About Us

The Serendib Sufi Study Circle (founded in 1967) is dedicated to learning, practising and propogating the teachings of our beloved Sheikh His Holiness Muhammad Raheem Bawa Muhaiyaddeen (Rad).

His Holiness Sheikh Bawa Muhaiyaddeen (lovingly called Bawange or Guru Bawa by his devotees) was first found by a group of religious pilgrims in the early 1900s meditating in the jungles of Kataragama in Sri Lanka (Ceylon). Awed and inspired by his personality and the depth of his wisdom, he was invited by the pilgrims to come to their home in Jaffna.

Since that time, people of all walks of life from paupers to prime ministers belonging to all religious and ethnic backgrounds have flocked to see Sheikh Bawa Muhaiyaddeen to seek comfort, guidance and help. Sheikh Bawa Muhaiyaddeen tirelessly spent the rest of his life preaching, healing and comforting the many souls that came to him. He cultivated a farm in Jaffna to feed the poor. In 1967, Sheikh Bawa Muhaiyaddeen (Rad) founded the Serendib Sufi Study Circle, with its headquarters in Colombo. In 1975, Sheikh Bawa Muhaiyaddeen (Rad) completed "God's House" in Mankumban, Jaffna.

In 1971, he was invited by his American disciples to Philadelphia, USA. Here too, people from all religious, social and ethnic backgrounds flocked to hear him speak. In Philadelphia, Sheikh Bawa Muhaiyaddeen founded the Bawa Muhaiyaddeen Fellowship and constructed the Bawa Muhaiyaddeen Mosque.

Sheikh M. R. Bawa Muhaiyaddeen has authored over twenty books on Islam and spirituality and the Fellowship he founded recorded thousands of hours of audio and video discourses.

Across the United States, Canada and England, he won recognition from religious scholars, journalists, educators and world leaders as a true saint. Many entered into the fold of Islam through his blessing. The United Nation's Assistant Secretary General, Robert Muller, asked for Bawa Muhaiyaddeen's guidance on behalf of all mankind. Time Magazine turned to him for clarification during the hostage crisis in 1980. Shiekh Bawa Muhaiyaddeen touched the hearts of thousands of people by his overwhelming compassion and wise words. He was interviewed by Psychology Today, the Harvard Divinity Bulletin, the Philadelphia Inquirer, and the Pittsburgh Press. Wherever he went, he tirelessly answered the many personal and mystical questions that people brought to him.

In a cold winter day on 8th December 1986 Sheikh Bawa Muhaiyaddeen (Rad) returned to his Lord (May Allah be pleased with him). His Mazaar is located in Chester County, Pennsylvania, USA.