Tablighi Jamaat

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article has been nominated to be checked for its neutrality. Discussion of this nomination can be found on the talk page.

Islam

Beliefs

Allah – Oneness of God Muhammad – Seal of Prophets Prophets of Islam • Resurrection

Practices

Profession of Faith • Prayer Fasting • Charity • Pilgrimage

History & Leaders

Muslim history Ahl al-Bayt • Sahaba Rashidun Caliphs • Shia Imams

Texts & Laws

Qur'an • Sunnah • Hadith Fiqh • Sharia • Kalam • Tasawwuf

Major branches

Sunni • Shia

Culture & Society

Academics • Art • Philosophy Science • Architecture • Mosques Demographics • Women • Children Calendar • Festivals • Politics

See also

Criticism of Islam • Islamophobia Glossary of Islamic terms This box: view • talk • edit

Tablighi Jamaat ("Proselytizing Group") (Arabic: جماعة تبليغ, also Tabliq) is a Muslim missionary and revival movement. They usually limit their activities to within the Muslim community itself, their main aim being to bring spiritual awakening to the world's Muslims.

Contents 1 History 1.1 Ameer or Zimmadar 2 Aims 3 Constitution and activities 4 Social impact 5 Political & Celebrity links 6 Comments by prominent personalities 7 Criticism within Islam 8 Concerns of Violence and Islamic Extremism 8.1 Uganda 8.2 Somalia 9 See also 10 References 11 External links

[edit] History

This section does not cite its references or sources. Please help improve this article by introducing appropriate citations. (help, get involved!) Any unsourced material that has been or is likely to be challenged may be removed at any time. This article has been tagged since February 2007.

It was founded in the late 1920s by the Deobandi cleric Maulana Muhammad Ilyas Kandhalawi in the Mewat province of India. Maulana Ilyas put forward the slogan, ‘Aye Musalmano! Musalman bano’ (O Muslims! Be Muslims).

It is strictly a non political movement. The Tablighis work at grass roots level reaching out to Muslims across the economic and social spectrum.

Originally started in Delhi, India, the movement has spread to 150 countries and has an active following estimated to be between 70 to 80 million devout followers.

The Jamaat does not solicit or receive donations. Rather it is self funded by its members and operates on a very efficient model where administrative expenses are almost absent or taken care of by donations from senior members.

[edit] Ameer or Zimmadar

Ameer or Zimmadar are titles of leadership in the movement.

The first Ameer, also the founder, was Maulana Muhammad Ilyas Kandhalawi (Maulana Ilyas) (RA) (1885-1944). The second was his son Maulana Muhammad Yusuf Kandhalawi (1917-65) (RA). The third one was Maulana Inaam ul Hasan (Inamul Hassan) (1965-95) (RA). Now there is a shura which includes two leaders: Maulana Zubair ul Hasan and Maulana Saad Kandhalawi.^[1][2]

[edit] Aims

This section does not cite its references or sources. Please help improve this article by introducing appropriate citations. (help, get involved!) Any unsourced material that has been or is likely to be challenged may be removed at any time. This article has been tagged since February 2007.

Tabligh in Arabic means "to deliver (the message)" and Tablighi Jamaat strive to revive this duty which they consider as one of the primary duties of a Muslims. They encourage people to follow Islamic principles and the life of the prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him).

The movement asks the Muslims at-large to spend their time and money in spiritual journeys (called "khurooj" in Arabic) to seek religious knowledge ("Taleem") and promote the faith. During these scheduled journeys (usually for a specified period of 4 months, 40 days, 10 days, or 3 days), members of each travelling group (called jama'ats) learn the basic tenets of Islam from each other. Apart from these, a list of desired qualities of the sahaba are studied and practiced.

