When any other Muslim brother wants to come to Jamaatkhana, Why should he not be allowed to come?
For a detailed answer to this question see also my article entitled “Islam ki Buyadi Haqiqatayn(The fundamental Realities of Islam)” Further, the question arises that will the person who wants to come to Jamaatkhana accepts all the conditions, manners and rites of the Jamaatkhana as an Ismaili does? If it is not possible for him to do so, then there is no benefit in his coming to the Jamaatkhana.
In Islam there are certain holy building which are common among the Muslims, and there are some which are private. Among the holy places or buildings which are common, first comes the Kabah, and then comes the mosque, for these buildings belong to the period when all Muslims were one. However, in some places there are certain mosques, which owing to either different views or different sects are private. Similarly, in fact more stringently, Khanqah, imam barah, and Jamaatkhana are private places, for these places are respected only by those who are basically attached to them in faith and thus no other people may share in these holy places.
‘Mosque’, which in Arabic is called ‘masqid’ , means the place of prostration or place of worship. Therefore, this word invites all the Muslims to go there and bow before God and worship Him. But in the word Jamaatkhana, ibadat or worship, is not apparent, as Jamaatkhana, in Persian, means the house of a group, which belongs only to a particular group and not to all. Such is the philosophy intrinsic in the meaning of khanqah. Khanqah is the Arabicized form of khangah or Khanah gah, which means the place where Sufis and dervishes live. Here also the meaning ‘worship’ is kept in secret, for otherwise the sufis would have chosen a word which would have immediately and openly denoted worship (ie. Would have meant a place of worship). But this was done intentionally for there they had to instruct the teaching of Islam in a specific way. Also, each Kahnqah was confined to the disciples of a particular pir or shykh (Spiritual Guide). This same example may be applied to the Jamaatkhana for the Jamaatkhana in the beginning was the khanqah itself. We come across the jamaat khanah of Bakhtayar-I Kaki in the biographies of the Sufis, and this is later adopted in Ismailism. This historical event is a clear proof of the fact that Tariqat comes from the depth (batin) of Shariat and Haqiqat emerges from the depth of tariqat, This whole discussion leads to the conclusion that the Ismailis belong only to the followers of the Hazir (present) Imam.
