So here is a picture from the chartered boat showing the main jetty of Pulau Besar. If I took the ferry, I would have to embark or get off from the jetty. Then I would have to enter mainland Melaka from the jetty at Anjung Batu.
Instead, the chartered boat which plies a slightly different route from Umbai in the mainland some 3 km north of Anjung Batu would embark or get off in front of the tombs of Tok Janggut and Tok Putih (see Pulau Besar 1: Enter the 'big' island! ) at low tide and in front of the tomb of Sultanul Ariffin Sheikh Ismail at high tide. In this case, we get off at 5.30pm, during high tide...
By the time we arrived at Umbai around 6pm or so, it was starting to rain. Then it rained heavily while we took a light meal and waited a while.
Soon, it's time to go back home... To Kuala Lumpur that is, Zaidi and I in one car, my cousin Nizam and his friend Asri in another. We decided to stop by in central Melaka city and visit the old mosque of Kampung Hulu, built sometime in the 18th Century for our obligatory night prayers.
A look at the mosque at night. For a look during the day, read the old article Perigi (well of) Hang Tuah, Masjid (mosque of) Duyung serta (and) Kampung Hulu posted in the blogspot SENI LAMA MELAYU (MALAY OLDEN ART) about a year ago!
Hmm... Now that I have had another look at the article Perigi (well of) Hang Tuah, Masjid (mosque of) Duyung serta (and) Kampung Hulu do I realise there's a comment made early this year saying there's tomb at the mosque of Kampung Hulu of someone related to the one at Pulau Besar. Yes, I've heard about this since the first time I went to Pulau Besar I think sometime at the end of 2001 or early 2002. Then, I was looking for a place I saw in my dreams which seemed to bridge the gap between Peninsular Malaysia and the adjacent Indonesian island of Sumatera.
Anyway, it is only early this year or so that I bothered to ask someone at the Kampung Hulu mosque about the matter, Thus, he said that in front of the mosque there exist the tomb of someone known as Sheikh Abdullah... And this Sheikh Abdullah is supposed to be the same Sheikh Abdullah who came to Kedah in the 12th Century to convert a king of Kedah to Islam! Have a look at the article Sultan Muzaffar Shah, the first king of Kedah?
Now the Sheikh Abdullah in Kedah is also supposed to be the person said to have built a mosque on top of the famous mount Jerai. For some pictures of the mountain and related stories, have a look at the following old articles:-
Yan again... The call of Gunung Jerai...
Gunung Jerai calling out loud...
On to the summit of Gunung Jerai to close a chapter...
Views on top of Gunung Jerai... Enter Padang Tok Sheikh. Is it?
But that was the first time I heard Sheikh Abdullah also came to Melaka, what more having died and then buried in front of the Kampung Hulu mosque! Is this true? If this is true then he must have come before the advent of the Melaka Sultanate as known in history which is in the 15th Century!
I looked at the information board at the mosque. There is no mention of anyone by the name of Sheikh Abdullah but there's mention of a certain Syed Abdullah which if I remember correctly came from the Al-Haddad family. If that's the case then this Syed Abdullah must have come much later, perhaps at the earliest after the 15th Century as I'm certain he is from the Ba' Alawi family, that is the side of the progenies of Prophet Muhammad SAW who flourished in Hadramaut, Yaman at the southern tip of the Arabian peninsular. Whereelse the Sheikh Abdullah of Kedah came more than 300 years earlier to this part of the world and was never officially mentioned as an offspring of the prophet althought some knew him to be one.
Anyway, the Sheikh Abdullah of Kedah is also known by some to be the same Sheikh Abdullah who came to Aceh in the year 1166 bringing with him and an occult sort of religious book on Godly secrets called the Bahr Lahut (could be translated as the ocean of the universe of God!). The Sheikh Abdullah who came to Aceh is said to have come with his teacher, the venerable and very well-known Sultanul Awliya (king of saints) Sheikh Abdul Qadir al-Jilani who conquered the intelectual and spiritual atmosphere of 12th Century Baghdad, then the main centre for the whole Islamic world. In fact some said, Sheikh Abdullah is a son of Sheikh Abdul Qadir!
Now, Sultanul Ariffin (king of the gnostics) Sheikh Ismail whose tomb is the main one in Pulau Besar is a great-grandchild of Sheikh Abdul Qadir. Perhaps that is how the main tomb of Pulau Besar is connected to the one in Kampung Hulu? That is, assuming that the story told by someone there about the Sheikh Abdullah in Kedah being the same one buried in front of the mosque here is true!
Anyway, I'm not sure where is the tomb of this Sheikh Abdullah in Kampung Hulu. There's quite a number of tombs in front of the mosque and 3-4 are prominently built. But I could say this for sure, at least as far as I could see. There's only one tomb located within the main building of the mosque at that is the one in th picture above. Is this the tomb of the said Sheikh Abdullah? That's it. Good night! :]
p/s: Correction. Now I remember. I was told about the tomb of Sheikh Abdullah in Kampung Hulu by an elderly man at the mosque sometime in the middle of 2007. You see, at the time I haven't published my third book "Berpetualang ke Aceh: Sirih Pulang ke Gagang?" (could be literally translated as "The trip to Aceh: The prodigal son returns") which was printed November 2007. And I do remember handing some copies of my second book "Berpetualang ke Aceh: Membela Syiar yang Asal" (the sub-title could be translated as "Advocating the true faith") published May 2007 for public reading at the mosque. Cheers! :]