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:

As Salaam O Aleikum

I always read your forum letters very keenly and today I would like to ask you few Questions which I have in mind.

I would like to discuss with you about our social life. This Bohra community which we are born and brought up is not one or two year old society.This bohra community has come into existence from past 7 to 8 hundred years.( I may be wrong on the exact dates). Slowly steadily this Bohra community grew up into a known society in this world. Forget for a few moment how this community practice Islam. My discussion with you is that you have changed, act, and practice according to the Guidance of the Holy Quran. I have changed, act and practice according to the Guidance of the Holy Quran. What is our social Identity I am repeating "social" not religion? What is our society? We need a society not for religious purpose but for worldly purpose also. We are not staying in single street where we can be united every evening, people like us are staying in different pockets of the world. Everyone needs some social gathering, not just for entertainment but for many purpose like business, marriages, death etc.

Beside religion there are many things in life for which we have to mix with the society. For example if a person has a Bohra catering service, a Rida Tailor, or any such person who earns his bread and butter from a particular society, tries to even utter a single word against it in any manner that society avoids him. This social boycott harms his business his social friends and many more. Big cities like Bombay finds rare cases like this but...But small towns where finger tips community society is there it becomes really hard to even discuss on the sensitive issue like religion, whether he likes or dislikes the society's practice of religion.

There are hundreds of families and people who would like to come out of the clutches of this Bohra leadership. Do you think these people must be not intelligent enough to read and understand Quran? Many must be reading Quran with due respect and understanding, but only thing they lack is unity. A social Identity.

Maybe, bohras follow a leader who is misguiding, misleading, asking unreasonable money and lots more, but bohras have an identity. A social life. A society of it's own.

I have full faith and believe in Allah Subhanah, that one day this revolution will come where we will have a society of like minded people. For this My only appeal to all the readers and to this forum members is that, please develope an Identity, a social recognition for those people who really wants to follow the true Islam. This people needs social support, business wise, marriages wise, death wise etc. These people needs a society to share there joys and sorrows. Like minded people like us have to come forward and join hands to build a society of true Islam. We need a places like cremation grounds, We need families who can give their daughters to Sons for marriage. We need unity to develope our business and secured obs. We need those social activities for which we have to bow down towards the Bohra leader ship. We need a social life.

Then only then we can bring a revolution. To follow true Islam.

(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:

We need a Social Life

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.

Your Question: What is our social Identity I am repeating "social" not religion? What is our society?

As sincere believers in Allah and the Last Day, our religion, our identity, our nationality, our loyalty, our recognition, our duties, our society, our lives…. Everything: has to be Islam!

Allah says in the Holy Quran Chapter 23 Surah Al-Mu’minun verse 52:And this community of yours is one community, and I (Allah) am your Lord, so fear Me alone!

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.

Having said that, we do agree with you that there might be many Bohras who see and feel the wrong done in the name of Islam, but due to social or other reasons, are unable to denounce the wrongs done in their sect. The truth of the matter is that this social fear is baseless. The believers who are away from the evil sin of ‘shirk’ are obviously in the majority in the world. There are literally millions of mosques, muslim burial places, and believers to marry in the muslim society. And none of them have the expensive and tyrannous beaurocratic hierarchy that the Bohras are so subjugated with. Thus the last thing we need to do is create another sect in the name of Islam, and break the unity of the Ummah.

Regarding the brothers and sisters whose livelihood depends on a particular community, we understand that it would definitely affect their sources of income. But the truth is, Allah is the Provider of everything that moves on this planet earth. And once a believer recognizes and believes in the promises of Allah and His Messenger (saws), Allah will provide for them from sources they could not even imagine! In Islam, Allah exhorts us to think with our brains and our hearts to determine the Truth. If someone tries to make a decision because of his ‘stomach’ and means of livelihood, it is obvious that he would not be able to make the right decision.

And if one fears that he will be isolated from his family and friends because of his faith in the Holy Quran, then that is the price a believer must be willing to pay for the valuable deen of Islam. Allah and His Messenger (saws) have a bigger right on the believers than his family, his friends, his society, and all the wealth in the world put together.

Allah says in the Holy Quran Chapter 9 Surah Taubah verse 23-24:O believers, do not take your fathers and your brothers as allies, if they choose disbelief in preference to Faith. For whoever of you will take them as allies shall surely be the workers of iniquity. O Prophet, tell them plainly, “If your fathers and your sons, and your brothers and your wives, and your near and dear ones, and the wealth which you have acquired, and the trade you fear may decline and the home which delight you: if all these things are dearer to you than Allah and His Messenger and the struggle in His Way, then wait till Allah passes His Judgement on you. For Allah does not guide the wicked people.”

Thus brother, we do understand the ‘social’ dilemma you have mentioned, and at times, we too are victims of this isolation. But if one understands and implements the clear commands of Allah and His Messenger (saws) in his life, Allah will make these trials and tribulations easy for the believer and a source and means of attaining huge reward on the Day of Judgement.

The social structure of a sect cannot and will not be accepted as an excuse for committing ‘shirk’ in the Court of Allah. The society of Islam and muslims who believe and practice true Islam are in the majority, and all the social practices can be done through the mainstream Islamic society. These various sects are the ones who are actually in the minority, and not the believers. If you just compare the numbers, the Bohras are about one million in the population of 1.5 billion muslims in the world. They are not even 0.07% of the muslim population worldwide! The Bohra leaders do not allow their followers to bow down in ‘sajdah’ or do ‘tasleem’ in countries like Saudi Arabia, Eqypt,UAE, etc. If the mainstream muslim leaders found out the truth of the Bohra community and their practices of open ‘shirk’, they would probably condemn and isolate the Bohra community from Islam, and declare them non-muslims like the Qaadhiyaanis.

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