These are:

1. Kalima Conviction of faith - Belief in the oneness of God. This is expanded to mean that the creation cannot do anything without the will of God, but God can do everything without the creation. It also has the adjunct of belief that complete success in this world and the hereafter is only achieved in following the way of life shown by the prophet Muhammad and every other way leads to failure in this world and the hereafter.
2. Namaz Humility & Devotion in Salah - Perfection in observance of prayers.
3. Ilm-o-Dhikr Acquiring knowledge and remembrance of God.
4. Ikram-e-Muslim Good behaviour towards Muslims, and others. Sacrificing ones own needs in order to fulfil another's needs. Includes respecting ones elders and showing kindness to somebody younger.
5. Tas-hih-e-Niyyat (Also referred to as Ikhlas-e-Niyyat) Correction and Purity of intention. Meaning that all good actions should be solely for the pleasure of God and not for fame or materialistic gain. At the beginning, during and at the end of a good deed, the intention should be checked and corrected.
6. Da'awat-Il-Allah Inviting to God - Spending ones time and money in the "Path of God" (Invite towards good action e.g. charity, prayer and calling people towards God), as the prophet Muhammad was the last messenger of God.

[edit] Constitution and activities

This section does not cite its references or sources. Please help improve this article by introducing appropriate citations. (help, get involved!) Any unsourced material that has been or is likely to be challenged may be removed at any time. This article has been tagged since February 2007.

Members of any given Jama'at usually hail from varied backgrounds. Each Jama'at is usually constituted in a village or town mosque. They decide upon a route and time period of the Journey by Mash'wara or group counselling.

Each Jama'at has 8 to 15 members with one leader or Amir who is usually chosen by the members themselves before the actual journey. They stay in Masjids (Mosques) along the way, and preach to the people who attend the Mosque. During the day, members of the Jama'at visit Muslim houses door to door and roam the markets of the town or village they have stayed in and exhort Muslims to lead a pure religious life and invite them to attend a sermon in nearby Mosque after certain prayers. Usually after the sermon, they encourage the attendees to come forward and join them on the spiritual journeys for a number of days they can spare.

Since they encourage other Muslims to join in their spiritual journeys, any Muslim can easily join. There is no strict membership rules to be part of Tablighi Jamaat. In fact there is no 'membership' at all and there is no background check for newcomers. Almost any Muslim can join the group in a mosque.

The Jamaat as a missionary organization is popular in South Asia and has many adherents internationally. The main headquarters for Tabligh Jamaat (known as a Markaz) is in Nizamud-deen,India. Europe's main Markaz is in Dewsbury, England. East Asia's main markaz is located in Jakarta, Indonesia. The main African markaz is in Johannesburg, South Africa. The group has also given lectures in the majority of mosques in the world.

When a "Tablighi" returns from his journey, he should try to implement what he has learnt into his life. He should also invite others towards it so they can also spiritually benefit from it. Daily Taalim (which means teaching and learning) is recommended to be done at home so that the women folk and children can also benefit from what the men have learnt. However there is a Jamat for women called a Masturat Jamat. Unlike the men, the women stay outside the mosque in the house of a well known tablighi worker following full sharia'h rules with pardah and learn and also teach the women of that locality who may come to join them. Men do not join the Masturat Jamat as they are separate and stay in nearby mosque.

Apart from preaching, followers are also encouraged to spend 2.5 hours every day serving others. Typically this involves encouraging other Muslims to join the effort. These 'hours' are also used to meet sick people and help the needy. In the local mosque, there is a daily 'Taalim' (which means teaching or learning) and one person reads from a book. 'Taalim' is also done in homes with wife and children. This teaching is generally done with a few books, but is not limited to (Fadail-e-Ammal or virtues of deeds by Maulana Zakaria and Riyadhus-Saleheen) and also the book of selected Ahadith called "Muntakhaba Ahadees" and it covers the basic tenets of Islam. Then there is a 'Mashwara' where planning for the effort is done. They also do a weekly program called "Joula" where they go door to door meeting people and inviting them to mosque for prayer etc.

[edit] Social impact

This section does not cite its references or sources. Please help improve this article by introducing appropriate citations. (help, get involved!) Any unsourced material that has been or is likely to be challenged may be removed at any time. This article has been tagged since February 2007.

