Since 1960

Haji Taslim Funerals, London's oldest Muslim funeral service, is based at East London Mosque. A pioneer in the establishment and advancement of the needs of Muslims in Britain, as well as a leading figure in the East London Mosque, since 1960, we have been assisting the Muslim community by arranging and managing the funerals of their loved ones.

history

Serving the Community

With his Welsh convert wife who was the daughter of a miner, he opened a boarding house and a halal butchers shop in the 1940s. Perhaps more significantly still, he is said to have been Britain’s first Muslim and Bengali undertaker. In 1960, he founded Haji Taslim Funerals. 

INITIATIVE

He began his work as a Muslim mortuary by hiring a room near the East London Mosque. He would gather deceased bodies from hospitals, prepare them according to Muslim rites, and hold burial ceremonies for them. His wife took on the same responsibilities for women. Following the Second World War and Independence, he remained engaged in the East London Mosque for several decades, and was a founding member of the Pakistan Caterers’ Association in 1960.

 

Haji Taslim Funerals were the first Muslim funeral directors in the United Kingdom. It is still undoubtedly the most in-demand service of its type in the country, and it has played a vital part in creating British Muslim identity and experience sixty years later.