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:

(I) Bohras perform Aarti (vathawwoo) to their Aamil or anyone visit from the kothar including Sayedna on all occasions. It is similar to Aarti, Hindus perform to their Gods and Goddess. WHEN THIS RISAM STARTED AND WHETHER IT CAME IN INDIA FROM YAMEN, CAIRO OR STARTED IN INDIA?

(II) Bohra women are allowed to kiss hands and legs of their Aamil, Kothari Shezadas and Sayedna saheb. Is it allowed in Islam.
(III) Aamil sahebs of all the Jumaat say that ONLY Bohras, who will accept Sayedna as his/her Rehbar and Dai by heart and accept all his commands without any doubt will surely go to Haven, all others are definitely end in to HELL. Is this true? and why not.

(IV) If Bohras are not on right path, why the other Islami leaders are always bow down to Sayedna and accept his dini power, rather than challenge him and take some steps to isolate this group like, Ahmadiyahs and others.

(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:

Aarti,Handkissing & Bohra Promises

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.

Your question: Bohras perform Aarti (vathawwoo) to their Aamil or anyone visit from the kothar including Sayedna on all occasions. It is similar to Aarti, Hindus perform to their Gods and Goddess. WHEN THIS RISAM STARTED AND WHETHER IT CAME IN INDIA FROM YAMEN, CAIRO OR STARTED IN INDIA?

This ritual of ‘vathawwoo’ or ‘aarti’ has absolutely no basis in Islam. Since this ritual is still in vogue among the Hindus in India, it seems most probable that the Bohras have taken this ritual from the Hindus of India. You will not find this kind of ritual in either Yemen or Cairo, nor is there any record of this rite of ‘vathawwoo’ in any Islamic books of history.

The Messenger of Allah (saws) warned us time and again not to copy or take any rituals from the pagans and idol-worshippers! The Hindus perform this ritual of ‘aarti’ on their gods and goddesses, and unfortunately some muslims, in their ignorance, perform the same ritual on their holy men. The people might be ignorant, but the holy men are supposedly learned in the deen and the Quran, and they should put an immediate stop to this pagan rite and ritual.

Even though the Bohras don’t call them gods by name, the truth is, they have made their Syedna a demi-god; they do ‘aarti’ or ‘vathawwoo’ on him; they invoke him day and night to get things done; they believe he has the knowledge of the unseen; they believe he can hear their prayers wherever he is; they believe he can bring them good; they believe he can avert their calamities; they believe he can help them in the Court of Allah on the Day of Judgement;, they bow down to him in ‘sajdah’; and when he dies, they will make a tomb out of his grave and worship him. The pagans and the Hindus made idols in the name of their holy people, and the Bohras made graves on the tombs of their holy men! What is the difference between grave worshipping and idol worshipping?

May Allah keep us away from worshipping or invoking any other being, except the One Lord Alone!

Your question: Bohra women are allowed to kiss hands and legs of their Aamil, Kothari Shezadas and Sayedna saheb. Is it allowed in Islam.
Allah says in the Holy Quran Chapter 33 Surah Ahzaab verse 53: If you (the believers) have to ask the wives of the Messenger of Allah (saws) for something, ask for it from behind a curtain. This is a better way for the purity of your hearts, as well as theirs.

Who is Allah directing the above commandment to? He is directing this commandment to some of the most noble and pious people that ever lived on this planet earth! He is commanding the noble companions, and the chaste and pious wives of the Messenger of Allah (saws); that if the companions need anything from the wives of the Prophet (saws), they should ask from behind a veil or a curtain. Allah says this is a better way for the purity of their hearts, as well as the purity of the hearts of the wives of the Messenger of Allah (saws). This commandment was not for some ‘loose’ men and women, but some of the most pious, chaste and God-Fearing people that ever lived!

The Messenger of Allah (saws) never ever intentionally touched any woman who was not his ‘mehram’, nor did he allow anybody else to do the same. Nobody can be more pious and afraid of Allah, and nobody could control his emotions more than the Messenger of Allah (saws), and he never touched a woman who was not his ‘mehram’.

Thus it is absolutely impermissible and forbidden for a woman who is not a ‘mehram’ of the aamilsaheb, bhaisaheb, syedna saheb, or any other saheb, to touch them; leave alone kissing their hands and their feet!!!!!! May Allah have mercy on the ‘ummah’ of Islam!!

If they make your sisters and your mothers kiss their hands and feet, I just wonder how these aamilsaheb, and bhaisaheb, and syednasaheb would feel if the men were allowed to kiss the hands of their wives and their sisters and their daughters!

Your question: Aamil sahebs of all the Jumaat say that ONLY Bohras, who will accept Sayedna as his/her Rehbar and Dai by heart and accept all his commands without any doubt will surely go to Haven, all others are Definitely end in to HELL. Is this true? and why not.

Glory and Praise be to Allah Alone, the Lord of the Worlds!!! The All Mighty, All Just, Allah is not going to decide on who goes to heaven from what the ‘Aamilsahebs of the Jummat’ say! This is their wishful thinking and soon they will come to know the reality of Allah’s Powers!

These people claim Paradise just as the Jews and Christians claimed Paradise to be their sole right at the time of the Prophet (saws).

