Miracle of Syedna Mohammed Burhanuddin (TUS) - 1 - Personal Experience

I am a member of the Dawoodi Bohra community.

The following incident happened in July-August 2010 (just before Ramazan 1431) and I am writing it today to araz shukr (offer thanks) in the hazrat (holy presence) of Syedna Mohammed Burhanuddin (TUS):

I am a software engineer, residing in Mumbai, and during the period of January - August of 2010 I was working for a prestigious multi-national IT company (name withheld for obvious reasons). They had delegated me to their manufacturing unit  in Mumbai to provide support for the manufacturing unit's software division.

I was not very comfortable in this position and was trying to convince my managers for quite some time to bring  me back to our main IT office. Reasons for this were:

1. The culture of the manufacturing department was not very helpful for gaining IT expertise and the software division was a very neglected division.
2. The work was endless and laborious and I did not find any understanding from my managers at the manufacturing unit.
3. And, the most important reason was that they did not let me offer namaz (in their premise or outside) mainly during zohar-asr (afternoon) time.

I had experience prior to joining this multi-national company but nowhere had I faced opposition for offering namaz. This was the first such instance and I was pretty shocked to see their blunt attitude. It should also be noted that while I was at my main IT office there was no such opposition and there were a handful of people praying regularly at a secluded place.

Initially when I was warned not to pray namaz during office hours I ignored it; it used to take me hardly 5-7 minutes to offer prayers and I thought I will sneak out during lunch hours and no one will come to know. I had tried my best not to come in anyone's way and quietly follow my religion. But later they pressurized me by complaining to my IT office managers, who equally supported them.

I argued with my managers that in our head office people do offer namaz and I am just taking 5 minutes of lunch time  to perform my religious duties but the blankly opposed. Their argument was that office time is for office only and no personal work can be done at that time. But, my office time was also never ending and honestly there was much more office time wasted by people in chatting, tea and snacks and other such activities.

And all this happened just before the month of Ramazan. I was distressed, I just remembered the words of Syedna Mohammed Burhanuddin and how He stressed on the importance of namaz and I decided to quit my job.

On July 21, 2010 I resigned from my job. I was very worried as my family's financial position was not very great and I was about to get married in December that same year. But my entire family, including my now wife and in-laws supported my decision. I started giving interviews to any company that came my way, irrespective of its status and the position they were giving me. 

I had a 3 month notice period and I thought may be I will find something by then. But I did not know that my fortune was about to turn.

I got a chance to visit Burhanpur, Dargah-e-Hakimi and I was at the gates of Hakimuddin Moula's dargah when I got a call for an interview in Pune. I had not planned to leave Mumbai, and I had got a call from the same company earlier but I had ignored it since I wanted to stay in Mumbai. But right now I was going for everything, so I agreed to attend the interview in Pune.

I went from Burhanpur directly to Pune and attended the interview, I got selected. And astonishingly got twice the salary of my current company. So, I went from Burhanpur to my home with a job in hand. "Hakimuddin moula koi na khaali haath pacha nathi walta."

The first thing I sought after that was raza and dua mubarak of Burhanuddin Moula (TUS) to do a job in this company in Pune. I did not have many contacts and did not know how could I get my arzi done quickly as I had to reply back to the company for acceptance of the offer. But Burhanuddin Moula had everything planned for me.

My wife's friend had very good contact in Huzurala (TUS) and he got our arzi done. Within 1 day I got raza from Moula (TUS) to take the job if I find it suitable. So, in fifteen days time I had gone from no job to double salaried job. But this was not all, Moula (TUS) had one final surprise for me.

My company was based in Pune, but they had an open position at one of their clients in Mumbai, that too close to my home. Instead of serving 3 months notice I quit the job in 40 days. And, yes  my new managers did not have any problems with me offering namaz. In fact, they used to see to it that I did not have any problems during that period.

All this happened so fast that it was difficult to believe for me. More than just a co-incidence of events this seemed a planned sequence of events in my life, planned by my Moula (TUS).

One last aspect I want to point out here is that there was a masjid tameer fund scheme going on in our tanzeem committee and our aamil saheb had greatly enforced everyone to pay their masjid tameer dues (as any aamil saheb would do). But I was deeply touched by his words. He used to say that - "Khuda nu ghar aabaad karso to tamaro pan ghar aabaad thase".  I had paid our masjid tameer dues as soon as I had collected enough money and co-incidently that was in the same month of July 2010. Aamil saheb was right!

It is true that Moula (TUS) apna har amal par nazar rakhe chhe. Ane aap Moula ne saccha dil si yaad karo to Moula madad par aawe chhe.

I offer my humblest and most sincere thanks to Allah ta'ala, Hakimuddin Moula and Syedna Mohammed Burhanuddin Aqa (TUS). May Allah grant our beloved moula a long, prosperous and healthy life till the day of judgement. Ameen!