Dawoodi Bohra Forum

We, the Dawoodi Bohras, educated or uneducated, rich or poor have been psychologically molded "Dai-centric" in the last 100 years. All our activities, whether they be religious, cultural, social or personal rotate round Dai.
But today it is important that we all must seriously ask ourselves, Would our community be better without a Dai?.
What is a Dai?
Strangly the Bohra community is only community in the entire Islamic world which has the concept of Dai. Dai does not exists in any other community and they all function, live happily and die gracefully without a Dai.
Late Sayedna Taher Saifuddin Saheb has defined "Dai" in his book "Zua Nure Haqqun Mubin" as one who invites the people to the right path of Allah by modestly preaching the virtues and philosophy of Islam, derived from 14th para of the 21st Ruku of the holy Qur'an "Ud, oo, Ila Sabile Rabbika, bil Hikmat Wal muazatul Hasana" - Call them to the path of thy Lord tactfully and by good manner.
But the late Syedna Taher Saifuddin himself did not follow this definition. He failed to invite the people to the right path of Allah by modestly preaching the virtues and philosophy of Islam. Rather he ruled with absolute authority with only one aim to usurp the community's wealth and properties by enslaving the entire community.
According to Ismaili Dawoodi Bohra Faith, the succession of a Dai is governed by Divine right of Nass inspired by the Imam of the time or hidden imam not by heritance or democratic election. The best and the most learned and pious member of the community irrespective of his financial standing was chosen by the Dai before his death, trained and if choice is approved by divine inspiration from Imam the nomination was publicly declared in an assembly of the faithful, and such nomination was known as Nasse-Jali. Thus even the descendants of the first Hindu coverts from Raja Sidhraj Jaisingh (Bharmal)'s family were patronised and called to Yemen and trained. One Mulla Raj was raised to the degree in Dawat and his son Sayedna Ismailji Badruddin was rose to the post of Dai. After him 34th, 35th, 36th, 37th, 38th, 41st, 42nd, 43rd and 46th Dais that is nine other members of Bharmal's family were raised to the status of a Dai.
This clearly shows that earlier Dais never hesitated to recognize the superior qualifications of the outside ordinary Bohras against their own near and dear ones.
But now the post of Dai and not only post of Dai but the post of Mazun and Mukasir has also become the monopoly of one family and people of this one family are raised to these high post arbitrarily without merit. Unfortunately due to the unimaginable big concentration of black money by last two Dais at the center, today we are sitting on the head of a volcano. The situation is so grave that in order to save his skin Syedna Burhanuddin died without announcing his successor publicly, creating an unbridgeable divide in the family. The man who has captured the central rule and is dominating the community is a rough and extravagant.
We were simple, devoted followers of Islam, but the last two Dais has changed everything in the community and made it a very strange community.
We claim that we believe in Allah-wahdahu-lashreek, Hazrat Mohammad as His last prophet, Qur'an as a revealed scripture of Allah. This means we claim that we are followers of Islam.
Yet we consider that the Dai is God, Qazi-ul-Hajat, Saheb-e-Mojizat, We have Masjids but we do not allow other Muslims to pray in them, We do namaz but we also do namaz for Dai, We read Qur'an but we consider Dai as Qura'n-e-Natiq (speaking Quran), we bow before Allah in namaz but we also bow before Dai, a human being. We are Muslims but we worship Dai, do vadhavni and follow many other Hindu rituals, We bury our dead but we bury them with the ruqu-chiththi from Dai. We are more concern for Dai's "Raza" (permission) than permission of Allah, We name our children as Abd-e-Allah (Abdullah) but we take pride in calling ourselves as "abd-e-Sayedna".
We call ourselves Muslims but we differ from main stream Islam as we claim that we are Shian-e-Ali.
We differ from main stream Shia Islam as we claim that we are Ismailis.
We differ from other Ismailis as we claim that we believe in Imamat up to 21st Imam Tayeb.
We differ from all these sects of Islam as we claim that we believe in Dai.
After we were converted from Hindus in India we came to be known as Bohras, but we differ from other Bohras as we claim to be Dawoodi (Daudi) Bohras.
But now we are no more Dawoodi Bohras, we are Mumineen, believers in Dai not in Allah.
Do we really need a Dai?
Dawoodi Bohra community is a successful business community, which does dealing with an eye on their profit and loss. That means that we are not brainless people. Question is why don't we think where are we heading? What is our profit and loss in maintaining Dai's exploitative and repressive set up? We all know that this set up survives on our money constantly looted from us in the name of love for Dai. Can we survive without a Dai and his dominating establishment?
The Bohra community is an insignificant community in the world. When the vast world outside this community is advancing in religion, finance, business, education, technology, industry, banking, medical science, space science, interment industry, arts etc. etc. without a Dai and his establishment.
Why can't we?
Please think: Dai was of no help when a Bohra mother went through all the pains and gave birth to her child.
But Dai was there to impose tax on the conception on birth and on naming the child.
Dai was of no help when the parents of that child brought up that child going through all the hardship of the child's health, diet, dress, education and other day to day requirements.
But Dai was there to dictate dress-code, to engage in roti-making, Tiffin-distribution.
Dai was of no help in finding out a suitable job or business, profession. But Dai was there to claim his lion's share from the earnings.
Dai was of no help for finding a suitable match to marry. But Dai was there to dictate his terms for Nikah.
Dai was of no help in meeting wedding expenses. But Dai was there to dictate the wedding ceremony and peoples to be invited.
Dai was of no help in setting up their married life. But Dai was there to extort maximum from the newly married couple.
Dai was of no help in prolonging life beyond set limit as Dai was there but he was busy getting treatments in the hospitals and prolonging his own life.
Dai was of no help at the time of death and burial. Dai was there to charge for sadqallah, burial place.
Then why do we need a Dai?
Why?

