Mu' meneen Brothers and Sisters,

As Salaam Aleikum wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuh.  (May Allah's Peace, Mercy and Blessings be upon all of you)

 

 

Some of the Questions that were received in this forum:

Q. If you are so sure of what you preach then why are you hiding behind this email. Are you unsure of the truth you preach?

Q. I had asked the editor to tell me if this forum was firmed with or without raza from Dawat E Hadiya.

Looking at the material set out, I believe you do not, so it makes you (DB-helpline) one of the many half-assed self proclaimed Moulvi/Jerks out there. If you have a disclaimer write back.

Q. The Sabak emailed by you makes me rethink the concept of religion.

Q. If you are not a Dawoodi Bohra, why are you so much worried about this community? Why are you fearing its presence?

 

(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:

 

Tauheed (Oneness of Allah)

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.

 

Since all these questions are about "Tauheed” (Oneness of Allah) we feel that we can answer these all in one discourse.

 

Allah says in the Holy Quran: Chapter 16, Surah An-Nahl Ayat 125:Invite to the way of your Lord with wisdom and excellent admonition and argue with people in the best manner. Your Lord knows best who has gone astray from His Way and who is Rightly guided

 

I seek refuge in Allah, the All-Hearing, the All-Knowing, from the incitement of the Shaitaan. And I start in the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.

We have received several emails of encouragement and several interesting questions from our brothers and sisters on this forum, Jazak Allah Kheir (May Allah reward all of you) for reading our emails for His Pleasure Alone. Our brothers and scholars are working day and night doing research, and setting up the logistics, to give you the best answer and guidance from the very words of Allah Himself, The Holy Quran, Insha Allah.

 

Allah, the All-Hearing, the All-Seeing, Knows Best our mission in starting this forum. We swear by Allah, the All-Mighty, the All-Wise, and Allah is our witness and Allah Alone suffices to be our witness, that our one and only mission is to invite our brothers and sisters to the true deen of Islam, as revealed to our beloved Prophet Mohamed (saws) in the Holy Quran.

 

We also received a few hate-mails from brothers, who probably have mis-understood our mission. May Allah's Peace, Blessings, and Mercy be upon all of you who wrote these mails to us. We will try to reply to all your questions, be-idn-Allah, with patience and understanding.

Brothers and Sisters, we want you to know and realize, that we were born Dawoodi Bohra's ourselves and a huge part of our lives was spent in the 'khidmat' and subservience of the leadership of the Da'awat. Allah, in His infinite Mercy, guided us to read and understand His Divine Message – The Holy Quran.

 

In fact, the first time, I picked up the translation of the Holy Quran, I did so to prove to somebody that we, as Dawoodi Bohras were on the true deen brought by Prophet Mohamed (saws). How arrogant and wrong I was! I could not find one ayaah, I repeat, ONE AAYAH, in the whole Quran, that could justify what we were invoking and worshipping in our deen. I read the Quran again and again and again and again. Still the same conclusion! Allah leaves absolutely no room in the Quran for anybody else to be invoked, be it a scholar, a leader, an imam , not even the Messenger of Allah(saws) himself. No Personality deserves our invocation and our worship, except Allah Alone, Who Created us, our leaders, our imams, our Prophet (saws) and everything else in the heavens and the earth and everything else in between! When He Alone has Created everything, When He Alone Knows everything, When He Alone Hears everything, When He Alone gives us life, When He Alone will give us death, When He alone will raise us up again on the Day of Judgement, And When He Alone will be the Only Master and Judge on the Day of Judgment, then Who else could possibly deserve to be invoked and worshipped?

