Syedna al-Hasan Badr al-Din II (RA)

بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمٰنِ الرَّحِيمِ

In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful

اللَّهُمَّ صَلِّ عَلَى مُحَمَّدٍ وَآلِ مُحَمَّدٍ

Introduction: The Full Moon That Shone for Forty-Four Years

Among the great Dais of the Yemeni centuries, Syedna al-Hasan Badr al-Din ibn Idris Imad al-Din (RA) — the Twentieth Dai al-Mutlaq — stands as a figure of enduring spiritual radiance and quiet institutional genius. His very name, Badr al-Din — “The Full Moon of the Faith” — speaks to his luminous role in an era when the community of the Tayyibi Dawat needed precisely the kind of steady, unwavering light that a full moon provides: constant, reliable, gentle, and sufficient for all who travel by night.

He assumed the sacred office of the Dai al-Mutlaq in 872 AH / 1468 CE, succeeding his beloved father, the incomparable historian and scholar Syedna Idris Imad al-Din (RA) — the Nineteenth Dai. He led the community with wisdom, generosity, and spiritual depth for forty-four unbroken years, until his wafat in 918 AH / 1512 CE. He was succeeded by his brother, the Twenty-first Dai, Syedna Husain Husam al-Din ibn Idris Imad al-Din (RA).

His mazaar — the sacred site of his resting place and a destination for the ziyarat of believers — is at Masaar (also spelled Massaar), in the Yemeni highlands, a place hallowed by his presence and visited by the faithful who come seeking his intercession and blessing.

To understand Syedna al-Hasan Badr al-Din II (RA) fully is to understand the extraordinary family from which he came, the historical world in which he lived, the scholarly inheritance he safeguarded, and the vision that guided his long stewardship of the Dawat al-Tayyibiyya. This article attempts to do justice to all of these dimensions.

Part One: The World He Inherited — Yemen, the Dawat, and the Fifteenth Century

The Physical and Spiritual Geography of Yemen

Yemen in the fifteenth century was a land of dramatic contrasts. Along its coasts lay ports through which the trade of the world flowed — spices from the East Indies, cloth from India, gold from East Africa — making Aden one of the most cosmopolitan cities of the medieval world. In the interior, jagged mountain ranges rose to elevations that made them among the most defensible territories in the Arabian Peninsula. The Jabal Haraz highlands, with their deep gorges and cloud-wreathed peaks, had been the refuge and stronghold of the Tayyibi Dawat since the twelfth century, when the Dawat was first established in secret after the Imam al-Tayyib went into occultation.

It was in these highlands — in towns and villages like Shibam al-Gharas, Hutayb, and Masaar — that the sacred ‘ilm of the Fatimid Imams was preserved, transmitted, and deepened through generations of Dais. The physical remoteness that made these places difficult to reach was precisely what made them safe. The Zaydi imams of northern Yemen and the Sunni sultans of the lowlands were perpetual threats, but the mountains were a natural fortress around the community’s sacred center.

The Dawat’s presence in Yemen was not merely a historical accident. The great Malika al-Hurra Sayyida bint Ahmad al-Sulayhi (RA) — who ruled Yemen from Sana’a as a sovereign queen in the eleventh century — had been the instrument through whom the connection between the Fatimid Imams and the Yemeni community was formally established. It was through her correspondence with the Imam al-Mustansir that the Tayyibi mission in Yemen was organized. When the Imam al-Tayyib went into occultation in 526 AH / 1130 CE, it was his Da’i — his representative — who became the head of the Dawat on earth, authorized to guide the community in the Imam’s name until his eventual return.

The Chain of Dais Before Syedna al-Hasan Badr al-Din II

The Dawat had, by the time of the Twentieth Dai, accumulated nearly three and a half centuries of history in Yemen. The first Dai al-Mutlaq had been Syedna Zoeb ibn Musa al-Wadi’i (RA), whose appointment by Syedna Khattab ibn al-Hasan (RA) in 532 AH established the institution that continues to this day. Each Dai who followed had preserved and transmitted the sacred trust of the Imamate — the knowledge, the authority, and the community — through circumstances that were often extremely difficult.

The early Dais operated under the protection of the Sulayhid dynasty, whose queen, al-Malika al-Sayyida (RA), herself a devoted follower, had created the conditions for the Dawat to flourish. But the Sulayhids declined after her death, and subsequent Dais had to navigate the complex politics of Ayyubid Yemen — a Sunni dynasty that viewed the Ismaili community with theological hostility — and then the Rasulid sultans, who were somewhat more accommodating but no less vigilant.

The Hamidi period — named for the family of Syedna Ibrahim al-Hamidi (RA), the Fifth Dai, and his son Syedna Muhammad ibn Tahir al-Harithani (RA), the Sixth Dai — was among the most intellectually productive in the early history of the Dawat. Syedna Ibrahim al-Hamidi (RA) composed the Kanz al-Walad, one of the foundational works of Tayyibi philosophy, and established a tradition of deep ta’wil and batin scholarship that shaped all subsequent Dais. The Hamidi tradition combined rigorous philosophical inquiry with devotional depth and practical community leadership — a model that the greatest later Dais, including the Nineteenth Dai Syedna Idris Imad al-Din (RA) and his son the Twentieth Dai, inherited and continued.

By the time of the Eighteenth Dai, Syedna Idris Imad al-Din’s own predecessor, the Dawat had survived Mongol disruptions, Ayyubid hostility, Rasulid complexities, and internal challenges. The community that the Twentieth Dai inherited was seasoned, resilient, and deeply rooted.

Part Two: Lineage and Birth — Son of the Greatest Historian of the Dawat

The Nineteenth Dai: Syedna Idris Imad al-Din (RA)

To understand Syedna al-Hasan Badr al-Din II (RA) is, in large measure, to understand his father, because the Twentieth Dai was formed by his father’s example, his father’s scholarship, and his father’s vision of what the Dawat could be.

Syedna Idris Imad al-Din ibn al-Hasan (RA) — the Nineteenth Dai al-Mutlaq — was born in 794 AH / 1392 CE and assumed the position of Dai in 832 AH / 1428 CE, holding it until his wafat in 872 AH / 1468 CE. His tenure of forty years was one of the most intellectually glorious in the Dawat’s history. He was not merely a religious administrator or a community leader — he was a scholar of the first order, a historian whose works constitute the primary documentary foundation for almost everything we know about Fatimid and Tayyibi history.

His masterwork is the Uyun al-Akhbar wa-Funun al-Athar — “The Springs of Reports and the Arts of Traces” — a monumental historical and biographical chronicle in seven substantial volumes. This work is the single most important source for the history of the Fatimid Imams, the institution of the Dai al-Mutlaq, the political history of Ismaili communities in Yemen and Egypt, and the biographies of the early and middle Dais. Without the Uyun al-Akhbar, our knowledge of Dawat history would be fragmentary and unreliable. Syedna Idris (RA) drew on archives preserved within the Dawat — original correspondence, official documents, biographies of Dais, accounts of events — and wove them into a coherent, richly detailed narrative that has served as the primary reference for all subsequent scholars.