Allah answers them in the Holy Quran Chapter 2 Surah Al Baqarah verse 111-112: The (Jews and Christians) say: “None shall enter Paradise unless he be a Jew or a Christian.” These are their wishful fancies! Say to them, “Bring forth your evidence if you are right in your claim!”. The fact is that no one has any special claim to Paradise! Whoever surrenders himself to Allah in obedience, and is a door of good deeds, shall have his reward with His Lord. There shall be neither fear nor grief for such people.

The next time your ‘Aamilsaheb’ says that only the ones who accept the Syedna will go to heaven, ask them what Allah asks in the Holy Quran: “Bring forth your evidence, if you are right in your claim!”. These are their wishful fancies and they live on nothing but whims and conjecture.

The criteria for what kind of people will deserve Paradise, is given by Allah in at least 20-30 places in the Holy Quran, and we will narrate only a few of them:

Allah says in the Holy Quran Chapter 43 Surah Zukhruf verses 68-73: (On the Day of Judgement it will be said to the ones who are ‘muttaqeen’{God-conscious}): “O My servants! Today you have nothing to fear, nor will there be any cause for you to grieve. Enter Paradise, you and your wives: you will be made happy!”. There they shall have platters and cups of gold passed around to them, and there they shall have everything that the souls can desire, and the eyes can delight in. It will be said to them, “You shall live here for ever. You have inherited this Paradise by virtue of the deeds you did in the world. You have abundance of fruit here, which you will eat.”

Allah says in the Holy Quran Chapter 39 Surah Zumar verses 71-74: Those who disbelieved shall be driven towards Hell in groups, till, when they have reached there, its gates will be opened, and its keepers will say to them, “Did not the Messengers come to you from among yourselves, who recited to you the Revelations of your Lord, and warned you that you shall have to encounter this Day?” In response they will say, “Yes, they did come, but the sentence of the punishment proved true against the disbelievers.” It will be said, “Enter the gates of Hell, to dwell therein for ever. What an evil abode for the arrogant!”

And those who had led their lives in ‘taqwa’ (God consciousness and piety) of their Lord shall be led towards Paradise, in groups, till, when they arrive there, its gates shall already have been opened, and its keepers will say, “Peace be upon you. You have fared well. Enter herein to dwell for ever.” And they will say, “Praise is for Allah, Who has proved true to us His Promise, and made us heirs of this land; now we can dwell in Paradise wherever we like.” How excellent a reward for the doers of Right!

Allah says in the Holy Quran Chapter 19 Surah Maryam verses 60-63: However, those who repent and believe and do righteous deeds, will enter the Garden and they will not be wronged in the least. They will have those everlasting Gardens, which the Merciful has promised to His servants, while yet they have not seen them, and most surely that promise shall be fulfilled. There they will not hear any idle talk, but only what shall be good and sensible, and they will get their provisions regularly, in the morning and in the evening. That is the Garden which We will give as an inheritance to those of My servants who leads a life of ‘taqwa’ (God consciousness and piety).

Thus the criteria for Paradise according to the Glorious Quran, is belief in Allah and His Messenger (saws), good righteous deeds, and taqwa (God consciousness and piety). Nowhere does the Quran mention that you have to believe and obey any personality, other than Allah and His Messenger (saws), to enter Paradise!

Your question: If Bohras are not on right path, why the other Islami leaders are always bow down to Sayedna and accept his dini power, rather than challenge him and take some steps to isolate this group like, Ahmadiyahs and others.

No man, who understands the Holy Quran and its guidance, will ever bow down to anybody, except Allah Alone. The Bohra leadership have their own following and they do not indulge in any dialogue or debate with the other muslims. They never accept the challenge of an open debate. The truth of the matter is that they do not have any evidence of their ideology from the Holy Quran, and they know that they would be proved liars in an open debate!

Regarding why the Islamic world does not take any steps to isolate this group, like the Ahmadiyyahs, etc., is because the Bohras openly declare they believe in Allah, His Last Messenger, and the Holy Quran, even though they are far away from the teachings and guidance of the Holy Quran and the Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah (saws). Anybody who does that, is a legal muslim in the eyes of Shariah Law. The Ahmadiyyah openly declared that they believe Mirza Ghulam Ahmed Qaadiyaani as a Prophet, and that is why they were legally declared non-muslims.

But in Allah’s Court, Allah will judge everything with justice and no wrong will be done to anybody in the least. Just because someone gets away with something in this world, does not mean he will get away with it in the Court of Allah. The Truth shall come out as the Truth, and the falsehood will come out as falsehood.

The Glorious Quran guides to the Truth, and every other book not in accordance with the Holy Quran is falsehood.

The worship and invocation of Allah is the Truth, and the worship or invocation of anything other than Allah is falsehood. To bow down in ‘sajdah’ to Allah is the Truth, and to bow down in ‘sajdah’ to any other being, dead or alive, is falsehood. The promises of Allah and His Messenger (saws) made in the Quran are the Truth, and all the other promises made by man are nothing but falsehood!

Allah says in the Holy Quran Chapter 17 Surah Israa (Bani Israel) verse 81: And say, “The Truth has come, and falsehood has vanished; for falsehood is a thing that must, by its nature vanish.”

And Allah Alone Knows Best, and He is the Only Source of Strength.

May Allah guide you and us all to the Siraat al-Mustaqeem

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