Core Activities Vs Peripheral Activities

[Kaka Akela]

Islam has 7 core activities which are the 7 Daim of Valayat, taharat, namaaz, zakaat, saom, haj, and jihad or memorizing of Quran. You may call all these activities as religious activities. And no Dawoodi Bohra has any complaints about these. (basically these are Allah prescribed or related)

Dawoodi bohra religion also has another set of activities called peripheral, which are related to worshiping the dai, chamchagiri of the local aamils. Dai writes arabic qasida or lisan e dawat qasida and everyone immediately asked to memorize them by heart. When SMB was alive kids in madrassas used to spend a whole month in preparing birthday cards, preparing for madeh competitions, speech competitions and adults have to put up with hours and hours of watching the relay of anything and everything the dai does, for example we watched 2 1/2 hours of video as they put 252 ghilafs on the SMB's grave only because the new Dai was sitting there, and this was meaning less waste of time specially for Doctors, engineers and lawyers or even businessmen, it was so tiring to go home late at night and go to work next day and perform at 100% level, the messages that come from jamaat are so intimidating that," koi ek momin bhi mehroom na rahay". The lesson that Dai is giving is that he is doing what he is supposed to do and we should be doing what we are supposed to do and not waste time sitting and watching him. Then they have all these schemes of skimming the little bit of savings momin has for their nefarious shenanigan. there used to one qarzan hasana scheme and now they have 4 schemes, why? Every aamil is now acting like a shahzada and demands same treatment and they have become out of control, they can do baraat or social boycott of any momin with a whisper or raising of an eye-brow. Have you all seen the pictures of all the saheb e dawat with processions and umbrellas held over them and band baaja with elephants and horses or decorated cars, that used to be done for Dai only. How much money is wasted in all this and whose money is it??

Just think how much of our time, money and energy we spend in these peripheral activities and how little in the core activities?? Even when we are performing Core activities, they are polluted and corrupted with envelopes distribution and collections of najwas or announcement of one thing or the other related with Dai or money or jaman.

Please list all other peripherals here and let us demand that these Dai-worshiping activities must bee done away with.

[alam]

Bhai I will PM response to you. Suggest all do same otherwise endless, frivolous, hijacking, distractions will begin.

I am tired of thought provoking threads being constantly sidetracked, sometimes intentionally, other times mindlesslessly for arguments sake.
Perhaps you can decide what you want to do with the responses you receive.?

Sometimes group think becomes group shrink.
Apologies in advance If I offend people.

[salaar]

very true i agree on that and feel that its not just you but everybody here, on such events i keep on answering my wife on sms when she says its so late the kids wont be able to wake up in the morning on time and it looks awkward to stand up and walk away in the middle of the 4 hour session

[Mazakyo]

Islam has 7 core activities which are the 7 Daim of Valayat, taharat, namaaz, zakaat, saom, haj, and jihad or memorizing of Quran. You may call all these activities as religious activities. And no Dawoodi Bohra has any complaints about these. (basically these are Allah prescribed or related)

Dawoodi bohra religion also has another set of activities called peripheral, which are related to worshiping the dai, chamchagiri of the local aamils. Dai writes arabic qasida or lisan e dawat qasida and everyone immediately asked to memorize them by heart. When SMB was alive kids in madrassas used to spend a whole month in preparing birthday cards, preparing for madeh competitions, speech competitions and adults have to put up with hours and hours of watching the relay of anything and everything the dai does, for example we watched 2 1/2 hours of video as they put 252 ghilafs on the SMB's grave only because the new Dai was sitting there, and this was meaning less waste of time specially for Doctors, engineers and lawyers or even businessmen, it was so tiring to go home late at night and go to work next day and perform at 100% level, the messages that come from jamaat are so intimidating that," koi ek momin bhi mehroom na rahay". The lesson that Dai is giving is that he is doing what he is supposed to do and we should be doing what we are supposed to do and not waste time sitting and watching him. Then they have all these schemes of skimming the little bit of savings momin has for their nefarious shenanigan. there used to one qarzan hasana scheme and now they have 4 schemes, why? Every aamil is now acting like a shahzada and demands same treatment and they have become out of control, they can do baraat or social boycott of any momin with a whisper or raising of an eye-brow. Have you all seen the pictures of all the saheb e dawat with processions and umbrellas held over them and band baaja with elephants and horses or decorated cars, that used to be done for Dai only. How much money is wasted in all this and whose money is it??