An excellent piece. You dont need the dai. Forget about not needing him, a bohra should strive towards making him unnecessary in his life because he is going to be a burden in the hereafter.

Brother Insaaf thanks for sharing your views. I think we do need a Dai or a father figure like him just like Imam or for that matter God. When we do no have one we would Iinvent one. This is necessary to keep our selves within cultural and social bounds. Our 51 at least in our lifetime defined what our community is today. Ofcourse he had his own interest in mind. So he gave us a mixed bag, good and bad. The empire grew with 52 and now ultimately we have 53. The main reason this happened that 51 had no accountibility and he got away with it. Why? Because we let that happen.

I think we do need an honest, down to earth leader to guide the community in all aspects of life whether it is religious or worldly sense.
A person who cares for the betterment of its subjects and above any political or self glorifying aspects.
Without having a competent and honest leader to lead, we will end up like the misguided flock of Daesh and Al Qaida where everyone thinks he is the leader and guide their followers to the wrong and destructive part. This is already happening among Bohras where cursing and Lanaat has become a norm and if continued will lead to the same hatred created by Daesh and Al Qaida type of leaders. Muffadali already used its Burhani Goondas to beat up Qutbi clan and are doing the same to regular folks, Power corrupts and absolute power absolutely corrupts
Current leadership in Bohra ( Alvi-Muffadaali-Qutbi and others in that lineage) is not some one I would consider a competent and honest leader to follow.

Bohras find comfort in shared 'identity' which, among others, comprises of history, language, cuisine, social norms, and a 'ready' pool for the choice of life-partners. The basis for all these is their 'religion'.

You can prove this to yourself. Go to an unfamiliar country and your Bohra coreligionists will provide a seed for your social circle.

Bohras may have different beliefs from most Muslims, but the need for the shared social identity renders that issue insignificant.

The need to belong is a powerful instinct and any threat to that will be fervently resisted.

Dai has the power to make you belong to or to remove you from the community. That power is the fundamental of the Bohra creed. Without the Dai, there is no Bohra creed.

Of course, as many have proved, you can live very comfortably without the Dai away from the community. You do not need a Dai. You need the courage to leave the community. I urge you to do so and leave Bohras alone in their comfortable, proverbial frog's well. Cowards!

I am in agreement with New. Yes, we do need a person who can lead us 1400 years post foundation of Islam. Since it is a long time, interpretation of Islam without a proper leader is open to anyone's own will. Look at the extremists today. In absence of a leader who can guide them, they are easily brainwashed by vested interests into killing people at a drop of a hat.

I do agree, our community has had problems. But the Dai (irrespective of his personal interests) always preaches his followers to follow law of land and live like good citizens, gain education, become entrepreneurs, and lead a balanced life (both deen and duniya) etc. Hence, we see no case of bohras going astray and become radicals. What is the problem in this?

Tomorrow, people will start to say do we really need to revere the Prophet and his progeny because there is only Allah (Wahhabist ideology).

New wrote:Brother Insaaf thanks for sharing your views. I think we do need a Dai or a father figure like him just like Imam or for that matter God. When we do no have one we would Iinvent one. This is necessary to keep our selves within cultural and social bounds. Our 51 at least in our lifetime defined what our community is today. Ofcourse he had his own interest in mind. So he gave us a mixed bag, good and bad. The empire grew with 52 and now ultimately we have 53. The main reason this happened that 51 had no accountibility and he got away with it. Why? Because we let that happen.

