Is this Bohra tableeqh
Mu' meneen Brothers and Sisters,
As Salaam Aleikum wa Rahmatullahi wa
Barakatuh. (May Allah's Peace, Mercy and Blessings be upon all of you)
one
of our brothers/sisters has asked this question:
Dear Mr. Burhan,
As-salaam alaikum wa
rahmatullahi wa barakatahu wa maghfiratahu My name is Irfan, and i am a
sunnitte muslim, please kindly let me know the
difference between Bohra and Sunnuittes, I don't know how i am getting
your mails, is this tableeq for bohras.
regards,
(There may be some grammatical and spelling
errors in the above statement. The forum does not change anything from questions,
comments and statements received from our readers for circulation in
confidentiality.)
Answer:
In the name of Allah, We praise Him, seek His help and ask
for His forgiveness. Whoever Allah guides none can misguide, and whoever He
allows to fall astray, none can guide them aright. We bear witness that there
is no one (no idol, no person, no grave, no prophet, no imam,
no dai, nobody!) worthy of
worship but Allah Alone, and we bear witness that Muhammad (saws) is His
slave-servant and the seal of His Messengers.
The Bohras are a business community with its predominant
base in the west-coast state of Gujarat in India. Dawoodi Bohras are a sect of the Fatimid Shia school of thought
and about one million people claim to follow this sect of Islam all over the
world.
Bohra is not a religion by itself. It is a
Gujrati-speaking caste originating from the Kuch area of India. These were
predominantly a business community, some of whom converted to Islam, and that
is how a community amongst them came to be known as Dawoodi Bohras. There are
many Hindus who are Bohras, and most of the Dawoodi Bohras are converts from
Hinduism in the early times. There is
no more propagation of Islam in Bohraism, thus there are no more converts.
The honest truth
of the matter is that the ‘aqeedah’ of the Dawoodi Bohras is no where near the
‘aqeedah’ of the main-stream muslims.
The Dawoodi Bohras are an off-shoot of the Shia sect, and their
‘aqeedah’ and belief is very much in line with the Shias, and at times, even further away from the Truth and
Guidance of the Holy Quran and Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah (saws).
The Dawoodi Bohras believe in the imamate of the progeny
of Imam Ali ibn Abi Taalib, and believe all the way upto the 21st
imam. Then they have a system of
‘Dais’, and Syedna Burhanudeen is the 52nd Dai in succession.
The Syedna is their undisputed spiritual leader. But in reality, he is their god!!
(Aoo-dho-billah). The Syedna then
appoints people, mostly from his family, in a system, whereby all of them hold
very powerful positions in the community and are always above any member of the
community. The Syedna and his family
and mission are based in Bombay, and run the organization by having a permanent
ambassador of theirs in probably every county and city in the world, wherever
the Bohras reside! It is a very well
organized system, whereby all the zakaah, and all other funds in the names of
‘sabeel’, ‘wajebaat’, ‘khums’, etc. are collected and sent to the treasury of
the Syedna and his family. The Syedna
and his family are probably billionaires, and they use this wealth, power and
influence to subjugate the community.
He and his family are the sole authority in running the affairs, and
nobody dare ask any questions or raise any objection, for fear of being
ostracized by them! The relationship between the common Bohras and the Syedna
is that of slaves to a master, and the Bohras pride themselves in being called
Abd-Syedna (slaves of Syedna!). They
even bow down in ‘sajdah’ (prostration) to the Syedna and to the graves of his
ancestors in submission and gratefulness.
The main reasons the common Bohras believe in the Syedna
and his family as their spiritual leaders and blindly follow and obey them is:
They believe the Syedna is appointed by the Imam with the
authority from Allah Subhanah.
They are not allowed to understand the Holy Quran, which
would have made it very clear that there is no god worthy of worship, except
Allah Subhanah Alone!
They are made to believe by the Syedna and his cronies,
that they have the sole rights to Paradise!
They are made to believe that the Syedna and his ancestors
can somehow help them in the Court of Allah on the Day of Judgement.
The single biggest reason for their deviation is that the
Syedna and his family do not allow the followers, to understand the Holy
Quran. They are allowed and advocated
regularly to recite the Quran in Arabic, but they do not understand a word of
it. In my opinion, the Bohras probably
recite more Quran, than any other community in Islam, but unfortunately, they do not follow the commandments, simply because do not understand it, nor are they allowed to understand it.
The administrators of this forum were born into the Dawoodi
Bohra sect, but Allah guided us to read and understand the Holy Quran. And now, we have made it our mission, to
invite our Bohra brethren to read and understand the Holy Quran once. We are confident, once any person, who has any common-sense, understands the clear message of the
Glorious Quran, he will be guided to
the true deen of Islam.
Your Question: Is this
tableeq for bohras?
Our only intention and mission is to invite whoever wants
to listen to good caution, to read and
understand the clear guidance and teachings of the Holy Quran; so that they can leave their various sects
and come to the one true deen of Islam and be honored to be recognized by the
name that Allah Himself has chosen for the believers: that is, ‘muslims’.
Allah says in the Holy Quran Chapter 22 Surah
Hajj verse 77-78: O you who have believed, do ‘rukooh’ (bow down) and do
‘sajdah’ (prostration), and worship your Lord Allah Alone, and do righteous
deeds: it may be that you attain true success!
Exert your utmost for the cause of Allah, as one should. He has chosen you for His service, and has
not laid on you any hardship in your religion. Therefore, be steadfast in the
religion of your father Abraham. Allah
had named you ‘muslims’ before this, and has named you (muslims) in this Quran
also, so that the Messenger may be a witness in regard to you, and you may be
witnesses in regard to the rest of mankind.
Whatever written of Truth and benefit is only due to
Allah’s Assistance and Guidance, and whatever of error is of me. Allah Alone Knows Best and He is the Only
Source of Strength.
Your brother and
well wisher in Islam,
Burhan