But the Uyun al-Akhbar was not the only work of the Nineteenth Dai. He also composed:

Nuzhat al-Afkar wa-Rawdat al-Asrar — “The Promenade of Thoughts and the Garden of Secrets” — a work of ta’wil and esoteric wisdom
Zahr al-Ma’ani — “The Blossoms of Meanings” — poetry of profound spiritual depth in the tradition of Dawat devotional verse
Rahat al-‘Aql — “The Repose of the Intellect” — a philosophical work in the tradition of the great Fatimid philosophers
Al-Dhahab al-Masbuk fi Dhikr al-Khulafa’ wa-l-Muluk — “The Cast Gold in the Mention of Caliphs and Kings” — a chronicle of the Fatimid caliphs
‘Iqd al-Lalal al-Ghalit fi Dhikr al-Ni’mat wa-l-Fadhil — “The String of Immaculate Pearls” — a work on virtues and blessings
Numerous epistles and risalas on matters of fiqh, theology, and community governance

The breadth and depth of the Nineteenth Dai’s scholarship is almost without parallel in the entire history of the Dawat. He was not merely a custodian of the Dawat’s intellectual heritage but its most prolific and brilliant interpreter and documenter.

Moreover, Syedna Idris Imad al-Din (RA) was a political figure of consequence. He maintained relations with the Tahirid sultans who governed much of Yemen during his era and worked to secure the community’s safety and freedom from these Sunni rulers. The Tahirids, unlike some of their predecessors, were relatively tolerant of the Ismaili community, and the Nineteenth Dai’s diplomatic skill helped maintain this relationship through periods that might otherwise have become dangerous.

He is buried at Masaar, Yemen — the same location where his son, the Twentieth Dai, would later be laid to rest. The proximity of their mazaars reflects both the family’s deep connection to this place and the continuity of their spiritual presence.

The Family of the Nineteenth Dai

The family from which Syedna al-Hasan Badr al-Din II (RA) descended is among the most distinguished in the history of the Dawat. They are known as the Banu al-Walid al-Anf — a lineage that had supplied Dais since the time of the Seventeenth Dai, Syedna al-Hasan Badr al-Din I (RA), who bore the same name as our subject.

The naming tradition within this family is itself a theological statement. The alternation of “Hasan” and “Husain” across generations reflects the deeply Alid consciousness of the family — their constant identification with the two grandsons of the Prophet (peace be upon him and his family). The pairing of “Badr al-Din” with “Husam al-Din” similarly reflects a tradition of honoring the faith through the very names borne by its leaders. When Syedna al-Hasan Badr al-Din II (RA) was given his name, it consciously echoed the Seventeenth Dai — a statement that this generation was heir to that great legacy.

Birth and Early Formation

The exact date of Syedna al-Hasan Badr al-Din II’s (RA) birth is not recorded in the sources available to us, but he was born in the years when his father, the Nineteenth Dai, was already in the full flower of his scholarship and leadership. He grew up in the Dawat’s heartland — surrounded by scholars, texts, the practices of the community, the rhythms of Dawat life.

His education was the finest available: direct transmission from his father of the ‘ilm batini — the inner knowledge that is the distinctive possession of the Imams and their representatives. The ta’wil of Quranic verses, the esoteric meaning of the ritual practices, the philosophical traditions of the Fatimid thinkers, the historical and biographical knowledge contained in his father’s vast archives — all of this formed the intellectual inheritance of the young Hasan ibn Idris.

He was also educated in the zahir — the exoteric sciences. Arabic language and grammar, the traditions of Islamic jurisprudence, the recitation and memorization of the Quran, the sciences of hadith — these outer sciences were the foundation on which the batin was built, and the Dawat tradition has always insisted on mastery of both. A scholar who knows only the outer is incomplete; one who claims the inner without the outer is unmoored. The Twentieth Dai’s formation gave him both.

He witnessed, during his father’s long tenure, the functioning of the Dawat at its highest level: the appointment and management of deputies and representatives throughout Yemen and increasingly in India; the adjudication of community disputes; the administration of charitable endowments and properties; the reception of visitors and dignitaries; the composition and preservation of scholarly texts. By the time he was appointed to the office of Dai al-Mutlaq in 872 AH, he had been a student of governance for decades.

Part Three: The Appointment — 872 AH / 1468 CE

The Nass of the Nineteenth Dai

The appointment of a Dai al-Mutlaq occurs through a process that the Dawat considers sacred: the sitting Dai, near the end of his life, designates his successor through a formal act of nass — a clear, witnessed declaration that transfers the spiritual authority of the Imamate’s representative to a specific individual. This is not an election, not a decision by committee or council, but a divinely guided designation, understood to be carried out under the direct guidance of the hidden Imam al-Tayyib through inspiration given to the Dai.

When Syedna Idris Imad al-Din (RA) performed the nass designating his son Syedna al-Hasan Badr al-Din (RA) as his successor, he was acting within a tradition of more than three centuries and conforming to the pattern of divine guidance that had maintained the Dawat’s integrity since its founding. The Nineteenth Dai’s designation of his own son was not nepotism but spiritual recognition — a father’s clear-eyed assessment, guided by the Imam’s inspiration, that this particular son possessed the qualities — spiritual, intellectual, and practical — that the office required.

The nass was performed in the presence of the senior scholars and dignitaries of the Dawat, and was preserved in memory and in writing. When the Nineteenth Dai passed from this world in 872 AH, the transition to his successor was immediate, clear, and uncontested.

The Year 872 AH in Historical Context

The year 872 AH (1468 CE) was a significant moment in the history of both Yemen and the broader Islamic world. In Egypt, the Mamluk sultan was still in power, though that dynasty’s eventual fall to the Ottomans was barely fifty years away. In Arabia, the Ottoman Empire was beginning its expansion toward the Arab lands that would, within another generation, bring even Yemen into its orbit. In India, the Lodi dynasty had come to power in Delhi, and the Mughal empire that would eventually become the great patron — and sometimes the great persecutor — of the Bohra community was still decades in the future.

In Yemen itself, the Tahirid sultans, who had cultivated a working relationship with the Dawat during the Nineteenth Dai’s era, were in a period of relative stability. The Zaydi imams of the north remained a persistent counter-force, but they did not, during this period, threaten the Dawat’s highland strongholds directly. The Twentieth Dai thus inherited a community that was, by the standards of its long and difficult history, in a relatively secure position.

Part Four: The Tenure — Forty-Four Years of Wisdom

The Length of the Tenure and Its Significance

Forty-four years is an extraordinary length of time for any leadership role. In the context of the Dawat, where tenures ranged from a few years to several decades, the Twentieth Dai’s forty-four year stewardship places him among the longest-serving Dais in the community’s history. This longevity was itself a form of divine blessing — the community was given, in the critical transition period between the Yemeni era and the Indian era, a generation of stable, continuous, single-minded leadership.

The community’s memory and institutional knowledge are preserved not only in texts but in the living practice of people who have experienced the Dawat’s rhythms over long periods. A Dai who serves for four decades shapes the community in ways that extend far beyond any specific decision or event — he shapes the habits, the expectations, the character, the deep culture of the people he leads. Syedna al-Hasan Badr al-Din II (RA), by the sheer duration of his service, made an impress on the Tayyibi community that outlasted his own lifetime.

