Tablighi Jamaat

Tablighi Jamaat  is a religious movement which was founded in 1926 by Muhammad Ilyas al-Kandhlawi in India.[5] The movement primarily aims at Tablighi spiritual reformation by working at the grass roots level, reaching out to Muslims across all social and economic spectra to bring them closer to Islam.[4][6]

Tablighi Jamaat came forth as an offshoot of the Deobandi movement. Its inception is believed to be a response to Hindu reform movements, which were considered a threat to vulnerable and non-practicing Muslims.[7] It gradually expanded from local to national to a transnational movement and now has followers in over 150 countries.[4]

Tabligh Jamaat maintains a non-affiliating stature in matters of politics and fiqh (jurisprudence) so as to eschew the controversies that would otherwise accompany such affiliations.[8] Although, Tabligh Jamaat emerged out of the Deobandi sub-school in the Hanafi fiqh, no particular interpretation of Islam has been endorsed since the beginning of movement.[8][9] Tabligh Jamaat has largely avoided electronic media and has emphasized a personal communication for proselytizing. The teachings of Tabligh Jamaat are mainly rudimentary and the Six Principles put forward by Muhammad Ilyas influence most of their teachings.

Despite its pacifist stance, Tabligh Jamaat has appeared on the fringes of numerous terrorism investigations. Tablighi Jamaat's role as a springboard to terrorist organizations has been questioned several times but there is no evidence that the Tabligh Jamaat deliberately act as a recruiting arm for Islamic militant organizations.[4][10] Tabligh Jamaat attracted significant public and media attention when it announced plans for the largest mosque in Europe to be built in London, United Kingdom.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tablighi_Jamaat#History

History

The emergence of Tablighi Jamaat represented the intensification of individual reformation aspect of the original Deobandi movement. It was also a continuation of the broader trend of Islamic revival in India in the wake of the collapsed Muslim political power and the consolidation of the British rule in India in the mid-nineteenth century. This emergence also coincides with the rise of various Hindu proselytizing movements which launched massive efforts in the early twentieth century to reconvert Hindus who had previously converted to Islam and Christianity.[11] Notable among these Hindu revivalist movements were Shuddhi (purification) and Sangathan (consolidation) movements. The Tabligh movement aimed to reaffirm Muslim religiocultural identity of these borderline Muslims who still carried customs and religious practices from Hindu past. Unlike common proselytizing movements, TJ never strove to convert non-Muslims to Islam, rather it exclusively focused on making Muslims 'better and purer'.

Origin

Main article: Tabligh movement in Mewat

Tablighi Jamaat originated in 1926 in Mewat, in north India, which was inhabited by Rajput tribes known as Meos. At the time, some Muslim Indian leaders feared that Muslims were losing their religious identity to the majority Hindu culture. The movement was never given any name officially, but Ilyas used to call it Tahrik-i Imaan.

There is evidence that several Meos converted to Islam, followed by re-conversion to Hinduism when Muslim political power declined in the region. The Meos were generally benighted Muslims before the emergence of Tabligh Jamaat, and lacked the necessary acumen required to resist the cultural and religious influence of Hindus.
Muhammad Ilyas, the founder of Tabligh Jamaat, wanted to set forth a movement that would exemplify the Qur'anic decree of 'enjoining good and forbidding evil'.[16][17] The inspiration for devoting his life to Islam came to Ilyas during his second pilgrimage to the Hejaz in 1926.[18] He initially strove to establish a network of mosque-based religious schools to educate the Mewati Muslims about correct Islamic beliefs and practices. Shortly afterwards, he was disappointed with the reality that these institutions were producing religious functionaries but not preachers.

He abandoned his teaching profession at Madrasah Mazharul Ulum in Saharanpur and started on his life as a missionary. He relocated to Nizamuddin near Delhi, where this movement was formally launched in 1926.[19] When setting the guidelines for the movement, he sought inspiration from the practices adopted by Muhammad at the dawn of Islam.[17] Muhammad Ilyas put forward the slogan, Urdu: "!اﮮ مسلمانو! مسلمان بنو", "O Muslims! Become Muslims". This expressed the central focus of Tablighi Jamat; their aim to renew Muslim society by uniting them in embracing the lifestyle of Muhammad. The movement gained a phenomenal following in a relatively short period and nearly 25,000 people attended the annual conference in November 1941.