Most hamlets in the Indian subcontinent usually have a mosque called the Markaz, or centre, where weekly meetings occur. Preachers during these meetings urge people to go in Jama'at for as many days as their condition permits. The recommended period (but not necessary) is four months once in a life-time, a periodic planned tour schedule of 40 days in a year and 3 days in a month.

A strong grassroots support for the movement can be found in India, Pakistan, Malaysia, Thailand, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Fiji, Central Asian countries, East Asian countries, North and Central African countries, South American countries and the Gulf countries.

In Pakistan the movement is based in Raiwind, near Lahore. The annual Tablighi congregation in Bangladesh, the Biswa Ijtema, attracts over 3 million devotees from around the world. A large participation in Tabligh efforts are also seen in Europe, North America, South Africa, North Africa and East Asian Muslim countries.

[edit] Political & Celebrity links

This section does not cite its references or sources. Please help improve this article by introducing appropriate citations. (help, get involved!) Any unsourced material that has been or is likely to be challenged may be removed at any time. This article has been tagged since February 2007.

The Tablighi Jamaat is a professedly non-political movement. Despite this, due to its popular stature, many prominent politicians in Muslim and non-Muslim countries from both the right and the left associate themselves with the Tabligh. Many entrepreneurs in the Muslim world have been Tablighis. Among others, former Pakistani Prime ministers Nawaz Sharif and former Pakistani President Muhammad Rafiq Tarar have been associated with the Tablighi movement. Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency was formerly headed by Javed Nasir, also a Tablighi.

Other than politicians, many celebrities in Pakistan have also associated themselves with the Tablighi Jamat. Acclaimed musician Junaid Jamshed reverted to Islam through the Jamat. Members of the Pakistani cricket team, including Saeed Anwar, Mohammad Yousuf (convert-formerly Yousuf Youhana), Inzamam-ul-Haq, Saqlain Mushtaq, Salim Malik, Mushtaq Ahmed & Shahid Afridi frequently attend the Jamat's lectures.

In Indonesia, Tabligh has also touch the life of Sakti, a member of Sheila on 7, a famous Indonesia Pop Band. During 2006 he has conducted a four months journey to International Markaz in Nizzamudin, New Delhi, India. He already quit the band completely, and practices the amalan maqaami and amalan intiqaali quite intensively.

[edit] Comments by prominent personalities

Graham Fuller, a former CIA official and expert on Islam, characterized Tablighi Jamaat as a "peaceful and apolitical preaching-to-the-people movement."

Barbara Metcalf, a University of California scholar of South Asian Islam, called Tablighi Jamaat "an apolitical, quietist movement of internal grassroots missionary renewal" and compares its activities to the efforts to reshape individual lives by Alcoholics Anonymous.

Olivier Roy, a prominent authority on Islam at Paris's prestigious Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, described Tablighi Jamaat as "completely apolitical and law abiding."

Governments normally intolerant of independent movements often make an exception for Tablighi Jamaat. Pakistani military officers, even allow Tablighi missionaries to preach in the barracks.^[3]

[edit] Criticism within Islam

This section does not cite its references or sources. Please help improve this article by introducing appropriate citations. (help, get involved!) Any unsourced material that has been or is likely to be challenged may be removed at any time. This article has been tagged since February 2007.

Some groups within Islam, like the Salafis and the Jamaat-e-Islami, accuse Tablighi Jammaat for its policy of refraining from warning its followers of activities that could be labelled as forms of shirk (polytheism) in Islam. On the other hand, anti-Wahabi groups like the Barelvis accuse the Jamaat of propagating the Wahabi beliefs and associating with them.

The Jamaat claims to adhere and follow the thought of Ahlus'Sunnah and has the basic Islamic creed. However, within the Jammat movement, no teachings of Aqeedah and Tawheed exists, other than a very basic and general overview. Instead of those teachings, certain things such as Taalim (Only reading Fazail E Amal) or Six Points of Sahaba take precedence.

