There are not many Sunni Muslim mosques around the world that were named after a woman, yet Singapore offers a great example for this phenomenon: the Hajjah Fatimah Mosque. This mosque bears unique architectural methods making it look completely different from any other mosques or temples. Let us check out this unique mosque of Singapore.
Perhaps the only mosque in the world named after a woman, especially a Malaysian woman, the Hajjah Fatimah Mosque stands proudly on Java Road where the former house of the mosque’s founder Hajjah Fatimah lived and continue to stay together with her family being represented by a beautiful Mausoleum in the area of the mosque. Hajjah means a Muslim woman who could make the El Hadj the most important pilgrimage, a wish which every Muslims in the world aim to do at least once in their lives, to visit Mecca, the huge mosque housing the Kaaba the religious relic with the strongest meaning for Muslims. After visiting Mecca (Maccah or Meccah), a Muslim man or woman can freely add El Hadj (a person who could make the Hadj pilgrimage for a man) or Hajjah (a Muslim woman who could make the Hadj pilgrimage to Meccah) Hajjah Fatimah was a Malaysian Muslima, a Muslim woman who had a short lived marriage to a Celebes price which brought her to Singapore in the beginning of the nineteenth century and despite her divorce she had become a wealthy businesswoman donating large sums to the local Malay people and Muslim communities in order to build houses and a mosque which later was named Hajjah Fatimah Mosque. She is so highly respected to this day that the mosque celebrates her every birthday. Singapore actively supports the local Muslim communities.
The beautifully unique Hajjah Fatimah mosque in Singapore has a strange outlook. In form it has the design of a Muslim mosque holding the traditional Muslim areas of a mosque which include the entrance(s) the cleaning area(s) the prayer hall(s) and the Mausoleum (which can be visited separately by men and women) The Hajjah Fatimah mosque contains elements from European,. Chinese and Islamic style architectural elements too, according to its architects will who really wanted to create something intercultural. In its colour its beige and brown colours enhance its great and unique outlook for a mosque. It is especially its minaret, which looks strange something between a minaret and a Christian bell tower in one with its square shapes. It was designed by an unknown European architect and its specialty is, that its leaning six degree off of its centre making it the one and only Muslim Leaning Octagonal Tower in the world this way. Other interesting feature of the mosque is its Chinese style grilles on the windows and which also seem on the woodwork represented within the mosque. Try to notice the green patterned porcelain on each level of the minaret.
There is no touchable information whether Hajjah Fatimah Mosque could be visited by non-Muslims, this you must check out yourself. In case you prepare to enter a mosque, wear something long and airy, which hides figure. This also goes to the visit of the Muslim Malaysian Kampong Glam quarter of Singapore, where most of Singapore’s mosques can be found.