Tablighi Jamaat
Tablighi Jamaat is an international Islamic religious movement. It focuses on exhorting Muslims to be more religiously observant and encourages fellow members to return to practise their religion according to the teachings of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, and secondarily give dawah to non-Muslims. "One of the most widespread Sunni" islah and called "one of the most influential religious movements in 20th-century Islam," the organisation is estimated to have between 12 and 80 million adherents worldwide, spread over 150 countries, with the majority living in South Asia.
The group encourages its followers to undertake short-term preaching missions, lasting from a few days to a few months in groups of usually forty days and four months, to preach to Muslims reminding them of "the core teachings of the Prophet Muhammad" and encourage them to attend mosque prayers and sermons. Members "travel, eat, sleep, wash and pray together in the mosques and often observe strict regimens relating to dress and personal grooming".
Established in 1926 by Muhammad Ilyas Kandhlawi, in the Mewat region of British India, it has roots in the revivalist tradition of the Deobandi school, and developed as a response to the deterioration of moral values and the neglect of aspects of Islam. The movement aims for the spiritual reformation of Islam by working at the grassroots level. The teachings of Tabligh Jamaat are expressed in "Six Principles": Kalimah, Salah, Ilm-o-Zikr, Ikraam-e-Muslim, Ikhlas-e-Niyyat, and Dawat-o-Tableegh.
Tablighi Jamaat denies any political affiliation, involvement in debate over political or Islamic doctrine such as fiqh,
let alone terrorism. It maintains its focus on the study of the sacred scriptures of Islam: the Quran and the Hadith, and that the personal spiritual renewal that results will lead to reformation of society. However, the group has been accused of maintaining political links, and being used by members of Islamic terrorist organisations to recruit operatives.
History
The emergence of Tablighi Jamaat also coincided closely with the rise of various Hindu revivalist movements such as Shuddhi and Sanghatan launched in the early twentieth century to reconvert Hindus who had converted to Islam and Tablighi Jamaat has been called a "missionary offshoot" of the revivalist Deobandi movement of India.Origin
, the founder of Tablighi Jamaat, wanted to create a movement that would enjoin good and forbid evil as the Quran decreed, as his teacher Rasheed Ahmad Gangohi dreamed of doing. The inspiration for this came to Ilyas in a dream during his second pilgrimage to Mecca in 1926.Ilyas abandoned his teaching post at Madrasah Mazahir Uloom in Saharanpur and became a missionary for reforming Muslims. He relocated near Dargah Hazrat Nizamuddin in Delhi, where this movement was formally launched in 1926, or 1927. When setting the guidelines for the movement, he sought inspiration from the practices adopted by Muhammad at the dawn of Islam. Muhammad Ilyas put forward the slogan,, "O Muslims, become Muslims!". This expressed the central focus of Tablighi Jamaat: their aim to renew Muslims by socially by trying to unite them in embracing the lifestyle of Muhammad. The movement gained a following in a relatively short period and nearly 25,000 people attended the annual conference in November 1941.
At the time, some Muslim Indian leaders feared that Muslims were losing their religious identity and were heedless of Islamic rituals. The movement was never given any name officially, but Ilyas called it Tahrik-i Imaan. Muhammad Ilyas died in 1945 and he himself is buried in the Nizām Ad-Dīn Mosque.
The Mewat region where Tablighi Jamaat started near Delhi was inhabited by the Meos, an ethnic group native to the region, most of whom had converted to Islam, and then had adopted Hindu traditions and attitudes when Muslim political power declined in the region, lacking the necessary acumen required to resist the cultural and religious influence of majority Hindus, prior to the arrival of Tablighi Jamaat.
Expansion
The group began to expand its activities in 1946. The initial expansion within South Asia happened immediately after the partition of India in 1947, when the Pakistan Chapter was established in the hinterlands of Raiwind town near Lahore, Pakistan. The Pakistan Chapter remained the largest until Bangladesh became independent from Pakistan in 1971. Today, the largest Chapter is Bangladesh followed by the second largest in Pakistan. Within two decades of its establishment, the group reached Southwest and Southeast Asia, Africa, Europe, and North America. The Tablighi Jamaat's aversion to politics, and also its lack of any direct and practical economic-political-social viewpoints, helped it enter and operate in societies, especially western countries and societies where politically active religious groups faced restrictions.Foreign missions
The first foreign missions were sent to the Hejaz and Britain in 1946. The United States followed and during the 1970s and 1980s the Tablighi Jamaat also established a large presence in continental Europe. In France it was introduced in the 1960s, and grew significantly in the two decades following 1970.In France, as of 2004, it was represented on the French Council of the Muslim Faith. During the first half-decade of the 21st century Tablighi Jamaat went through a major revival in France, reaching 100,000 followers by 2006. However, the United Kingdom is the current focus of the movement in Europe, primarily due to the large South Asian population that began to arrive there in the 1960s. By 2007, Tablighi Jamaat members were situated at 600 of Britain's 1,350 mosques.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the movement made inroads into Central Asia. As of 2007, it was estimated that 10,000 Tablighi Jamaat members could be found in Kyrgyzstan.
