Intro
The Shah Jahan Mosque (also known as Woking Mosque) in Oriental Road, Woking, England, is the first purpose-built mosque in the United Kingdom. Built in 1889, it is located 30 miles (50 km) southwest of London. In roughly 1910, a Trust for guardianship of the mosque was then created with a membership made up of three public figures having strong connexions with India the Right Hon. Sayyid Ameer Ali, Sir Mirza Abbas Ali Baig and Sir Thomas Arnold (See also “Islam in Interwar Europe” by Clayer and Germain, it is also on the Ahmadiyyafactcheckblog). This also seems to be connected to the famous London Mosque Fund of 1910.
In 1912, the Shah Jahan Mosque fell into Ahmadi hands, via Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din (See the details in the below). However, just a year later, during the split of 1914, Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din joined the Lahori-Ahmadi’s and detested all orders and advice coming from Qadian and the 2nd Qadiani Khalifa. Thus, the Shah Jahan Mosque was under Lahori-Ahmadi control in 1914, and the other Ahmadi Maulvi (Maulvi Fateh Muhammad Sayyal) had Qadiani leanings. Thus, from 1912 to roughly 1965, the Shah Jahan Mosque was in Lahori-Ahmadi hands. Khalid Sheldrake and Abdullah Quilliam were also there.
In 1913, the visit of Abdul Baha to Woking on January 1913. The head of the Baha’i Faith announced, on behalf of the heir of Dr. Leitner, that “the mosque would in future be open for Muhammadans to worship at any time they pleased (See also “Islam in Interwar Europe” by Clayer and Germain, it is also on the Ahmadiyyafactcheckblog).
The Islamic Review became the most popular “outwardly Sunni” magazine in the us during the Great Depression. Judging by the correspondence published in the Islamic Review, it seems that, starting in the early 1930s, the Woking mission had instituted a new push to spread information about Islam in the us. Letters began pouring into the magazine from cities and small towns across the country, sent by either librarians, who were happy to receive the Islamic Review and the mission’s other Islamic literature, or readers, who had run across a copy of the magazine and found its contents so interesting that they felt compelled to compliment the editors and request more information about Islam. Through these efforts, the Islamic Review became the century’s first successful English-language Sunni publication in the us, creating the first truly nationwide reader-based community of non-Muslim and convert Americans who were interested in Sunni Islam. However, Woking had no official representatives in the us, so, like the readers of Webb’s newspapers, without face-to-face contact with Muslims, or at least a
feeling that such contact would be possible, many of the Review’s readers who became interested in Islam felt reluctant to convert. The timing was therefore perfect for the aia to come in and capitalize on the religious market the British Muslims had created. Without doubt, this would be the principal reason that Glick’s early efforts were able to eventually spread nationally and have a real historical impact (See Bowen, A History of Conversion to Islam in the United States, Volume 1, White American Muslims before 1975).
In the Islamic Review (Lahori-Ahmadi newspaper) of March-1935, prominent Lahori-Ahmadi’s like Khwaja Nazir Ahmad (Vice President of the “Woking Muslim Mission and Literary Trust”, member of the “Board of Trustees” and member of the “Management Committee of the Trust”) told the world that they were not the “Qadiani’s”, nor were they “Ahmadi’s”, they told the world that they believe Muhammad (saw) to be the Final prophet and consider any new claimant of prophethood as outside of Islam (see page 81). Abdul Majid is listed as the “Imam of the Shah Jehan Mosque, Woking, England”. Aftab-ud-Din is listed as the “Acting Imam of the Shah Jehan Mosque, Woking, England”. Khwaja Abdul Ghani is listed as “Secretary of the “Woking Muslim Mission and Literary Trust”.