Just think how much of our time, money and energy we spend in these peripheral activities and how little in the core activities?? Even when we are performing Core activities, they are polluted and corrupted with envelopes distribution and collections of najwas or announcement of one thing or the other related with Dai or money or jaman.

Please list all other peripherals here and let us demand that these Dai-worshiping activities must bee done away with.

Kakaji. Religion is gone. It is only a social club now

[Crater Lake]

Oh Salaar...you are too easy to make fun of...If it is getting late and you have watched 50 gilafs and there are 202 more to go JUST-GET-UP-AND-LEAVE. If it is awkward to get up and leave, it is hypocritical and wasteful to sit and watch. Surely by the third hour all sense of spirituality and devotion has disappeared and you are only sitting there because of social pressure and because you lack the courage to get up and leave! Good Lord man, how do you face your wife after that dismal display of buzdil behavior!

[salaar]

crater lake your foot might not fit into my boots and vice versa, i have a different social circle where we cannot just jump out. i agree it is the social pressure, when you are on the groung you are seeing things differently and when you are on height you see a completely different picture by the way i dont mean to say iam on an elevated position just trying to make you understand that your circumstances might be different, me and my wife are in so many committees and forums that we cannot just behave that way, once a king was given a bowl to wash hands he mistook it for drinking water and drank frm that bowl, to keep the protocol rest of the courteans drank water from their bowls, you see nobody is a fool but at times you have to observe rules.

[Crater Lake]

What good is your elevated position if it does not give you the power to make a simple change or the freedom to do what you want! Quite honestly, I think you sound like one of those Baite Zainy bhaisabs. Sujni, no salaam and lots of Ji Saab to the real power. Mubarak on your elevated position

[salaar]

well whatever you say but i gave you my explaination and my limitations

[monginis]

salaar its a shame that just because you are in some stupid commitees you want to remain in muffy side.

look what your imaan and haq says not what your social status.

[way2go]

crater lake your foot might not fit into my boots and vice versa, i have a different social circle where we cannot just jump out. i agree it is the social pressure, when you are on the groung you are seeing things differently and when you are on height you see a completely different picture by the way i dont mean to say iam on an elevated position just trying to make you understand that your circumstances might be different, me and my wife are in so many committees and forums that we cannot just behave that way, once a king was given a bowl to wash hands he mistook it for drinking water and drank frm that bowl, to keep the protocol rest of the courteans drank water from their bowls, you see nobody is a fool but at times you have to observe rules.

Salaar bhai.....read the last part of my post on the forum ' Case filed against........'. In Sha Allah putting your faith in the guidance of The Lord Almighty will make you tread on the rightful path.
BTW... your post about what your uncle said about KQ may have happened only because false fitnah against KQ had already started way over 30+ years ago. Maybe your uncle being a Jamaat member had to believe and go along with the flow.....any way each one to himself.
I pray everyone feeling lost like yourself does get to see the divine light at the end of tunnel.

[true_bohra]

salaar it a shame that just because you are in some stupid commitees you want to remain in muffy side.

look what your imaan and haq says not what your social status.

so you suffer multiple identity disorder. One is in committee and other is not

[monginis]

salaar it a shame that just because you are in some stupid commitees you want to remain in muffy side.

look what your imaan and haq says not what your social status.

so you suffer multiple identity disorder. One is in committee and other is not

its better than kothari chappal licker

[salaar]

true bohra NO its not multiple identity disorder, iam keeping myself silent with a some suggestion dont suppress the inner voice listen to your heart look around yourself and tell me is this religion all about or is it just the peer pressure is it really all about keeping long beards wearing saya and surrendering your hard earned money unwillingly NO you are fooling your ownself bro.

[zinger]

Salaar, stop kidding.

you went from "Rabid Abde"-to-Defender of Shia values-to-Questioning the Dawoodi Bohra community so fast it can make heads spin.

