DR M. HARIS Z DEEN
LONDON : It is forty years since the great sage, fondly remembered as “Deen Baas Mama” passed away.
He is remembered as one of the first – generation Muslims who settled in the little – known hamlet of Maharagama, 10 miles from the city of Colombo. Muslims used to remember Deen Baas Mama as a sage who built a community while N.D.H. Ghafoor Hajiar built the Ghafooriya Arabic College in Pamunuwa Road, Maharagama.
In fact, this is said to be the first appearance of Muslims in that part of Sri Lanka after Ghafoor Hajiar, a selfless philanthropist, established the Arabic College and also donated land for the Christian Boys Home (an orphanage).
Apart from this, the business community of Maharagama was dominated by Panadura Muslims. The Alim Sahib kade’, owned by the late father of the late Muzammil Alim was the main hardware shop, which is no more. Rahuma Stores, the cloth merchants and drapers are still continuing with their business in the area. Ibrahim Hajiar’s hardware shop is also no more. They were the only Muslims in Maharagama at the time Marhoom Ahamed Lebbe Zainulabdeen, fondly remembered by all as Deen Baas Mama, the patriarch of what may be called a dynasty, moved to Pamunuwa Road, Maharagama in October 1936.
Deen Baas Mama was born to very religious parents. His father, Marhoom Ahamed Lebbe, and his grandfather, Marhoom Sirai Lebbe, were well-known Alims of Colpetty at the time. It has been stated that the property in which the British High Commission was for a very long time, opposite the Colpetty Police Station and Temple Trees was owned by Deen Baas Mama’s grand father and was acquired by the government for reasons of security as two canons were placed facing the sea. In compensation, the British government had given land in Muhandiram Road Colpetty, probably the place where Baas Mama was born. I could not find any record of this, but a British High Commission official confirmed to me in 1989 that the canons were as yet there.
He was born in 1888 in Colpetty and died in Azhar Place, Maharagama, at the ripe old age of 92. Named by his parents as Zainulabdeen, and very fondly called by his immediate relatives and friends as “Deen Baas Mama,” this likeable gentleman did not have any recognized school or college education.
He studied in a Madrasah where his grandfather and father taught, and learned to read and write the Tamil language while acquiring the knowledge to read the Qur’an and basic Islamic knowledge. Being amongst the Colpetty Baases whose male children incidentally were said to have married the eight daughters of the famous Pitche Kostapel, Deen Baas Mama was attracted by the prospect of employment in the harbour where all the Colpetty Baases were employed. Also, this was said to be the time when people like Wapche Marikkar, also one of the Colpetty Basses, was making a name as a designer and contractor. Hence, as a little boy, Deen Baas Mama is said to have used his spare time after attending the Madrasah and between times, learned the various trades of the building construction industry.
Jack of all trades
He was a mason, bricklayer, tiler and carpenter, all moulded into one. A ‘Jack of all trades’ one might say, but to my knowledge he was also ‘master of all’. It is amazing as to how he would design and draw buildings in his own style. While engineers burn the midnight oil, sitting down and calculating the sizes of columns, beams and slabs, and the respective reinforcements pushing the scales on their slide rules, Deen Baas Mama would have calculated the exact size of a beam or slab, or whatever, merely in his mind. An engineer commented once that his calculations were accurate to the nearest safety factor that engineers would use in such designs.
Having acquired the knowledge of the construction industry in all its aspects, Deen Baas Mama then sought employment in the Colombo Harbour as was common at the time. His prowess was soon said to have been noticed by the British engineers who made him a Head Mason, which probably encouraged another long-standing head mason, Mohamed Ismail (who was married to Ruqaiyya Umma, from the Sheikh Fareed family, the progenitors of Sir Razik Fareed) to offer his daughter, Laila Umma’s, hand in marriage.
Deen Baas Mama often used to recall the break he was offered to become a building contractor by the British engineer at the harbour. Apparently, the harbour authorities could not find the right contractor to construct a lighthouse in the middle of the sea (the location of which I am not certain).
Therefore, they offered handsome monetary rewards to any of the head masons prepared to mobilize the resources and construct the lighthouse. While the other head masons were reluctant to take up such a challenge, Deen Baas Mama was supposed to have undertaken the task and had made a comfortable bundle out of it.
Encouraged by this venture, Deen Baas Mama set out to become a building contractor and registered himself as one with the Public Works Department.