Expansion

Bishwa Dhaka Ijtema in Bangladesh

The group began to expand its activities in 1946, and within two decades the group reached Southwest Asia and Southeast Asia, Africa, Europe, and North America.[20] Tabligh Jamaat's aversion to politics helped it enter and operate in societies where politically active religious groups faced severe restrictions.[21] Initially it expanded its reach to South Asian diaspora communities, firstly in Arabic countries, and then in Southeast Asia. The first foreign missions were sent to Hejaz and Britain in 1946.[22] Before entering Europe, the movement first established itself in the United States. It established a large presence in Europe during the 1970s and 1980s.[14] The construction of the Markazi Masjid in Dewsbury, England commenced in 1978 which subsequently became the European headquarters of Tablighi Jamaat. This centre holds one major gathering annually, generally in Dewsbury itself. It has also constructed a busy madrasah, called the Institute of Islamic Education.

Introduced in France in 1960s, it grew prominently during 1970-80s.[24] Tabligh Jamaat declined around 1989, although some members still represent it in the French Council of the Muslim Faith.[14] In the few years before 2006, Tabligh Jamaat's influence has exponentially grown in France, which now has around 100,000 followers.[1] However, the United Kingdom is the current focus of the movement in the West, primarily due to the large South Asian population that began to arrive there in the 1960s and 1970s.[25] By 2007, Tabligh members were situated at 600 of Britain's 1,350 mosques.[23]

After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the movement made inroads into Central Asia. As of 2007, it was estimated 10,000 Tabligh Jamaat members could be found in Kyrgyzstan alone.[2] The FBI believes that nearly 50,000 members of Tablighi Jamaat are active in United States.[4] By 2008, organization had a presence in nearly 213 countries and with a global following of 100 to 150 million people, it has now become the largest Muslim movement in the world. However, it maintains a majority presence in South Asia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tablighi_Jamaat#History

Beliefs and objectives

Following the fundamentals of Sunni Islam, every member is allowed to follow his own fiqh as long as it does not deviate from Sunni Islam.[8][25] Tablighi Jamaat defines its objective with reference to the concept of Dawah which literally means 'to call' and connotes to an invitation to act. In religious context, it implies to a call towards Islam and not prayers which may also refer to a 'mission' if used in reference with religious prophets and people who were assigned such mission. Tabligh Jamaat interprets Dawah as enjoining good and forbidding evil only and defines its objective within the framework of two particular Qur'anic verses which refer to this mission.[27] Those two verses are:[28]

Who is better in speech than one who calls (men) to Allah, works righteousness, and says, "I am of those who bow in Islam"?

—Qur'an, sura 41 (Fussilat), ayah 33[29]

Let there arise out of you a band of people inviting to all that is good, enjoining what is right, and forbidding what is wrong: They are the ones to attain felicity.

—Qur'an sura 3 (Al-i-Imran), ayah 104[16]

Tabligh Jamaat encourages everyone to fulfill the Islamic requirement of da'wa even if the person falls short of strong religious intellect. This was different from the other Islamic movements which were mainly ulama-led and extended their leadership roles to the religious erudites. Tabligh Jamaat also negated the prevailing idea that the highest standards of Islamic scholarship and ethical standards were pre-requisites for proselytizing; and promoted da'wa as a mechanism of self-reform.[30]

The only objective of Tabligh Jamaat, overtly stated in most sermons, is that Muslims adopt and invite for the Islamic lifestyle, exemplified by Muhammad, in its perfection. They encourage Muslims to spend time out of their daily routine in the tablighi activities so that the rest of routine could be harmonized with Tablighi lifestyle. They insist that the best way of learning is teaching and encouraging others.[7]

Tablighi ethic discourages social enmeshments in customary and ceremonial rituals which are usually extravagantly followed in South Asia. For example, in such annual congregations and other similar mass meetings, marriages are performed by dozens sans the costly celebrations