So quit the act. you are not fooling anyone

[DB- MUMBAIKAR]

well whatever you say but i gave you my explaination and my limitations

salaar at the outset I have to apologize for my very crude and acidic language to you in one of my previous post... Actually, it was in the heat of the moment that I used such language but later sincerely regretted it and felt terribly bad about it. Hope you will forgive me as I also seek forgiveness from Allah Ta'ala.

I have been following your post on this and on various other threads and have come to realize that you are either confused or scared to openly say something against SMS or revolt against him even here. But you seem to have too many complaints with his administration and his ways and style of wealth accumulation. I m sure you are learned enough to know and understand that any administration is corrupt because the individual / official / leader leading it is corrupt or weak. SMB (RA) was a noble and great leader but the love for his family and the pressure from them made him weak due to which he allowed YN and in the later years SMS and his cohorts to do whatever they want using his (SMBs) name. The common bohra thinking that this was Aqa Maula Sydena Mohd Burhanuddin's "Farman" gave in to all invalid, illegal and outrageous demands over the years and today we all are in such a rut that vast majority of over a million bohras are being ruled by a few thugs whose commander-in-chief is SMS.

You can very well see where all this is heading now ? Our once peace loving & prosperous community is all over in the media for all wrong reasons. The succession issue which should have been an internal and personal issue confined within our community is today splashed all over the newspapers and other media and non-bohras have started to view us as nothing more than a bunch of gold diggers fighting for their share. More damage is yet to happen now that this succession issue will be discussed and decided by the courts of India where there are likely to be never ending mud-slinging sessions and both of them will open each other secrets and many rotten skeletons will fall from each ones cupboard and finally some Hindu judge will pass the verdict of who is the true Dai which will have to be respected and abided. Does this all sound like a bohra culture at all?

The pride and the spirituality associated with being a Dawoodi Bohra is today completely lost. The worst part is the inspite of our downfall, SMS is still continuing with his antics (See the latest photos of tamasaha in Colombo!) and further degrading us.

where are we as a community heading ? Are we really followers of Prophet Mohammad (SAW), Maula Ali / Ahle Bayt ? Does any of his (SMS) actions or deeds today reflect even in remotest way that he is from the family of Ahle Bayt as he claims? These are the questions that continously haunts me and many others like me and if you will shake and reset your consicence and think logically, I m sure you will also be haunted by these questions.

If you still think that the kothar cares for you or will care for you then let me share one of incident that happened some years ago in Karbala..... SMB (RA) and several other zada's including SMS were in Karbala. Some common bohra's had prepared different type of chicken dishes to be presented to SMB and this was sent inside through some zada's. In the room, the zada's without even taking the dishes to SMB they themselves tasted portions from each of the dishes and returned the partially eaten dishes outside and joked in Arabic saying that "bahar aapi do ghana bada ganda ghela mumineen ubha che je barkat barkat kari ne looti ne khaayi jaase" This they said in Arabic and luckily or rather unluckily it was understood by my close relative who was really upset with this treatment of the common bohra and from that day onwards he literally hates them all even today.

So you see this is the value of "adna mumineen" in the eyes of this zada' s and their family and if you still think that kneeling in front of them or doing salaam will take you to Jannah, then may Allah Ta'ala have mercy on you on the day of judgement..

[Crater Lake]

Now you are getting somewhere Salaar...MOST of what happens in the masjid is very far from religion. All we seem do is watch hours and hours of video where most of the audience checks out after the first few minutes and gets busy with their smartphones. Among the ladies the noise level grows as the hours progress....I remember on the third day of Burhanuddin aqa's wafat, there was a live relay of Quran ni tilawat. It was well past midnight here in the US. Not a single person other than the guy on the screen and myself were reading Quran e majeed. Finally the noise got to a level where I could not concentrate and I decided to get up and leave... Now since you sit on the sujni, you cannot leave so I pity you....but the bigger question is why is the environment in the masjid such that one should be forced to leave in order to continue with their Quran reading?! Shouldn't the masjid PROVIDE an environment for Quran reading?

