Woman reverts to Islam after a mosque is built next to her house

By Sheikh Kassim Kayira

Wakisanyi trading centre lies between Kafu and Kigumba, a meeting point of Nakasongola, Masindi and Kiryandongo districts.

When I arrived here back in 2017, like any practicing Muslim would do, I inquired about a mosque where I could pray. There was none that one could show to a visitor.

I was told a famous Pentecostal pastor who owned huge chunks of farmland had provided a makeshift space for his many Muslim farmhands but took it back around the time I got there as he decided to use the space to expand his farmed area. So effectively Muslims had no where to pray from.

A local elderly lady commonly identified as Nnalongo had provided them their new grass thatched makeshift space to pray. When the rains came, there would be no prayers. It was a very sad situation.

There were few local indigenous Muslims. The bulk of those that now habited the town centre were migrant labourers, mainly from Busoga region, who’d come and go with numbers reaching between 150 to 200 between planting and harvest seasons.

Hearing this, I was touched. I’d just bought farmland about 3 miles inland and had just acquired a plot within the trading centre as a connection point or later outlet for my farm products. I was looking to expand but opted to prioritize buying land for the construction of a mosque.

With Allah’s help I managed to get a 50 x 100 ft plot with a small structure that could squeeze in up to 20 people. We had a structure we could call a mosque.

An opportunity to expand the plot availed itself.

I reached out to fellow Muslim journalists with whom we had formed an association. We raised funds and I managed to pay and expand the space. The change was now how to build a mosque that could host up to 100 worshippers.

Here, I started reaching out and the first two people to respond, a friend who lives in the United States and a lady living in Uganda gave me 20 bags of cement. Other contributions gave us the momentum to kickstart the project. But it was a humongous project that we couldn’t afford so easily.

I reached out again to my worldwide network of friends and acquaintances especially those we went to perform Umrah with in October 2023. Work started but was still slow. With all the contacts I had, including those that built mosques on behalf of rich fellows in the Muslimworld, somehow each time it came to Wakisanyi mosque, one thing or another would come up and stall the project.

Finally, I approached Dr Shuaib Ssemuwemba who sent an engineer Umar Ssebadduka. He was a bit apprehensive. I wondered if there was something about the plot. I offered an alternative, a plot I’d bought off Nnalongo as a plan B just in case this existing one didn’t appeal well. It was much smaller than the one we had bought for the mosque, but it was sat next to the highway as opposed to the other one that was one plot away.

Surprise! Engineer Umar opted for this smaller plot and we got a funder from the Arab world – Mubarak Al A’ajmy.

Construction begun in earnest in September 2024 and the mosque was handed over to the community on the 1st of March 2025 ready for the holy month of Ramadhan. The size of the mosque is way beyond anything we’d ever imagined, with an Imam’s house and a borehole that the community is already benefiting from.

As the construction was going on, Nnalongo who had sold me that plot and which sat next to her house sent me a message via a caretaker’s phone. She wanted to re-take her shahada. Retake? I asked. Yes, she was born in a very Muslim family but fell in love with a Christian man whom she followed and married and for the next 40 years, deserted Islam.

The construction of this mosque next to her house, a pure unplanned coincidence, brought tears to her eyes as her Islamic background kept calling. She’s retaken her shahada and hopes to observe her first Ramadhan in 40 years. Allahu Akbar.

Two other former Muslims also retook their shahada during the handover ceremony! It’s the best building in town and hopes to be a place where the propagation of Islam, will be carried out while promoting community harmony through things like the mosque borehole that’s already in operation.

The mosque will also be a madrasa for the many children born to the local Muslims.