What they don't want you to know...
Posted: Fri Mar 07, 2003 6:31 am
A few words must be said about the institutions of mithaq, raza, and excommunication. Our Fatimid literature shows that Mithaq or Ahd was given to a Dai on accession to his office or on maturity of a child or on accepting a new convert. The oath was not renewed year after year or on one occasion after another. The oath affirmed the sharia and did not pledge jan (body) and mal (money) to the Dai. The type of oath taken now is a humiliating abject submission. Such oaths were not given even to the Imams.
Raza (or fash) was given by a dai to a subordinate officer such as amil to carry out his duties. It was not necessary for an individual member of the Daawa (i.e. a mumin) to have fash for any action of his. This has now plagued the community like an addiction to a drug and the profits of such an addiction go to the Kothar.
Now about excommunication – it was never there. Daawa means invitation – to include a person in the community; not to exclude him. In early days of the Indian Daawa when a rich individual wanted to donate a charity to the community, he would do it by salam, i.e. the blessing of the Dai. If the Dai was displeased with that individual he would not accept that the charity be done through him. This was called salam bandi. The salam was not the property of the Dai and the charity was a waqf for which accurate account was made public. Now salam is given to the Dai and all his entourage.
Salam bandi deteriorated into excommunication, making a person an outcast. This became jamat bahar with social ostracism and inciting the community against that person which sometimes led to murder by fanatical assassins – as it happened in the case of Mulla Abbasbhai Aurangabadi who was burnt with acid.
The reform movement in the Daawa is against all those abuses – against a religious tyranny. It is a movement to free a mumin from this bondage.
When excommunication was banned by law in India – a new method was adopted called baraa. We read about it in Yamani Daawa literature. It meant disassociation by the Dai from a subordinate officer who did not fulfill his duties. That is fash or raza was withdrawn. He was not excommunicated. And this did not apply to any individual member of the community. Now Bara’a has become a weapon to strike one down who does not abjectly surrender his jan and mal to the Dai.
Extortion is in the form of several taxes. There is zakat, then sila-fitra, then sabil, then haqqun-nafs, then nazar maqam, then khums and several donations of every hue and color – all unaccountable property of the Dai. Without a safai-chithi, i.e. a certificate of payment of all that, an individual is not allowed to marry, nor can he be buried in a qabrastan by his relatives.
Raza (or fash) was given by a dai to a subordinate officer such as amil to carry out his duties. It was not necessary for an individual member of the Daawa (i.e. a mumin) to have fash for any action of his. This has now plagued the community like an addiction to a drug and the profits of such an addiction go to the Kothar.
Now about excommunication – it was never there. Daawa means invitation – to include a person in the community; not to exclude him. In early days of the Indian Daawa when a rich individual wanted to donate a charity to the community, he would do it by salam, i.e. the blessing of the Dai. If the Dai was displeased with that individual he would not accept that the charity be done through him. This was called salam bandi. The salam was not the property of the Dai and the charity was a waqf for which accurate account was made public. Now salam is given to the Dai and all his entourage.
Salam bandi deteriorated into excommunication, making a person an outcast. This became jamat bahar with social ostracism and inciting the community against that person which sometimes led to murder by fanatical assassins – as it happened in the case of Mulla Abbasbhai Aurangabadi who was burnt with acid.
The reform movement in the Daawa is against all those abuses – against a religious tyranny. It is a movement to free a mumin from this bondage.
When excommunication was banned by law in India – a new method was adopted called baraa. We read about it in Yamani Daawa literature. It meant disassociation by the Dai from a subordinate officer who did not fulfill his duties. That is fash or raza was withdrawn. He was not excommunicated. And this did not apply to any individual member of the community. Now Bara’a has become a weapon to strike one down who does not abjectly surrender his jan and mal to the Dai.
Extortion is in the form of several taxes. There is zakat, then sila-fitra, then sabil, then haqqun-nafs, then nazar maqam, then khums and several donations of every hue and color – all unaccountable property of the Dai. Without a safai-chithi, i.e. a certificate of payment of all that, an individual is not allowed to marry, nor can he be buried in a qabrastan by his relatives.