A ROAD TO NOWHERE

[S. Insaf]

A ROAD TO NOWHERE
The community world-wide is eagerly waiting for Bombay High Court's judgment for 53rd Dai.
Whatever may be the Court's outcome, one thing is certain that plight of suffering Bohras is not going to change. Who-so-ever becomes the next Dai, Mufaddal Saifuddin or Khuzema Qutbuddin both are the products of the same exploitative and oppressive system of Dawat.
*Before this case many other court cases have been fought and the courts including the Ho'ble Supreme Court, have passed their orders banning exploitation and extortion by Bohra priesthood,
*The acts have been passed by the government to curb the monstrous power of the Dai and abolish running a parallel government within a government.
*The Inquiry Commissions have established the violations of civil and human rights of Bohras at the hand of Dai.
*Numbers of conferences and seminars were held exposing the tyranny of Bohra priesthood and sufferings of Bohras.
*The print and electronic media has extensively written and exposed the cruelty of Bohra clergy.
*But these efforts, services and sacrifices have not been fully understood and appreciated by the suffering Bohras. So their religious establishment continues keeping them as bonded slaves from the time they are conceived until they give up the ghost.

For Dawoodi Bohras' slavish submission to the authority one reason is historical and others are recent innovations.

Historical Reason: Arabia was the birth place of Islam. Arab race loved liberty and democracy. So after the death of holy Prophet a system of Caliphate (Khilafat) was started where the caliph was elected by the masses (Umma). Hazrat Ali ibne Abi Talib was the 4th rightful caliph.
Muawiyah during this 4th rightful caliph declared himself caliph. After the assassination of 4th rightful caliph his elder son Hazrat Imam Hasan, under difficult circumstances, signed a treaty with Muawiyah and accepted him as caliph.
Thus a dynasty known as Umayyad started ruling the Islamic state. Once again going against the Arab tradition Muawiyah declared his son Yazid as the next caliph without any consultation (Shoora).
The Umayyed rule was downright repressive. Especially those who showed allegiance to Hazrat Ali ibne Abi Talib and Ahle-Bait were severely persecuted.
After the Martyrdom of Imam Husain, Muslims were explicitly divided in to Sunni and Shia sects.
The attempt to poison Hazrat Imam Hassan by Muawiyah'
Brutal massacre of Hazrat Imam Husain, his close relatives and companions by Umayyads.
The treatment of Persian lot by their Arab masters with contempt,
Protection and due respect given to them by Hazrat Ali, though he was of Arab origin, made Hazrat Ali the hero of Persian race.
These incidents naturally created sympathy for Ahle-bayet and for those who resented Umayyad rule. The Shia leaders totally opposed the Umayyads.
Now Persian race recognized only principle of inheritance and slavish submission. For Persians the principle of electing the caliph was unheard and incomprehensible. Thus the Persian lot stood by Hazrat Ali, and as the holy Prophet had no son, they considered Hazrat Ali as the rightful successor of the holy Prophet. This is the root cause of Shia's belief in inheritance.
Several revolts against Umayyads took placed but they all proved to be mere outbursts. Their main weakness was lack of proper organization. Shia leaders realized these mistakes and secretly started organizing movement.
Abu Muslim who was from Khurasan in Iran exploited the feelings of Shias in the name of Hazrat Ali, Imam Husain and Ahle-Byet, he organized regular mujlises to refresh, with exaggeration, the tragic happenings at Karbala, the tradition of commemorating the day of 'Ashura' was introduced. There has not been a holy revolution which was distorted as much as the revolution of Al-Husain was then distorted in the pretext of loving him. The tradition of Matam was initiated. It was imperative to end the mujlis-gatherings by weeping for Al-Husain with the belief that "He who cries or tries to cry for Al-Hussain, Heaven becomes obligatory for him" This is a statement which is found in the books of narrations and is attributed to the Imams.
These sentiments were exploited by Abbasids to uproot Umayyads and establish their rule, and they did succeed.
Shias before and after Abbasid revolution had split into many sect and sub-sects. Among them Ismaili movement was religious-cum-political movement. Their doctrines were based on Islam but it had its own well-defined religious ideology influenced by Greek thought and philosophy.
During Abbasid caliphate, Imam Jafar al-Sadiq for the first time came with the concept of Imamat. Ismailis considered Hazrat Ali as Wasi (Vicar of the holy Prophet) and therefore for them Hazrat Hasan was the first Imam {in father to son sequence Imamat should have gone to son of Imam Hassan but} his brother Hazrat Husain was considered second Imam and Imam Husain's son Zainul Abideen was the third Imam. Thereafter every Imam's son was declared as the next Imam by Nass.
The Ismaili Imams were shrewd tacticians and master strategists and they did establish their sultanate in Egypt, Yemen and some other parts of Arabia, though it lasted only for 230 years.
In the time of Fatimid Imams,
" Imam was supreme and absolute authority and thereafter him were:
" Bab-al-abwab (highest religious position after Imam)
" Hujjati-Laili (Senior Priest, who functioned secretly)
" Hujjali-Nahari (Junior Priest, who functioned openly)
" Dail-Balag (Eloquent Priest) and
" Dail-Mutlaq (grand Priest) [Dail-Mutlaq was the lowest in the hierarchy, his job was to travel from place to place in disguise of some trader and spread the Ismaili propaganda.] Misaq for Imam was a political necessity, as then hostile political circumstances, unquestioned loyalty to Imam was a must. After the down fall of Fatimid Empire and disappearance of 21st Imam the Misaq remained only a customary practice.
After Imamat when the system of Dawat started, right from the 1st Dai, Sayedna Zoeb till 50th Dai Sayedna Abdullah Badruddin the Misaq was treated only as customary practice and was taken at the age of puberty once in lifetime and that too for Imam. In Ismaili hierarchy the Dai-ul-Mutlaq being at the bottom of the ladder, had very limited authority and these Dais kept that in their mind and in practice. Simplicity, piousness and high moral were their hallmark. Even the father of Sayedna Taher Saifuddin and 49th Dawoodi Bohra Dai was poor and badly indebted. 51st Dai, Sayedna Taher Saifuddin and 52nd Dai Sayedna Mohammad Burhanuddin were born in a congested room in dilapidated Devri at Surat.

