It was 1065 Hijri and Syedna Ismail BadruddinRA the 34th Dai al Mutlaq, was at the helm of dawat.
Syedna Ismail BadruddinRA was born in Nagar in the year 990 H, the first dai from the house of King Bharmal who embraced dawat at the hands of the early emissaries sent by the ImamAS. Syedna Ismail Badruddin’sRA father, Maulaya RajRA presented him to Syedna Dawood bin Qutub ShahRA, the 27th Dai al Mutlaq in khumus. Syedna DawoodRA nurtured and tutored him and prepared him for the position of Dai al Mutlaq.
Syedna Isamil Badruddin paid off the debt that dawat had incurred during the reign of Syedna Qasim Khan ZainuddinRA. The administration of dawat in Nagar and its outskirts, Kutch and Junagar was entrusted to him. When famine and drought hit Ahemdabad, he had grain transported from Nagar to feed the deprived.
Syedna Ismail BadruddinRA describing his khidmet of dawat said, “I have not gained the position of Dai, but after striving in the service of dawat, in wealth and person. If wealth could be exhausted by overspending, then I would be poor. If the limbs of a man could be worn out in the worship of Allah and the khidmat and ta’at of AwliyaullahASthen my head would be reduced to my neck, and my legs would be reduced to my knees. I have spent everything in the khidmat of dawat, and the khidmat of seven Duat MutlaqeenAS” .
He made a pledge that if ever the throne of Dai should come to him, he would feed the students who came seeking knowledge. When Syedna Ismail BadruddinRA ascended the throne he initiated the tradition of the safra. He died at the age of 95 in Nagar, but three hundred years later, his legacy lives on. In Al Jamea tus Saifiyah, today, hundreds of Talabat partake of the barakat of safra in the saya of Syedna Mohammed BurhanuddinTUS.
