Our Trust House in the Holy City of Makkah! By Maseehudeen Inamullah

Former Consul General of Sri Lanka – Jeddah

In 1964, a group of wealthy Sri Lankan Muslims travelled to Makkah and purchased a three-storey building in Misfalah, on Ibrahim Khalil Road, close to the Holy Haram. The building was subsequently dedicated as a Waqf for the accommodation of financially disadvantaged Hajj pilgrims travelling from Sri Lanka by ship.

In accordance with Saudi Waqf laws, a Saudi citizen named Al-Sayyid Umar Wali was appointed as the trustee to administer the property. It was also stipulated that, outside the Hajj season, the premises should be made available for children living in the area to learn the Holy Qur’an.

Over time, however, the trustee began renting out the property for purposes contrary to those for which it had been established and appropriating the income. As a result, the Sri Lankan Hajj Committee was also compelled to pay him fees for providing medical services and accommodation for officials during the Hajj season.

Several Sri Lankan Ambassadors to Saudi Arabia and Consuls General in Jeddah made numerous efforts to recover the Sri Lankan Trust House and ensure that the Waqf was properly administered.

Against this background, Al-Haj Sadihaan, a Sri Lankan who had obtained Saudi citizenship, was entrusted with certain powers to officially provide services during the Hajj season, together with the necessary documentation and authority to legally recover the Sri Lankan Trust House.

It is noteworthy that Trustee Umar Wali had appointed his son, Hamza Umar Wali, as his successor. Meanwhile, Sri Lankan-Saudi citizen Al-Haj Sadiq Haji had been pursuing the matter voluntarily before the courts in Makkah for several years.

In 2005, notice was given that the Sri Lankan Trust House would have to be demolished as part of the expansion of the Holy Haram. This created an urgent need to expedite the legal case concerning the Makkah property so that the appropriate compensation could be obtained and a replacement property could be purchased and properly administered.

At that time, while I was serving as the Consul General in Jeddah, I reviewed the actions previously taken by ministers and ambassadors and submitted a report to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Accordingly, we sought to trace the descendants of the founding members of the Trust and prepare the necessary legal documents, requesting that the Department of Muslim Religious and Cultural Affairs of Sri Lanka and the Sri Lankan Embassy in Saudi Arabia be immediately provided with the legal authority required to recover the Sri Lankan Trust House.

We also brought the matter to the attention of the President through the then Minister responsible for Hajj affairs, A.H.M. Fowzie, the late Governor Alavi Moulana, and the late A.H.M. Azwer.

Based on the legal advice of senior legal professionals, including President’s Counsel Ali Sabry and Attorney-at-Law Yusuf Nazar, the necessary documents were prepared. Official documents were then sent through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the Sri Lankan Embassy in Riyadh, which submitted them to the Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

On this basis, in 2008, Al-Haj Sadiq Haji was recommended as the trustee of the Sri Lankan Trust House. He was also granted the necessary authority to expedite the case before the Makkah court and obtain the compensation due to the Trust.

Alhamdulillah, in 2010, judgment was delivered in our favour in the case relating to the Sri Lankan Trust House.

When the property was demolished in 2012 as part of the expansion of the Holy Haram, Al-Haj Sadihaan, acting on behalf of the Trust, obtained the compensation and used it to purchase two buildings—one in Aziziyah and another in Batha Quraish: an Arab people of which Muhammad was a member and which from the 5th century was distinguished by a religious preeminence associated with its hereditary provision of the pre-Islamic custodians of the Kaaba at Mecca The Quraysh was an Arab tribal confederation that historically inhabited and controlled the city of Mecca and its Ka'aba. In the late 6th-century More, both in Makkah. He continues to administer them at present.

With the official support and involvement of the Sri Lankan Embassy in Riyadh, the Consulate General of Sri Lanka in Jeddah, and the Department of Muslim Religious and Cultural Affairs of Sri Lanka, Al-Haj Sadihaan voluntarily undertook the struggle to recover and preserve this Trust.

Had he not undertaken this effort, the Trust could have been taken over by the family of the former trustee, Umar Wali. Alternatively, had the legal case not been successfully concluded, there was a possibility that the property and its proceeds could have been transferred to a Saudi public charitable trust or to a trust associated with the Holy Haram.

Alhamdulillah, there is now an urgent need to complete the necessary legal arrangements without further delay so that the Trust can be administered in accordance with Saudi Waqf laws, with the appointment of its new trustees and members, in cooperation with Saudi citizen Al-Haj Sadihaan.

Al-Haj Sadihaan has, for several years, been requesting the relevant Sri Lankan authorities, as well as myself, to expedite this matter.

I understand that Mr. Ameer Ajward, the present Ambassador of Sri Lanka to Saudi Arabia and a graduate in law, is currently looking into this matter. At the same time, Mr. Zafar Tahir, the present Consul General of Sri Lanka in Jeddah and a former High Court Judge, is also a highly experienced legal professional. We therefore hope that he too will examine this matter and take the necessary steps without further delay.

Maseehudeen Inamullah
Former Consul General of Sri Lanka – Jeddah