When Syedna al-Hasan Badr al-Din II (RA) became Dai, the dominant political power in lowland Yemen was the Tahirid dynasty (858–923 AH / 1454–1517 CE). The Tahirids were Sunni Muslims of a relatively moderate disposition, and they had developed a relationship with the Dawat during the Nineteenth Dai’s era that allowed the community to function with a degree of security, though never with complete freedom.

The Tahirid sultans were interested in Yemen’s trade and agricultural revenues, and the Ismaili community — concentrated in the productive highlands of Jabal Haraz and surrounding areas — represented both a source of revenue and a potential political complication. The Twentieth Dai’s management of this relationship required the same diplomatic skill that his father had exercised: maintaining the Dawat’s internal autonomy, protecting the community from external interference, and navigating the occasional tensions that arose without ever compromising the Dawat’s essential independence.

The highlands themselves provided the ultimate protection. The mountain strongholds of the Jabal Haraz — places like Hutayb, Shibam al-Gharas, and Masaar — were difficult to reach and difficult to hold for any outside power. The community’s deep local roots, their knowledge of the terrain, and their cohesion gave them a natural resilience that no lowland power could easily overcome. The Twentieth Dai continued to anchor the Dawat in these highlands while maintaining the diplomatic channels that gave the community room to breathe.

As his tenure progressed, new threats emerged on the horizon. The Portuguese, who had rounded the Cape of Good Hope and were projecting their naval power into the Indian Ocean, began appearing in Yemeni waters and harassing the trade routes that connected Yemen to India. This was a significant development, because the connection between Yemen and India — both commercially and in terms of the Dawat’s relationship with the growing Bohra community in Gujarat — was essential to the Dawat’s future.

The Ottoman Empire, which conquered Egypt in 923 AH / 1517 CE — just five years after the Twentieth Dai’s death — was already a looming presence. Its expansion into Arabia and toward Yemen would eventually reshape the entire political landscape of the region. The Twentieth Dai did not live to see the Ottoman conquest, but the geopolitical tremors that preceded it were perceptible during the later years of his tenure.

The Community in Gujarat: Seeds of a Great Transformation

The most consequential dimension of Syedna al-Hasan Badr al-Din II’s (RA) leadership — one whose full significance would only become apparent a generation after his death — was his relationship with the Bohra community in Gujarat.

The Bohra community in western India had its roots in the missionary activities of the early Tayyibi Dawat. Ismaili missionaries had been active in Gujarat from the early twelfth century onward, and by the fifteenth century there was a substantial community of Bohra Muslims — traders, artisans, and scholars — in cities like Ahmedabad, Patan, Cambay, and Broach. These communities maintained their connection to the Yemen Dawat through the practice of sending young men for higher education to Yemen, paying the wajebat (obligatory dues) to the Dai, and receiving the Dai’s blessings and guidance in return.

During the Twentieth Dai’s era, this connection deepened and the community in India grew. The prosperity of Gujarat’s trade — the Bohra community were among the most accomplished merchants of the Indian Ocean world, trading in textiles, spices, gems, and other commodities — gave the community resources to invest in education and religious life. Parents who had achieved material success wanted their sons to receive the highest possible religious education, and that meant a journey to Yemen.

Historical accounts from within the Dawat tradition record that Syedna al-Hasan Badr al-Din II (RA) received these students from India with particular warmth and generosity. He arranged for their accommodation, attended to their material needs during their stay in Yemen, provided them with access to the Dawat’s scholars and texts, and sent them home enriched with ‘ilm that they would then teach in their communities. This was not merely hospitality — it was a deliberate investment in the future of the Dawat.

The Twentieth Dai understood, perhaps more clearly than any of his predecessors, that the demographic and economic weight of the Dawat was shifting. Yemen, with its difficult terrain and constant political pressures, could sustain the Dawat but could not expand it. India, with its large population, its prosperous merchant communities, its relative religious tolerance under the Sultanate and early Mughal rulers, and its vast potential for growth, was the Dawat’s future. By investing in Indian scholars with such consistent generosity, the Twentieth Dai was planting the seeds of that future.

Among the students who would have received the Dawat’s ‘ilm during his era — directly or through the scholars he trained — were the forebears of the remarkable individual who would eventually become the Twenty-fourth Dai, Syedna Yusuf Najm al-Din (RA), the first Gujarati to hold the supreme office of the Dawat. The arc from the Twentieth Dai’s generosity to the first Indian Dai spans less than sixty years — within living memory of a single generation.

Internal Governance and the Hierarchical Structure of the Dawat

The Dawat al-Tayyibiyya operates through a carefully structured hierarchy of authority that mirrors, in its spiritual significance, the hierarchy of the cosmos itself. At the apex is the hidden Imam al-Tayyib (RA), whose presence is real though invisible. Below him, the Dai al-Mutlaq — the “Unrestricted Missionary” — holds the supreme authority on earth, acting as the Imam’s representative and the channel through which the Imam’s guidance reaches the community.

Below the Dai are the Mazoon — the “Permission-Giver,” the Dai’s primary deputy, who acts with delegated authority and deputizes for the Dai when necessary. Below the Mazoon is the Mukasir — literally “the Breaker,” meaning the one who breaks open the outer shell of knowledge to reveal the inner, esoteric kernel. These three offices — Dai, Mazoon, and Mukasir — form the innermost circle of the Dawat’s leadership, and their coordination is essential to the functioning of the institution.

Below these offices extends a hierarchy of learned scholars — the Duat (plural of Da’i, in the sense of missionaries), the Shaikhs, the Maulana rank — who serve as the Dai’s representatives and teachers throughout the community. In Yemen, this hierarchy was organized around the highland strongholds; in India, it was organized around the major cities of Gujarat.

Syedna al-Hasan Badr al-Din II (RA) administered this hierarchy throughout his forty-four year tenure. The appointment of the right individuals to the right positions — individuals who combined scholarly competence with personal integrity, theological soundness with practical wisdom — was one of the Dai’s most important responsibilities. A poor appointment could weaken the community’s internal life; a wise appointment could strengthen it for a generation. The Twentieth Dai’s long tenure gave him the time and the perspective to build a strong institutional foundation.

He also administered the waqf (charitable endowments) and properties that supported the Dawat’s activities — the scholars, the schools, the mosques, the charitable activities that served the community. These material resources were essential to the Dawat’s functioning, and their management required the same care and wisdom as the management of the community’s spiritual life.

The Scholarly Environment Under the Twentieth Dai

The intellectual environment of the Dawat during Syedna al-Hasan Badr al-Din II’s (RA) era was shaped primarily by the massive scholarly legacy of his father. The seven volumes of the Uyun al-Akhbar were the central reference work for the entire community, and they were studied, copied, and transmitted throughout the Dawat. The Twentieth Dai presided over a community in which scholarship was understood as a sacred obligation — not merely an intellectual exercise but a form of worship and a means of preservation.

The Dawat tradition holds that Syedna al-Hasan Badr al-Din II (RA) composed or supervised the composition of scholarly works that deepened the intellectual life of the community. The specific titles of works attributed to him are not always clearly documented in the sources available outside the Dawat’s own archives, but the tradition of scholarly composition — of writing risalas (epistles) on specific theological or jurisprudential questions, of composing qasidas (odes) of devotional poetry, of writing the khutbas and siyaqas (formal speeches) that marked the Dawat’s ceremonial occasions — continued throughout his tenure.

