Mohammed Burhanuddin: Encyclopedia II - Mohammed Burhanuddin - Education Culture & Upliftment For Men & Women

Mohammed Burhanuddin - Education Culture & Upliftment For Men & Women

Mohammed Burhanuddin has emphasized education and modernization for both men and women of the community. There is an imbibed quest for knowledge amongst both sexes. This includes religious education as well as secular study in universities throughout the world. Thus, the Dawoodi Bohra community now has numerous men and women doctors as well as other professionals throughout the world.

Burhanuddin's era has also been marked by a spectacular and widespread programme of construction of mosques, mausoleums and community buildings in centres throughout the world. There is, for example Raudat Tahera, the mausoleum of his father Taher Saifuddin in Mumbai, India. The mausoleum contains the only example of the entire Qur'an being engraved in the walls of a building anywhere in the world. It has been done in gold leaf in marble with gems encrusted in the 'Bismillahs' (the opening verses of each individual chapter of the Qur'an).

In 1980 the renovation and restoration of the mosque of Al-Hakim in Cairo was completed by him, and since then several other Fatimid era masjids of Cairo have been restored to their former glory. In the wake of this endeavour Bohra communities across the world have sought to build their own masjids in their hometowns and Bohra masjids have been constructed as far afield as North America, Europe, Africa and Australia. These community centres and places of worship and congregation have fostered both a local and worldwide sense of togetherness and brotherhood which is seen most vividly in the annual gathering to commemorate the martyrdom of the Prophet Mohammed's grandson, Hussain at Karbala in the seventh century.

Burhanuddin has also contributed greatly to the society at large as is exemplified by contributing towards re-establishment of the Saifee Hospital in Mumbai, India in June 2005.

The community gathers in its tens of thousands to hear nine days of sermons by Mohammed Burhanuddin, the event taking place in a different city each year. Elsewhere the commemoration also takes place in every Bohra centre across the world with sermons given by appointed priests to local communities.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Education Culture & Upliftment For Men & Women", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki