The Importance of the Hawza and the Marjae System
Gulambhai Dinani, Vice-Pres. of World Federation.

Divine guidance is vital for human survival. This fact is categorically stated in the Quran: “Indeed, we have guided him to the way, be he grateful or ungrateful”( 76:3).

Such a guidance come in two mutually inclusive forms, namely the external guidance and the internal guidance.

External guidance comes through divinely appointed personalities: the Prophets and the Imams (from the progeny of the Prophet Muhammad  and his pure progeny). Internal guidance, on the other hand, is in the form of the inner capacities and capabilities with which man is born. These are the abilities that come with inherent intelligence, and conscious. Through these inborn faculties humans can develop ability to choose the way to righteousness. However, the inner guidance per se is not enough to let one stay continuously on the right path. Here comes in the role of the external guidance. The external guides enable humans to activate and put to use their inner strengths towards fulfillment of their obligations toward their creator and his creation to utmost and thus acquire divine pleasure. So that human beings should receive perpetual guidance, remain on the right path (siratul mustaqeem) and attain spiritual purity. 124,000 Prophets were sent in different periods. There was no time that the humans were left entirely on their own. With the passing away of the seal of the Prophets, Prophet Mohammed, guidance to humanity came through the divinely appointed Imams from the pure progeny of the Prophet . During the eras of the first eleven Imams, guidance came in two different venues: the Imams themselves and those scholars trained and commissioned by the Imams to guide the people who could not have direct access to the Imam of the time. For example, among Imami scholars who functioned as guides when the Imams were still alive include Abu Baseer and Hisham bin Hakam.

The practice of deputizing the function of spiritual guidance became more apparent during the first 70 years of the Imamat of our twelfth Imam, Hadhrat Hujjat Ibnul Hassan, May Allah hasten his reappearance. During the period of the “shorter occultation” (Gaybat Sughra) there were four deputies, one after the other, who were in direct contact with the Imam, and who linked the followers of the Imam with the Imam. At the close of the “lesser occultation” and at the dawn of the “greater occultation”, that includes the era in which we are living, came the end of the method of communication through appointed deputies and began the era of Marja e Taqleed.

Our twelfth Imam himself in his letter to his last deputy, Ali Bin Muhammad, defined the qualifications, responsibilities and status of those scholars, the Maraja, who would represent him as divine guides during the period of greater occultation. The pivotal role of the Marjae Taqleed can be understood if we ponder upon the words of the Imam himself “The way I am “hujja” (evidence) from Allah, they are hujja from me to you. To reject them is to reject me and to reject me is to reject Allah.”

Since then, following the footsteps of the Imams, Maraja e Taqleed have guided humanity in two different ways. One, through direct contact and second, through muballigheen trained in the teachings of Islam. These muballigheen come to the hawza run by the Maraja, get equipped with various branches of Islamic and humanistic knowledge and go back to their communities to work as religious guides. Among other things, they start Madressa and preach from ‘mehrab’, ‘mimber’, and Madressa. At the same time they remain in touch with Marjae for constant guidance. Through this hierarchy, guidance is kept perpetual. It is in light of this context should we today appreciate and comprehend the significance of muballigheen program Initiated by the World Federation.

Way back in Africa and up till very recently, the Khoja community depended mostly on the mubaleegh trained from Hawza Ilmiya in Najaf, Qum and to some extent those from hawzas in India. Needless to say, their contribution has been immense; indeed we are short of words to describe the nobility of their endeavors and the countless benefit our Khoja community obtained from these scholars. The strength of endowments from these scholars continues to flourish our spiritual lives. However, the exodus of our community members to the western hemisphere and the establishments of Jamaats in various parts or Europe, Canada, North America, has posed new challenges vis a vis spiritual guidance. In these new environments the need for spiritual guidance has assumed unique and bedazzling dimensions. Societies in which our communities have adopted to be their new homes are in flux. Winds of change are blowing daily and in different directions. There has arisen a dire need for “evolution” in both the core studies and methodology in places of higher Islamic learning to produce Mubaleegh who can effectively guide our communities. So as to address these issues, after lengthy and thorough study, the World Federation has now embarked on the project of establishing Hawza Ilmiya in Damascus to train Muballigheen ready to provide that guidance in line with the current situations in our communities globally, and do so via our three most important media: The Mehrab, the Mimber, and the Madressa.

The said hawza of Damascus has been aligned and oriented to produce muballigheen having the following characteristics:
  • They would have acquired adequate religious education, built on their strong secular studies acquired in the very environment in which they grew up and where they would be called upon to serve.
  • They would have used their prior experiences and “tastes” of there challenges in their home environments to acquire spiritual guidance from their Hawza studies and to go back to function in those environments.
  • The Muballigheen having interacted with hawza teachers would formulate “custom made” core spiritual curriculum based on their unique experience and use it in their place of assignment.
  • The Muballigheen on graduation from the hawza would have a balanced perspective and skills that would enable them to pursue secular careers of their choice but at the same time serve the community and guide them towards “siratul mustaqeem”.
All said and done, for this noble endeavor to reach the peak of success, needs full support of every nature from every member of our community. Remember to succeed is to plan, therefore plan to succeed!

Gulam Dinani
Vice President
The World Federation of KSIMC
7 September 2007
 
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