In 1961, the famous ex-Qadiani-Ahmadi Bashir Ahmad Misri arrived in the UK (he famously accused the 2nd Qadiani-Khalifa of rape in 1937). A few years later, the Lahori-Ahmadi’s hired him to be an editor. It seems that Bashir Ahmad Misri was planning to make friends with the Lahori-Ahmadi’s and then to turn on them at an opportune time. Which is exactly what he did. In 1964, he became the Imam of the Woking Mosque. By July 1968, his plan was in motion, he organized the local Muslim’s and wrestled control of the mosque from the Lahori-Ahmadi’s to the local Muslim scholars. He them left and went on a tour. His father (Sheikh Abdur Rehman Misri, also an ex-Qadiani-Ahmadi, allegedly a Lahori-Ahmadi) died as a Lahori-Ahmadi in Pakistan in 1979. Bashir Ahmad Misri then responded to Mirza Tahir Ahmad’s global Mubahila challenge in 1989 and wrote about his youth in Qadian. His death year is unknown to us. Hassan Bin Mahmood Odeh has a photo with Bashir Ahmad Masri in his book and met him in the UK in 1989. Bashir Ahmad Masri was living in the UK in 1989. He died in 1992, in the UK.
The struggle to its conversion to Sunni Muslims started in January 1968 by setting a Woking Mosque Regeneration Committee, comprising Khalid Hussain Qamar (Woking), Moulana Habibur Rehman UK Islamic Mission (Manchester), Allama Khalid Mehmood (executive director Manchester Mosque), Editor of Faran Magazine (Leicester), and Gondal (Reading). The committee wished to see High Commissioner of Pakistan, who was officially President of Registered Trust responsible for affairs of the Mosque, but all in vain for nine months. The state of the Mosque was miserable as there was no place for abolution, or taharat. There were no five times prayer established in the Mosque. Only on Sundays the Imam use to deliver a sermon to non-Muslim visitors over a cup of tea. The Islamic Review magazine was regularly published from Shah Jehan Mosque as the only Muslim Organ under Editorship of Moulana Majeed Ahmad and Imam Hafiz BASHIR Ahmad Misri. Khalid Hussain Qamar started Quran Nazira lessons to 80 children of Sunni Muslims of Woking voluntarily with kind permission of the Imam in January 1968. So the First ever Sunni Imam (an employee of High Commissioner) Khawaja Qamar-Ud-Din took the charge as First Sunni Imam in December 1968. Since then the Mosque is in possession of Sunni Muslims (See The Light — U.K. edition, April 2-2007).
Because of this permission, the Ahmadiyyah Movement terminated Hafiz Bashir Ahmed as Imam. Hafiz BASHIR Ahmad Misri, while leaving for Uganda authorised Khalid Hussain Qamar for arranging Traveeh Prayer during Ramadan first time ever in the history of the Mosque. Khalid Hussain Qamar (Woking), Chaudhary BASHIR Ahmad(Woking), and Raja Muhammad Asghar (Woking) availed this opportunity to install a new Imam for leading Traveeh Prayer while Hafiz BASHIR Ahmed Misri moved to Uganda as terminated Imam. Forceful capture of Mosque’s Residence and Mosque itself for prayers during Ramadan 1968 was beginning of Sunni Era of usage of the Mosque. That reached as blowing news to staff of Pakistan High Commissioner. Col Nazir Ahmed Dence Attachee and Haroon High Commissioner shown their concern about this possession. After one week of consistent request of the High Commissioner, Khalid Hussain Qamar along with local Muslims asked Col Nazir to visit them in the Mosque to resolve the issue. Woking Muslims presented the case that Mosque is to be natural worshipping place for local Muslims and therefore should be run along the wishes of local Muslims. Col Nazir agreed and requested the audience, let the High Commissioner offer them list of possible next Imams for their choice and High Commissioner could restore the official responsibility. So the First ever Sunni Imam (an employee of High Commissioner) Khawaja Qamar-Ud-Din took the charge as First Sunni Imam in December 1968. Since then the Mosque is in possession of Sunni Muslims (See the statements of Bashir Ahmad Misri in 1989).