[way2go]

well whatever you say but i gave you my explaination and my limitations

salaar at the outset I have to apologize for my very crude and acidic language to you in one of my previous post... Actually, it was in the heat of the moment that I used such language but later sincerely regretted it and felt terribly bad about it. Hope you will forgive me as I also seek forgiveness from Allah Ta'ala.

I have been following your post on this and on various other threads and have come to realize that you are either confused or scared to openly say something against SMS or revolt against him even here. But you seem to have too many complaints with his administration and his ways and style of wealth accumulation. I m sure you are learned enough to know and understand that any administration is corrupt because the individual / official / leader leading it is corrupt or weak. SMB (RA) was a noble and great leader but the love for his family and the pressure from them made him weak due to which he allowed YN and in the later years SMS and his cohorts to do whatever they want using his (SMBs) name. The common bohra thinking that this was Aqa Maula Sydena Mohd Burhanuddin's "Farman" gave in to all invalid, illegal and outrageous demands over the years and today we all are in such a rut that vast majority of over a million bohras are being ruled by a few thugs whose commander-in-chief is SMS.

You can very well see where all this is heading now ? Our once peace loving & prosperous community is all over in the media for all wrong reasons. The succession issue which should have been an internal and personal issue confined within our community is today splashed all over the newspapers and other media and non-bohras have started to view us as nothing more than a bunch of gold diggers fighting for their share. More damage is yet to happen now that this succession issue will be discussed and decided by the courts of India where there are likely to be never ending mud-slinging sessions and both of them will open each other secrets and many rotten skeletons will fall from each ones cupboard and finally some Hindu judge will pass the verdict of who is the true Dai which will have to be respected and abided. Does this all sound like a bohra culture at all?

The pride and the spirituality associated with being a Dawoodi Bohra is today completely lost. The worst part is the inspite of our downfall, SMS is still continuing with his antics (See the latest photos of tamasaha in Colombo!) and further degrading us.

where are we as a community heading ? Are we really followers of Prophet Mohammad (SAW), Maula Ali / Ahle Bayt ? Does any of his (SMS) actions or deeds today reflect even in remotest way that he is from the family of Ahle Bayt as he claims? These are the questions that continously haunts me and many others like me and if you will shake and reset your consicence and think logically, I m sure you will also be haunted by these questions.

If you still think that the kothar cares for you or will care for you then let me share one of incident that happened some years ago in Karbala..... SMB (RA) and several other zada's including SMS were in Karbala. Some common bohra's had prepared different type of chicken dishes to be presented to SMB and this was sent inside through some zada's. In the room, the zada's without even taking the dishes to SMB they themselves tasted portions from each of the dishes and returned the partially eaten dishes outside and joked in Arabic saying that "bahar aapi do ghana bada ganda ghela mumineen ubha che je barkat barkat kari ne looti ne khaayi jaase" This they said in Arabic and luckily or rather unluckily it was understood by my close relative who was really upset with this treatment of the common bohra and from that day onwards he literally hates them all even today.

So you see this is the value of "adna mumineen" in the eyes of this zada' s and their family and if you still think that kneeling in front of them or doing salaam will take you to Jannah, then may Allah Ta'ala have mercy on you on the day of judgement..

SUPER GOOD POST DB_Mumbaikar bhai. Excellently written!

[salaar]

MUMBAIKAR bhai and CRATER LAKE i appreciate your feelings and also appologize for anything harsh frm my side, the arrogancy in the attitude of kothar is something that we have all experienced and the incident in karbala that you are quoting is enough to lower our heads in shame, this attitude is abusive. Iam actually loosing interest in all aspects of religion and for me everything seems artificial, iam surrounded by zombies who have lost their power of reasoning they would not mind sitting in the waiz for the rest of their life, i have not discussed this with my family but my young girl is very smart and she smells something fishy but i wont discuss anything with them right now. on this forum people are considering me as somebody with parallel standards but honestly its not just me there a whole lot who are thinking that way but still trying to find that gap, anyway Allah help us all. thnx to you all for your concern

[needofreform]

I completely agree with mr. salar....i m one of them...we can not openly go against them. we also have business relations with lots of bohris and going or doing anything against them is not a solution for us, although i know so many people who r like us but can not come out openly due to family or businesses....i think alot to unite them but again they fear from me too that i will tell their hidden behaviour to fidaai bohris...imagine the fear in mind of bohris....

