You are aware that Bohras are required to take oath of Mishaq and recite Vazaefo after every majlis and daris.
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:
Bhai Burhan
You are aware that Bohras are required to
take oath of Mishaq and recite Vazaefo after every majlis and daris.
Can you please publish english or gujrati
translation of these two items. If not, are these translation are avialable and
where. Thanks.
(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:
Translation of
Meethak
In the name of Allah, We
praise Him, seek His help and ask for His forgiveness. Whoever Allah
guides none can misguide, and whoever 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.
Beloved brother, although
we absolutely do not subscribe to the views and conditions of such ‘meethaks’
of ‘shirk’, and although we are absolutely against the propagation of any type
of falsehood on this humble forum which was formed to propagate the Truth from
the Quran and the Sunnah alone, in the interest of warning our brethren
regarding the falsehood that exists in some sects in the name of Islam, we
hereby reluctantly present the translation of the Dawoodi Bohra Meethak to you
as per your request.
We do not have a script
copy of the ‘Vazaefona’; it you could provide us the Arabic script, we could
try and translate the same for you.
Translation
of the Dawoodi
Bohra Meethak.
- "And if the Imam of the
time or his Dai calls upon you to war against the enemy then you should
make war. You should help with your life and property. And you should obey
the Imam of the time or his Dai sincerely......Say yes.
- And whatever the Imam of the
time or his Dai orders you to obey you should obey the Dai and you shall
not become a sinner (by disobedience); and you shall not become hostile to
the Dai. You shall not falsify the Dai.
- You shall keep up the command
of the Imam and that Imam is Imam Tayeb Abul
Qasim Amirul-Mominin.
He is your Imam.
- And you shall accept the
order of the Dai of Imam in all things. And you shall not use that thing
which the Dai shall forbid you, and you shall not take steps (towards it).
You shall love him whom the Dai loves. You shall be enemy to him with whom
the Dai is hostile. You shall war against him whom the Dai makes war. Any
person transgressing those engagements to the Dai is outside the pale of
religion. Whether he be great or small, whether he is a close relation or
a distant one you shall not have any intercourse with him. You shall not
correspond with him openly or secretly. You shall not do any act calculated
to be friendly to him. And by no manner or means or pretense shall see the
enemy of the Dai. The enemy of the Dai is your enemy.....Say yes.
- And you shall attend on the
summons (of) the Imam or the Dai to make religious war. At that time you
shall not shirk or play the coward. You shall with all heart spend your
property and your life in the cause of the Dai. You shall report fully to
the Dai or to the Deputy of the Dai any person who transgresses the
covenant of the Imamuzamam...Say yes.
- And you shall not permit
yourself to be induced to withhold assistance from the Dai, service and
obedience to him, and prevent you from carrying out the order of the Dai.
Further you shall not offer any disbeliever to turn you away from taking
the oath of the covenant to the Dai. You shall render perfect service with
your property and with the offer of your life (to the Dai). The master of
your life is the Dai or the Imam of the time.....Say yes.
- ...unavailable….(This has
been omitted from ex. 17)
- ...unavailable…(This has been
omitted from ex. 17)
- And you shall be pleased by
the order of the Dai of the Imam. The Dai shall raise among you or degrade
among you persons as he likes. He shall gift to and shall deprive persons
as he pleases. The Dai shall reward persons and shall punish them in his
discretion. The Dai shall smile upon or shall break his wrath on
whomsoever he thinks fit. You shall be pleased in that which Dai is
pleased....Say yes.
- The person to whom the oath
is due enjoins to this effect that if a person on whom it is made
obligatory by me to keep faith to the oath openly or secretly breaks it
the defaulter is forsaken by God the Creator of the Earth and heavens, the
framer of the limbs of the creatures, the conferer of blessings on him,
and the Bestower of health. The breaker of the oath is shut out from the
books Tawrat (laws of Moses),
Injeel (The Bible), Zaboor (Psalms of David),
and the Holy Quran. He is also deprived of the perfect words (Blessings of
the Imam)....Say yes.
- If a person taking the oath
breaks it, all his possessions, i.e. moveables, cash, housing, utensils,
jewels, ornaments, carriages, horses, cattle, milking cows, she buffaloes,
slaves, males and females and all worldly materials become unlawful for
him. All his property is liable to be looted and to be distributed among
the poor and the needy. When he takes the oath again and accepts all the
terms of that covenant then his things become lawful to him and then only
he is entitled to get his things back...say yes.
