‘Miracle mosque’ is UK’s first centre of British Islam and a symbol of inter-faith unity

In Woking, about 50km from London, the Shah Jahan Mosque stands as a beacon of historical and cultural significance.

Built in 1889, the Grade I-listed building is known as the “miracle mosque” due to the multi-faith nature of its establishment at a time when there were few Muslims in Britain.

Dr Gottlieb Leitner, a Hungarian-British scholar, founded the mosque as a place of worship for students at the Oriental

Institute of Learning, which he had also founded.

“The person who built the mosque, Dr Leitner, was actually Jewish, the man who designed the mosque, William Chambers, was Christian, and the prince who paid for it was Muslim. So it shows all three Abrahamic traditions worked together,” Muhammad Habib, office manager at the mosque, told The National.

The mosque’s construction was partly funded by Sultan Shah Jahan Begum of Bhopal, and was renamed in his honour in 1922. Built from Bath and Bargate stone, its alignment with Makkah was established by a ship’s captain.

Queen Victoria’s British-Indian employees, such as her secretary Abdul Karim, frequented the mosque during her visits to nearby Windsor Castle.

After Dr Leitner’s death in 1899, the mosque was not used until 1913. During this period, the London Mosque Fund, set up in 1910, formed the Woking Mosque Trust, which took over the title deeds and the management of the building and related properties.

During the First World War, the mosque played a vital role in the Islamic community, petitioning the British government to grant nearby land as a burial ground for British-Indian Muslim soldiers, leading to the construction of a Grade II-listed cemetery where 19 soldiers were buried.

Until the 1960s, when Pakistani migrants began arriving in Britain, the mosque was considered the centre of Islam in Britain.

It was a centre for Islamic literature and scholarship, where The Islamic Review and Maulana Muhammad Ali’s popular English translations of the Quran were published.

The mosque has welcomed distinguished visitors including the late Saudi King Faisal, governor general of Pakistan Muhammad Ali Jinnah, and Ethiopian emperor Haile Selassie.

It became a pivotal centre for Islam in Europe.

Hafiz Hashmi, the current imam, underlined the mosque’s role in fostering community spirit and interfaith dialogue.

“The Muslim-Christian Forum, Muslim-Jewish Forum and people of non-faith interaction bring different communities together, and we work for the commonalities,” he said.

The mosque provides sporting projects for youths and programmes for the elderly, reflecting Britain’s evolving multicultural landscape.

As Britain continues to embrace multiculturalism, the Shah Jahan Mosque remains a symbol of unity.

“The community and the imams take part and we will keep taking part and continue our interfaith activities,” Mr Hashmi said.