DETROIT – A 14-year-old Muslim boy passed away last Thursday, August 11, as he was trying to save his younger sister’s life in a Michigan lake.

“It is with a very heavy heart that I should say this, but today we have lost a great brother today,” Kutaiba Alrefaai, one of the boy’s acquaintances, wrote on Facebook on Friday.

“Abdulrahman Labak drowned in a lake in Ann Arbor while trying to save his younger sister. He saved her but drowned and 40 minutes later his body floated up and he returned to his creator.”

Citing a spokesperson for the Washtenaw County Sheriff’s Office, a report by ABC news, Detroit, said that Labak was underwater for 40 minutes.

The teen was wading in the Huron River when he went other. He and his family are from Detroit and were meeting family in the area, visiting from California.

Family members and bystanders tried to pull the teen out from the river but all the efforts turned abortive, l. He was located just before 4:30, pulled from the water and taken to the hospital where he breathed his last.

The young teen, believed to have memorized the holy Qur’an by 7 years old, was mourned by a huge number of his friends and teachers at the Qur’an Institute, where he studied years ago.

“I’m in disbelief and sadness. He was a hardworking, dedicated, and above else loved his deen. No words here can express the tension in my heart that resulted from hearing about his passing.

“I still wish this wasn’t true, I wish it wasn’t him, and yet here I am remembering that one of my close friends has left.”

Mohannad Hakeem, another American Muslim in Detroit,  also shared sad notes about the boy’s death.

“Our dear brother Abdulrahman Labak drowned in the Huron River and passed away,” he wrote on his Facebook page.

“Beautiful brother with high manners, hafiz to the book of Allah, and a bright mind.

“The eyes shed tears, and the hearts grieve, but we only say what pleases our Lord. We are saddened by your early departure AbdulRahman.”