COLOMBO, 14 January 2005 — Despite heavy damages to men and materials, most of the mosques on the Western coast of the island were not affected as a result of the tsunami waves. The famous Ketchimalai Mosque in Beruwela located in the vicinity of the fishing harbor was safe even as the tidal waves claimed 40,000 lives and rendered one million people homeless. Two weeks after the giant waves struck the coast, an average of 500 bodies are still being recovered daily from the debris. An estimated 6,000 people are still missing.
“Five of us were inside the mosque and we started reciting the Holy Qur’an when we noticed the waves becoming rough,” the mosque’s imam, Alim Alavi, told Arab News. “At the time the waves crashed, there were 47 students in the madrasa attached to the south wing of the mosque. They came running to me. I made them recite relevant stanzas from the Holy Qur’an which sought Almighty Allah’s protection from natural calamities,” Alavi added.
“I could see fishing trawlers drifting, buildings crumbling and even five-meter-high rocks floating. But the mosque stood unmoved despite the surging waves,” he recalled. “It was a miracle. For a moment I thought we were all going to die,” Alavi said adding that the students were resident scholars of the mosque and they have been sent home for the moment to overcome the trauma caused by the tragedy.
The Maggona Mosque, a couple of meters from the sea, was not even touched by the waves even though adjacent buildings on the Colombo-Galle Road have been severely damaged.
Meters away from the mosque was Lal Somasiri’s house and shopping complex that were smashed by the waves. “In minutes I was brought down from riches to rags,” Somasiri told Arab News standing in the middle of the debris of his shopping arcade. His wife and children, he said, have taken shelter in a refugee camp.