I may be ridiculed on the choice of my subject line but it is true. Our pristine religion has become ISIS-like in the sense it radicalizes its followers in a different way. it doesn't preach to kill infidels or anything close to it but surely it radicalizes us all right from childhood.:

1) when we are young and in madrassa kids are bombarded in loving the current Dai and his 2 ancestors to the hilt, to the point that nothing else exists in the world but them.
2) if the Dai says Mole hill, his cronies and kotharis make an Everest mountain out of it.
3) We are hammered into believing that Dai is the God on earth and he is embodiment of Panjatan and Imam e zaman currently and he is infallible and Quran e natiq etc etc.
4) Dai is not answerable to anyone for anything, this translates into no one in his administration is answerable to anyone either financially or dogmatically or administratively.
5) dai had the power to excommunicate or do baraat in writing, but now a 2 bit aamil can do it by word of mouth or raising of his eyebrow. No one can question his action.
6) Monies are collected in various schemes and for various events related to dai and where does this money goes, no one knows. it is like throwing your money in deep dark pit and forgetting abut it, no accounting is ever given.
7) Aamils have become like monarchs and have farmaans and every one must follow them with out question, Board of Directors and Executive committees are for show to the government, they were meant to advise and consult but in reality they rubber stamp all diktats of the aamil, otherwise they are kicked out.
8) there is so much fear in our religion that people are not honest with each other and everyone puts up a front that matches with all other in the group, and divergence from the groupthink in clothes, thoughts or actions is cause of baraat, boycott and banishment.
In our religion there is no tolerance, no grey area, everything is either black or white, either you are totally with us or you are a munafiq. Many things in our religion need some sunshine to disinfect the rot that has set in. Allah help us soon.

There are a few more atrocities our religious hierarchy commits on brainwashed followers and their innocent children

9) right from kindergarten thru 10th grade they are badgered with Maola, Maola and more Maola, they are asked to memorize the whole of Amma Sipara and if successful they push and push hard to memorize first sipara then next and next. this takes up so much of their time that their school homework suffers. Madrassa used to be 4 hours on saturday now it is 8 hours then they have classes on wednesday another 4 hours. they don't care if kids flunk in school. they are knowingly weakening the future generation so they don't go to good colleges and be mediocre.
10)Woman are kept busy in roti making for faiz thaali, iqtebasaat quiz, 40 days of majlis, 30 days of tasbeeh in Rajab then mulla saheb comes from Mahad zahra in Ramdaan to keep them busy in hifz.
11)Men are now required to read the iqtebasaat and take a quiz, hifz and delivering thaali of Fmb, and fund collections. we are all kept so busy we have no time to socialize with our outside community or other friends. Friends in jamaat are phonies and pretenders bent upon one upmanship. All of us are turning into brain-dead Zombies programmed to yell Maola Maola and robotically do matam at the mention of Husain name.
12)the creativeness that comes from having leisure time has gone to zero as there is no leisure time. Philanthropy is gone to zero because we are squeezed so much for money due to so many schemes that we have no money left to help poor or widow or orphan even if we wish to.
They squeeze the Doctors the worst, they think Doctors don't work for their money and people just come to their office and throw money at their feet. their sabeel or other donations have to be 5 times more than any one else'.
13) The oppression starts with Misaq and Raza, those are the basic torture tools in the hands of the clergy along with rukku chetti and raza for burial in kabrastan. brain-dead followers are frozen with fear not to rock the boat or report to any authority lest they suffer the consequences.

A thought just occured to me, and that is:

The ISIS in Iraq and Syria terrorizes others and the our ISIS terrorizes it's own followers. that is very strange and unique.

Kaka Akela wrote:A thought just occured to me, and that is:

The ISIS in Iraq and Syria terrorizes others and the our ISIS terrorizes it's own followers. that is very strange and unique.

Kaka,

I have received your post from three different sources on Whatsapp.

NO, one does not need a Dai. All Nabi's came to earth to teach humanity to believe in the one Allah. If you know that your creator is Allah and to whom you will have to answer on the day of judgement, then you do not need a Dai or a nabi for that matter. The Dai is worried about his own skin on judgement day, so what is he going to tell you ,that you do not already know.

Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

The above is from the declaration of independence. It is the right and duty of myself and others like myself to do everything in our power to throw off the corrupt rulers and bring new guards for the future security of the bohras even though some might not like it and want to maintain the status quo as it might threaten their own security and ill gained wealth from looting of the common abde.