The Dawatagaha Jumma Masjid And Shrine at Lipton Circus near the Town Hall of Colombo is one of the most prominent mosques in the city, and its ornate, minaret-studded architecture has made it a landmark of this part of Colombo. The mosque is also a shrine to the Islamic saint Seyedina as-Sheikh Usman Siddique Ibn Ahdurrahman, who was laid to rest here, having arrived from Arafat in Arabia on a pilgrimage to Adam’s Peak, and is believed to have performed a miracle here.

The story of Dawatagaha Jumma Masjid and Shrine follows a female oil monger, who while traveling past this site tripped and dropped her pot of oil which provided her daily bread and butter. Distraught at losing her income for the day, she wept herself to sleep here but was awakened by a voice telling her not to despair and that all will be well. She then saw a man here who asked her not to worry but only to bring him a pot. She brought back a new pot from one of her regular customers and the stranger placed it at the site of the broken pot and when he pressed his foot into the ground oil bubbled into the pot. In return, the stranger only asked that the event be related to her Muslim customers, which she did, and seeing the evidence they confirmed her story. Twenty-seven years later, in 1847 a divine Sheikh from the Maghreb was told of the incident and when he prayed over the burial site it is said that his face glowed with divine light. Taking a piece of his white turban, he made a flag and planted it at the head of the grave, marking the spot of the shrine and declaring him a saint.

Written by Jonathan Roelofsz for Travel Lanka Compass