Kerala, the southernmost state in India is also known as God’s
Own Country. Although the beautiful landscape and greenery played an important
role in earning this name, various myths and fairy tales existing all over the
state too has a role in earning the state such a beautiful nickname. Myths in
Kerala is not related to any particular religion or cast. Here is a story about
the existence of famous pilgrim destination for the Islam in Kerala, Beema
Pally in Thiruvananthapuram.
This Mosque, which is also known as Beema Pally Durga Sherif
is located about eight kilometers to the southern side of the heart of the city,
near Poonthura. Major attractions here are the tombs of Saidathunisa Beema Beevi
and her son Mahin Abubakar. Actually, the legend of this mosque is all about
the story of these two great persons who lived their whole life for helping the
have-nots.
Saidathunisa Beema Beevi has born in Arabia and she belongs
to the Khuraish clan which is the same as that of Prophet Mohammed. She has
been brought up in a good manner and when she became a young girl, she became
highly religious, generous, and kind. Many people loved to have her as a wife
because of the virtues possessed by her. At last, a similarly religious and generous
young man named Abdul Gaffar married her. Both of them have ardent love and
selfless devotion towards Allah the almighty and gradually they attained the
divine power as a result of their continuous prayers. They never used this
divine power for amazing wealth, but used to help the hapless. They have healed
many diseases with their magical power and accepted nothing in return. Thus
both of them became famous throughout Arabia.
Meanwhile, Saidathunisa Beema Beevi gave birth to a son,
Mahin Abubakar. He was an intelligent child who learned everything at the
first instance itself. He underwent proper education prevailing on those days
and started helping his parents in their divine works when he became young.
However, their happiness did not last long as Abdul Gaffar died one day.
Although very sad, Saidathunisa and her son did not give up their service. They
took it more vigorously as a respect towards the departed soul.
During that period, the political scenes of Arabia were
undergoing a tremendous change. After the period of Prophet, three Khalifas
ruled Arabia. After the time of the third Khalifa, many unscrupulous people started
trying to grab power. Civil wars and quarrels became a common thing and the
country lost peace. During that period, Saidathunisa had a dream in which
an old person appeared and asked her to go to India. He told her that now
Arabia does not require her service and there are many hapless people in India,
who will find it as a blessing if she extends her helping hand to them. Taking
those words are from Allah the almighty, she traveled to India along with her
son and reached Kerala.
There they got settled in Thiruvallam in Thiruvananthapuram
district and started their service to the poor and the needy. They have healed
many diseases with their divine power and the word spread across the princely state
of Travancore, of which Thiruvananthapuram was the capital city. They got many
followers and disciples in due course of time. The increasing popularity of
Saidathunisa Beema Beevi and her son made several officials jealous, but they
hesitated to do something harmful to them as the King who was ruling then was very
generous to foreign people who took asylum in his country.
Everything was going smoothly and Mahin Abubakar started
off to Arabia for Hajj pilgrim. On those days, it was not an easy task and used
to take several months to complete Hajj. When Mahin was on his way to Hajj,
several government officials approached Saidathunisa Beema Beevi and demanded
to pay the tax. On those days all foreign people staying in Travancore had to
pay a tax as per the prevailing law. She told the officials that her son is
away and requested them to wait till his return. The officials who were jealous
of the popularity being enjoyed by the Beevi and her son did not listen to her
prayers and started pestering her regularly.
When Mahin came back from the Hajj, he heard the stories of
his mother being trouble by the officials and became angry. However, his mother
prevented him from having a quarrel with them. After a few days, many officials
came to their place along with some military personals and demanded tax. At
this time a small quarrel developed between Mahin Abubakar and the officials,
which has been developed into a direct fight. Unfortunately, a military official
got killed in that and this made the officials angry. They started the fight with
Mahin and shortly it turned to a riot at the end of which Mahin got killed. The
message of son’s death was quite unbearable for Saidathunisa and she too died
as her heart got broken with this news. She too had been buried near her son as
per her last wish.
These two tombs are believed to have divine power and even
now many devotees across the religion visit these tombs to heal their disease.
There is a well near the tomb which is known as “Medicine Well” It is believed
that Mahin Abubakar got killed at this place. People believe that any disease
can be cured by drinking water from this well.
In the present day, the major festival being celebrated at this The mosque is “Chandana Kudam”. Devotees take seven rounds around the tombs with
pots filled with sandal powder on their head on this day.