 

I had a million questions in my mind when I was a practicing Bohra, and my heart was never satisfied. Why would Allah send us a message we could not understand? And then, on top of that, He, The All-Just Allah, would judge us on the Day of Judgement whether we followed the commandments of the Quran or not? Why would Allah send the true guidance to only one family and keep it there? Why would Allah send his true guidance to one small community of only Gujrati speaking people, when his guidance should have been for all mankind? Why would Allah send true guidance to a community who never propagate or invite others to follow Islam? Who are these people who never teach us from the Quran, but teach us from a book called 'Da'aim ul Islam' written 353 years after the death of the Prophet (saws)? How come we are apparently able to understand the 'Da'aim ul Islam' and not the Holy Quran, although both of them are in Arabic? Who are these people who have not allowed us to understand the Quran? Who are these people we have to bow down in sajdah to? Who are these people who own our lives and our souls and our wills? Who are these people who seem more interested in power and the accumulation of wealth, rather than the Pleasure of Allah? Who are these people who warn us constantly not to even try and understand the Message sent to us by our Creator? Who and why have these people not given us a translation of their understanding of the Quran? Why do we have to invoke dead people in their graves? How could they possibly help us, when they could not help themselves at their time of death? How can they grant me children, when some of them  did not have any children? How can they grant me health, when some of them  died from diseases and poor health? Why do these people constantly guide us not to invite others to our deen? What are they hiding? If this is the true deen, why not allow us to ask any questions in an open forum, in their wa'aaz, in their majaalis, in their gatherings? Why is that whenever I try to ask a question, they challenge my deen and my belief? Who are these people from whom we need 'raza' for everything? Did they give us the 'raza' to be born? Will they give us the 'raza' to die when the angel of death is at our door-step?

 

Will they keep the promises they make today that they can save all of us on the Day of Judgement from the Hell-Fire? Do they have an agreement with Allah, if so, where is the evidence from the Quran? Who are these people who have made themselves into gods, and make us kiss their toes and do prostrations to? We would like to challenge if any aamil or bhaisaheb or scholar to answer the above questions justifying their belief, giving evidence from the Quran! Be rest assured, that we will post their answer on the internet for everybody to read! We don't just challenge them because we want to, we challenge them because

 

Allah says in the Holy Quran Chapter 27 Surah Al Naml verse 64: Bring forth your evidence, if indeed what you say is the Truth!

 

I got the answers to everything my heart and my mind ever asked in the message sent to mankind, as a Mercy and Guidance from our Lord … The Al-Quran! There is Only One Creator, and NOBODY deserves to be invoked or worshipped except Him Alone!!!!  Everything, Absolutely Everything is in His Control Alone!!! There is No Strength and No Power with anybody, except Him Alone!! He Alone is our Lord, and the Lord of our self-made gods, and the Lord of everything in the Universe!!! Everyone is accountable to Him Alone and He is accountable to no-one!!! Glory be to Allah, the Creator, the Sustainer, the Compeller, the Provider, The Protector, The Mighty, The Reckoner, The Resurrector, The One, The Unique!!!

 

Allah says describing Himself in the Holy Quran Chapter 42 Surah Ash-Shura verse 11:There is Absolutely nothing like Him (Allah) in the whole Universe!!! He is the All-Hearing, The All-Seeing!! To Him Alone belong the keys of the treasures of the heavens and the earth!!

 

After reading and understanding the Quran, we submit ourselves to the Will of our Creator!! He Alone is our Protector in this world, and He Alone will be our Protector in the Hereafter!

 

After receiving guidance from the Holy Quran, it would have been extremely selfish of us not to reveal this truth to the whole world. And especially to the people who are our brethren in language and culture. We thus started this forum to invite all our brothers and sisters to come to the understanding of the Holy Quran. This is a message from the Lord of the Worlds!! Read and understand it once … if it makes sense to you, fine … do what the Quran guides you to. If you do not agree with what the Quran guides you to … fine… choose your way! But we urge you to give the Quran at least One Hearing! These words are the mercy and blessing of the All-Merciful! These are the very words of One Who Created us? These are the very words of the One, in Whose dominion is the heavens and the earth? Do they not even deserve at least, One Hearing?  