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1889-1899
The Shah Jahan Mosque was built in 1889 by Hungarian-British Orientalist Gottlieb Wilhelm Leitner. It was partly funded by Sultan Shah Jahan Begum of Bhopal, as a place for students at the Oriental Institute in Woking to worship. The mosque was designed by architect William Isaac Chambers (1847–1924) and built in Bath and Bargate stone. It was designed in a late Mughal style, and has a dome, minarets, and a courtyard. Initially a small number of Muslims, students and visiting dignitaries, used the Mosque but following Leitner’s death in 1899, the Mosque closed.
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1898
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shah_Jahan_Mosque,_Woking#cite_note-15
Chapter IX of HG Wells’s The War of the Worlds, published in 1898, contains a description of the Mosque being damaged:
“”About six in the evening, as I sat at tea with my wife in the summerhouse talking vigorously about the battle that was lowering upon us, I heard a muffled detonation from the common, and immediately after a gust of firing. Close on the heels of that came a violent rattling crash, quite close to us, that shook the ground; and, starting out upon the lawn, I saw the tops of the trees about the Oriental College burst into smoky red flame, and the tower of the little church beside it slide down into ruin. The pinnacle of the mosque had vanished, and the roof line of the college itself looked as if a hundred-ton gun had been at work upon it.””
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1900–1912
The mosque fell into disuse between Leitner’s death and 1913. The London Mosque fund (which was founded in 1910) created the Woking Mosque Trust on Wednesday 17 April 1912. During that meeting it was agreed by all members that they were to take over the title deeds. It was also unanimously agreed by the committee members that Leitner’s son should be elected to the Woking mosque trust committee.
In 1912, a new phase in the building’s use began with the arrival of Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din and through the efforts of the Woking Muslim Mission. The site was restored as a place of worship, attracting royal visitors and famous British converts, including Lord Headley, who founded the British Muslim Society, and Marmaduke Pickthall who provided the first and one of the most eloquent English translations of the Qur’an.
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1915
The Woking Mosque, the Memorial House and related property was passed into the ownership of the Woking Mosque Trust by a document of Indenture dated 12 April 1915.
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1922
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shah_Jahan_Mosque,_Woking#cite_note-NHLE-1264438-1
On 28 May 1922, the mosque held a celebration of Eid al-Fitr at the end of Ramadan, thought to have been the first time such public celebration had taken place in the United Kingdom. It was at this celebration that Kamal-ud-Din announced that the mosque would be named Shah Jehan, after its benefactress.
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1935
March-1935
The Islamic Review, March 1935
In the Islamic Review (Lahori-Ahmadi newspaper) of March-1935, prominent Lahori-Ahmadi’s like Khwaja Nazir Ahmad (Vice President of the “Woking Muslim Mission and Literary Trust”, member of the “Board of Trustees” and member of the “Management Committee of the Trust”) told the world that they were not the “Qadiani’s”, nor were they “Ahmadi’s”, they told the world that they believe Muhammad (saw) to be the Final prophet and consider any new claimant of prophethood as outside of Islam (see page 81). Abdul Majid is listed as the “Imam of the Shah Jehan Mosque, Woking, England”. Aftab-ud-Din is listed as the “Acting Imam of the Shah Jehan Mosque, Woking, England”. Khwaja Abdul Ghani is listed as “Secretary of the “Woking Muslim Mission and Literary Trust”.
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The Daily News Leader
Thu, Dec 22, 1932 ·Page 8
Dec 22, 1932, page 8 – The Daily News Leader at Newspapers.com
The mosque at Woking is on the page.
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1960’s
In 1961, Bashir Ahmad Misri moved to London. He settled in England and for six years was Joint-Editor of the monthly magazine “The Islamic Review.” It seems that Bashir Ahmad Misri was planning to make friends with the Lahori-Ahmadi’s and then to turn on them at an opportune time. Which is exactly what he did.
