Nakiban Wali Masjid

       This substantial old building is situated north-west of Killa Gujar Singh and the dome of Sheikh Musa, Ahangar, or the iron-smith, in the quarters now known as Thatti Mehtran, or the sweepers quarters.  The founder was sheikh Mahomed Wasil, and Amir of the Court of Bahadur Shah, successor of Aurangzeb.  On the death of Mahomed Wasil, his descendants continued to hold the office of Nakib, or adjutant, under the Lahore governor.  Hence the mosque came to be called the Nakiban Wali Masjid.  It has three fine domes and three stately arches.  On the top of the middle arch are inscribed sentences from the Koran.  The court-yard of the mosque is built of solid masonry, and contains an old tank and a well.  In the time of the Sikhs the mosque was used as a powder-magazine.  It was restored to the Mahomedans by the bounty of the British Government. 

            Sheikh Mahomed Wasil, the founder of the mosque, was a native of Saharanpur.  Having come to Lahore in the time of the Empeor Bahadur Shah, he settled in the Lakhi Mohalla, by which name the present quarters were then known.  After residing at Lahore for some years, Mahomed Wasil returned to Saharanpur. 

            During the viceroyalty of Khan Bahadur, Mhomed Panah, Abdul Aziz and mahomed Arif, the sons of Sheikh Mahomed Wasil, came to Lahore, and took State employment under Shah Nawaz Khan, son of Khan Bahadur, ten governor of Lahore, and became Nakibs.  The deseendants of this family still flourish in the town of Lahore. 

            The middle arch is decorated with paintings.  Above the arches on the north and east, in the interior of the mosque, is inscribed the following Arabic passage:- 

            So says God the Most High Every thing in the world is perishable; only God the glorious and venerable endures.

            On the arches north and south of the niche to the west is the following inscription:-

            The faithful is in a mosque as a fish in water; oue who is faithless to a mosque is like a bird in a cage.