BAHRAIN’S Bohra community has mourned the death of their spiritual leader Dr Syedna Mohammed Burhanuddin yesterday.

Dr Burhanuddin, the spiritual leader of more than 1.5 million strong global community of Dawoodi Bohra Muslims, died at his residence in South Mumbai yesterday after a cardiac arrest. He was 102.

His son Syedna Mufaddal Saifuddin has succeeded him, it was announced.

The Dawoodi Bohra community, made up mainly of traders and businessmen, was one of the first business communities to settle in Bahrain from India in the late 1800s.

Bohra businessmen of renown include UK-based Lord Ghulam Noon, a member of the House of Lords and a frequent visitor to Bahrain, where he is known as a friend of the kingdom.

Keenly aware of the far-flung trade businesses of his community which is spread across the world, Dr Burhanuddin always emphasised that the Bohra community must live in peace and work with loyalty towards the country where they live.

This advice translated into a platform of patriotism to Bahrain among the Bohra community here.

A delegation of the Bahrain-based community will attend his funeral in India today.

He was known for his emphasis on education and secularism and the empowering of women through modern education.

Under his supervision, the Arabic academy of Jamea-tus-Saifiah in Surat has seen tremendous expansion and now has state-of-the-art facilities and a competent international baccalaureate office with acceptance worldwide.

There is now an Arabic Al Jamea academy in Pakistan and a third one coming up in Nairobi, Kenya.

Dr Burhanuddin’s era was also marked by a widespread programme of construction and renovation of mosques, mausoleums and community buildings in Bohra centres around the world.

He carried out a successful programme of restoring several fatameen mosques in Egypt and was on close terms with Arabic religious scholars in Egypt.

He also contributed towards the establishment of the Saifee Hospital in Mumbai, making it one of the most prominent and reputed medical centres that many Bahrain patients seek treatment in.

Visit

He visited Bahrain in 1995 and was warmly received by the late Amir His Highness Shaikh Isa bin Salman Al Khalifa.

“The Dawoodi Bohra community in Bahrain has been blessed with the personal attention of Dr Syedna Mohammed Burhanuddin,” said prominent community leader Mohammed Dadabhai.

“The community has always been respected by the leaders and people of Bahrain and we are part of the kingdom’s fabric.

“During his visit to Bahrain, Dr Burhanuddin brought the message of peace and progress of the Islamic world and was praised by the late Amir for his commitment to the uplift of the Islamic world. He was also hailed as an ambassador of peace by American leaders.”

The 70-year-old successor is the rector of the community’s 200-year-old institution Jamea-tus-Saifiah, which has campuses in Surat, Karachi, Mumbai and Nairobi.

“He was closely associated with the late Syedna and has received much of his spiritual guidance under the tutelage of his revered father.

Syedna Mufaddal Saifuddin will lead the Namaz-e-Janaza of the late Syedna at Saifee Masjid in Bhendi Bazaar. The late Syedna will be laid to rest at Raudat Tahera mausoleum in Mumbai, a spokesman said in Mumbai.

Thousands of Dawoodi Bohras from all over India and from around 40 nations are converging to Mumbai to pay their last respects to their beloved leader, the spokesman said.