The tradition of ta’wil — the esoteric, allegorical interpretation of the Quran and other sacred texts — was the distinctive intellectual practice of the Dawat. The Fatimid philosophers — al-Sijistani, al-Kirmani, Hamid al-Din al-Kirmani, Nasir-i Khusraw — had developed a rich tradition of ta’wil that was preserved and extended by the Yemen Dais. This tradition understood every verse of the Quran, every ritual practice, every historical event as possessing both a zahir (apparent meaning) and a batin (hidden meaning). The Dai’s role included transmitting the batin to those prepared to receive it — not indiscriminately, but carefully, to the qualified and sincere.

The great ta’wils of the Fatimid period were preserved in the Dawat’s libraries — physical manuscripts of immense value, not only intellectually but as material objects that represented decades or centuries of careful copying and preservation. The Twentieth Dai’s responsibility for these manuscripts was profound. In an era before printing, the loss of a single manuscript could mean the permanent disappearance of knowledge that had taken generations to accumulate. His stewardship of the Dawat’s textual treasury was an act of service to all future generations.

Part Five: The Heritage of the Yemeni Dais — Deep Historical Context

The Ayyubid Period and Its Challenges

The Ayyubid dynasty — founded by the great Saladin (Salah al-Din ibn Ayyub) — conquered Yemen in 569 AH / 1173 CE and held it for nearly a century. The Ayyubids were Sunni Muslims of the Shafi’i school, and they viewed the Ismaili community with theological suspicion, if not outright hostility. Their conquest of Yemen disrupted the relatively comfortable arrangement that the Dawat had enjoyed under the later Sulayhids and imposed new pressures on the community.

The Dais of the Ayyubid period — including Syedna Ibrahim ibn al-Husain al-Hamidi (RA), the Fifth Dai, and his successors — had to operate with greater secrecy and care than their predecessors. The Jabal Haraz highlands became more important than ever as a refuge. The mountain communities, largely self-sufficient in food and with excellent natural defenses, could maintain their way of life despite the hostility of the lowland rulers. The Dais of this period developed the art of taqiyya — the practice of concealing one’s religious identity when necessary for self-preservation — to a high degree of sophistication.

The intellectual productivity of the Ayyubid period, paradoxically, was considerable. When external pressure increases, internal life often deepens. The Dais of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries composed some of the most important works of Tayyibi philosophy and ta’wil — works that would form the intellectual foundation for all subsequent generations. Syedna Ibrahim al-Hamidi’s (RA) Kanz al-Walad — composed during this challenging period — stands as one of the masterpieces of Ismaili philosophy.

The Rasulid Period: Relative Tolerance and Continued Growth

The Rasulid dynasty (626–858 AH / 1229–1454 CE), which replaced the Ayyubids in Yemen, adopted a somewhat different posture toward the Ismaili community. The Rasulids were sophisticated rulers who presided over a genuine cultural renaissance in Yemen — their courts in Zabid and Ta’izz were centers of learning, poetry, and science. While they remained Sunni Muslims and did not actively patronize the Ismaili community, they were more pragmatic and less ideologically hostile than the Ayyubids had been.

The Dawat under the Rasulids was able to function with greater openness, at least in the highland regions that had always been its stronghold. The sixteenth through eighteenth Dais — including Syedna al-Hasan Badr al-Din I (RA), the Seventeenth, after whom our subject was named — lived and worked during the Rasulid period and were able to maintain the Dawat’s scholarly and institutional life at a high level.

The Rasulid period also saw the deepening of connections with India. Yemen’s trade connections with the Indian subcontinent — across the Arabian Sea — were ancient and well-developed, and the Rasulid period maintained these connections. It was through these trade routes that the Dawat’s missionary reach extended to Gujarat, and it was during the Rasulid centuries that the Indian Bohra community grew to the point where it would eventually become the Dawat’s center of gravity.

The Hamidi Scholarly Tradition in Depth

The Fifth Dai, Syedna Ibrahim ibn al-Husain al-Hamidi (RA), is one of the most towering figures in the intellectual history of the Tayyibi Dawat. His family — the Banu Hamid — produced a succession of Dais and scholars who shaped the Dawat’s philosophical tradition for generations. Understanding the Hamidi contribution helps explain why the Dawat, despite its small size and the pressures it faced, produced such a remarkable intellectual tradition.

Syedna Ibrahim al-Hamidi’s (RA) Kanz al-Walad — “The Treasury of the Child” — is a systematic work of Ismaili philosophy that addresses the nature of the intellect, the soul, the cosmos, and the hierarchy of being from the Neo-Platonic perspective that characterized Fatimid thought. Like other Fatimid philosophers, he understood the cosmos as a hierarchy of emanations from the divine principle — Intellect, Soul, Nature, Matter — and understood the Imam as the one who, in his spiritual perfection, most fully embodies the descent of divine light into the human world.

This philosophical framework is not merely abstract speculation. It has direct implications for how the Dawat understands the role of the Dai. If the cosmos is a hierarchy of light descending from the divine, and the Imam is the supreme point of contact between the divine and the human, then the Dai — as the Imam’s representative during the period of occultation — is the channel through which that divine light reaches the community. This gives the Dai’s role a metaphysical significance that transcends any merely political or organizational understanding.

The Hamidi philosophical tradition was deepened and extended by subsequent scholars. By the time of Syedna Idris Imad al-Din (RA), the Nineteenth Dai, this tradition had been enriched by centuries of commentary, elaboration, and response to new intellectual challenges. His own Rahat al-‘Aql drew on and extended the Hamidi tradition, adding to it the historical and biographical knowledge that his Uyun al-Akhbar preserved.

Syedna al-Hasan Badr al-Din II (RA) was heir to this entire tradition. His education had given him access to the great works of Fatimid philosophy and Tayyibi ta’wil. His responsibility was not only to preserve these works but to transmit their spirit — the living intellectual and spiritual vitality that gave the texts their meaning — to the next generation.

Part Six: Karamat and Mojezat — The Miracles of the Dai

The Nature of Karamat in the Dawat Tradition

The Tayyibi tradition understands the Dai al-Mutlaq as a figure of extraordinary spiritual elevation. As the representative of the hidden Imam, he participates in a spiritual authority that is, in its ultimate source, divine. This participation manifests in ways that ordinary human experience cannot fully account for — what the tradition calls karamat (graces) or mojezat (miracles).

The Dawat tradition is careful to distinguish the nature of karamat from the kind of supernatural spectacle that popular religious imagination sometimes expects. The Dai’s spiritual gifts are understood to be primarily gifts of ‘ilm — of knowledge, insight, foresight, and wisdom — rather than violations of the natural order. The greatest miracle, in the Dawat’s understanding, is the preservation of the community through impossible odds; the greatest grace is the inspiration to say or do the right thing at the right moment.

With this understanding, the karamat attributed to Syedna al-Hasan Badr al-Din II (RA) become deeply meaningful:

The Karamat of Foresight: Knowing Who Would Carry the Dawat

The most significant spiritual gift attributed to the Twentieth Dai is his extraordinary foresight regarding the Indian students who came to Yemen during his tenure. Dawat tradition records that he did not merely receive all students equally but showed particular attention to those who possessed, in his perception, the qualities that the Dawat’s future would require.