[needofreform]

Also there are people who are against this money collecting theories but do not blame sms for that...they blame gaam na aamil but declare sms and their shehzadas innocent....nd there is a catagory who can not even listen anything against sms otherwise v r their jaani dushman...i have tried this..lol...but had to get back bcause of their unproffesional and illeterate behaviour...

[salaar]

that is what i have been trying to explain in this part of the world we are living in a closely knitted society and there is no second opinion against jamaat people including SKQ group therefore we cannot just jump out of our houses declaring independence frm them, by the way iam sharing another aspect of our connection with the community and belief however iam not defending it rather just sharing my experience,.... the other day i went to qabristaan and while standing in front of the graves of my father, grandfather and great grand father i was just wondering the era that they had faced and it was from the period of Syedna Abdullah Badruddin the 50th Dai, now we are talking about the beliefs that our generations have been following for hundred of years and how can i ask for the truthfulness of those believes, whether they were all wrong, no that cant be possible then whether iam wrong to think that way, well the whole day actually passed with those thoughts without reaching any conclusion hmmmmmmm

[alam]

DB mumbaikar
Please enable your PM private messaging or email on this board. Shukran

[alam]

Salaar, stop kidding.

you went from "Rabid Abde"-to-Defender of Shia values-to-Questioning the Dawoodi Bohra community so fast it can make heads spin.

So quit the act. you are not fooling anyone

Zingerbhai
Why do you think (salaar) she/he is fooling anyone? Are you suggesting she/he is trying to infiltrate, and is a traitor, attempting to deceive us all. Or on the other hand, or do you believe that it's not possible for someone to come here on this forum, debate and debate, and then come to a different bandwidth of perspective and opinion after a period of time?

[SBM]

Salaar, stop kidding.

you went from "Rabid Abde"-to-Defender of Shia values-to-Questioning the Dawoodi Bohra community so fast it can make heads spin.

So quit the act. you are not fooling anyone

Zingerbhai
Why do you think (salaar) she/he is fooling anyone? Are you suggesting she/he is trying to infiltrate, and is a traitor, attempting to deceive us all. Or on the other hand, or do you believe that it's not possible for someone to come here on this forum, debate and debate, and then come to a different bandwidth of perspective and opinion after a period of time?

It has happened many of the die hard abdes have changed, some of them have left the Bohra fold all together and others have stopped defending.

[salaar]

please let me again clarify that my bandwidth has not changed before coming onto this forum i had always been critical about dawat administrationnd their greed of money and raised my voice wherever possible, it so happened that in the very beginning i was encountered with people like anajmi on this forum who were spitting venom against aal e Rasool which infuriated me i lost my temper and took a stand which made people to think that iam a diehard kothari, i would again advise members not to indulge into shia sunni debate as it takes us off course and we loose our track, i hope i have again made myself clear but please stop thinking that iam a 10 year boy who just changed his point of view after the philosophical dialouges, i believe that this forum helps you vent your anger and share your perspective with other members and influence your thinking to a limited extent.

[DB- MUMBAIKAR]

MUMBAIKAR bhai and CRATER LAKE i appreciate your feelings and also appologize for anything harsh frm my side, the arrogancy in the attitude of kothar is something that we have all experienced and the incident in karbala that you are quoting is enough to lower our heads in shame, this attitude is abusive. Iam actually loosing interest in all aspects of religion and for me everything seems artificial, iam surrounded by zombies who have lost their power of reasoning they would not mind sitting in the waiz for the rest of their life, i have not discussed this with my family but my young girl is very smart and she smells something fishy but i wont discuss anything with them right now. on this forum people are considering me as somebody with parallel standards but honestly its not just me there a whole lot who are thinking that way but still trying to find that gap, anyway Allah help us all. thnx to you all for your concern

Salaar, I beg to disagree with your above highlighted comment. Loosing interest in your religion or doubting your faith will only increase your problem and will lead you to nowhere. My personal experience has been that after witnessing all this drama especially after the demise of SMB (RA), my faith in Islam has increased many fold. Not that previously it was less but I realized that whatever I was made to believe and whatever I was blindly following until then was absolutely wrong and would never lead to salvation of my soul (Nafs ni najaati !). Let me also clarify here that I have sincerely respected SMB (RA) for his knowledge & humbleness all my life and will continue to do so but could never worship him and will never ever do so.