As a registered contractor, he constructed buildings for famous people like C. Harris, V. De Kretser, Dr. Hoole and several other well-known people. For a long period of time, Deen Baas Mama was the maintenance contractor for government buildings in Colombo. The Senate building, the General Post Office, the Parliament Building, Sravasti – the MPs’ hostel – and Transworks House, were some of the government buildings he maintained. During this period the Minister of Works, Sir John Kotelawela, and IGP Sir Richard Aluvihare, were his special friends, whom he visited without an appointment. I remember the day I accompanied him when he visited Sir John and the uniformed-clad Arachchi was ignored by Deen Baas Mama as he went in to see Sir John without any difficulty. There was also one occasion when Sir Richard interrupted his lunch to come and listen to a complaint that Deen Baas Mama was making. That was the respect and influence that Deen Baas Mama commanded but never used for any personal gains.
Move to Maharagama
Deen Baas Mama moved to Maharagama in October 1936, buoyed by the presence of Ghafooriya Arabic College, and having acquired a one-and-a-half-acre coconut land in Pamunuwa. This was the first settlement of Muslims in Maharagama. Although he moved alone with his wife and eight children, and his eldest brother-in-law, Abdul Ghafoor, Deen Baas Mama was a family man and liked to have people around him.
As such, according to family custom, he would gather his children and recite Haddad Rathib every Thursday evenings and Imam Buhary’s Qaseedhathul Burdha on Sunday mornings, which he would conclude with a lavish Khandhoori feast every year on the last Sunday before Ramadan. All immediate relatives, friends and well-wishers were invited with the main idea of encouraging other Muslims to follow suit.
It is worthy of mention that in today’s context, Deen Baas Mama was a person who promoted communal harmony as he did not discriminate between Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus or Christians when it came to extending help. During his heyday, he would not care about what people said when he offered a bushel of rice for the nearest dansal during the Vesak celebrations, and offered monetary assistance for the Vesak pandals in Maharagama, in recognition of which the Buddhists would invite Deen Baas Mama to be the first person to switch on the Vesak pandal lights. The Kirulapone and Gas Works Street Churches were renovated by Deen Baas Mama at cost, without making a profit. People like the former Judge, Crossette Thambiah, and one time Fort Railway Station Master, Sinnadurai, would seek Deen Baas Mama’s support and assistance for Hindu causes.
Amongt the Muslim places of worship, the Colpetty Jumma Mosque, Mutwal Jumma Mosque, Kattankudi Meththa Palli, Bambalapitiya Jumma Mosque, Batticaloa Town Mosque and the Matale Jumma Mosque, were some of the mosques which were patronized by Deen Baas Mama. The Masjidul Azhariyyah in Azhar Place, Maharagama, stands as a monument to his memory.
At the beginning of World War II, Deen Baas Mama’s Maharagama property was one of the chosen havens for Colombo Muslims who sought refuge from Japanese bombing. They flocked in without warning, knowing full well the presence and generosity of this sage, who was up to the task as a builder, and provided cadjan thatched, dormitory-type accommodation, for all these people, which made them feel immediately ‘at home.’ Permanent brick structures were later constructed for the immediate family, relatives and friends who chose to remain in Pamunuwa Road, Maharagama, without returning to Colombo. Thus, the first community of Muslim settlers was established in Maharagama.
REPORT THIS ADPRIVACY SETTINGS
Amongst Deen Baas Mama’s eight children were five males. One of his sons, pre-deceased him untimely. Of the other four, three went on to become excellent construction specialists, all initially trained by Deen Baas Mama himself. The eldest, Staff Sgt. Saheed of the Ceylon Signals Corps during WWII, was an excellent quantity surveyor and estimator, with no recognized qualifications, thanks to the training he received from his father. The second son, Sgt. Major Mushood of the Ceylon Army Medical Corps, did not pursue the traditional trade of building construction.
Deen Baas Mama and his wife did not wish that I, the youngest son, should follow suit, but wanted me to qualify as a medical doctor. But as fate would have it, I reached the highest echelons of the Construction economics area, so much so that even today, consequent to my retirement, I am sought after in the Middle East as a consultant.
All the children did not fail to acknowledge their success to the training and discipline imbibed upon them by the sage who built a community – Ahamed Lebbe Zainulabdeen – fondly remembered as Deen Baas Mama.