To a scholar from India who showed exceptional promise, the Twentieth Dai would give not merely education but initiation into levels of ‘ilm that went beyond what most students received. To one who seemed destined for leadership, he would assign responsibilities and challenges that tested and developed the qualities of leadership. This discriminating generosity — knowing not merely who was intelligent but who was truly ready for the Dawat’s deepest knowledge — is understood in the tradition as a form of ‘ilm al-ladunni, the divinely gifted knowledge that the Quran describes as given directly by Allah to those whom He chooses (Q. 18:65).

The results of this foresight, visible only in retrospect, were extraordinary. The Indian scholars who received this special attention during the Twentieth Dai’s tenure became the teachers of the teachers who produced the Twenty-fourth Dai, the first Indian Dai al-Mutlaq. The chain of transmission that connected the Twentieth Dai’s generosity to the historic transition of the Dawat from Yemen to India is not an accident but a testimony to inspired vision.

The Karamat of Sustaining Unity

Perhaps the most underappreciated miracle of any long-lived leader is the maintenance of unity — the prevention of schism, the resolution of disputes, the binding together of a diverse community around a shared identity and purpose. The Dawat history is marked by the tragedy of inqita’ — periods when the succession was disputed or the community was fragmented — and by the heroic labors of Dais who prevented or healed such breaks.

During Syedna al-Hasan Badr al-Din II’s (RA) forty-four year tenure, the community remained unified. There was no major schism, no serious challenge to the Dai’s authority, no fragmentation of the community’s institutional life. This unity — maintained across four decades, across a geographically dispersed community from Yemen to Gujarat — is understood in the tradition as a form of divine protection channeled through the Dai. His spiritual authority, recognized and felt by the community, was the center around which unity was maintained.

The Karamat of Preservation

The preservation of manuscripts — physical texts containing the irreplaceable intellectual heritage of the Dawat — is another dimension of the Twentieth Dai’s legacy that carries a miraculous quality. The Yemen of the fifteenth century was not a place that offered reliable physical security for fragile materials. Fires, floods, military raids, political upheavals — all of these posed threats to the libraries that the Dawat had accumulated over three centuries.

The fact that the great works of Fatimid philosophy, the seven volumes of the Uyun al-Akhbar, the poetic and devotional compositions of the earlier Dais — the fact that all of these survived the Twentieth Dai’s era and were transmitted to subsequent generations is not a purely natural achievement. It required constant vigilance, careful copying, distribution of copies across multiple locations, and the kind of institutional priority that only a leader who truly understood the importance of the heritage would give. The Twentieth Dai gave this priority, and the tradition survives.

The Karamat of Blessed Intercession

The Dawat community visits the mazaars of the Dais — their sacred tombs — with the understanding that the Dais, though physically departed from this world, retain a spiritual presence that can benefit the living. The practice of ziyarat — pilgrimage to a mazaar — is understood as an opportunity to request the Dai’s shafa’at (intercession) with the Imam and, through the Imam, with Allah.

The mazaar of Syedna al-Hasan Badr al-Din II (RA) at Masaar, Yemen, has been a site of ziyarat for believers for over five centuries. The accounts of those who have visited — the experiences of peace, the feelings of spiritual renewal, the answers to prayers — are understood as testimonies to the living karamat of the Twentieth Dai. His physical life ended in 918 AH, but his spiritual presence, in the Dawat tradition, continues.

Part Seven: The Scholarly Legacy — Texts, Teaching, and Transmission

The Tradition of Dawat ‘Ilm

The ‘ilm of the Dawat — its sacred knowledge — operates on multiple levels simultaneously. At the most accessible level, it includes the religious practices that all believers observe: prayer, fasting, zakat, hajj, and the specific practices of the Tayyibi tradition. At a deeper level, it includes the understanding of why these practices have their specific form — the ta’wil that reveals the inner significance of the ritual. At the deepest level, it includes the cosmological and philosophical knowledge that gives a comprehensive picture of the divine, the cosmos, the soul, and the path of return to the divine.

The transmission of this knowledge operates through a hierarchical system of graduated disclosure. Not every member of the community is ready for every level of knowledge — the preparation required is not merely intellectual but spiritual and moral. The Dai’s role in this system is to be the ultimate source of the highest ‘ilm while also ensuring that appropriate levels of knowledge are transmitted to all members of the community according to their capacity and preparation.

Syedna al-Hasan Badr al-Din II (RA) presided over this system for forty-four years. He taught — directly and through the scholars he appointed — at all levels. He delivered the sermons that communicated the religious life of the community to all believers. He conducted the inner teaching sessions (majalis ‘ilm) in which deeper knowledge was transmitted to the prepared. He administered the processes of takyun (formal initiation) by which individuals entered into the covenantal relationship with the Dawat that entitled them to its deepest knowledge.

Works and Compositions

Within the Dawat’s scholarly tradition, the Dai al-Mutlaq is expected to contribute to the corpus of sacred literature — not merely to preserve and transmit what has come before, but to add to it in ways appropriate to the needs of his time. The specific works of Syedna al-Hasan Badr al-Din II (RA) are preserved in the Dawat’s archives, which are maintained with great care and are not fully disclosed to outside scholars. What the tradition records is that he composed:

Epistles on matters of jurisprudence and theology (risalas): The Dai’s authority includes the power to issue formal responses (nusus) to specific questions of Islamic law and practice. Throughout his forty-four year tenure, many such questions arose, and the Twentieth Dai’s responses to them constituted an important body of legal and theological teaching.

Devotional poetry (qasidas and other forms): The tradition of composing poetry in praise of the Ahl al-Bayt — the family of the Prophet — and in articulation of the Dawat’s spiritual vision is one of the most valued activities of the Dais. The Twentieth Dai continued this tradition, composing poetry that expressed both his personal devotion and his theological understanding.

Khutbas and formal speeches: The Dai’s ceremonial speeches — at the great occasions of the Islamic calendar and the Dawat’s own commemorations — are composed with great care and contain significant theological content. These speeches, delivered to the community and preserved in writing, constitute an important record of the Dai’s teaching.

Ta’wil discourses: The regular sessions of ta’wil — in which specific verses of the Quran or specific passages from earlier Dawat literature were given their esoteric interpretation — produced a body of teaching that was transmitted through the community’s scholarly tradition.

Correspondence: The Dai’s correspondence with his representatives, with community leaders in Yemen and India, and with other parties outside the community is an important documentary record. The Twentieth Dai’s long tenure produced a substantial volume of such correspondence, portions of which are preserved in the Dawat’s archives.

The Transmission of the Uyun al-Akhbar

One of the most significant scholarly activities of the Twentieth Dai’s era was the active transmission and study of his father’s Uyun al-Akhbar. This monumental work — seven volumes of historical and biographical material — was not merely a historical record but a living document of the Dawat’s identity and memory.

The Uyun al-Akhbar was read, studied, and copied throughout the Twentieth Dai’s tenure. Scholars were trained to read and understand it, to extract from it the biographical and historical knowledge relevant to the community’s current situation, and to use it as a teaching text in the transmission of Dawat history to new generations. The Twentieth Dai, as the son of the work’s author, had a unique relationship to this text — he had witnessed its composition, had heard his father discuss its sources and conclusions, and carried in his personal memory a living commentary on the written record.