Being the Shia of Maula Ali is itself the biggest pride for us mumineen and if we sincerely follow even 0.1% on his path, then for sure the najaati of our nafs is secured. But the BIG question is are we willing to follow ? Are we ready to discard all the pagan traditions of our community that have replaced the true Imaan of Allah Ta'ala propagated by Prophet Mohammad (SAW) and carried forward to his ummah by Maula Ali and Ahle Bayt.

Today, majority of Bohra (the so called Abde's) are so terribly engulfed in all the unislamic practices that we dont know what Islam as a true religion is ? All our Ibaadat (namaaz, Quraan etc) is mainly concentrated toward one figure - The Dai (40 days Khatmul Quraan was also arranged for the departed soul of Dai although the whole exercise was a camouflage for cursing sessions which is a different issue altogether !!). We have been made to believe or rather poisoned that as an individual we can never connect directly to Allah Ta'ala without the intervention of Dai. This is the biggest fallacy of our community and over the years it has been so deeply ingrained in us that we donot dare to think beyond this, lest we may offend Allah Ta'ala !!. With this state of our mentality, we have reduced ourselves to mere idol worshippers who consciously or unconsciously are only worshipping the Dai and his ilk and in the process have completely ignored Allah Ta'ala. You can see many such examples in your day to day life like bohras sitting in front of the large screens / TV just to get the deedar of Dai and completely ignoring the farizat namaz although they can hear the Azaan outside !! This is just one example and there are several which we all know. (I personally prefer praying in a Shia mosque where mosque is ONLY for Namaaz and no other activity whatsoever !!)

So, to conclude it would be unwise to lose interest in your religion and rather concentrate on what is the right path to receive the mercy and the uncountable bounties of Allah Ta'ala...

[salaar]

my dear MUMBAIKAR, you are absolutely right, i will try to regain my lost confidence in religion however this last ten years roller coaster ride had shaken my nerves, how would you feel when you blindly trust the capabilities of a surgeon and while performing operation with your stomach wide open somebody comes and tell you that this guy knows nothing and you would end up at his hands well now what................ i will try to sew my open stomach with my own hands and try to get going with things, mumbaikar it wont be anything quick and easy but with the passage of time things would settle down and its true that the seerat on Amirul Momineen Maula Ali will always guide us all in difficult times, iam indebted brother.

[DB- MUMBAIKAR]

my dear MUMBAIKAR, you are absolutely right, i will try to regain my lost confidence in religion however this last ten years roller coaster ride had shaken my nerves, how would you feel when you blindly trust the capabilities of a surgeon and while performing operation with your stomach wide open somebody comes and tell you that this guy knows nothing and you would end up at his hands well now what................ i will try to sew my open stomach with my own hands and try to get going with things, mumbaikar it wont be anything quick and easy but with the passage of time things would settle down and its true that the seerat on Amirul Momineen Maula Ali will always guide us all in difficult times, iam indebted brother.

By saying this (highlighted) you are taking away my sawaab.... I m just performing my duty as a Shia of Maula Ali..

[salaar]

thats the least i could say Allah bless you

[alam]

Salaar, stop kidding.

you went from "Rabid Abde"-to-Defender of Shia values-to-Questioning the Dawoodi Bohra community so fast it can make heads spin.

So quit the act. you are not fooling anyone

Zingerbhai
Why do you think (salaar) she/he is fooling anyone? Are you suggesting she/he is trying to infiltrate, and is a traitor, attempting to deceive us all. Or on the other hand, or do you believe that it's not possible for someone to come here on this forum, debate and debate, and then come to a different bandwidth of perspective and opinion after a period of time?

Zingerbhai, this question is addressed to you and only you. Please respond.