Moorish connection...Iraq

Iraq is held in reverence and esteem by the Ceylon moors as a good majority of them are of the Qadiriya sect, founded by Islam’s greatest saint, Ghousul Alam Qutub Muhiyuddin Abdul Qadir Jailani, who was born in Jailan, Iraq.

The mountain retreat of Dafter Jailani or Kurunagala (15 miles off Balangoda) towering thousands of feet above land level covered with dense jungle growth, is visited annually by Muslims from all over Sri lanka as it was once the meditation centre of the Iraqi saint.

The palm print of the saint was seen on Hituwangala called by the Muslim “Kai-adi-Malai” (palm print mountain), a over hanging rock. His foot print is believed to be preserved in the “Kai-adi-malai” (foot-print Mountain) or Soranga Malai on a higher elevation.

The Iraqi saint and his companions sought asylum in this mountainous jungle retreat after pilgrimage to Adam’s peak. In that mountainous region there was hardly a stream. But when the saint and his companions felt thirsty he had only to scoop up the earth with his hand and- there was water! It is said that even in times of severe drought, the wells and the little pond near the shrine never dry up- and are big boon to pilgrims.

Iraq is also linked to ‘srilanka by the honour and respect with which three other Iraqi saints are held by the Muslims in this country. One of them is his Holiness Seyed Sadat Packeer Mohiyuddin, also known as Seyyid Saadaash Fakeer Muhiyaddeen of Baghdad, Iraq, whose shrine is at Akuressa in South Srilanka; popularly known as the Poruwa Shrine.

Over five centuries ago the village of Poruwa was a dense forest and only a few Muslim families lived on its outskirts. They indulged in gem mining and while digging a few pits along with some Muslim families from Galle came across a Meezan (usually planted to mark the grave of a Muslim) which to all their efforts to dislodge it, would not budge.

Many miraculous manifestations were seen by the Muslims and as recitations from the Holy ‘Qur’an increased and devotional and pious practices increased, more proof was shown to them of the saint’s holy presence. The saint appeared in a dream to one of the Muslims and revealed his identity.

Once a Muslim from Colombo had a great desire to go to Iraq and visit the “Ziyarath” of islam’s greatest saint Ghousul Alam Qutub Mohiyuddin Abdul Qadir Jailani but illness over- took him and he feared he will never make the long journey that he may die before setting off, so ill was he.

But the Ghouzul Alam appeared to him in a dream and said “there is one of us at Poruwa Dharga. If you visit him that will be sufficient and as good as you’re making your journey to Iraq.
There is a story that during a commotion certain non Muslims wanted to destroy the Poruwa Dharga in a spirit of pillage and mischief. But they were all felled by a mysterious force and they fled. Later some of them came to the Poruwa Dharga and asked for pardon. Those who did not died of a dreaded disease.

The 12 th century saint of Iraq Sulthanul Arifeen Al Seyed Ahamed Al Kabir Hussanur Riffayee is honoured by the recital of Riffayee Rathib more popularely in Colombo and Weligama.

Then there is a “Nachia Saint” Sithy Sheikh Dinoor, doughter of Abu Omar Uthmanul Bathavik(a scion of the holy prophet Muhammad) who with her six brothers left Baghdad, Iraq, in a ship to propagate Islam in the east over 400 years ago.

A storm wrecked their vessel and they landed at uplands (Uppukulam) on the coast of Mutwal. The story is told that drunken Portuguese sailors, lusting for the beautiful, pious maiden, gave chase to Sithy and one brother- the others were killed in a desperate attempt to save their sister from the rapscallions- and when on the point of being overtaken Allah answered their prayers and the earth swallowed them- frustrating the sailors.

An Arabic tombstone erected in the 10th century or 337 Hejira of the Muslim calendar over the grave of Khalid Ibn Abu Bakaya, a learned and pious theologian sent by the Caliph of Baghdad to instruct the Muslim community in Colombo in the tenets and practice of Islam has been described by assistant director of the National Museums, C.M.Austin de Silva, who was also lecturer in Anthropology and Sinhala Culture at the Vidyodaya University, Srilanka.

Abu Bakaya, he says, was responsible for erecting a very large mosque in Colombo. “Having accomplished the purpose of his mission he died in Colombo, and was buried in the mosque founded by him. The inscription found on the tombstone was engraved on the orders of the Caliph of Baghdad and it had remained on his grave undisturbed for nearly 800 years, until it was removed by the Dutch Dissawa or Collecter of Colombo, along with other tombstones from the Moorish burial ground near Colombo. The Arabic inscription includes a prayer to Allah or God for the repose of the soul of Khalid Ibn Abu Bakaya.