A guard, a teacher’s husband and an indispensable elder: Mosque mourns heroes who distracted shooters from children inside | CNN

Less than two weeks before his death, Amin Abdullah said his view of success was based not on what people thought of him in life, but whether he had a “pure soul” at the end. “May Allahu ta’ala (God almighty) grant us Husnal Khatimah (a righteous ending to life),” Abdullah posted to Facebook on May 5. “Brother Amin Abdullah got exactly what he desired,” said a man commenting on that Facebook post Monday, hours after the security guard was killed while protecting adults and children inside the Islamic Center of San Diego from a pair of teenage shooters. Abdullah was one of three beloved community members who died shielding the mosque from what police have said they’re investigating as a hate crime. Two other fixtures of the center, Mansour Kaziha and Nadir Awad, were killed while trying to draw the attackers away from the building. “We call them our brothers in the community, we call them our martyrs and our heroes,” Taha Hassane, imam and director of the Islamic Center, said Tuesday. The selfless actions of the victims ultimately saved lives by preventing the two attackers from penetrating deeper into the building, investigators have said. “All three of our vi