies, in dialogue with government, so I saw him in those contexts. Those who knew him well attested to his desire for peace and reconciliation, his wisdom, his warm-heartedness and his generosity of spirit, not to mention his humour. He spoke of himself as a rebel, someone who was deferential to neither monarchs nor religious hierarchs.

As I listened to the tributes - some serious, some funny, all delivered with warmth - from the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Home Secretary Charles Clarke, the Chief Rabbi Sir Jonathan Sacks, HRH Princess Badiya, Sir Sigmund Sternberg, the Grandi Mufti of Bosnia-Hercegovina Dr Mustafa Ceric, and HRH The Prince of Wales, I became ever more aware of Zaki’s extraordinary achievements in many parts of the world, an Egyptian who had made his home in Britain, a Muslim amongst whose closest friends were two Jews, the Chief Rabbi and Sir Sigmund Sternberg, with whom he had founded the Three Faiths Forum, a learned man who wore his learning lightly and with humour.

A number of the Muslims speakers restated Zaki’s firm belief that Muslims should be good citizens of the country in which they live as well as good Muslims. The two are not mutually contradictory. As the Mufti of Bosnia-Hercegovina said at the end of a witty and funny impromptu speech: ‘God is not angry at Muslims who live in Europe. God is pleased that we live in Europe’. Clearly this was a message that these particular Muslim leaders want to be heard by their community.

Parenthetically, I was struck by the fact that Princess Badiya, who spoke of her faith as a Muslim and who read a message from her father, HRH Prince Hassan of Jordan, wore no hejab, no scarf, no jilbab. She was bareheaded and wore, as far as I can recall, a trouser suit. Clearly she did not feel compelled as a Muslim woman to veil herself, even in such a gathering.

Now, I say I could not claim to have known Zaki well. Our paths crossed on many occasions, but our acquaintance was relatively superficial. However, on more than one occasion - one I remember was during dinner for faith representatives at the Chief Rabbi’s home - Zaki would say something that always seemed to me to be slightly dismissive of the Baha’i Faith. ‘Why are you here?’ he’d ask. Or he’d say, ‘I don’t know what we’re going to do with the Baha’is.’ He seemed uncomfortable with the presence of Baha’i representatives on State and other major occasions.

Why was this? Was it because he, in his heart of hearts, thought of Baha’is as apostates or of the Baha’i Faith as not a proper religion? I really don’t know. Something he said when I presented him with the Universal House of Justice’ Message to the World’s Religious Leaders on behalf of the National Assembly back in 2002 would suggest that this wasn’t so. He told me then that he had been invited to Iran sometime not long after the 1979 revolution (he was well known and well respected by Muslims in countries across the planet, with links to the Al-Azhar in Egypt). He said he had asked the ayatollahs why they were persecuting the Baha’is and had told them he disapproved of the persecution. So he had defended the Baha’is in Iran.

I’m not suggesting that he was opposed to the Faith or that he would do anything other than defend freedom of religion. That’s not what Zaki was about. It’s just that he seemed uncomfortable about the degree of prominence with which the Faith is represented now in the UK.

Anyway, that is now past. Dr Zaki Badawi is missed by many and, as some said, his contribution to good inter-faith relations is now sorely needed. May his soul advance in the worlds of God.

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