Someway and somehow, he got appointed as an Imam at famous Lahori-Ahmadi managed mosque in the Woking. This may have been due to the fact that his dad was still a Lahori-Ahmadi. Bashir Ahmad Misri worked behind the scenes as Imam and was able to snatch control from the Lahori-Ahmadis and handing over control of the mosque to local Sunni leaders. This broke Lahorism, the Lahori-Ahmadis never recovered and have been withering away ever since, further, there weren’t many Lahori-Ahmadis in the world at that point anyway. However, the Lahori-Ahmadis had control of mosques, they even built the first ever mosque in Germany. The irony here, is that while Bashir Ahmad Misri’s father (Sheikh Abdur Rehman Misri,) was serving as an Imam for the Lahori-Ahmadis in Pakistan, his son was snatching and destroying the Lahori-Ahmadis altogether. The October 1964 issue of The Islamic Review is possibly the first in which his name is given as Joint Editor(see page 6).
In 1964, he became the Imam of the Woking Mosque. He was the Imam of the Woking mosque up until roughly July of 1968. By July 1968, his plan was in motion, he organized the local Muslim’s and wrestled control of the mosque from the Lahori-Ahmadi’s to the local Muslim scholars.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________July 1968
On the 20th July 1968, he called a meeting of all the Muslim Organisations in the UK and Eire, at the East London Mosque. It was attended by more than a hundred delegates. He explained the situation to them that I was due to start on my tour by the end of the year and that Mirzais were trying their best to have their own Imam installed.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________November 1968
Because of this permission, the Ahmadiyyah Movement terminated Hafiz Bashir Ahmed as Imam. Hafiz BASHIR Ahmad Misri, while leaving for Uganda authorised Khalid Hussain Qamar for arranging Traveeh Prayer during Ramadan first time ever in the history of the Mosque. Khalid Hussain Qamar (Woking), Chaudhary BASHIR Ahmad(Woking), and Raja Muhammad Asghar (Woking) availed this opportunity to install a new Imam for leading Traveeh Prayer while Hafiz BASHIR Ahmed Misri moved to Uganda as terminated Imam. Forceful capture of Mosque’s Residence and Mosque itself for prayers during Ramadan 1968 was beginning of Sunni Era of usage of the Mosque. That reached as blowing news to staff of Pakistan High Commissioner. Col Nazir Ahmed Dence Attachee and Haroon High Commissioner shown their concern about this possession. After one week of consistent request of the High Commissioner, Khalid Hussain Qamar along with local Muslims asked Col Nazir to visit them in the Mosque to resolve the issue. Woking Muslims presented the case that Mosque is to be natural worshipping place for local Muslims and therefore should be run along the wishes of local Muslims. Col Nazir agreed and requested the audience, let the High Commissioner offer them list of possible next Imams for their choice and High Commissioner could restore the official responsibility. So the First ever Sunni Imam (an employee of High Commissioner) Khawaja Qamar-Ud-Din took the charge as First Sunni Imam in December 1968. Since then the Mosque is in possession of Sunni Muslims.
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‘London Mosque Fund’ sets up the Woking Mosque Trust and appoints Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din as Imam
‘London Mosque Fund’ sets up the Woking Mosque Trust and appoints Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din as Imam
The London Mosque Fund was a body founded in 1910 by certain prominent Muslims, mainly of Indian origin, and some British sympathisers of Islam, with the aim of building a mosque in London worthy of Islam and of an international city like London. Its work led eventually to the establishment of the East London Mosque, now located in Whitechapel, London.
The minutes of the meetings of its Executive Committee have been published by Cambridge University Press and are available online (see link). These contain several references to the Woking Mosque and Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din. We have compiled a document of the early such references between April 1912 and March 1914.
