The Tablighi Jama‘at is one of the most influential grassroots Islamic movements of the twentieth century South Asian subcontinent. It is variously known as the "Jama‘at" (party), "Tehrik" (movement), "Nizam" (system), "Tanzim" (organization), "Tabligh" (Da’wah), and "Tehrik-I-Iman" (faith movement).
With a modest beginning in 1926 of its da’wah work in Mewat near Delhi under the leadership of a Deoband-associated sufi-scholar, Mawlana Muhammad Ilyas (1885-1944), the Jamaat today has followers and supporters almost all over the Muslim World and the West. Its 1998 annual international conferences in Bhopal - India, Raiwind near Lahore, Pakistan and in Tongi near Dhaka, Bangladesh, were attended by more than one million Muslims from ninety-four countries of the world. In fact, in recent years, the Dhaka annual conference of the Tablighi Jama‘at has become the second largest religious congregation of the Muslim World after Haj (the annual pilgrimage to Makkah). Its annual conferences in North America and Europe also attract about ten thousand Muslims, probably one of the largest gatherings of Muslims in the West.
The emergence of the Tablighi Jama‘at as a movement for the reawakening of faith and reaffirmation of religio-cultural identity of South Asian Muslims can be seen as a continuation of the broader trend of Islamic revival in Northern India and Muslim Bengal in the wake of the collapse of Muslim political power and consolidation of the British rule in India in the middle of the Nineteenth century. In strictly the religious sphere, one manifestation of this trend was the phenomenal growth of the madrassas (religious educational institutions) in Northern India which sought to reassert the authority of the Islamic orthodoxy and to relink the Muslim masses with Islamic religious institutions. In addition, the pietistic and devotional aspects of the Tablighi Jama‘at owe their origin to the sufi teachings and practices of Shaykh Ahmad Sirhindi, Shah Wali Ullah, and the founder of the Mujahidin Movement, Sayyid Ahmad Shahid (1786-1831). These Sufie-activists, who belonged to the Naqshbandiyah order, considered the observance of Shariah as an integral part of their sufi practices. It is in this sense that the Tablighi Jama‘at has been described, at least in its initial phase, both as a reinvigorated form of Islamic orthodoxy, and as a reformed sufism, although it did not inherit the vital tradition of political activism of these great sufi luminaries of eighteenth and nineteenth centuries of South Asian Islam.
The emergence of the Tablighi Jama‘at was also a direct response to the rise of the aggressive Hindu proselytizing movements such as Shuddhi (purification) and Sangathan (consolidation), which launched massive efforts in the early twentieth century to "reclaim" those "fallen away" Hindus who had converted to Islam during the Muslim political rule in India. The special target of these right wing Hindu evangelical movements were the so-called "border-line" Muslims who had retained most of the religious beliefs and practices as well as socio-cultural customs from their Hindu past. Mawlana Ilyas, the founder of the Tablighi Jama‘at, believed that only a grassroots Islamic religious movement could counter the efforts of the Shuddhi and Sangathan, "purify" the border-line Muslims from their Hindu accretions, and educate them about their basic beliefs and rituals in order to save them from becoming an easy prey to the Hindu proselytizers.
The Tablighi Jama‘at began its da’wa work in Mewat, a Gangetic plateau in Northern India inhabited by Rajput tribes known as Meos. Most Meos had converted to Islam between the twelth and thirteenth centuries, the formative phase of the Muslim rule in India. There is also evidence to suggest, however, that there were several Meo conversions to Islam, followed by reconversion to Hinduism whenever Muslim political power declined in the region. At the time when Mawlana Ilyas started his religious movement in Mewat, most Meos were Muslims in name only. They retained much of the socio-religious practices from their Hindu past. Many of these Muslims kept their old Hindu names and even worshipped Hindu dieties in their homes and celebrated Hindi religious festivals. The majority of them could not even correctly recite the one-line Shahadah (the Muslim profession of faith). Their birth, marriage and death rituals were all clearly based on Hindu customs.
Mawlana Ilyas, an Islamic religious scholar in the tradition of the Deoband School and a follower of the Naqshbandiya sufi order, came to know of this dismal Islamic situation in Mewat first through his disciples and later through his own several missionary trips there. His initial efforts toward re-Islamization of Mewati Muslims were essentially to establish a network of mosque-based religious schools (madrassas) in order to educate the local Muslims about correct Islamic beliefs and practices. Although he was able to establish more than one hundred religious schools in a short time in the Mewat region, he soon became disillusioned with the "madrassa approach," realizing that these institutions were producing "religious functionaries" but not devoted preachers who were willing to go door to door and remind people of their religious obligations as Muslims.
Recognizing the futility of the madrassa approach as a basis for creating a reawakening of religious consciousness and educating ordinary Muslims about their religion, Mawlana Ilyas decided to begin his da’wa work through itinerant preaching. The Tabligh movement was thus formally launched in Mewat in 1926, a place that later became the movement’s headquarters. After the partition of India in 1947, however, Raiwind, a small railroad town near Lahore, Pakistan, has replaced Basti Nizamuddin as a major center of the Jamaat’s organizational and missionary activities.
The method adopted by Mawlana Ilyas to call people to Islam was simple: it was to organize mobile units of at least ten persons and send them to various villages. These tablighi units, known as "Jama‘ats" (groups) would visit a village, invite the local Muslims to assemble in the mosque, and would present their message in the form of the following six demands:
1. Every Muslim must be able to recite Shahadah correctly in Arabic and know its meaning. The idea is to affirm the unity of God, to reject all dieties besides Allah, and to emphasize the obedience to the Prophet (s).
