Praise for the charitable work of Shaikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan has come in from across the world.
Organisations from as far as New Zealand have said they owe Shaikh Zayed a huge debt of gratitude for his generosity.
Much of Shaikh Zayed's support was demonstrated through the UAE Red Crescent Authority and the Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan Charitable and Humanitarian Foundation, which was established in 1992 with a budget of more than Dh3 billion to help people in need and promote Arab and Islamic learning and culture.
Raji Sourani, head of the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights in Gaza, said Palestinians mourned Shaikh Zayed for his political and material support for Arabs.
"He was respected. He was the only Arab leader to give in a way that ordinary people could see and feel. You can see that his projects helped people across Gaza. He is sorely missed here by ordinary Palestinian people."
He said Palestinians did not think they would see another man like Shaikh Zayed who played such a strong role in Palestine's history. Generous support from the UAE to Gaza would continue, Sourani said, because the UAE was a country of "institutions, not just people".
In the West Bank city of Ramallah, Shaikh Zayed Hospital was built in 2000 to provide health services in the central West Bank and care for a growing number of Palestinians injured by Israeli fire.
The UAE's Red Crescent Authority gave thousands of dollars to buy medical equipment and help pay staff.
In April 2002, when Israeli forces hit the West Bank cities, the UAE's Red Crescent Authority gave Dh368,000 to cover debts and another Dh18,400 for food. A year later, the foundation bought Dh1,104,000 worth of medical equipment for the hospital.
The hospital's accountant, Mohammad Abu Soufiya said: "We named the hospital after Shaikh Zayed because of the values he represented support for Palestine, Arabism and bravery.
"We treat the injured and the families of martyrs for free. That's what they expect because the hospital is named after Shaikh Zayed. His reputation as a generous man precedes him."
Khamis Al Suwaidi of the UAE Red Crescent Authority said there will be no changes in the society's work following Shaikh Zayed's death.
"Everything is still the same, Shaikh Zayed's support stays with us, whether he is alive or dead."
Meanwhile, the Madinat Rafah project in the Gaza Strip is going ahead as planned, Al Suwaidi said. "Seven hundred units are almost complete. We expect to hand them over after Ramadan."
College for girls
In New Zealand, Shaikh Zayed's memory will live on. The Zayed College for Girls near Auckland opened thanks to a Dh13 million donation from the foundation. With 70 students, it is the sole secondary school in New Zealand to teach Arabic and Islamic studies.
Director Um-Umar Dean said a service in memory of Shaikh Zayed was held after the news of his death was announced.
"It was a great sadness for us. The foundation is the reason why the school came into being.
"The students were disappointed to hear of Shaikh Zayed's death because they understood what the name of their school represented and they knew that he built the school," she said.
The school opened in January 2001 and its students who range in age from 13 to 18 represent more than half a dozen nationalities.
As well as a small number of New Zealand nationals, there are also students from Palestine, Syria, Iraq, Egypt, Jordan and India. Some students, particularly those from Somalia and Afghanistan, are the daughters of refugees. The school hopes to boost student numbers to 250, the maximum that can be accommodated in its buildings at Mangere near Auckland International Airport.
"We have been a pioneer in Islamic education and have made the Islamic community more viable in the country," Dean said.
As well as funding the building of the school, Shaikh Zayed's charitable foundation helped to pay the running costs in its first three years.
"It's absolutely amazing what Shaikh Zayed did for us. It's a fantastic gift and we are very grateful. It would have been very difficult for us to get established without his help," Dean said.
Just weeks ago, Shaikh Zayed made the final installment of a Dh91 million donation to one of the most prestigious American centres for the treatment of cardiovascular disease.
Cardiovascular centre
The cardiovascular treatment centre at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota will be named in Shaikh Zayed's honour next year to acknowledge his generosity.
Shaikh Zayed had not wanted his generosity to the clinic to be made public but the donation was revealed by a newspaper in the United States.
The specialist centre will be renamed in a ceremony next year.
More than 2,500 heart operations are performed each year at the centre, many of them using state-of-the-art techniques, including minimally invasive surgery.
Shaikh Zayed's generosity will live on, not only in the UAE but around the world, said people who had benefited from his kindness. The UAE founder left his mark in the mosques he helped build and in the works of charity he carried out around the globe from the mountains of Nepal to the plains of Africa, from China to the Comoros and from America to New Zealand.
Projects in Africa
The Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan Charitable and Humanitarian Foundation, founded in 1992, has spent millions on projects in Africa, representing about 19 per cent of its total spending.
In Nairobi, Kenya, the foundation built the Dh12.8 million Shaikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan Mosque, which has become an Islamic and cultural landmark in the heart of the city.
Schemes in Asia
The foundation has spent Dh55 million on various projects in Asia, including mosques, hospitals and educational and medical centres.
This is in addition to small donations and relief aid in disaster-hit areas and support to associations and Islamic centres on the continent.
In Pakistan, several dozen welfare projects were carried out by the foundation, ranging from infrastructure services to building hospitals, schools, housing complexes and digging wells, especially in the villages.
The foundation has also built mosques in different states of the Indian subcontinent, in addition to providing financial support to many associations and Islamic centres.
Helping Muslims
In the West and EU, the Zayed Foundation has spent Dh66 million on charitable projects, representing 18 per cent of its total spending.
Projects differ from one community to another, but they are mostly aimed at helping Muslim communities in the areas of culture, education and religion.
In Sweden, the Zayed Foundation established the Dh12.8 million Shaikh Zayed Islamic Centre in Stockholm.
The centre is the biggest in Scandinavia and is regarded by the Swedish government as one of the country's tourist attractions.
In the United Kingdom, the foundation established the Dh11 million Shaikh Zayed Mosque in Slough (near London), and it is one of the most prominent Islamic landmarks in Britain.
The UAE was the only Arab country and the second non-Nato state to commit forces to the peacekeeping effort in post-war Kosovo in 1999.
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