From humble beginnings the Tablighi Jamaat has become the largest Islamic missionary movement, lately attracting attention for all the wrong reasons.
A Tablighi is on a mission. He wants you to be a good Muslim. If you ever come across one, the first thing he says is this: “Brother, come let’s go pray in the mosque.” Then he’ll deliver a sermon on the virtues of a simple life and the importance of faith. You’ll get frustrated but he’ll persist and when you think the conversation is finally over, he’ll say this: “Brother, shall we go to the mosque?”
The Tablighi Jamaat (TJ) is a movement focused on proselytisation. But what sets them apart is that if you are a Hindu or a Christisan or a Jew or believer in any other religion, chances are a Tablighi won’t bother you. His efforts are focused on fellow Muslims, who have been distracted by worldly affairs.
Started by Maulana Muhammad Ilyas in 1926 around the Indian region of Mewat, it has spread to more than a hundred countries and is now the largest Muslim missionary movement. Experts tell TRT World it has millions of members with some estimates reaching as high as 80 million.
“I haven’t met a single Muslim from South Asia who doesnt have a firsthand experience of Tablighis,” says Barbara Metcalf, professor emeritus of history at the University of California.
“They say the Tablighis annoy me, they come to the door, all they want you to do is come say your prayers. Some time in their lives they have come across the movement. Some people say Tablighis are like a broken record.”
The media, the police and politicians usually don’t bother themselves with TJ activities. After all, TJ has an apolitical agenda — if we define 'politics' as taking part in a democratic process or operating as a political entity — it has no intention of imposing Sharia or creating an Islamic state. All it wants is for Muslims to become better Muslims.
“They generally imagine today to be the time (as for early Muslims) in Mecca. That is to say that their numbers are minute and that this is not the Medina moment yet, when Muslims have power and authority,” Metcalf tells TRT World.
She’s referring to the early 7th century when Prophet Muhammad and a few followers escaped to the Arabian city of Medina to avoid persecution.
“For Tablighis it doesnt matter that there are Muslim states or Muslim rulers. It’s just a detail. In terms of real Muslims, this world is actually a Mecca because there are so few real Muslims.”
In recent months, TJ activities and members have come under scrutiny in Pakistan, India, Malaysia and other countries. They face accusations of gathering in large congregations despite warnings that it might lead to mass transmission of coronavirus infections.
By far the biggest blowback came in India where more than 2,400 TJ activists, including foreigners, are facing charges for violating official lockdown orders.
On social media, rightwing Hindus have accused TJ members of carrying out a “Corona Jihad” by deliberately trying to spread the virus.
For the scholars who have closely studied the movement, such a reaction in India is no surprise. Under the Hindu nationalist government of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Muslims have been on the receiving end.
The TJ gathering at its international headquarters in Nizamuddin, New Delhi, took place in early March. The lockdown was enforced later and violations by religious Hindu festivals attended by thousands were conveniently ignored by local media.
And one reason that Maulana Ilyas started the movement was to counter Hindu influence on Muslims
Muslim, in name
Undivided India was still a British colony when TJ emerged in the 1920s. It was a time when a few, but powerful, Hindu missionaries were trying to convert Muslims to Hinduism.
“One of the important historical drivers for the emergence of the Tablighi Jamaat was Hindu proselytisation movement, which was called Arya Samaj or Shuddhi, which is like a purification stem of the Arya Samaj,” says Dr Riyaz Timol, of Cardiff University’s Center for the Study of Islam.
A lot of TJ's initial effort was focused on the region of Mewat, which is spread between the Indian states of Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. Meos or the residents of Mewat were Muslims only in name, and in some cases, not even that.
Over centuries Meo Muslims adopted several Hindi rituals, for example, circling around a fire during weddings became a common practice.
As a British colonial officer, Major Powlet, noted at the time:
“The Meos are now all Musalmans in name; but their village deities are the same as those of the Hindus...As regards their own religion the Meos are very ignorant. Few know the Kalima and fewer still the regular prayers.”
(The excerpt is from Zacharias Pieri’s book The Tablighi Jamaat and the Quest for the London Mega Mosque)
Aryan Samar argued that Indian Muslims were originally Hindus and so they should return to their native religion. The fact that Leos were half Hindu and half Muslims made them an easy target, says Timon, who is writing a book on TJ.
The early 20th century was also a time when size mattered for religious groups, in dealing with colonial overlords.
“There was a major constitutional reform right after World War One. The number of any population defined how many seats you got in the legislature. Mass politics was linked to numbers and there were particular segments that looked ripe for Hindu proselytising movements,” says Metcalf.
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