Kubur Kassim (

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

: قبر قاسم) is a Muslim cemetery located in the

Siglap Siglap ( or ) is a neighbourhood located south-west of Bedok in the East Region of Singapore. The area encompasses the Frankel and Opera Estates and their names have sometimes been used interchangeably to refer to the approximate same area. T ...

neighbourhood in the

East Region, Singapore The East Region (, zh, 東區, ) of Singapore is one of the five regions in the city-state. The region is the 2nd most densely populated among the five, and has the smallest land area. Bedok is the region's most populous town and Tampines is the ...

. The cemetery is no longer in use, however it is still open for public access. It houses burials of prominent Malay Muslim figures, including Hafeezudin Sirajuddin Moonshi, a doctor who opened the first Muslim-owned clinic in Singapore. The cemetery contains a

Sufi lodge A Sufi lodge is a building designed specifically for gatherings of a Sufi brotherhood or ''tariqa'' and is a place for spiritual practice and religious education. They include structures also known as ''khānaqāh'', ''zāwiya'', ''ribāṭ'' ...

and

surau A surau is an Islamic assembly building in some regions of Sumatra and the Malay Peninsula, used for worship and religious instruction. Generally smaller physical structures, their ritual functions are similar to those of a mosque, they admit ...

for prayers, both of which are still in use. It has also received some publicity in the form of superstitions, mainly through stories and legends attributing the cemetery to have been frequented by the mythological

Orang Bunian In Malaysian, Bruneian and Indonesian folklore, Bunian people or Orang bunian () are supernatural beings said to be invisible to most humans, except those with "spiritual sight". While the term is often translated as "elves", it literally trans ...

History

The Kubur Kassim cemetery was established in 1921 on a plot of land in the

neighbourhood that was owned by a Muslim merchant named Ahna Mohamed Kassim bin Ally Mohamed. After Kassim's death in 1935, the cemetery's management was then transferred to his heirs. Burials in the cemetery stopped in the 1980s. Finally in 1987, the cemetery was targeted for redevelopment and the

Singapore Land Authority The Singapore Land Authority (SLA) is a statutory board under the Ministry of Law of the Government of Singapore. SLA optimises land resources for Singapore's social and economic development. History The SLA was formed on 1 June 2001 when the ...

held control of the cemetery. Currently, it is not open for burials although the public can readily access the cemetery.

Features

Architectural features

The gateway of the cemetery is built in the style of

Indo-Saracenic architecture Indo-Saracenic architecture (also known as Indo-Gothic, Mughal-Gothic, Neo-Mughal) was a Revivalism (architecture), revivalist architectural style mostly used by British architects in India in the later 19th century, especially in public and gov ...

. It is painted green and yellow. Square Tombs at Kubur Kassim

The graves in the cemetery are mostly square in shape, which is unusual for a regular Muslim cemetery.

Buildings

Located within the Kubur Kassim cemetery is a

where Muslim visitors can pray in. There is also a

in the cemetery which contains the grave of a prominent

Sufi Sufism ( or ) is a mysticism, mystic body of religious practice found within Islam which is characterized by a focus on Islamic Tazkiyah, purification, spirituality, ritualism, and Asceticism#Islam, asceticism. Practitioners of Sufism are r ...

mystic of the Chisthi order; Khwaja Habibullah Shah, an

Indian Muslim Islam is India's Religion in India, second-largest religion, with 14.2% of the country's population, or approximately 172.2 million people, identifying as adherents of Islam in a 2011 census. India also has the Islam by country, third-larg ...

scholar who died in 1971. The Sufi lodge is still in use by members of the order to do their meetings. Another mausoleum in the cemetery is the Keramat Sheikh Ali, a burial place of another Sufi mystic.

Burials

More than 3,000 people are buried in the cemetery. Although the cemetery is predominantly a Muslim one, there are also interfaith burials. Prominent figures of the Malay Muslim community are buried in the cemetery. Aside from celebrities and noblemen, Muslim scholars and Sufi mystics have also been entombed here.

Prominent burials

* Hafeezudin Sirajuddin Moonshi (d. 1965) – Muslim doctor who opened the first Muslim-owned clinic in Singapore *Khwaja Habibullah Shah (d. 1971) – Scholar and mystic of the Chisthi order *Sheikh Ali – Muslim scholar and Sufi mystic *Che Lembek Binte Abdin – former headmistress at Kampong Glam Girls' School during

WWII World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

Folklore

Local legends claim that the cemetery is frequented by the

, a mythological

cryptid Cryptids are animals or other beings whose present existence is disputed or unsubstantiated by science. Cryptozoology, the study of cryptids, is a pseudoscience claiming that such beings may exist somewhere in the wild; it has been widely cri ...

people that come from a different dimension. The cemetery became known for such stories as well as the

eclipse An eclipse is an astronomical event which occurs when an astronomical object or spacecraft is temporarily obscured, by passing into the shadow of another body or by having another body pass between it and the viewer. This alignment of three ...

of 1821 which further added to its reputation in horror stories and local tradition. Some graves in the cemetery are reportedly dedicated to the cryptids as well.

References

{{reflist Religious buildings and structures in Singapore Cemeteries in Singapore