Pew Research Center estimates there are between 12 and 80 million adherents, spread across more than 150 countries. The majority of the followers of the Tablighi Jamaat live in South Asia. It is estimated that nearly 50,000 members of Tablighi Jamaat are active in the United States.
Beliefs and objectives
Members of Tabligh Jamat are allowed to follow their own fiqh as long as it does not deviate from Sunni Islam. Tablighi Jamaat defines its objective with reference to the concept of Dawah, the proselytising or preaching of Islam. Tablighi 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. Those two verses are:Six Attributes (Sifāt)
When Tablighi Jamaat visits a village or neighborhood, it invites the local Muslims to assemble in the mosque to hear their message in the form of "Six Attributes". These six Attributes were derived from the lives of the companions of Muhammad, since Muslims believe Sahabah are the best human beings after Muhammad—It is stated in one hadith, "My Sahabah are like stars, whosoever follows one of them will be guided." The Six Sifāt are basically a discussion about six special Attributes that when achieved, will just make it easy to follow the entire Dīn. These objectives are:- Kalimah — T.J Believes, to achieve it, One must have to strive. To make his iman into Yaqeen. That, Creation cannot do anything without the will of Allah, but Allah can & Peace-Happiness, Success is lying only in the way that Muhammad shows, not in any other worldly ways.
- Salah — T.J Believes, One must have to try to achieve the sahaba standard salah. in both the inward and outward manners, that the Companions learnt from Muhammad. Have to make a Yaqeen that, by doing so one can become direct recipients from the vast Treasuries of Allah.
- Ilm with Zikr — T.J Believes, One must have to try to know what Allah desires from us at any particular time and condition. know to differentiate halal-Haram. so that he can act accordingly in the way Muhammad taught. Try to achieve, the consciousness and remembrance of Allah in every action, at each moment in one's worldly existence. these two are combined because only through the quality of Zikr, A'mal can be done with the full consciousness and remembrance of Allah. T.J Believes, the benefits of ilm should be learned in Taleem programs & ilm Maslaha from Ulama. The knowledge and remembrance of Allah conducted individually and in sessions where 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.
- Ikram al-Muslim — Treating fellow Muslims "with honor and deference". T.J Believes, One must have to try to act Iḥsān, toward every Creation. One should invariably fulfil the obligations towards other human beings as commanded by Allah, & as taught by Muhammad. One should be prepared to sacrifice one's own rights, for which one will be rewarded in the hereafter. The other aspect of this sifat is, Akhlaq and Haqooq Ul Ibad encompassing rights of the Muslims as well as mankind. It is through these moral values, character building and showing sympathy to Muslims and non Muslims like poor, sick, elderly and other needy Islamic teachings could be practically disseminated.
- Ikhlas-i-Niyyah — T.J Believes, One must have to try to be pure, sincere when making an intention. every action is to be undertaken with no other end in view but to please Allah, & to reform oneself. Any slightest deviation from this set path is bound to generate the wrath, anger of Allah instead as it tantamont to admitting partner in that deed. Whether it be ibadat or mu'amalat, Allah accepts only such deeds which are offered purely with an intention to gain his pleasure only. A small act with purity in intention is great, considered acceptable and fully reward-able by Allah, compared to a big one where a slightest corruption in intention is present.
- Dawah and Tabligh, also Tafrigh-i-Waqt — T.J Believes, As there are no more prophets to come, the responsibility for the effort of Da'wah now falls upon the Ummah. So, One should spent his life, wealth & time in the way of Allah. so that he can learn the proper use of these three, which was actually borrowed from Allah. Should follow the footsteps of Muhammad, by taking His message door to door. He should make an effort so that everyone can gets closer to Allah, & also withdraw himself from worldly engagements to go forth in missionary groups. spend one night a week, one weekend a month, 40 continuous days a year, and ultimately 120 days at least once in their lives. Women would work among other women or travel occasionally, with their men folk on longer tours. Only in an atmosphere free of worldly thoughts can be there a true receptivity to the message concerned.