The book used by Jamat for "Taalim" (or teaching) Fazail-e-Amaal is criticized by Salafis and Wahabis for it weak hadiths and other contents. Tablighis refute the charge saying that weak hadith narration is allowed for teaching virtues of already established practices in Islam. The book, though being controversial because many sources are not cited properly, is the mostly read religious book after the Holy book Quran.Mufti Ebrahim Desai answers the misconceptions about this Jamaat[www.askimam.com]

[edit] Concerns of Violence and Islamic Extremism

Main article: Tablighi Jamaat and allegations of terrorism

The organization is viewed with suspicion by those concerned with Islamism and related terrorism threats, while defenders contend the organization and its members are victims of religious persecution and Islamophobia. There are also arguments the organization as a whole is not responsible for the acts of a few isolated members, or that members are being arrested simply through charges of guilt by association.^[4]

An article in National Interest Online Alexis Debat of the The Nixon Center stated, "The organization is present in more than 80 countries, and about 99.9 percent of its activities are legitimate, peaceful and apolitical... It’s dedicated to improving society through individual development... They claim it’s not a political goal, but I’d argue that trying to change a society’s values is a political project, philosophically speaking." Attending a gathering, known as ijtima, in Pakistan he claimed, "I was told that, in the compound, Al-Qaeda came to raise money from Arab sheikhs and recruit foreign Muslims." Noting the difficulty separating out the violent extremists from the generally peaceful members, Debat added, "The question is how to root out the 0.1 percent that are terrorists without antagonizing the rest of the community."^[5]

[edit] Uganda

In Uganda, members of Tablighi Jamaat were responsible for the foundation of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) guerrilla movement.^[6] In 1995, 94 members of the Tabliq, led by Musitafari Mulinde, were arrested in Uganda on treason charges. In 1999, 56 of them were released; 38 chose to stand trial.^[7] In 2001, 22 were released due to lack of evidence against them. "The other 15 members remained in detention on treason charges after refusing the Government's offer of amnesty. The Government reportedly is pursuing its case against the 15 for terrorism; however, some members of the group still maintain that they are being held for religious reasons."^[8][9]

Other allegations include accusations of torture, murder, threats and harassment of a Ugandan woman and members of her family.^[10]

[edit] Somalia

During the War in Somalia (2006-present) fought between the secular Transitional Federal Government (TFG) and the Islamic Courts Union (ICU), on December 1, 2006, in Galkayo, it was reported 9 clerics of the Islamic Tabliqi jamaat had been arrested under the orders of Colonel Abdi Qeybdid, though the charges and the results of the arrest were not reported.^[11] On January 9, 2007, seven more Pakistani members of the Tabliq (Tablighi Jamaat) were arrested in Somalia near the Presidential Palace of Villa Somalia, causing a local protest.^[12]

Although the doors of Tableegh are opened for every Muslim therefore Muslims from other Jammats and political grounds also attend Tableegh congregation and some time they mix with tableegh and misunderstanging creates due to their behaviour about Tableeghi jammat but it is quite clear that Tableegh is non controversial, non violent and the most peaceful Jammat in the world. This can be well understood in Bangladesh where Government as well as opposition both attend its congregation.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] See also

• Deobandi Analysis of the Madrassah Darul Uloom, Deoband.
• Islam in India
• Islam in Pakistan
• Islam in Bangladesh
• Biswa Ijtema, the annual congregation in Bangladesh
• Maulana Muhammad Zakariya Kandhalawi, author of Fazail-e-Amaal

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Fiqh of Dawah
• Dawah
• Scholar’s attachment with Tabligh site in South Africa
• Scholar’s attachment with Tabligh site in Chicago, IL, USA
• Maulana Tariq Jamil
• Andrew Gilligan on Tablighi Jamaat's role in the building of a new East London supermosque
• Criticisms from Salafi standpoints [1][2][3]
• Article about Tabligh's alleged terror ties
• Article in Daily Times
• Islamist Networks: The Case of Tablighi Jamaat U.S. Institute of Peace Audio, August, 2006

[www.askimam.com]