Further Abuse of Slavish Mentality: Sayedna Taher Saifuddin, who was the first Dai greedy of wealth and power, was well aware of Dawoodi Bohras slavish mentality. He therefore most cunningly exploited the devotion of the faithful for their Dai, and:

1. After occupying the seat of Dai in 1915 he immediately shifted from Surat to India’s commercial capital Bombay. That was the fist indication of his future ambition and selfish motives.

2. Next indication was when he quietly made changes in the text of Misaq by including 'Dai' with 'Imam' and made Misaq for Dai compulsory and made the punishments for breaking the oath very harsh and cruel.

To exercise his self-imposed absolute authority and become all powerful he introduced certain innovations (bid'at) like,

3. Third indication of his evil design was noticed when inspite of his failure to prove his claim to omnipotence in court of law he declared himself infallible like Imam,

4. He imposed medieval-age-mentality of Master and Slaves, made every faithful to address himself/herself as ‘Abde-Sayedna and Amte-Sayedna (slave of Sayedna),to do sajda to him,

5. He introduced a system of Raza even for Namaz, Haj and burial,

6. like his grandfather, 47th Dai, Sayedna Abdul Qadar Najmuddin, he also gradually eliminated the class of "ulemas" (learned and knowledgeable peoples) in the community by conferring the title of “Shaikh” on undeserving perssons who were rich and influential. He also introduced fake titles of NKD, MKD etc. bestowed upon on the persons with huge ill-gotten money,

7. He declared himself as "Sultan of Bohras" his family members as prince and princess, his family as Royal Family and his residences as Mahal (palaces),

7. Beside collecting huge amount of money regularly by imposing wajebat and sabil in the name of religious taxes, he put a price for any activity, religious, social, charitable or political of the faithful,

8. He closed the doors of suggestion, criticism, opposition, and faithful's participation in decision making for the community affairs,

9. He blocked all inroads to the community by declaring Salam-bandh/Jamatkharij against the community's well-wishers who questioned harmful, un-Islamic and inhuman farmans, practices and misuse of the community’s funds.

10. In addition Sayedna Burhanuddin Saheb further started money making schemes like Ziyafat, Drees, Zikra, Milad and Moharram tamashas, and gave a new name Baraat to Jamatkharij. He claimed that no one is born a Dawoodi Bohra but becomes Dawoodi Bohra only after giving Misaq to Dai. He equated Bohra religion with a club.

The enormous wealth and property and luxurious life like monarch of our big-spending and high-flying Dai and his family which we see today were usurped and extorted by 51st and 52nd Dais in the last 100 years without doing any hard work and without having their own business. During Sayedna Taher Saifuddin's regime the religious mission of Dawat was converted into Sultanate and the community was reduced to a cult.
Religion is the way of life. But when religion becomes an establishment it becomes a sect, air-tight and water-tight. The religion of a sect reduces to mere rituals and customs. In a sect the followers more often become slaves than free men. The Dawoodi Bohra faith is not only a sect but a sub-sect. It is a sub-sect.
There is no concept of priesthood in Islam but Bohra Dai claims to be a religious and spiritual high priest of the community but rules like a dictator and enjoys luxurious life of a sultan.
100 years have passed and the community is now immune to this slavish submission and Dai’s family has become habitual of comfort, luxury, glory and fame.
Do you think Mufaddal Saifuddin or Khuzema Qutbuddin will ever give up such comfort and luxury! They are taking the community on the road leading to nowhere.
A new thinking and a new awakening has to come in the community itself.

[Saeed al Khair]

My Salaam to you Insaaf Saheb to expose criminal Bohra clergy. You should prepare a team who in turn will continue this great mission which you are running sincerely to alarming sleeping community.



+

[fustrate_Bohra]

True Insal Bhai, considering Point no. 6, i fail to understand why abdes dont doubt "why the Title for Shaikh/Mulla/MKD.... are sold?" I guarantee that every abdes knows the meaning of these titles (i guess) and also that these titles are sold to anybody who can afford to buy.

All die hard abdes must be knowing some Shaikhs or Mullas or x,y,z who are NOT at all learned and are corrupt and involve in some sort of unislamic ativities. Insaf bhai, dont you think this should be the most obvious and clear point to raise questions in abdes minds?

100 years of brain washing session and twisted history of Fatemid belief had made abdes so dumb and brain dead that they can ignore any level of acts done by these Dais.

[kimanumanu]

You cannot underestimate the power of brain-washing. I sometimes think it is too late for the current generations. I personally know people who don't pray regularly but regularly cough up money whenever asked. Basically they fear a fellow human being more than they fear Allah! Such is the state of our community.

[humanbeing]

You cannot underestimate the power of brain-washing. I sometimes think it is too late for the current generations. I personally know people who don't pray regularly but regularly cough up money whenever asked. Basically they fear a fellow human being more than they fear Allah! Such is the state of our community.

It is a mixed case of brainwashing and convenience, which we all are guilty of. We are programmed from various sources. Simple cartoons we watched in our childhood to well defined ideologies spoon fed in our nascent years. It takes courage and discomfort even to admit within our hearts. We have to let go the conveniences with which we pacified our guilt and must work on repentance when we do wrong in our day to day lives.