Dawoodi Bohra Forum

I find it very interesting that Bazat Tahera bahen saheba is not wearing a rida in the photograph. Bohra women are increasingly being forced to wear rida and are told that other types of hijab are unacceptable. Across the world jamaats have been instructed to encourage and enforce this. But Bazat Ta...

Mkenya and Al Zulfiqar give well written accounts from their personal experience, which many of us can relate to, not just those who have emigrated. I know many bohras, both men and women, who were pretty rebellious in their young days, openly sceptical of many practices in the dawat, who would spea...

This is my new alias... The case continues. Note the final report of legal framwork and focus on section 3...at least the law can now be considered as the Dawoodi Bohra Law...we are infamous. http://www.ag.gov.au/Publications/Documents/ReviewofAustraliasfemalegenitalmutilationlegalframework/Review%...

Ghulam Mohammed Much of what you say about jamea is correct. Yes, they do learn everything parrot-fashion and cannot ask questions. In secular education we are told to debate and are tested on our evaluation and are told to give pros and cons of any issue. However, in jamea everything is black or wh...

You can ask in the Faiz in Cairo, they are usually helpful. Or ask any of the faiz taxi drivers, or ask any of the older bohra families that live in Cairo, they should be able to tell you where Mohammed bin Abi Bakr is. Although it is a small ziyaret it is commonly done by bohra visitors and it is n...

Yes, everyone should stay clear from moharramaat, but this spying scheme is open for abuse and ridicule and hypocrisy. It invites bohras to accuse other bohras of indulging in various sins. Such accusations may be malicious lies. Where will these accusations be stored? Probably on a database/spreads...

WE have come across many photographs of Bohras in the early seventies with clean-shaven faces and wearing colorful shirts, lungies and shervanis in the masjids. Since when did the beard and the white dress become compulsory and why ?? Why the sudden awakening and change ? Why has appearance become ...

Some of the participants on this forum are very much against the practices and faith of orthodox bohras, which they ridicule. Do they genuinely want to give money to orthodox bohras? Such people are unlikely to show gratitude to them, they will say it is Syedna’s ne’mat and barakat. I have heard abo...

Muslim First wrote:Forget Allah, Dai is the new GOD.

Bohras should abandon 'Mashah Allah' and 'Al hamodo Lillah' and say 'Mashah DaiAllah' and 'Al hamodo Dai Allah'.

This does actually happen. I know people who say "Al hamd e Mawla"

The issue of female circumcision has definitely become very worrying for the dawat. London amil announced in full majlis on syedna Taher Saifuddin’s milad that our community is under attack by its enemies on human rights grounds on the issue of fgm. He said that our official position is that we do n...

The friday qarzan hasana collections are like a tax or fee for attending jumoa namaz, and have been taking place for months now worldwide MM Bukhari, did you really talk to your amil like that? I cannot imagine anyone talking like that to an amil, most of us would be terrified of the repercussions. ...

Prices for recent ziyafats in London started at 11 thousand pounds plus about two thousand extra for bhai sahebs salaams and jaman. Some people negotiated this price down to about half price. Titles cost extra. There were at least 5 zyafats daily.

Humsafar wrote “Of course, you can choose to reveal your real identity - and in one sense it is courageous too - but that courage is pretty much wasted if all you do here is defend the mafia clergy. Of course they are not going to come after you when you're defending them”. This is a very valid poin...

I do not know the source of Ghulam Mohammed's list, but there were in fact many many more ziyafets between 7 and 25 Shabaan. Only a few are on the list.

I assume that Bohras do not acknowledge this shrine in Syria as legitimate? I know that we do ziyaret of Sayyeda Zainab in Cairo, not Syria. Can someone please clarify. Also, I believe that majority Shias do not accept that the head of Imam Husain is buried in Cairo, but we do. So where do Shias bel...

Bohras do not regard Musa Kadhim as an imam. They believe the ithna asheris are wrong, and that Musa Kadhim’s brother Ismail was the true imam. It is said that Imam Ismail died before the death of their father, Imam Jafar us Sadiq. Can anyone elaborate on this schism?

Syedna is due to arrive in London today. There was a big meeting at masjid a few days ago. The main purpose of this was to maximise the number of zyafats on this visit. There will be a lot of pressure on organisations and individuals to partake in zyafats. No mention of how much this would cost has ...

Al Zulfiqar What you say is correct, however bohra women are in many ways given a high status especially in comparison with other muslim communities. Whether this is a good or bad thing is a matter of opinion. Female khatna (khafs) – Yes, this is encouraged by bohra clergy. However, certainly in the...

Some fair and correct points are made above, although I do not agree that we are not educated. Overall, we are definitely an educated community, although our appearance and our beliefs may suggest otherwise. “Royal family” members are often criticised on this forum, but in my experience many of them...

Bohra fairy tales are indeed multiplying. We are constantly being told in bayans about dreams of bohras where they have seen Syedna. Unfortunately, what they experience in their subconscious is irrelevant to anyone other than themselves. It is just their fantasy, brought about by decades of indoctri...

I agree with most of Al Zulfiqar’s observations, apart from the suggestion that scouts/guards “paw” inappropriately at the women, of which I have seen no evidence. Yes it is hypocritical of the establishment to smudge over womens faces on websites. Unfortunately many of our women do behave in a very...

Going back to the original topic: 1. Paanch mangal no mahino; If there are 5 Tuesdays in a month this is considered a sign of bad luck. Bohras take out extra sadaqa and nazral maqam for protection. If anything bad happens in that month then it is blamed on the fact that it is a 5 Tuesday month. 2. V...

Some of this documentary is interesting, but a lot of it is inaccurate and indeed blasphemous according to how you look at it. The commentators have been deliberately chosen to appeal to a western audience. They are not bearded old imams who don’t speak English well, they have commentators who are u...

As I understand it, zakat is obligatory and is fixed (2.5%). Wajibaat is a Bohra invention, it replaces zakat, and requires us to pay as much as we are willing and able to do for the sake of “barakat”. Every year, the “raza na saheb” sees how much you paid last year, adds 20% or so to that figure, a...

There are similar scenes in London when Syedna is here, especially when there is qadambosi. This has gone on for many years. The kothar and senior bhai sahebs encourage such chaotic behaviour. They like it because it shows how we, the lowly masses, are so desperate for a glimpse or touch of Syedna t...

The dawat discourages philanthropy by any bohra unless it is channelled through the dawat. When rich bohras give large sums for a project the name of the resultant project or building is usually that of the dai. When syedna gives large sums to projects it is with money that has been collected, somet...

Syedna’s first month in London was quiet. His health was bad and there were no functions. He was hospitalised for some time. A couple of weeks ago his health improved sufficiently for the moneymaking bandwagon to begin rolling. A qadambosi bethak was held. Everybody was instructed to do salaam in go...

Each London family is being forced to give 1000 pounds. This, it was proudly announced, will go towards a najwa of 1 million pounds to be given to syedna on this trip. Assalaamu alaikum londonwala, Could you say more about what the bohras in the London jamaat are being asked for? How is it, exactly...

The 100th milad celebrations have sent the dawat into a crazy and unheralded frenzy of money, money, money. Syedna has come to London. It was announced in masjid that syedna has given 100 crore rupees to the governor of Maharashtra. By my calculations, that is about 14 million UK pounds or 21 millio...

There is no doubt that we are a cult. Any intelligent, educated person should realise this. Unfortunately those in our community that are educated and intelligent either do not admit that we are a cult because they have been so brainwashed, or else they know that we are a cult but cannot speak out o...