We need a Social Life
Mu' meneen Brothers and Sisters,
As Salaam Aleikum wa Rahmatullahi wa
Barakatuh. (May Allah's Peace, Mercy and Blessings be upon all of you)
One of our brothers/sisters has asked
this question:
As Salaam O Aleikum
I always read your forum
letters very keenly and today I would like to ask you few Questions which I
have in mind.
I would like to discuss with
you about our social life. This Bohra community which we are born and brought
up is not one or two year old society.This bohra community has come into
existence from past 7 to 8 hundred years.( I may be wrong on the exact dates).
Slowly steadily this Bohra community grew up into a known society in this
world. Forget for a few moment how this community practice Islam. My discussion
with you is that you have changed, act, and practice according to the Guidance
of the Holy Quran. I have changed, act and practice according to the Guidance
of the Holy Quran. What is our social Identity I am repeating
"social" not religion? What is our society? We need a society not for
religious purpose but for worldly purpose also. We are not staying in single
street where we can be united every evening, people like us are staying in
different pockets of the world. Everyone needs some social gathering, not just for
entertainment but for many purpose like business, marriages, death etc.
Beside religion there are
many things in life for which we have to mix with the society. For
example if a person has a Bohra catering service, a Rida Tailor, or any such
person who earns his bread and butter from a particular society,
tries to even utter a single word against it in any manner that society avoids
him. This social boycott harms his business his social friends and many more.
Big cities like Bombay finds rare cases like this but...But small towns where
finger tips community society is there it becomes really hard to even
discuss on the sensitive issue like religion, whether he likes or dislikes the
society's practice of religion.
There are hundreds of
families and people who would like to come out of the clutches of this Bohra
leadership. Do you think these people must be not intelligent enough to
read and understand Quran? Many must be reading Quran with due respect and
understanding, but only thing they lack is unity. A social Identity.
Maybe, bohras follow a leader
who is misguiding, misleading, asking unreasonable money and lots more, but
bohras have an identity. A social life. A society of it's own.
I have full faith and believe
in Allah Subhanah, that one day this revolution will come where we will have a
society of like minded people. For this My only appeal to all the readers and
to this forum members is that, please develope an Identity, a social
recognition for those people who really wants to follow the true Islam. This
people needs social support, business wise, marriages wise, death wise
etc. These people needs a society to share there joys and sorrows. Like minded
people like us have to come forward and join hands to build a society of true
Islam. We need a places like cremation grounds, We need families who can give
their daughters to Sons for marriage. We need unity to develope our business
and secured obs. We need those social activities for which we have to bow down
towards the Bohra leader ship. We
need a social life.
Then only then we can bring a
revolution. To follow true Islam.
(There may be some grammatical and spelling errors in the
above statement. The forum does not change anything from questions, comments
and statements received from our readers for circulation in confidentiality.)
Answer:
In the name of Allah, We praise Him, seek His help and ask
for His forgiveness. Whoever Allah guides none can misguide, and who-ever He
allows to fall astray, none can guide them aright. We bear witness that there
is no one (no idol, no person, no grave, no prophet, no imam, no dai, nobody!)
worthy of worship but Allah Alone, and we bear witness that Muhammad (saws) is
His slave-servant and the seal of His Messengers.
Your Question: What is our social Identity I am repeating
"social" not religion? What is our society?
As sincere believers in Allah and the Last Day, our
religion, our identity, our nationality, our loyalty, our recognition, our
duties, our society, our lives…. Everything:
has to be Islam!
Allah says in the Holy Quran Chapter 23 Surah
Al-Mu’minun verse 52:And this community of yours is one community, and I
(Allah) am your Lord, so fear Me alone!
Allah says in the Holy Quran Chapter 22 Surah
Hajj verse 77-78:O you who have believed, do ‘rukooh’ (bow down) and do
‘sajdah’ (prostration), and worship your Lord Allah Alone, and do righteous
deeds: it may be that you attain true success!
Exert your utmost for the cause of Allah, as one should. He has
chosen you for His service, and has not laid on you any hardship in your
religion. Therefore, be steadfast in
the religion of your father Abraham. Allah had named you ‘muslims’ before this, and has
named you (muslims) in this Quran also, so that the Messenger may be a witness in
regard to you, and you may be witnesses
in regard to the rest of mankind.
Having said that, we do agree with you that there might be
many Bohras who see and feel the wrong done in the name of Islam, but due to
social or other reasons, are unable to denounce the wrongs done in their
sect. The truth of the matter is that
this social fear is baseless. The
believers who are away from the evil sin of ‘shirk’ are obviously in the
majority in the world. There are
literally millions of mosques, muslim burial places, and believers to marry in
the muslim society. And none of them
have the expensive and tyrannous beaurocratic hierarchy that the Bohras are so
subjugated with. Thus the last thing we
need to do is create another sect in the name of Islam, and break the unity of
the Ummah.
Regarding the brothers and sisters whose livelihood
depends on a particular community, we understand that it would definitely
affect their sources of income. But
the truth is, Allah is the Provider of
everything that moves on this planet earth.
And once a believer recognizes and believes in the promises of Allah and
His Messenger (saws), Allah will provide for them from sources they could not
even imagine! In Islam, Allah exhorts
us to think with our brains and our hearts to determine the Truth. If someone tries to make a decision because
of his ‘stomach’ and means of livelihood, it is obvious that he would not be
able to make the right decision.
And if one fears that he will be isolated from his family
and friends because of his faith in the Holy Quran, then that is the price a
believer must be willing to pay for the valuable deen of Islam. Allah and His Messenger (saws) have a
bigger right on the believers than his family, his friends, his society, and
all the wealth in the world put together.
Allah says in the Holy Quran Chapter 9 Surah
Taubah verse 23-24:O believers, do not take your fathers and your brothers as
allies, if they choose disbelief in preference to Faith. For whoever of you will take them as allies
shall surely be the workers of iniquity.
O Prophet, tell them plainly, “If your fathers and your sons, and your
brothers and your wives, and your near and dear ones, and the wealth which you
have acquired, and the trade you fear may decline and the home which delight
you: if all these things are dearer to you than Allah and His Messenger and the
struggle in His Way, then wait till
Allah passes His Judgement on you. For
Allah does not guide the wicked people.”
Thus brother, we do understand the ‘social’ dilemma you
have mentioned, and at times, we too are victims of this isolation. But if one understands and implements the
clear commands of Allah and His Messenger (saws) in his life, Allah will make these trials and
tribulations easy for the believer and a source and means of attaining huge
reward on the Day of Judgement.
The social structure of a sect cannot and will not be
accepted as an excuse for committing ‘shirk’ in the Court of Allah. The society of Islam and muslims who believe
and practice true Islam are in the majority,
and all the social practices can be done through the mainstream Islamic
society. These various sects are the
ones who are actually in the minority, and not the believers. If you just compare the numbers, the Bohras are about one million in the
population of 1.5 billion muslims in the world. They are not even 0.07% of the muslim population worldwide! The Bohra leaders do not allow their
followers to bow down in ‘sajdah’ or do ‘tasleem’ in countries like Saudi
Arabia, Eqypt,UAE, etc.
If the mainstream muslim leaders found out the truth of the Bohra
community and their practices of open ‘shirk’, they would probably condemn and
isolate the Bohra community from Islam, and declare them non-muslims like the
Qaadhiyaanis.
Whatever written of Truth and benefit is only due to
Allah’s Assistance and Guidance, and whatever of error is of me. Allah Alone Knows Best and He is the Only
Source of Strength.
Your brother and
well wisher in Islam,