 

Allah says in Chapter 2, Surah Baqarah aayat 185:"Ramadan is the month in which the Quran was sent down: this Book is a perfect guidance for mankind and consists of CLEAR teachings which show the right way and are a Criterion of the Truth and falsehood."

 

So, my dear Mu'mineen brothers and sisters, Allah is our witness, we do this service to you for the Pleasure of Allah Alone. We ask for absolutely no thanks and no rewards from you. We just ask you to open the Book of Allah and give it One Hearing. After that, you can decide for yourself which path you want to take to attain Allah's Pleasure. The Straight Path that the All-Merciful wants to show you , or the path shown by someone else?

My dear Mu'mineen brothers and sisters who sent us the hate-mails and whose feelings we have un-intentionally hurt through our emails, we want you to bear witness, that we invited you to understand the Holy Quran, in the court of Allah, on the Day of Judgement! Although Allah suffices as a witness between you and us!

 

Allah says in the Holy Quran Chapter 41 Surah Fusselat verse 33-35”And who is better in speech, than the one who invites men to Allah, does righteous deeds, and says, "I am of those who submit my will to Allah". Goodness and Evil can never be equal. Repel evil with something that is best. You will see that with whom you had an enmity, has become your closest friend. But none can attain to this quality except those who endure with patience and self-restraint, and none can attain to this rank except those who are men of great good fortune. And if you feel an incitement from Shaitaan (to retaliate or strike back), seek refuge in Allah. He is the All Knowing, All Hearing.

 

We bear witness that absolutely no-one deserves our worship except Allah Alone. He has no partners and no associates whatsoever. And we bear witness that Mohamed (saws) is Allah's Messenger and His slave and servant. The only other being, whom we look towards for guidance, is the Messenger of Allah (saws), for Allah has Himself commanded the believers to follow him in the Holy Quran.

 

Allah says in the Holy Quran Chapter 33 Surah Ahzab verse 21:There is indeed the best model for you to follow, in the Messenger of Allah, for every such person looks forward to Allah and the Last Day, and remembers Allah much.

 

What Allah and His Messenger guides us towards is enough for us! We believe in every word of the Holy Quran and we believe in every word of the Prophet of Allah (saws), for he(saws) never said anything except the Truth!

 

It has been reported by Jabir ibn Abdullah (r.a.) in an authentic narration that the Prophet of Allah (saws) said in a sermon: "The best speech is that which is embodied in the Book of Allah, the Al Quran; and the best guidance is the guidance given by me, Mohamed (saws).The Prophet of Allah (saws) said in an authentic narration: "I(saws) leave behind me two things, which if you (the believers) follow, you will never be mis-guided: 1.The Al Quran and 2.My Sunnah."

 

Thus, in conclusion, I again ask for the forgiveness and understanding of the brothers and sisters, whose feelings we might have un-intentionally hurt in sending you these emails. Our motive was never to hurt your feelings, but rather to invite you to the true deen of Islam. We will strive hard to answer all the questions of our mu'mineen brothers and sisters, Insha Allah, if Allah helps us, ONLY from the Holy Quran and the authentic traditions of our beloved Prophet Mohamed (saws). We do not have and do not need another source of guidance! We encourage the brothers and sisters who ask us the questions, to please, please take other opinions from any scholar(s) of your choice. If our answers help you understand the deen of Allah better and bring you and your families closer to Allah, pray for our forgiveness to Allah. If our understanding of the Quran and Sunnah are not correct, please do send us your correct answers, and realize that we are only human, and thus prone to error. Allah Alone is Perfect! He is Self-Sufficient and in no need of anything. If we believe, it is for our own good, and if we reject His Deen, He is The Most Exalted, The All Embracing!

 

And my dear mu'mineen brothers and sisters, be rest assured, that Allah and His Messenger are the best source of guidance, and one will never be mis-guided if he holds on to these two sources.

 

May Allah keep you and your families and all of us in His Mercy and Protection. And Allah Alone knows Best, And He Alone is the Only Source of Strength.

    

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 in Islam,

 

 

Burhan