Six Principles

The method adopted by Muhammad Ilyas was simple. It was to organize units (called jamaats, Arabic: جماعتِ ‎ meaning Assembly) of at least ten persons and send them to various villages. This unit jamaat, would visit a village, invite the local Muslims only to assemble in the mosque and present their message in the form of Six Principles.[32] Muhammad Ilyas articulated six demands in the form of Six Principles which are quintessential to Tabligh Jamaat's teachings. These six principles are:

Kalmah: An article of faith in which the tablighi accepts that there is no god but Allah and the Prophet Muhammad is His Last messenger". This Kalima is for all Muslims and is not restricted to Tablighis only.
Salah: "Five daily prayers that are essential to spiritual elevation, piety, and a life free from the ills of the material world"
Ilm and Zikr: "The knowledge and remembrance of Allah conducted in sessions in which the congregation listens to preaching by the emir, performs prayers, recites the Quran and reads Hadith. The congregation will also use these sessions to eat meals together, thus fostering a sense of community and identity"
Ikraam-e-Muslim: "The treatment of fellow Muslims with honor and deference"
Tas'hih-i-Niyyat: "Reforming one’s life in supplication to Allah by performing every human action for the sake of Allah and toward the goal of self-transformation"
Dawt'o' Tableegh(Dawah): "The sparing of time to live a life based on faith and learning its virtues, following in the footsteps of the Prophet Muhammad, and taking His message door-to-door for the sake of faith"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tablighi_Jamaat#Organization

Organization

Tablighi Jamaat follows an informal organizational structure and keeps an introvert institutional profile. It keeps its distance from mass media and avoids publishing details about its activities and membership. The group also exercises complete abstinence from expressing opinions on political and controversial issues mainly to avoid the disputes which would accompany these endorsements. As an organization, Tabligh Jamaat does not seek donations and is largely funded by its senior members. Since there is no formal registration process and no official membership count has ever been taken, the exact membership statistics remain unknown. The movement discourages interviews with its elders and has never officially released texts. Even though there are publications associated with the movement, particularly by Zakariya Kandahalwi, the emphasis has never been on book learning, but rather on first-hand personal communication. A collection of books, usually referred as Tablighi Nisaab (Tablighi Curriculum), is recommended by Tabligh Jamaat elders for general reading. This set includes four books namely (Hayatus Sahabah, Fazail-e-Amaal, Fazail-e-Sadqaat and Muntakhab-e-Ahadis).

The organization's activities are coordinated through centers and headquarters called Markaz. Tablighi Jamaat maintains its international headquarters, called Nizamuddin Markaz, in the Nizamuddin West district of South Delhi, India, from where it originally started. It also has country headquarters in over 213 countries to coordinate its activities. These headquarters organize volunteer, self-funding people in groups (called jamaats), averaging ten to twelve people, for reminding Muslims to remain steadfast on path of God.[26] These jamaats and preaching missions are self funded by their respective members.

Activities and traditions

The activism of Tabligh Jamaat can be characterized by the last of the Six Principles. This principle, Tafrigh-i-Waqt (English: sparing of time) justifies the withdrawal from world, though temporarily, for travelling. Travel has been adopted as the most effective method of personal reform and has become an emblematic feature of organization. They describe the purpose of this retreat as to patch the damages caused by the worldly indulgence and occasionally use the dry-dock parable to explain this.[39]

These individual jamaats, each led by an ameer, are sent from each markaz across the city or country to remind people to persist on the path of God. The duration of the work depends on the discretion of each jamaat. A trip can take an evening, a couple of days or a prolonged duration.[4][31]

Khurūj - proselytizing tour

Tabligh Jamaat encourages its followers to follow the pattern of spending "one night a week, one weekend a month, 40 continuous days a year, and ultimately 120 days at least once in their lives engaged in tabligh missions". During the course of these tours, members are generally seen dressed in simple, white, loose-clothing, carrying sleeping bags on their backs.[31] These members use mosques as their base during this travel but particular mosques, due to more frequent tablighi activities, have come to be specifically associated with this organization. These mosques generally hold the periodic, smaller scale convocations for neighborhood members.
During their stay in mosques, these jamaats conduct a daily gasht, which involves visiting local neighborhoods, preferably with the help of a guide.[25] They invite people to attend the Maghrib prayer at their mosque and those who attend are delivered a sermon after the prayers, which essentially outlines the Six Principles. They urge the attendees to spend time in tabligh for self reformation and the propagation of Islam.[40][41] Also the regular activities like eating, sleeping etc are also carried out in the mosques.