Link to our document: References to the Woking Mosque and Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din in the minutes of the early meetings of the London Mosque Fund.
Below we comment further on two matters reported in these minutes.
- Creation of the Woking Mosque Trust and appointment of Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din
- Grant to Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din for rent of building in London to hold Friday prayers
1. Creation of the Woking Mosque Trust and appointment of Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din
These minutes show that Dr G.W. Leitner, builder of the Woking Mosque, had created a “Woking Mosque Endowment Fund” and that the Executive Committee of the London Mosque Fund at its meeting on 17 April 1912 decided to appoint trustees for this fund and to takeover the Mosque and its property. Three trustee were appointed: The Right Hon. Syed Ameer Ali, Mirza Sir Abbas Ali Baig and Professor Sir T.W. Arnold.
Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din had not yet arrived in England, which was not until September 1912.
The appointed trustees were going to obtain the title deeds of the Mosque and its property from Henry Leitner (son and heir of Dr G.W. Leitner). The minutes of the meeting of 30 April 1913 recorded that: “no documents had so far been made over but that the matter was still in the hands of the lawyers”.
By this time Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din had arrived in England, started his missionary work and had visited the Woking Mosque (see the accounts of his first visit and his second visit, both in January 1913).
In a letter addressed to the Ahmadiyya community in its hometown of Qadian (India), which was published in the community’s newspaper Badr (issue dated 10–17 July 1913), Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din wrote:
“Brethren! Allah willing, that time is very near when you will hear the good news from me that I am permanently settled in a place where five times a day the Azan is called out loudly and prayer is held. … The first part of the prayers which I said in the locked-up Woking Mosque four months ago is shortly to attain fulfilment. Of course, this is a time for prayer. God is providing the resources so that this worthless person will sit in a place which the whole world can see as a recognisable centre for the propagation of Islam.” (See link.)
After settling at the Woking Mosque premises on 12 August 1913, Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din wrote in a letter to Maulana Nur-ud-Din, Head of the Ahmadiyya Movement, dated 22 August 1913:
“What grace of God it is, that from India four and a half million Rupees were spent in the construction of a mosque and a hall, and only a few months before my arrival it became a trust, and I took charge.” (See link.)
It is clear that while the Woking Mosque Trust was established before his arrival, yet the matter was far from complete even in April 1913. The settlement was still being agreed with Henry Leitner in July 1913 and was completed shortly afterwards, enabling Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din to take residence in the Mosque in August. This shows, quite obviously, that Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din had a role in the creation of this Trust.
The minutes of the next meeting of the Executive Committee of the London Mosque Fund, on 19 November 1913, record that the Trustees of the Woking Mosque held a meeting on 20 October 1913 and they sanctioned:
“the provisional arrangement made by Mr Abbas Ali Baig for the supervision and maintenance of the Mosque by Khwaja Kamaluddin who was asked to insure the Mosque and the Memorial House, for the present, for £1000”.
Indenture document
The Woking Mosque, the Memorial House and related property was passed into the ownership of the Woking Mosque Trust by a document of Indenture dated 12 April 1915. For information about this Indenture, see this link.
Other authentic sources on how the Woking Mosque Trust was created
1. When Mirza Sir Abbas Ali Baig died, his obituary appeared in The Islamic Review, written by Khwaja Nazir Ahmad, son of Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din who himself had served in the Woking Muslim Mission. In it he writes:
“It was Sir Abbas Ali Baig who saved from the hands of the Leitner family the Shah Jehan Mosque and Sir Salar Jung Memorial House at Woking and thus rescued them from the fate of being converted into a private factory. He subsequently founded the Woking Mosque Trust and raised funds for its maintenance. It was, indeed, Sir Abbas Ali Baig who invited Al-Haj Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din to take charge of the Mosque, and later helped him in starting the Muslim Mission and Literary Trust and himself became one of its Trustees.” (See link.)
