ذَٰلِكَ وَمَن يُعَظِّمْ شَعَائِرَ اللَّهِ فَإِنَّهَا مِن تَقْوَى الْقُلُوبِ

One who honours the symbols of Allāh does so because of the Taqwā in the hearts.

ʾal-Ḥajj: 32

Alamut, Iran, the ultimate origin of Jamāt Khāna

Synopsis

Some use the word Jamāt Khāna in place of Muṣallā (prayer place without the official status of a Masjid). The word is neither Arabic nor Islamic and has connotations of disbelief. Its increasing usage amongst Muslim masses is disappointing and the silent acceptance by scholars is symptomatic of intellectual malaise.

History

Some years back the Jamʿīatul ʿUlamāʾ KZN published a poster encouraging South African Muslims to say Muṣallā, and not Jamāt Khāna. However, it did not give much explanation (perhaps due to lack of space) and I am not aware of anyone amongst the public who took the message to heed. This piece seeks to explain the term, its origins and why we should not use it.

The term originates with Gujerātī Shīʿah who morphed the Arabic jamāʿah (congregation) and Persian khānah (place) into Jamāt Khāna (place of congregating). This was not a mere linguistic difference for Muṣallā.  Jamāt Khāna has a vastly different and heretical meaning. This heretical meaning will be better understood if we first understand the history and theology behind it.

Iran & India

The Shīʿah Ṣafawiyyah conquest of Iran in 1502 had ramifications well beyond its borders. India in general, and Gujerāt in particular, would suffer the ignominy of a much larger Shīʿah demographic than it has today, and they may even have become the majority. We can never be grateful enough to ʾash-Shaykh ʾAḥmad Sirhindī, Shāh ʿAbdul ʿAzīẓ Muḥaddith Dahlawī and Mawlānā ʿAbdush Shakūr Lucknowī who were instrumental during their respective eras in reversing the Shīʿāh tsunami in India, and bringing Indian Muslims firmly back to the fold of the Sunnah.

We cannot deny that Muslims in India sometimes have customs and beliefs inherited from Hinduism by descent, or are influenced through proximity. Similarly some customs and ideas of some Sunnis have Shīʿah origins. One of these is the term Jamāt Khana adopted from the ʾĀgā Khānis of Gujerāt.

ʾĀgā Khānīs

The ʾIthnā ʿAshariyyah sect is currently the main sect of the Shīʿah. They dominate Iran and Iraq.

A millennium ago the ʾIsmāʿīliyyah sect dominated not just the Shīʿahs, but ruled the almost the entire west of the lands of Islām. Ṣalāḥuddīn ʾal-ʾAyyūbī destroyed their evil before he could confront the Crusaders. You will therefore never hear the Shīʿah praise this hero of Islām. The sect has fragmented into tiny sub-sects, such as the Nuṣayriyyah of Syria (may Allāh extinguish them and their oppression) and the ʾĀgā Khānīs of Gujerāt and Mumbai.

The ʾIsmāʿīliyyah are also known as the Bāṭiniyyah (the Esoteric or Inner Ones) because of their habit of presenting a supposed inner meaning of the Qurʿān, contrary to the plain, obvious meaning which Allāh’s Messenger (صلى الله عليه و سلم) and his Companions taught us.

Strangely in our times it is someone who claims to be a Sunnī who spreads more Bāṭinī interpretations than the Bāṭiniyyah themselves. May Allāh save us from the heresies of Imrān Ḥusayn and his ilk whose Bāṭinī interpretations have made Russia a god besides Allāh.

The Great Resurrection

A prime and most significant example of such tampering with the Qurʾān is their belief that the ʾIsmāʿīlī ʾImām, Ḥasan had already esoterically conducted Qiyāmah (Resurrection) in ʾAlamūt in Iran. Their Resurrection is not the future physical event which Muslims believe in. The following passage is taken from ʾIsmāʿīlī sources:

Mowla’na Ima’m Hasan Ala’Zikrihis Salaam declared the Youm-el-Qiya’ma, the Day of Resurrection, which was held on the nineteenth of Ramaza’n, 559 a.h. (10th of August, 1164). Thousands upon thousands of Ismai’ilis came from all corners of the world to attend this important day of resurrection of the holy faith. The Holy Ima’m declared…

“Today I have explained to you the Law [shari’at] and its meaning. I make you free from the rigidity of the Law and resurrect you from the bondage of the letter to the freedom of the spirit of the Law. Obey me and follow my farma’n [command]…. Break your fast and rejoice. This is the day of utmost happiness and gratitude.”

ʾIsmāʿīlī missionary, Abualy A. Aziz, entitled A Brief History of Ismailism, p.73

…it was a Friday in the holy month of Ramadhan. Hasan descended from the minbar (pulpit), offered two rak’at of prayers and asked his followers to break their fasts in the middle of the day and join him in the afternoon banquet, which included drinking of wine. Followers broke their fasts and joined Hasan in merrymaking. The Shari`ah laws were abolished from that day, and every year the 17th (19th, according to Abualy) of Ramadhan was celebrated as ‘id-i Qiyamat, the Festival of the Resurrection.

[Akbarally Maherally, A History of the Agakhani Ismailis, p.32]

Jamāt Khāna is born from that Filth

Muslims too believe that post the Resurrection there is no longer obligations of fasting, prayer, etc. The ʾIsmāʿīlīs abolished the laws and practices of Islām with their filthy inner interpretation of Resurrection. With Ṣalāh abolished what need is there for a Masjid?

In time, their demonic leadership must have realised that they had shot themselves in the foot. Every religion needs a communal ritual and communication amongst the followers. Thus in Gujerāt, the Bāṭiniyyah or ʾAgā Khanī leadership concocted rituals to be performed in a place of congregation, i.e. Jamāt Khāna.

You may click on this link to see what a real Jamāt Khāna is about (after completing this reading of course). Consider that the Qurʾān declares honouring the symbols of Allāh to be a sign of Taqwā.  Do you persist in calling a place where Allāh is worshipped by a name with such pagan meaning?

Muṣallā

Ignoring the debauched history narrated above, why do you and your scholars prefer this term above the word originating from Allāh’s Messenger (صلى الله عليه و سلم), i.e. Muṣallā? Granted that few devote themselves to learning history as I do. We all have different fields and specialities (although the state of knowledge of Sīrah of some of our scholars is embarrassing, to put it politely). Also granted that few had the opportunity as I did to learn about Sḥiasm, directly, individually and closely from the master-polemicist of our time, Mawlānā Ṭāhā Karān. However, how much knowledge is required before one questions that why is a non-Arabic word used for an Islāmic institution and why is the word we read in books of Ḥadīth overlooked? Yes, we are people who hear and obey, but since when does the Qurʾān command us to commit intellectual suicide and always accept things from previous generations without question?

Are we no better than the idolaters who said:

بل وجدنا آباءنا كذلك يفعلون

We found our forefathers doing thus. [ʾash-Shuʿārā: 74]

Muṣallā (مصلٰى) a word from the Sunnah, is so foreign to some scholars that when I ask why they spell it “Musallah” they offer an incorrect Arabic spelling (مصلة).

My point is not to be pedantic about spelling, and yes, even I admit that using Jamāt Khāna does not mark the end of our religion.  What I do worry about is that we have access to so much information these days, yet vast sections of Muslim still robotically act on ancestral customs without question, with no thought on bettering themselves. Worse, the scholars go with the flow. They do not correct the public and fear losing popularity. These I hope you can agree, are serious issues. I can give more serious examples, but enough said for now.

سليمان الكندي

Twitter: @Sulayman_Kindi