The Quranic Mandate
The Quran speaks of charitable giving with remarkable frequency and with striking directness:
وَأَقِيمُوا الصَّلَاةَ وَآتُوا الزَّكَاةَ وَمَا تُقَدِّمُوا لِأَنفُسِكُم مِّن خَيرٍ تَجِدُوهُ عِندَ اللَّهِ “Establish salah and give zakat, and whatever good you put forward for yourselves you will find it with Allah.” (Quran 2:110)
Giving is not a peripheral Islamic duty but is paired directly with salah — the two appear together in dozens of Quranic verses. The Dawat’s reading: if you maintain the outward obligation of salah but neglect the outward obligation of zakat and sadaqah, you have an unbalanced ‘ibadah. The five pillars are not optional items from a menu; they are a complete system.
The Quran also provides the motivational framework for charitable giving:
- “Those who spend in the way of Allah — their wealth does not decrease” (Hadith echoing Quran)
- “The parable of those who spend their wealth in the way of Allah is that of a grain that sprouts seven ears, each ear bearing a hundred grains” (Quran 2:261)
- “You will never attain righteousness until you spend [in Allah’s way] from what you love.” (Quran 3:92)
Forms of Giving in Bohra Life
Zakat — The Obligatory Purification
Zakat (obligatory alms, 2.5% of qualifying annual savings) is one of the five pillars of Islam and is obligatory for every nisab-eligible Bohra. Its recipients include the poor, the debtors, and travellers in need. The Dawat encourages paying zakat through community channels where possible, enabling collective distribution.
See also: Zakat And Khums
Khums — The Fifth
Khums (one-fifth of annual surplus after expenses) is the specific Shia/Ismaili financial obligation that directs 20% of a believer’s annual surplus wealth to the Imam (or during satr, to the Dai) for redistribution to community needs. The khums is understood as the community’s collective contribution to the Dawat’s institutions and to those in need.
See also: Zakat And Khums
Sadaqah — Voluntary Charity
Beyond obligatory giving, the Bohra tradition strongly encourages voluntary sadaqah (charity):
- Sadaqah Jariyah (continuous charity): an act whose benefits continue after the giver’s death — funding a masjid, a school, a water well
- Sadaqah on behalf of the deceased: giving charity with the intention that its reward goes to a deceased family member
- Regular sadaqah: giving on specific occasions (Eid, Fridays, before major du’as) as a practice of spiritual hygiene
Niyaz — Sacred Food Offering
The Bohra tradition of niyaz (sacred food offered in the name of a Wali or occasion, then distributed to the community) is a distinctive form of charitable giving that combines spiritual intention with practical food distribution. See also: Niyaz Sacred Food
The Dawat’s Institutional Philanthropy
The Dawat’s philanthropic programs under the leadership of the Duat Mutlaqeen represent one of the most systematic charitable programs in any Muslim community:
Education
The Dawat operates schools and educational institutions globally — including Al-Jamea-tus-Saifiyah (the Fatimid Academy in Surat, Nairobi, and Karachi) and hundreds of maktabs worldwide. Beyond community-specific education, Bohra philanthropy has funded scholarships, school buildings, and educational programs for non-Bohra communities in regions where the Dawat is present. See also: Aljamea Tus Saifiyah
Healthcare
Bohra philanthropists have funded hospitals, clinics, and medical equipment across South Asia, East Africa, and elsewhere. The Saifee Hospital in Mumbai — funded significantly by Bohra community donations — is one of the most advanced hospitals in India, serving patients of all backgrounds.
The Fatimid Restoration Program
Syedna Mohammed Burhanuddin (RA) oversaw a decades-long program to restore Fatimid monuments in Egypt — most famously the mosque of Imam al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah in Cairo (restored 1981-1983). This program, funded by Bohra community contributions, was a gift of a minority community to the broader Islamic world’s architectural heritage. See also: Egypt Cairo Mosque Hakim, Syedna Burhanuddin
Disaster Relief
The Bohra community has a strong tradition of rapid disaster relief response — in the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the 2013 Pakistan floods, and many other events, Bohra volunteers and funds reached affected communities quickly and without requiring religious affiliation as a condition of assistance.
Infrastructure
In several developing countries with Bohra communities — particularly in East Africa — the Dawat has funded roads, water infrastructure, electricity, and other basic services for entire communities, not just for Bohras. This reflects the Prophetic principle that the charitable obligation extends to the entire neighborhood, not only to co-religionists.
The Merchant-Philanthropy Connection
The Bohra community’s philanthropic tradition is inseparable from its commercial tradition. As a community of traders for fifteen centuries, Bohras have long understood wealth as something held in trust (amanah) from Allah — not as private property to be hoarded but as a resource through which one’s khalifa (trusteeship) role is fulfilled.
The Prophet (SAW) said: “The merchant who is honest and trustworthy will be with the prophets, the truthful, and the martyrs.” The Bohra understanding: honest trade creates wealth that can be used for this world and invested in the next. The merchant who gives generously from their profits is not diminishing their wealth but multiplying it — in the Quranic arithmetic where giving one grain produces seven hundred.
This theology produces a characteristic Bohra attitude: wealth is not to be ashamed of, but it is not the goal. The goal is what you do with it.
Community Infrastructure Giving
A distinctive form of Bohra philanthropy is the collective funding of community infrastructure:
Masjid Construction: Every new Bohra masjid is funded by the community — a combination of the Dawat’s central resources and local jamat contributions. When a jamat grows to the point where a new masjid is needed, the community campaigns together to fund it.
Maqbara (Cemetery) Maintenance: Bohra cemeteries worldwide are maintained by the community, ensuring that the deceased are cared for and the living can perform ziyarat in dignity.
Waaz Infrastructure: The costs of hosting Ashara Mubaraka programs — the tents, the audio equipment, the food for thousands, the transportation — are borne collectively by the jamat.
This collective infrastructure giving teaches a crucial lesson: the individual’s wealth is always partly communal. The mumin who gives to their jamat’s infrastructure is ensuring that the next generation has the same sacred spaces that they had.
Ta’wil of Philanthropy
The zahir of Bohra philanthropy is the outward giving — money, time, resources, skills directed toward worthy causes.
The batin of philanthropy is the soul’s release of its attachment to wealth. The Quran says: “By no means shall you attain righteousness until you spend of that which you love.” (3:92) The challenge of charitable giving is not primarily financial — it is psychological and spiritual: releasing something the self clings to.
When a mumin gives generously and honestly — not calculating how little they can give while technically fulfilling the obligation — they are practising the inner surrender (islam, literally: submission) that is the heart of the faith. Philanthropy is thus a form of salah: an outward act that expresses and deepens an inward reality. The mumin who cannot give cannot truly pray; the mumin who gives generously is bringing their prayer and their commerce and their community-building into a single integrated act of walayah.
See also: Zakat And Khums, Niyaz Sacred Food, Khidmat Service, Bohra Commercial Ethics, Aljamea Tus Saifiyah, Egypt Cairo Mosque Hakim, Syedna Burhanuddin