Cherished Memories of Africa — Page 121
103 Foday Sabali Farafeni is particularly significant town of the Gambia in the history of the jama’at. That is the town where Alhaj Sir Farimang Singateh ran his clinic before taking over as the Governor General of the country. By the Grace of Allah, there is a very devoted Jama’at there. Alhaj Singateh had a fairly large piece of land on the roadside near the market where he had his pharmacy. It is narrated that once Maulana Ghulam Ahmad Baddomalhi, the then Amir of the Gambia jama’at visited the area. The jama’at did not have its mosque those days. Maulana Baddomalhi prompted Alhaj Singateh to donate a part of his plot to the jama’at and he marked that area with his stick for the mosque. Alhaj Singateh complied with Maulana’s request. The jama’at members built a small rectangular mosque with mud blocks. This was the mosque where many devotees of the jama’at would have shared their secrets with their Lord. In about 1990, I felt that with the passage of time the condition of the building had deteriorated, and, by the Grace of Allah, increased membership of the jama’at made the mosque too small. Therefore, a more spacious place was needed where a mosque and Murabbi house could be built. By now a mosque, mission house and beautiful guest house has been constructed. I was serving as a murabbi in Farafeni those days. I appealed to everyone to contribute in excess of one’s capacity for the construction of the mosque. No worthwhile assistance was provided by the centre for building mosques those days and it