2. A Muslim must learn how to perform Salat correctly and in accordance with its prescribed rituals.
3. A Muslim cannot claim to be a true Muslim unless he is knowledgeable about the fundamental beliefs and practices of Islam. A Muslim must also perform dhikr (ritual remembrance of God) frequently in order to inculcate a habit of remembering Allah all the time.
For basic religious knowledge, Tablighi workers are required to read the prescribed seven essays written by Mawlana Muhammad Zakriya, a reputable scholar of Hadith at Saharunpur madrassa and an early supporter of the movement. These essays are now compiled in a single volume under the title, Tablighi Nisab (Tablighi Curriculum). They deal with life stories of the Sahaba (companions of the Prophet), and the virutes (fadhayl) of salat, dhikr, charity, hajj, ritual solutions to the Prophet (darud) and the Qur’an. Written in simple and lucid Urdu, and based mostly on inspirational but historical suspect traditions and anecdotes, the essays also constitute, with little change, the basic source material for the formula speech delivered by the Tablighi missionaries before the assemblies throughout the world. In addition, every Muslim is also encouraged to learn how to read the Qur’an in Arabic with correct pronunciation.
4. It is incumbent on every Muslim to be respectful and polite to fellow Muslims and show deference toward them. This idea of "Ikram-I-Momin" (respect for Muslims) is not only a relgious obligation but also a basic prerequisite for effective da’wa work. Mawlana Ilyas often told his followers that their polite manners, modest demeanor and respectful speech will win more converts than their scholarly presentations and rhetorical skills.
5. A Muslim must always incubate honesty and sincerity of purpose in all endeavors. Everything is to be done for the sake of seeking pleasure of Allah.
6. The final demand which constitutes the most distinctive feature and innovative aspect of the Jama‘at’s approach to Islamic da’wa work deals with the formation of small groups of volunteer preachers willing to donate time and travel from place to place spreading the work of God. For Mawlana Ilyas, preaching is not the work of only the professional Ulama; it is the duty of every Muslim. Hence, every Muslim must spare time from worldly pursuits on a regular basis in order to travel, "following the footsteps of the Prophet (s) and giving from door to door, city to city, and country to country" for the sake of Allah. People are usually asked to volunteer for a "chilla" (forty days of itinerant preaching) which is considered the maximum time for one stint of outdoor missionary activity for the new members. Those who cannot afford to spare a forty day stint may undertake a retreat for one day a week, three days a month, and forty days a year. A four month travel for preaching is a minimum requirement that every member must fulfill.
These six principles are the cornerstone of the Tablighi Jama‘at ideology and ought to be strictly observed by all members of the Jama’at. Mawlana Ilyas later added another rule, asking the members to obstain from wasting time in idle talk and aimless activities, and protect themselves from prohibited deeds. Since its inception in 1926, the Tablighi Jama‘at has witnessed phenomenal growth and expansion. Mawlana Ilyas was succeeded by his son Mawlana Muhammad Yusuf (1917-1965) as the leader of the Jama‘at. It was during Maulana Yusuf’s tenure that the Jama’at’s activities extended beyond the confines of Mewat and covered a larger part of India. Soon Tablighi missions started visiting Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Europe, and America. Since then the movement’s numerical strength has grown enormously although no formal membership or registration has ever been undertaken.
In conclusion, one can make the following observations with regard to the ideology, methods and impact of the Tablighi Jama‘at in the broader context of twentieth century Islamic developments:
1. The secret of the Jama‘at’s success lies in its direct, simple and personal appeal as well as the limited "religious" demands which it makes on Muslims.
2. The primary instrument of the Tablighi Jama‘at workers is the itinerancy, rather than developing permanent institutional structures for Islamization.
3. The da’wa methodology of the Jama‘at is, by its very nature, predisposed to expansions rather than consolidation or organization building.
4. Over the years the Jama‘at has gradually become a "closed system." There has been absolutely no change in the da’wa method first introduced by Mawlana Ilyas more than 75 years ago.
5. The exclusive focus of the Tablighi Jama‘at is individual. It has been assumed that an individual can sustain his/her moral character even in a hostile social environment. It is on the basis of this assumption that the Jama’at does not seem to have concerned itself with issues of social significance and has not addressed itself to the problems of reforming political and social institutions while transforming individuals.
6. Tablighi Jama‘at detests politics and has always taken a neutral, rather indifferent, stance on most deeply divisive issues relating to Islam and socio-policial developments in Islamic societies. Hence, many Muslim and non-Muslim governments have encouraged the Tabligh activities in order to neutralize the influence of politically activist Islamic movements.
7. Thus, notwithstanding its declared policy of being a nonpolitical movement, one can argue that this political stance of the Jama‘at has important political consequences. In India, for example, its view of religion in the private affairs of the individual for the acceptance of secularism among Indian Muslims. The Jama’at has flourished both in the secular political and, in turn, has lent support and legitimacy to secularism throughout its doctrine. In Pakistan, Bangladesh, Turkey and Malaysia, it has depoliticized a large number of reliously-inclined people by turning them into itinerant preachers. Thus, draining off of a considerable portion of the religious segment into nonpolitical segments has tended to impair severely the efforts of religio-political groups, such as the Jama‘at-I-Islami, to expand their recruitment and support base.