This living commentary — the oral tradition of explanation and elaboration that accompanies any great written work in the Islamic scholarly tradition — was one of the most precious things the Twentieth Dai transmitted to his students. A text without its living tradition of interpretation is a body without a soul; the Twentieth Dai ensured that the Uyun al-Akhbar retained its living spirit as it was transmitted to future generations.

Part Eight: The Role of the Dai as Representative of the Hidden Imam

The Doctrine of the Hidden Imam

Central to the entire structure of the Tayyibi Dawat is the doctrine of the hidden Imam — the belief that Imam al-Tayyib ibn al-Amir (RA), the son of the Fatimid caliph al-Amir bi-Ahkam Allah, went into occultation in 526 AH / 1130 CE and has remained in occultation ever since, awaiting the moment when Allah wills his return to public leadership of the community.

This doctrine — which has parallels in Twelver Shia thought, where the Twelfth Imam went into occultation in 874 CE — is not understood by the Tayyibi community as an absence but as a concealment. The Imam exists; he is present in the world; he is aware of the community’s condition; he guides it through his representative, the Dai al-Mutlaq. The occultation is a test of faith — can the community maintain its loyalty, its practice, its knowledge, and its unity without the physical presence of the Imam? The institution of the Dawat, with its continuous chain of Dais, is the answer to this test.

The Dai’s authority is thus understood as derivative — he holds his position because the Imam has authorized it, and his commands are binding because they reflect the Imam’s will. When the Dai speaks, the Imam speaks through him. When the Dai designates a successor, he is transmitting the Imam’s choice. When the Dai transmits ‘ilm, he is transmitting the Imam’s knowledge.

This understanding of the Dai’s role has profound implications for how the community relates to its leaders. The obedience to the Dai (ta’at al-Dai) is not mere political submission to a community administrator; it is a spiritual obligation rooted in the relationship between the believer and the Imam. To honor the Dai is to honor the Imam; to serve the Dai is to serve the Imam; to receive the Dai’s blessing is to receive the Imam’s blessing.

Syedna al-Hasan Badr al-Din II as Bab of the Imam

In the hierarchical cosmology of the Tayyibi tradition, the Dai al-Mutlaq occupies the position of Bab — “the Door” — in relation to the hidden Imam. He is the door through which the Imam’s light enters the world, the door through which believers approach the Imam’s guidance. This title captures both the Dai’s function and his spiritual station: he is neither the source of the light (that is the Imam, and ultimately Allah) nor merely an ordinary human being, but the threshold between the two — the sacred liminal figure who makes the divine accessible to the community.

Syedna al-Hasan Badr al-Din II (RA) understood himself in this way, and the community understood him in this way. His forty-four year tenure was not merely a period of community management but a sustained spiritual office in which he embodied, on behalf of the hidden Imam, the divine qualities of knowledge, guidance, mercy, and justice that the Imam himself would embody were he present in the world.

The Responsibility of the Last Chain

Every Dai who has held the office since 532 AH is a link in an unbroken chain that connects the community, through each successive Dai, back to the hidden Imam. The Twentieth Dai was responsible not merely for his own link in this chain but for ensuring that the link after him — the Twenty-first Dai, his brother Syedna Husain Husam al-Din (RA) — was in place and prepared. The nass he would perform at the appropriate time was an act of cosmic significance: it transmitted the Imam’s authority to a new guardian and ensured that the chain remained unbroken.

This responsibility gave the Twentieth Dai’s leadership a quality that transcended the ordinary. Every decision he made, every scholar he trained, every institution he built, was not merely for the benefit of his own generation but for the continuity of a chain that was sacred and whose breaking would be a tragedy of the highest order. The weight of this responsibility, carried for forty-four years, is one of the most remarkable aspects of his life.

Part Nine: Wafat, Mazaar, and Ziyarat

The Wafat of the Twentieth Dai — 918 AH / 1512 CE

Syedna al-Hasan Badr al-Din II ibn Idris Imad al-Din (RA) passed from this world in 918 AH / 1512 CE at Masaar, Yemen. He had led the Tayyibi Dawat for forty-four years — nearly half a century of service to the Imam, the community, and the sacred trust of divine knowledge.

His death was mourned deeply. A Dai who had served for four decades was not merely a religious leader but a living center of the community’s identity — a constant presence in the spiritual life of every believer. His passing left an absence that was keenly felt, even as the tradition of succession ensured that the office was immediately filled by his designated successor.

The wafat of a Dai is understood in the Dawat tradition as a form of martyrdom (wilaya), not in the physical sense of being killed but in the spiritual sense of a complete offering of the self to the service of the Imam and the community. The Dai’s death is a transition, not an ending — his spiritual presence continues in the world, accessible to believers through ziyarat and through the ongoing power of his barakah (blessing).

The Mazaar at Masaar, Yemen

The mazaar of Syedna al-Hasan Badr al-Din II (RA) is located at Masaar (also written Massaar), in the Jabal Haraz region of Yemen. Masaar is not merely a burial ground; it is one of the sacred nodes of the Tayyibi spiritual geography — a place charged with the spiritual presence of the great Dais who are buried there, including both the Nineteenth Dai (his father) and the Twentieth Dai himself.

The practice of ziyarat — visiting the mazaars of the Dais — is among the most valued acts in the Tayyibi tradition. The believer who makes ziyarat comes with the intention of honoring the Dai, reciting the appropriate du’as and salawat, and requesting the Dai’s intercession (shafa’at) with the Imam and Allah. The mazaar is understood as a place where the boundary between the living and the departed is thin — where the Dai’s spiritual presence is particularly accessible.

For the community that has remained in the diaspora — outside Yemen, unable to visit the highland mazaars — the practice of ziyarat continues through proxy: by reciting the specific du’as associated with each Dai on the occasion of their anniversary (the day of their wafat), believers enter into a spiritual connection with the Dai even at a great physical distance.

The specific prayers and salawat composed for Syedna al-Hasan Badr al-Din II (RA) — recited on his anniversary and on visits to his mazaar — articulate the community’s gratitude for his service, their love for his person, and their faith in his ongoing spiritual presence and intercession.

Succession: The Twenty-first Dai

Syedna al-Hasan Badr al-Din II (RA) performed the nass designating his brother Syedna Husain Husam al-Din ibn Idris Imad al-Din (RA) as his successor — the Twenty-first Dai al-Mutlaq. This succession, within the same family, continued the pattern that had characterized the Dawat’s leadership for several generations: the sons and brothers of Syedna Idris Imad al-Din (RA), the Nineteenth Dai, holding the supreme office in turn.

The succession was smooth and uncontested — a testament to the clarity of the Twentieth Dai’s nass and to the community’s deep understanding of the principle of nass-based succession. The institution of the Dawat absorbed the transition without disruption, another testament to the institutional strength that the Twentieth Dai had built over four decades.

The Twenty-first Dai would be followed by the Twenty-second, and then by the Twenty-third — Syedna Muhammad ‘Izz al-Din ibn Fakhr al-Din (RA), the last Dai from Yemen. After him would come the historic transition: the appointment of the first Indian Dai, Syedna Yusuf Najm al-Din (RA), the Twenty-fourth Dai, a Gujarati scholar whose elevation to the supreme office was the fruit of all that the Twentieth Dai and his predecessors had planted.