Generally, the assumed role of these jamaat members cycle in a way that they may be engaged as a preacher, a cook or as a cleaner at other times. Among Tabligh Jamaat members, this is generally referred to as khidmat which essentially connotes to serving their companions and freeing them for tablighi engagements.[31] The members of the Jamaat are assigned these roles based on the day's mashwara. The markaz keeps records of each jamaat and its members, the identity of whom is verified from their respective mosques. Mosques are used to assist the tablighi activities of individual jamaats that voluntarily undertake preaching missions.[4][26] Members of a jamaat, ideally, pay expenses themselves so as to avoid financial dependence on anyone.[31]

Ijtema - annual gathering

An annual gathering of followers, called ijtema, is summoned at headquarters of the respective countries. A typical ijtema continues for three days and ends with an exceptionally long prayer.[1] These gatherings are considered moments of intense blessings by Tabligh Jamaat members and are known to attract members in excess of 2 million in some countries.[7] The oldest ijtema of the World started in Bhopal, capital city of Madhya Pradesh, India.[citation needed] It attract people from all over World. Almost 2 Million people gather the this annual Gathering. The largest of such annual gatherings are held in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. The Bengali gathering, called Bishwa Ijtema (World Gathering), converges followers from around the world in Tongi near Dhaka, Bangladesh and with an attendance exceeding 3 million people.[42][43] The second largest Tabligh Jamaat gathering takes place in Raiwind, Pakistan which was attended by approximately 1.5 million people in 2004.[44] In 2011 Pakistan divided the Ijtema into two parts and total 1 million People attend the Ijtema

Role of women

Women were encouraged to participate since the beginning of the movement. Some scholars objected on the participation of women but Muhammad Ilyas slowly gained their support and the first jamaat of women was formed in Nizamuddin, Delhi.[31] Accompanied by a close male relative, women are encouraged to go out in jamaats and work among other women and family members while following the rules of modesty, seclusion and segregation. They observe strict rules of hijab by covering their faces and hands.[1][31] Jamaats of women sometimes participate in large annual meetings; otherwise, they commonly hold neighborhood meetings. Since South Asian Islamic culture discourages women to go to the mosque and saintly shrines, these venues offer an opportunity for women to pray together and congregate religiously.[31]

In many modern Islamist movements, women have been relegated to a domestic role. Tabligh Jamaat tends to blur the boundaries of gender roles and both genders share a common behavioral model and their commitment to tabligh. The emphasis is on a common nature and responsibilities shared by both genders. Just as men redraw the gender roles when they wash and cook during the course of da'wa tours, women undertake the male responsibility of sustaining the household.[31] Women do not play any role in the higher echelons of the movement[1] but they may assume roles of leadership in the their own gatherings.

Controversies

6.1 Abbey Mills Mosque

Main article: Abbey Mills Mosque
The new Abbey Mills pumping station, which is adjacent to the proposed site of the Mosque

Tablighi Jamaat gained much media and public attention in Europe, particularly in United Kingdom, when it announced the plans for an 18-acre (73,000 m2) mosque near Olympic Park in east London. This mosque was to have a capacity in excess of 70,000 people making it the largest religious building in United Kingdom and the largest mosque in Europe. The scope of project raised much criticism and concern among the general public.[4] However, the mosque was downsized in its revised project plans for a capacity of 12,000 people.[47]

The plan sparked controversy for various reasons including its initially reported size, the possible chemical contamination risk associated with the site, the uncertainty as to the sources of funding that will be used by Tabligh Jamaat, and alleged links between Tabligh Jamaat and Islamic terrorism.[48][49][50] Mosque officials are engaged in resolving the controversies, as well as countering the perception implied by the term "mega-mosque".[51] Public response to the mosque and associated controversies has included online petitions, various public talks, debates, speeches, and websites, and even apparent threats against people opposing the mosque.[52] With the expiration of the permit to use the site, and neither a current plan permission nor application for a mosque, the building's future remains uncertain