Religion
Contributions to Religion
Spreading Religion
The Arab families, hailing from the Hadhramaut district, had a mission in mind: spreading the Islam religion. This is why much of the infrastructure left behind by the Arab families are mosques and madrasas, which continue to be used to spread their religion and culture today. Their impact on spreading religion was a particularly important factor in attracting other Arabic traders to Singapore, so much so that Arab street was set up as an ethnic enclave for the Arab traders. Singapore’s rich religious scene can be attributed to the efforts of Arab families to allow the Islamic religion to thrive despite British colonisation and dilution of Asian values.
Students learning the Qur’an at a madrasah
Collection of ancient copies of the Qur’an, the Torah and the Bible in Ba’alwie Mosque
Students learning the Qur’an at a madrasah
Though the contributions of Arab philanthropists were mostly limited to the Arab community due to ethnic enclaves, inter-racial marriages with members of the Chinese and Indian families resulted in the help expanding to other families. Despite the focus of the Arabs in spreading their own religion, some were also concerned about bridging religious boundaries to maintain peace and harmony.
For example, The Al Attas family founded their own mosque in Bukit Timah (Ba’alwie Mosque), which would be visited by religious leaders of numerous faiths and houses artefacts from various religions, such as ancient Bibles and Torahs.
Habib Hassan, whose father was the founder of the mosque, himself alludes to the purpose of their efforts at inter-faith harmony, acknowledging that “respect and strong ties between faiths start first with understanding and knowledge”. In fact, Habib Hassan too continued his family’s efforts at forging interfaith harmony, by becoming the first Singaporean Imam to give the Eid sermon in English in 1979.
A strong advocate of interfaith harmony, he serves as a Council member of the Inter-Religious Organisation (IRO and is also the proud recipient of the Berita Harian Achiever of the Year Award for his interfaith work. It is clear that their efforts at forming opportunities for mutual understanding and respect could have come a long way, in making Singapore home to many faiths.
