al- Dai al-Ajal Syedna Aali Qadr Mufaddal Saifuddin TUS states:

Introduction
This blog is intended to provide guidance for people who need to temporarily close their businesses, specifically for the event of Asharah Mubaraka. It includes information and experiences shared by members of the Dawoodi Bohra community who have successfully closed their businesses for this event in the past. The blog aims to provide detailed guidelines and procedures for a successful business closure, and to help those who have been closing their businesses to do so more efficiently. The goal is to help business owners to confidently and successfully close their businesses for a period of time, especially during events like Asharah Mubaraka, and to have a closure that enables a fresh kickstart to the business – more skilled and rejuvenated.
To ensure a transition of work – that is smooth, and more fruitful- during Asharah Mubaraka, every business should conform to a three-step process to prepare:
- Individual preparations
- Internal Preparations
- External Preparations
- Individual
Since the past few years, Mumineen employed in various organizations apply for leave prior to Asharah Mubarakah so that they can attend without any restrictions. This liberty is an inspiring one, as it is found although being employed. It is a place of reflection – if a business owner cannot comfortably do the same, are they really business minded? Do they really have more freedom than an individual working for someone else?
Therefore, every business owner needs to develop a specific mind-set to ensure they remain business-minded and exercise their freedom rather than being prone to becoming service-minded. An exercise to inculcate this mindset is an important step for Asharah Mubarakah’s ohbat for business owners.
The mind-set should be:
“I am not closing my business;
I am growing my business”
- Internal Preparations
Effective communication is essential when it comes to temporarily closing a business. It is important to inform your staff about the closure as soon as possible and keep them updated throughout the process. This will give them time to plan and adjust to the temporary closure. By having an open and honest conversation with your staff, including a space for them to ask questions, you can encourage their involvement and support in the company’s decision to close temporarily.
Duties towards Mumineen Employees
- About leave – As an employer it is our duty to give all our Mumineen employees a mandatory leave and assist them in attending Asharah Mubarakah with Aqa Maula TUS.
- About Salary – Taking inspiration from the above bayan mubarak, every employer should provide paid leave to their employees so that they don’t have to worry about their salary and can totally focus on the event of Asharah Mubarakah. Just like our agenda of doing nothing but remembering Imam al-Husain AS, we should make sure that this concept is followed with them. It is our responsibility to make sure that they have nothing to worry about and are not assigned with anything that shifts their slightest focus from Asharah Mubarakah.
- A unique suggestion, as per the directive given in the above bayan mubarak, is to give the necessary items for Asharah Mubarak to Mumin employees. These include Libas al-anwar, White Topi, Baazu-band, and most importantly Qardan Hasana if required.
- Direct them to upskill themselves during these 10 days according to Mawaiz Nooraniyah, and restart with an uplifted mind.
Duties towards Non-Mumin Employees
- No Communication Agenda – Since we do not want to be involved in our business operations during Asharah Mubarakah it is very important to delegate responsibilities to someone to keep you away from these affairs. It has to be clearly conveyed that: at any cost there has to be no kind of communication with us nor with any of the Mumineen employees for any kind of situation or emergencies.
- Train them in Advance – It is very important to provide all kinds of information to these employees about the necessary business decisions before the business closure. This can be achieved by creating a memo for them, coaching the managers well enough and clarifying all minute and detailed instructions by listing or documenting them.
- Enable non-mumin staff with courses and skills which can help individuals and businesses to grow post-Asharah Mubarakah. Keep in mind that the expenses incurred while providing these courses will be recovered by the business when employees utilize newly acquired skills to maximise profit and generate more revenue.
- External preparations
Manage your Orders early for Timely Delivery
Share the steps your business is taking in light of the situation. If you’re temporarily closing your business, you can also use this time to tell your customers how they can continue to support you. After announcing a temporary closure of your business, you might receive many orders in advance from your loyal customers. Hence, you should be well prepared to deal with those orders and satisfy your customer’s demands.
Changing your Business Commitments which fall during Asharah Mubarakah
Since the dates of Asharah Mubarakah are easily available to us, we can plan ourselves accordingly and try avoiding any kind of appointments or commitments on those days.
Managing Finances
Communicating with all stakeholders with regards to financial matters is of utmost importance especially when there are payables and receivables that need to be handled in an appropriate manner hedging any complications.
Back to business
- Inform your customers that you are back in business
- Inform your suppliers about you being back that will get your inventory stocked up again
- Make sure that your employees can take advantage of their newly acquired skills and apply them quickly to maximize business advantage
ConclusionThese few guidelines are to ensure a confident closure to business – a closure that is also a wise investment of time. The ultimate profit in doing is gaining the happiness of al- Dai al-Ajal Syedna Aali Qadr Mufaddal Saifuddin TUS – He TUS states:

Testimonials reflecting the benefits of business closure during Asharah Mubarakah
Feedbacks regarding your business closure and any kind of unique experience that you want to share?
My Jain neighbour tells me that we talk a lot about religion but your community actually practices it! (A.J Traders)
I experienced this during the Asharah in covid. I had a huge order that was generating me a huge profit. The order was meant to be completed during Asharah which I declined. My customer found a supplier who was providing a higher quality product for a comparatively low price. They both finalized a deal and the order was fulfilled. But here comes the twist, my customer told me that due to the high quality of the product, the product failed to fully fulfil his requirements and he faced a loss. He then requested me to provide him with the material. (Ebrahim & Company)
“The brave businessman will always be rewarded” – closing a fully running business for 10 days is certainly a brave act, and the reward in multifolds is seen by all.