- All the benefits which he had
already enjoyed (from his possessions) becomes unlawful i.e. with a
prospective effect unless he takes the oath afresh (the past enjoyments)
do not become lawful. Say yes. All the slaves males and females of the
breaker of the oath become free and the defaulter loses all ownership over
them until a fresh oath and he keeps faith with the covenant...say yes.
- And if the breaker of the
covenant has a wife that wife becomes forbidden to him. The breach of
covenant has the effect of three Talaqs (divorce)
against the wife i.e. Kataee , Haraj
and
Sunnat (three forms of divorce). The woman can never
marry him again, neither can he take her as a wife.. say yes. If the
breaker of the oath performs Hajj thirty times with naked feet even then
God shall not forgive him his sin (in breaking the covenant) nor God shall
accept his Hajj. But if he takes the oath again by the true Dai's
covenant, his master, then and then alone God shall accept his Hajj, his
prayers, fasts and other good deeds. ... say yes.
- And the breaker of the
covenant accursed of God by that curse which was inflicted on Iblis, the Satan the effect of which was that paradise was lost to
Satan and hell became his inheritance.
- And the
breaker of the covenant shall face his God as Kafir and apostate after his
death. He is beyond redemption by the power of God. He will be thrown on his own
soul and shall curse him and shall extend hell to him which hell is the
worst of all places. There is no God but the Merciful and Benevolent. The
Defaulter turns away his face from the worship of God and turns it to the
worship of idols. All Kafirs worship idols and thus shall become attached
to the idol and the grace of God shall destroy the breaker of the oath
with rapidity and shall confine him to hell in which there is nothing but
torture...say yes.
- There is no freedom for your
soul but loyalty to the covenant and there is no salvation for you but in
fulfilling the terms of the covenant. You have made God your witness and
the testimony of God is enough...say yes.
- You heard my words and you
are pleased with my conditions. The person to whom the covenant is due say
that you took upon your neck the obligation to hear the covenant of God
and you took the mighty oath and you gave oath of allegiance which is very
strong and which for our Lord the Imam Tayeb Abul Qasim Amiril Mominin may
the peace of God be on him and his holy ancestors and the generous
descendants who are expected till the day of resurrection.
When Imam Tayeb
went in seclusion owing to the high handedness of the oppressors, he left
in Dawat three ranks behind him, namely, the rank of Dai, the rank of
Mazoon and the rank of Mukasir. Owing to the existence of these three
ranks the existence of Imam of the time is known to be in existence. The
present Dai of the Imam of the time is the grand Maulana the singular Sayedna Zainuddin,
may God prolong his life and his Mazoon is Bhai
Saheb Shaikh
Adam and his Mukasir is Bhai Saheb
Hibtula Bhai.
Whoever recognizes Zainuddin and these three ranks he recognizes the imam
of the time...say yes.
- Then be pleased that you have
given the oath of allegiance to the Imam and his Dai, God says in the
Quran to Prophet: "O Mohammed the people do not give the oath of
allegiance to you, rather they give it to God. The hand of God is above the
hands of all people". Whoever breaks the covenant his soul will be
tormented and whoever fulfills the covenant God will bless him and will
highly recompense him.
- The person from whom the
Misaq is taken says that God may keep firm to the covenant and it may not
be that he may treat the covenant as a mere deposit. May God grant you and
me, the true believers, to be faithful to the covenant and may God keep
you and me steadfast to His obedience and the obedience of God's prophet
and the obedience of Wali of God, the present Imam and his Dai and may God
make it complete for you and us to remain firm for the mercy of God
through the good end. And (all) praise is due to God, the one, the great
Avenger; and peace of God be on Mohammed
the Selected and on his wasi, Preserver, and on his Progeny, the good, the
pure, the righteous.
And Salaam!
- It is written on the 10th of
the month of Rabiul Awal by the slave of Grand Dai Maulana Zainuddin, may
God prolong his life, Ahmedji the son of Mulla Nurkhanji in the year 1248
(hijra) in the town of Ajmer, may God the Exalted protect him."
If one trusts, obeys,
and follows the guidance and commands of Allah and His Messenger (saws), one can be assured of never ever being
misled; but if one believes, obeys and
follows any other guidance, other than that of Allah and His Messenger (saws),
one can be assured of being led astray.
Whatever written of
Truth and benefit is only due to Allah’s Assistance and Guidance, and whatever
of error is of me alone. Allah Alone
Knows Best and He is the Only Source of Strength.
Your brother and well wisher in Islam,
Burhan