Part Ten: Legacy — The Architect of Continuity

The Quiet Heroes of History

History tends to celebrate those who make dramatic changes — the innovators, the conquerors, the revolutionaries. But the quiet heroes — those who maintain what must be maintained, who transmit what must be transmitted, who build the institutional foundations on which others’ brilliance can flourish — are equally essential, and in the long arc of history often more consequential.

Syedna al-Hasan Badr al-Din II (RA) was one of the quiet heroes. He did not found the Dawat; that had been done by the great Dais of the Sulayhid era. He did not write its definitive history; that had been done by his father. He did not oversee its transition from Yemen to India; that would be done by his successors. What he did was hold the center for forty-four years — maintain the unity, preserve the knowledge, transmit the heritage, train the scholars, and invest in the Indian community that would be the Dawat’s future — so that all of these other achievements were possible.

This kind of service is extraordinarily difficult. It requires not the heroic energy of the founder or the brilliant insight of the innovator but something rarer and in many ways more demanding: the sustained, consistent, year-after-year commitment to getting the fundamental things right. It requires patience, which is why the tradition specifically praises the Twentieth Dai for leading the Dawat bil-hikma wal-sabr — with wisdom and patience.

The Living Legacy: The Bohra Community Today

The Bohra community of today — stretching from India to East Africa to the Americas and beyond, united by the leadership of the current Dai al-Mutlaq, Syedna Mufaddal Saifuddin (TUS), the fifty-third Dai — is the living legacy of every link in the chain that stretches back to the First Dai and beyond him to the hidden Imam al-Tayyib (RA). Syedna al-Hasan Badr al-Din II (RA) is one of those links — forty-four years of faithful service that kept the chain intact through a critical period of transition.

Every Bohra who prays the five daily prayers according to the Fatimid tradition, who observes the month of Ramadan with its distinctive practices, who participates in the Ashara Mubaraka commemorations of Imam al-Husain’s (RA) martyrdom at Karbala, who sends his or her children to the Dawat’s schools to learn the Arabic language and the sacred ‘ilm — each of these believers is the beneficiary of the Twentieth Dai’s service. The continuity that he maintained is the continuity that makes their religious life possible.

The scholars who lead Bohra communities around the world today — the Amils who serve individual communities, the Shaikhs who teach the ‘ilm, the Mazoon and Mukasir who assist the Dai — are connected, through their teachers and their teachers’ teachers, to the scholarly tradition that Syedna al-Hasan Badr al-Din II (RA) maintained and transmitted. His intellectual generosity to Indian students in the fifteenth century is the origin of an unbroken tradition of learning that has persisted for over five hundred years.

The Connection to Imam al-Tayyib

Every Dai, in the Tayyibi understanding, is a mirror of the hidden Imam — a reflection of the Imam’s qualities, a channel of the Imam’s guidance. The Twentieth Dai’s qualities of patience, generosity, scholarly commitment, and long-term vision reflect qualities that the tradition attributes to the Imam himself: the capacity for infinite patience in the long wait for the right moment; the generosity of spirit that gives to each person what they need; the scholarly depth that preserves the divine knowledge; the visionary wisdom that sees beyond the immediate moment to the long arc of history.

In honoring Syedna al-Hasan Badr al-Din II (RA), the community honors not only the man but the qualities he embodied — qualities that are, in the ultimate theological sense, qualities of the divine reality that the Imam reflects and that the Dai, in turn, reflects from the Imam.

اللَّهُمَّ وَالِ مَن وَالَاهُ وَعَادِ مَن عَادَاهُ وَانصُر مَن نَصَرَهُ “O Allah, be friend of those who are his friends, be enemy of those who are his enemies, and support those who support him.”

Part Eleven: The Place of the Twentieth Dai in the Chain of Dais

Chronological Position in the Great Chain

To place Syedna al-Hasan Badr al-Din II (RA) within the full context of the Dawat’s history is to see him as a link in a chain of fifty-three Dais that stretches from 532 AH to the present day. Each Dai is unique in his gifts and circumstances; each contributes something essential to the chain; none could be removed without diminishing the whole.

The Twentieth Dai occupies a particularly significant position in this chain: he is the second Dai of the Banu al-Walid al-Anf family’s long stewardship (the family would supply the Eighteenth through Twenty-third Dais), and he is the longest-serving of that family’s Dais. He represents the Dawat at its fullest Yemeni flowering — the culmination of the scholarly and institutional tradition that the earlier Yemen Dais had built.

He stands, in the chain, at the precise point where the Dawat’s center of gravity was beginning its long shift from Yemen to India — a shift that he facilitated without directing, enabled without forcing, and prepared without seeing completed. He is, in this sense, a figure of transition — but the transition he enabled was not a break but a continuation, the same sacred trust of the Imam’s representative passed from one community to another as the divine will directed.

His Relationship to the Surrounding Dais

The Seventeenth Dai: Syedna al-Hasan Badr al-Din I (RA)

The Seventeenth Dai bore the same name as our subject — Hasan Badr al-Din — and was his great-uncle in the chain of the Banu al-Walid al-Anf family. The repetition of the name is not coincidental; it reflects the family’s conscious identification with a particular quality — the light of the full moon (badr) illuminating the faith — and a deliberate continuity of spiritual character across generations.

The Eighteenth Dai: Syedna Shams al-Din ‘Ali (RA)

The predecessor of the Nineteenth Dai and thus the grandfather-in-office of the Twentieth Dai, the Eighteenth Dai continued the family’s tradition of scholarly leadership. His tenure helped maintain the institutional stability that the Nineteenth Dai then deepened.

The Nineteenth Dai: Syedna Idris Imad al-Din (RA) — discussed at length above, as the father and primary intellectual legacy of the Twentieth Dai.

The Twenty-first Dai: Syedna Husain Husam al-Din (RA) — the younger brother and designated successor of the Twentieth Dai. He continued the family’s leadership of the Dawat after the Twentieth Dai’s wafat.

The Twenty-second Dai: Syedna Yusuf Najmuddin (RA) — nephew and successor to the Twenty-first. Not to be confused with the Twenty-fourth Dai of the same name, who was the first Indian Dai.

The Twenty-third Dai: Syedna Muhammad ‘Izz al-Din (RA) — the last Dai from Yemen. His designation of the Twenty-fourth Dai — a Gujarati scholar — marked the historic transition of the Dawat from Yemen to India. This transition was the fruition of everything that the Twentieth Dai and his successors had built.

Part Twelve: The Dawat in Yemen — The Physical World of the Twentieth Dai

The Jabal Haraz Highlands

The physical world in which Syedna al-Hasan Badr al-Din II (RA) lived and worked was the dramatically beautiful and strategically vital Jabal Haraz highlands of western Yemen. This mountain range — rising to over three thousand meters in places — is one of the most visually striking landscapes in the Arabian Peninsula. Its terraced agricultural fields, built over centuries by the careful labor of highland farmers, produce coffee, qat, grains, and fruits. Its traditional architecture — multi-story stone towers, decorated with white plaster patterns — reflects a sophisticated building tradition adapted to the specific conditions of mountain life.

