What Is the Maktab?
The word maktab (مَكتَب) comes from the Arabic root k-t-b — to write — and historically referred to the traditional Islamic school where literacy (reading and writing) was taught alongside the Quran. The Bohra maktab is the community’s equivalent: the elementary religious school, typically operating out of the local masjid, that provides children with the foundational knowledge required to participate in Bohra religious life.
Every functioning Bohra jamat maintains a maktab. It is not optional or supplemental — it is considered a religious obligation (fard) for parents to ensure their children receive this education. The Prophet (SAW) said: “Seeking knowledge is obligatory for every Muslim” — and the Dawat interprets this to mean not only adult scholarly learning but the foundational literacy in faith that the maktab provides.
The Maktab Curriculum
1. Tartil — Quranic Recitation in the Bohra Style
The centrepiece of the maktab curriculum is tartil — the melodic, rhythmic recitation of the Quran in the distinctive style of the Bohra tradition. The word tartil appears in the Quran itself: “Recite the Quran with measured recitation” (rattil al-Qur’an tartila, Quran 73:4).
The Bohra tartil style is immediately recognisable: it involves specific melodic patterns, rhythmic breath control, and communal recitation where students follow a lead voice. It is learned through listening and repetition — the ancient method of oral transmission — before children can read the Arabic text.
The maktab typically begins with Surah al-Fatiha (the opening surah, recited in every rak’ah of salah), then the final ten surahs (which are used in daily salah), then progresses to longer surahs and eventually broader Quranic study.
2. Arabic Literacy
Children learn the Arabic alphabet and basic reading skills. The goal is not fluency in spoken Arabic (though that is encouraged) but the ability to read Quranic Arabic and the du’as that form the backbone of Bohra daily worship. Students learn to read the Quran in Arabic before they fully understand its meaning — the tilawah (recitation) itself carries barakah, regardless of comprehension.
3. Lisan ud-Dawat
Lisan ud-Dawat (the Language of the Dawat) is the Bohra community’s liturgical and literary language — a form of Gujarati heavily infused with Arabic, Persian, and Fatimid literary traditions. It is written in an Arabic script and is used in the waaz, in the nikah ceremony, in du’as, and in the community’s scholarly literature.
The maktab teaches children to read Lisan ud-Dawat — both to recite the traditional du’as and to maintain the linguistic thread that connects them to centuries of Dawat scholarship. In diaspora communities where Gujarati itself may not be spoken at home, the maktab’s Lisan instruction becomes even more essential.
4. Du’as — The Daily Prayer Texts
Children learn the specific du’as (supplications) that form the Bohra practice of daily worship, including:
- Du’a Qunoot — recited in the Witr prayer, a personal plea to Allah
- Salawat formulas — the specific blessings on the Prophet (SAW) and his family
- Du’as for the five daily prayers — the full prayer texts, including their Arabic and Lisan ud-Dawat components
- Du’a al-Iftah — the supplication recited at the opening of gatherings
- Du’as for everyday occasions — eating, sleeping, waking, travelling, entering the home
These du’as are learned by heart — hifz (memorisation) is the method, because the du’as must be available in the moment of need without reference to a text.
5. Islamic Knowledge
Beyond skills and memorisation, the maktab teaches age-appropriate Islamic knowledge:
- The Prophet’s biography (sira)
- The Imams and Duat Mutlaqeen (the chain of the Dawat)
- Basic fiqh (jurisprudence) — wudhu, salah, fasting, zakat
- The pillars of iman
- Stories of the Prophets (qasas al-anbiya)
- The five pillars of Islam in Bohra practice
When and Where
Timing
Maktab classes are typically held:
- After school on weekdays — 2-3 days per week, late afternoon before Maghrib
- Saturday or Sunday morning — especially in diaspora communities where weekday attendance is challenging
- During school holidays — intensive maktab programs during summer or winter breaks
In cities with large Bohra populations (Surat, Mumbai, Ahmedabad), maktab may run daily. In smaller diaspora communities, it may be once a week with intensive holiday programs.
Location
The maktab typically operates within or adjacent to the Bohra masjid — making the masjid not only the centre of adult worship but the educational centre for children. This physical proximity to the sacred space is intentional: children absorb the masjid’s atmosphere and begin to associate the sacred with learning.
The Teachers
The Aamil’s Oversight
The local Aamil supervises the maktab curriculum, ensuring it aligns with the Dawat’s educational standards. He may teach some classes himself, particularly for older students.
Community Teachers
The actual teaching in most maktabs is done by community members — often women with strong religious education, men trained at Al-Jamea-tus-Saifiyah, or senior community members with strong tartil and du’a knowledge. Teaching in the maktab is itself considered khidmat (service) — an act of ibadah that earns the teacher sawab (spiritual merit) for every student’s subsequent practice.
Al-Jamea-tus-Saifiyah Graduates
The Dawat’s highest educational institution, Al-Jamea-tus-Saifiyah in Surat (with branches in Nairobi and Karachi), trains teachers and scholars specifically for Dawat service. Al-Jamea graduates who return to their home jamats often become maktab leaders and Aamil assistants. See also: Aljamea Tus Saifiyah
The Social Dimension
The maktab is not merely a school — it is the primary community-building institution for Bohra children. It is where children:
- Meet other Bohra children in a religious context (often the first experience beyond family-only gatherings)
- Develop friendships with peers who share their faith tradition
- Experience collective worship — learning to pray together, to recite Fatiha together, to sit in the masjid together
- Receive praise and encouragement for religious achievement (memorising du’as, mastering tartil)
- Develop their Bohra identity as something active and practised, not merely inherited
For many Bohra children growing up in diaspora communities — where the majority of classmates at school are not Muslim, let alone Bohra — the maktab provides the crucial social experience of being in a community of shared faith.
The Maktab and the Dawat’s Survival
The persistence of the Bohra maktab across centuries of migration, political upheaval, diaspora, and modernity is one of the key reasons for the Bohra community’s remarkable cohesion. Communities that have maintained strong maktab systems have produced generations of religiously literate, identity-secure Bohras. Communities where maktab attendance has declined have tended to see faster rates of assimilation and disconnection from Dawat practice.
The Dawat understands this clearly: the investment in maktab education is not optional but existential. The Imam’s ‘ilm is transmitted through chains of human beings — parents, teachers, Aamils — and the maktab is the institutional structure that sustains one of the most important links in that chain.
Ta’wil of the Maktab
In the esoteric understanding of the Dawat:
The zahir of the maktab is the visible school — the classroom in the masjid, the curriculum of tartil and Arabic and du’as.
The batin of the maktab is the ta’lim al-batin — the transmission of inner knowledge (‘ilm al-batin) that begins with the maktab’s foundation but continues through the waaz, the Aamil’s guidance, and the entire structure of Dawat education. The maktab’s tartil — the melodic recitation of the Quran — is the zahir; the ta’wil of those same Quranic words, received later through the waaz, is the batin.
The Quran says: “He teaches him the Bayan” (Quran 55:4) — the bayan (clear expression, eloquence, making manifest) is not only speech but the capacity to perceive and communicate the divine reality that underlies all apparent forms. The maktab plants the seed of this capacity in the child’s heart — the zahir of Quranic reading that will one day become the batin of spiritual understanding.
See also: Bohra Masjid, Bohra Aamil, Aljamea Tus Saifiyah, Understanding Namaz, Understanding Dua, Bohra Waaz, Ilm Divine Knowledge