Woking Muslim Mission
Encyclopedia
The Woking Muslim Mission was founded in 1913 by Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din
Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din
Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din , a lawyer by profession, was a member of the Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement and the author of numerous publications about Islam and the Ahmadiyya movement.- Life :...

 (d. December 1932) at the Mosque in Woking, 30 miles southwest of London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 and was managed by members of the Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement (Ahmadiyya Anjuman Ishaat-i-Islam, AAIL). It was run by Lahore Ahmadiyya missionaries until the mid-1960s.

Woking Mosque

The Woking Mosque was built by Dr G.W. Leitner
Gottlieb Wilhelm Leitner
Gottlieb Wilhelm Leitner or Gottlieb William Leitner M.A.,Ph.D.,L.L.D.,D.O.L. was an Anglo-Hungarian orientalist.-Early life and education:...

 (d. 1899) in 1889. It was only opened up and used on special occasions. In 1913 Leitner's son was on the point of selling the mosque
Mosque
A mosque is a place of worship for followers of Islam. The word is likely to have entered the English language through French , from Portuguese , from Spanish , and from Berber , ultimately originating in — . The Arabic word masjid literally means a place of prostration...

 to a developer. The Indian lawyer and follower of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad
Mirza Ghulam Ahmad
Mīrzā Ghulām Aḥmad was a religious figure from India and the founder of the Ahmadiyya Community. He claimed to be the Mujaddid of the 14th Islamic century, the promised Messiah , and the Mahdi awaited by the Muslims in the end days...

, Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din, just arrived in England, was inspired to establish an Islamic mission in the mosque. The Khwaja, with the help of some prominent Indian Muslims in England, such as Syed Ameer Ali, went to court and had the Mosque placed under a Trust.

The Woking Mosque and mission remained the pre-eminent centre of Islam in Great Britain from 1913 to the mid-1960s.

Woking Mission

The Woking Muslim Mission was established by Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din. His first stay in England was from September 1912 until August 1914. He established the mission with the encouragement of Maulana Noor-ud-Din, head of the Ahmadiyya Movement till March 1914. After the split in the Ahmadiyya Movement in 1914 Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din was associated with the Lahore Branch.

Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din started his work from the inspiration of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, who had a deep desire to present Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and .   : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...

 to the West. In February 1913 the Khwaja started a monthly journal The Islamic Review, which for over 55 years was the main Islamic journal in the West.

At Eid
Eid ul-Fitr
Eid ul-Fitr, Eid al-Fitr, Id-ul-Fitr, or Id al-Fitr , often abbreviated to Eid, is a Muslim holiday that marks the end of Ramadan, the Islamic holy month of fasting . Eid is an Arabic word meaning "festivity," while Fiṭr means "breaking the fast"...

 occasions, from 1913 to the mid-1960s, Muslims from all nations present in England at the time gathered at the Woking Mosque. Woking in those days became a replica in miniature of Mecca
Mecca
Mecca is a city in the Hijaz and the capital of Makkah province in Saudi Arabia. The city is located inland from Jeddah in a narrow valley at a height of above sea level...

 in the West, a multinational spectacle that could be matched in its multitude only with Hajj
Hajj
The Hajj is the pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia. It is one of the largest pilgrimages in the world, and is the fifth pillar of Islam, a religious duty that must be carried out at least once in their lifetime by every able-bodied Muslim who can afford to do so...

in Mecca itself.

People converting to Islam in England during the years 1913 to the mid-1960s did so generally through this mission. In 1924 it was estimated that there was a total Muslim population in England of 10,000, of which 1,000 were converts.

The well-known book Islam, Our Choice, containing accounts by Muslim converts of how they came to embrace Islam, was originally compiled and published by the Woking Muslim Mission. It has subsequently been re-published all over the world by other Muslim publishers. But they have deleted the name of the Woking Muslim Mission and of Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din from within the accounts given by the converts.

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