The Dawat’s communities in the Jabal Haraz region had been building and maintaining this agricultural and architectural heritage for generations. The mosques, the schools (madrasa), the community meeting halls (majlis), the Dai’s residence — all of these were part of the physical landscape of the Dawat’s highland world. The Twentieth Dai lived and worked within this landscape, its physical beauty a daily reminder of the divine generosity that provides abundance from seemingly inhospitable terrain.

Masaar — the town where both the Nineteenth and Twentieth Dais are buried — was a significant settlement in this highland world. Its mazaar, where the two Dais rest, has been a sacred site for believers since the twelfth century AH. The pilgrims who come to make ziyarat at Masaar travel through some of Yemen’s most dramatic mountain scenery — a journey that is itself a form of spiritual preparation for the sacred encounter at the mazaar.

Water, Agriculture, and Community Life

The highland communities of the Jabal Haraz depended on careful water management for their agricultural productivity. The ancient systems of terracing and irrigation that made the mountains productive were maintained by communities with long traditions of collective management — systems that required exactly the kind of communal cooperation and shared responsibility that the Dawat cultivated as a spiritual and social value.

Within the Dawat communities, the principles of mutual support and communal responsibility were expressed through the religious institutions of zakat and sadaqah — the obligatory and voluntary charitable giving that the Quran prescribes. The Dawat’s administration of these institutions — collecting, managing, and distributing charitable resources — was one of the Dai’s most important practical functions. Syedna al-Hasan Badr al-Din II (RA), as Dai, was responsible for ensuring that these resources were collected honestly and distributed equitably.

The community’s economic life — agricultural production, trade, skilled crafts — was intertwined with its religious life in ways that made the Dawat’s social teaching directly relevant to daily existence. The principle of halal livelihood — earning through honest and lawful means — was not merely a theoretical principle but a practical framework that shaped economic behavior. The Dai’s authority extended to these questions: resolving disputes about business practices, ruling on questions of commercial ethics, ensuring that the community’s economic life conformed to the standards of the shari’a and the Dawat’s additional guidance.

Salawat and Du’a for Syedna al-Hasan Badr al-Din II (RA)

اَللَّهُمَّ صَلِّ عَلَى مَولَانَا الحَسَنِ بَدرِ الدِّينِ الثَّانِي ابنِ إِدرِيسَ عِمَادِ الدِّينِ الدَّاعِي المُطلَقِ العِشرِينَ مِن دُعَاةِ الإِمَامِ الطَّيِّبِ المَستُور الَّذِي رَعَى الدَّعوَةَ التَّيَّبِيَّةَ بِالحِكمَةِ وَالصَّبرِ أَربَعَةً وَأَربَعِينَ عَاماً وَفَتَحَ أَبوَابَ العِلمِ لِأَبنَاءِ الهِندِ طَالِبِي الحَقِّ المُستَضِيئِينَ بِنُورِ الدَّعوَة وَصَانَ تُرَاثَ أَبِيهِ الإِمَامِ الأَكبَرِ إِدرِيسَ عِمَادِ الدِّينِ رِضوَانُ اللهِ عَلَيهِ وَحَافَظَ عَلَى وَحدَةِ الجَمَاعَةِ وَتَمَاسُكِهَا فِي زَمَنِ الغَيبَةِ الكُبرَى

Allahumma salli ‘ala Mawlana al-Hasan Badr al-Din al-thani ibni Idris ‘Imad al-Din, Al-da’i al-mutlaq al-‘ishrini min du’ati al-Imam al-Tayyib al-mastur, Alladhi ra’a al-da’wa al-tayyibiyya bil-hikma wal-sabr arba’atan wa-arba’ina ‘aman, Wa fataha abwab al-‘ilm li-abna’ al-Hind talibi al-haqq al-mustadi’ina bi-nur al-da’wa, Wa sana turath abihi al-imam al-akbar Idris ‘Imad al-Din ridwanu Allahi ‘alayhi, Wa hafaza ‘ala wahdat al-jama’a wa-tamassukiha fi zaman al-ghayba al-kubra.

O Allah, send blessings upon our Master al-Hasan Badr al-Din the Second, son of Idris Imad al-Din, The Twentieth Dai al-Mutlaq from the Dais of the hidden Imam al-Tayyib, Who tended the Tayyibi Dawat with wisdom and patience for forty-four years, And opened the doors of knowledge to the sons of India who sought the truth, illuminated by the Dawat’s light, And preserved the heritage of his great father Idris Imad al-Din, may Allah’s pleasure be upon him, And maintained the community’s unity and cohesion in the time of the Great Occultation.

اللَّهُمَّ ارحَم مَولَانَا الحَسَنَ بَدرَ الدِّينِ بِرَحمَتِكَ الوَاسِعَة وَأَسكِنهُ فَسِيحَ جَنَّاتِكَ مَعَ الأَنبِيَاءِ وَالأَولِيَاءِ وَالدُّعَاةِ الصَّالِحِين وَارزُقنَا شَفَاعَتَهُ وَبَرَكَتَهُ وَتَوَسَّلَ بِهِ إِلَى الإِمَامِ الطَّيِّبِ وَإِلَيكَ يَا أَرحَمَ الرَّاحِمِين

Allahumma irham Mawlana al-Hasan Badr al-Din bi-rahmatika al-wasi’a, Wa askinhu fasih jannatika ma’a al-anbiya’ wal-awliya’ wal-du’at al-salihin, Wa-rzuqna shafa’atahu wa-barakatahu wa-tawassalna bihi ila al-Imam al-Tayyib wa-ilayka ya arham al-rahimin.

O Allah, have mercy upon our Master al-Hasan Badr al-Din with Your encompassing mercy, And grant him dwelling in Your spacious gardens, together with the Prophets, the saints, and the righteous Dais, And grant us his intercession and his blessing, and through him let us draw near to the Imam al-Tayyib and to You, O Most Merciful of the merciful.

Conclusion: The Full Moon Sets, and Its Light Remains

Syedna al-Hasan Badr al-Din II ibn Idris Imad al-Din (RA) — the Twentieth Dai al-Mutlaq — was the full moon of his name: steady, luminous, and sufficient for all who needed light in the night of separation from the visible Imam. For forty-four years he illuminated the path of the Dawat’s community with the light he received from his father, and from the chain of Dais stretching back to the First Dai, and from the hidden Imam al-Tayyib himself, whose light he channeled to the community of believers.

He did not seek drama or renown. He sought something more difficult and more lasting: fidelity. Fidelity to the ‘ilm he had received, to the community he had been given to lead, to the Imam he served, and to the trust that each Dai places in his successor — the trust that the sacred chain will not break, that the light will not go out, that the community will survive until the day the Imam returns.

His mazaar at Masaar, Yemen, stands as the sign of his physical presence in this world — the place where he lies in the earth of the highland that nurtured the Dawat for centuries. But his spiritual presence extends far beyond that place, touching every community that carries the heritage of the Tayyibi Dawat, every scholar who reads from the texts he preserved, every believer who prays the prayer transmitted through his generation.

رَحِمَهُ اللهُ رَحمَةً وَاسِعَةً وَأَسكَنَهُ فَسِيحَ جَنَّاتِهِ May Allah have wide mercy upon him and grant him dwelling in the spacious gardens of Paradise.

He is our master, our guide, and our intermediary. His barakah endures.

Syedna al-Hasan Badr al-Din II (RA) — The 20th Dai al-Mutlaq