Tablighi Jamaat (Urdu: تبلیغی جماعت, Tablīghī Jamā‘at; Arabic: جماعة التبليغ, Jamā‘at at-Tablīgh; Bengali: তাবলীগ জামাত; Hindi: तबलीग़ी जमात; English: Society for spreading faith) is a non-political global Sunni Islamic missionary movement that focuses on urging Muslims to return to primary Sunni Islam,[5][6] and particularly in matters of ritual, dress, and personal behavior.[7] The organisati
on is estimated to have between 12 million[8] and 150 million adherents[3] (the majority living in South Asia[9]), and a presence in somewhere between 150[8] and 213 countries.[3] It has been called "one of the most influential religious movements in 20th century Islam".[10]
The movement was started in 1927 by Muhammad Ilyas al-Kandhlawi in India.[11] Its stated primary aim is spiritual reformation of Islam by reaching out to Muslims across social and economic spectra and working at the grassroots level, to bring them in line with the group's understanding of Islam.[3][12] The teachings of Tabligh Jamaat are expressed in "Six Principles" (Kalimah, Salat, Ilm, Ikraam-e-Muslim, Ikhlas-e-Niyyat, Dawat-o-Tableegh).[13] Tablighi Jamaat believes that Muslims are in a constant state of spiritual Jihad in the sense of fight against evil, the weapon of choice is Dawah (proselytization) and that battles are won or lost in the "hearts of men." Tablighi Jamaat began as an offshoot of the Deobandi movement, and a response to perceived deteriorating moral values and a supposed negligence of aspects of Islam.[14] It expanded from a local to a national to an international movement. Tablighi Jamaat denies any affiliation in politics and fiqh (jurisprudence),[15] focusing instead on the Quran and Hadith,[15][16] and states that it rejects violence as a means for evangelism,[17] (although some have complained that adherents have become involved in politics in Pakistan and recruited for terrorist acts in France, Britain, Spain and the US[18]). Tablighi Jamaat has claimed to avoid electronic media and in favor of personal communication for proselytising, although prominent Tablighi personalities such as Tariq Jameel are featured on an extensive range of Internet videos and often appear on TV. Tablighi Jamaat attracted significant public and media attention when it announced plans for the largest mosque in Europe to be built in London, United Kingdom. Muhammad Ilyas, the founder of Tablighi Jamaat, wanted to create a movement that would 'enjoin good and forbid evil' as the Qur'an decreed,[20][21] and as his teacher Rasheed Ahmad Gangohi dreamed of doing.[22] The inspiration for this came during his second pilgrimage to Mecca in 1926.[23] What he lacked in scholarly learning, presence, charisma or speaking ability, he made up for in zeal.[24] He initially tried to establish a network of mosque-based religious schools to educate the Mewati Muslims about Islamic beliefs and practices. Shortly afterwards, he was disappointed with the reality that these institutions were producing religious functionaries, but not preachers.[25]
Ilyas abandoned his teaching post at Madrasah Mazahir Uloom in Saharanpur and became a missionary. He relocated to Nizamuddin near Delhi, where this movement was formally launched in 1926,[25] or 1927.[11] When setting the guidelines for the movement, he sought inspiration from the practices adopted by Muhammad at the dawn of Islam.[21] 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 Muslims socially by uniting 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.[25]
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.[26][27]
The Mewat region where TJ started around Delhi[11] was inhabited by the Meos, a Rajput ethnic group, some of whom had allegedly converted to Islam, and then re-conversion to Hinduism when Muslim political power declined in the region, lacking the necessary acumen (according to one author, Ballard) required to resist the cultural and religious influence of Hindus, prior to the arrival of Tablighi Jamaat.[19]
Raiwind Tablighi Markaz located in Lahore, Pakistan is the main Markaz of Tablighi Jamat..