2. In the January–February 1962 issue of The Islamic Review marking the start of its 50th year of publication, the editorial entitled To the Memory of Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din informs us that when Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din with his helper Shaikh Nur Ahmad visited the Mosque and found it “almost deserted and gradually falling into ruins”, they decided that they “could not leave this house of God in such a desolate condition”. So they stayed there in the house adjacent to the Mosque. When the heirs of Dr Leitner tried to evict them:
“At this stage the Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din approached Sir Mirza Abbas Ali Beg, at that time the Muslim advisory member of the Council of the Secretary of State for India. Together they found the means for the satisfaction of the heirs of Dr. Leitner. A Trust was formed to hold the title deeds of the Mosque, of which, in 1913, the Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din became the first Imam.” (See link.)
2. Grant to Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din for rent of building in London to hold Friday prayers
The minutes for the meeting on 22 January 1914 show that Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din applied to the Fund for “the payment of the rent of a building in London for the purposes of a Mosque”. The Committee recommended to the Trustees of the London Mosque Fund to approve a grant of £120 per year for this purpose..
The next meeting, held on 19 March 1914, records the approval of this grant by the Trustees “for the purpose of renting a building or room for the performance of Muslim prayers” and that it should take effect from 1 January 1914. The meeting also approved the wording of the invitation to prayers at this location. The wording was as follows:
Allah – O – Akbar
The Jooma Namaz will be held at the Lindsay Hall, Notting Hill Gate, W.,
regularly every Friday at 12 Noon until further notice.
Mr Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din of the Mosque, Woking will deliver the sermon and the Dua will be recited by Haireddin Effindi and Lord Headley respectively in Arabic and English.
All Moslems are cordially invited.
In this connection a news item appeared in the Review of Religions, monthly of the Ahmadiyya Movement in Qadian, at that time edited by Maulana Muhammad Ali, in its February 1914 issue on pages 79–80. Its image is shown below.
Then the letter by Syed Ameer Ali is printed, as below:
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The Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement Blog » Blog Archive » ‘London Mosque Fund’ sets up the Woking Mosque Trust and appoints Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din as Imam
‘London Mosque Fund’ sets up the Woking Mosque Trust and appoints Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din as Imam
The London Mosque Fund was a body founded in 1910 by certain prominent Muslims, mainly of Indian origin, and some British sympathisers of Islam, with the aim of building a mosque in London. Its work led eventually to the establishment of the East London Mosque, now located in Whitechapel, London.
The minutes of the meetings of its Executive Committee have been published by Cambridge University Press. These contain several references to the Woking Mosque and Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din, showing that the London Mosque Fund set up the Woking Mosque Trust as the body to hold the Woking Mosque and appointed Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din as Imam in 1913.
The London Mosque Fund also approved a grant for Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din to rent a location in Central London for the holding of Friday prayers. The Fund approved a form of wording for the announcement of these prayers, which was as follows:
Allah – O – Akbar
The Jooma Namaz will be held at the Lindsay Hall, Notting Hill Gate, W., regularly every Friday at 12 Noon until further notice.
Mr Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din of the Mosque, Woking will deliver the sermon and the Dua will be recited by Haireddin Effindi and Lord Headley respectively in Arabic and English.
All Moslems are cordially invited.
For full details please see the latest addition to the Woking Muslim Mission website at this link.
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Links and Related Essay’s
Shah Jahan Mosque, Woking – Wikipedia
‘London Mosque Fund’ sets up the Woking Mosque Trust and appoints Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din as Imam
Who is Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din? – ahmadiyyafactcheckblog
Who is Bashir Ahmad Misri? (1914-1992) – ahmadiyyafactcheckblog
Who is Sheikh Abdur Rehman Misri? – ahmadiyyafactcheckblog
Who is Bashir Ahmad Misri? (1914-1992) – ahmadiyyafactcheckblog
THE LONDON MOSQUE FUND | Royal Historical Society Camden Fifth Series | Cambridge Core
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