Who are Bohras?
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Right now i'm interested in knowing who the Boras are and where they come from.
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Answer:
Who are Bohras?
In the name of Allah, We praise Him, seek His help and ask for His forgiveness. Whoever Allah guides none can misguide, and who-ever 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 nowhere near the ‘aqeedah’ of the mainstream
muslims. The Dawoodi Bohras are indeed
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:
1. They believe the
Syedna is appointed by the Imam with the authority from Allah Subhanah.
2. 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!
3. They are made to
believe by the Syedna and his cronies, that they have the sole rights to
Paradise!
4. 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 commonsense, understands the clear message of the Glorious
Quran, he will be guided to the true deen of Islam.
May Allah guide the whole ummah of Islam to
come back to the true deen of Islam as taught by the Messenger of Allah
(saws). May Allah guide the whole
ummah of Islam to follow the guidance and teachings of the Holy Quran and
follow the traditions of the Messenger of Allah (saws). May Allah guide the whole ummah to become
one ummah, and unite them to the worship and obedience of Allah Subhanah
Alone. May Allah have Mercy on us, May
Allah Forgive us our sins, and May Allah grant us victory over the
dis-believers.
May Allah guide you and us all to the Straight Path of Islam.
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 in Islam,
Burhan