Living Hadīth in the Tablīghī Jama'āt

Abstract

The north indian movement of spiritual renewal widely known as the Tablīghī Jama'āt dates from the 1920s and exists today throughout the world. The movement's fundamental goal has been tablīgh: “conveying,” specifically conveying sharī'ā-based guidance. To this end, it has consistently used vernacular works based on translations of the Qur'ān and, especially, hadīth in its quietistic work of inculcating correct and devoted religious practice among Muslims. In this use of the vernacular, primarily Urdu, the movement has been heir to over a century of translation and subsequent publication of religious works. These publications, often in inexpensive format, have been produced by the lithographic presses that became especially common in the late nineteenth century. As in the Indonesian cases considered in this symposium, the 1930s and early 1940s were a key period for translating and printing influential texts based largely on translation of hadith. In this period, the reformists' printed texts not only reached a larger number of people but were used in new settings as Tabligh institutions evolved. Texts were never meant to stand alone and have always been secondary to practice.

Consumption within a soft total institution: Discursive inculcation in the Tablighi Jamaat

“…In endeavoring to bring back Muslims to the ideals of Islam—away from modern beliefs and value systems, and a lifestyle predicated on gratuitous consumption—TJ pursues a number of approaches. In addition to the text and speech discourse mentioned above, these include the use of environmental isolation (Gaborieau, ), rituals (Ali, ; Masud, ), social community and participation (Ali, ), norms (Reetz, ), mythologies (Metcalf, ), egalitarian‐bonding (Rauf & Prasad, ; Sadowski, ), apoliticization (Sikand, ), experiences (Metcalf, ), etiquettes and values (Reetz, ), and time (Metcalf, ; Sadowski, ).…”

Untitled

“…This binary can be traced to the reification of the category of religion in the period well before Pakistan's inception, as colonial discourses attempted to solidify religious boundaries in terms of their depiction and strategies of rule vis-à-vis 'the natives' (Pandey, 1992;Ludden, 1993;Kaviraj, 1994;Oberoi, 1994). These framings were reinforced by indigenous Hindu and Muslim elites as part of religious revivalist movements that emerged in the decades preceding independence (Robinson, 1974;Metcalf, 1993;Mayaram, 2004). However, the secular/religious distinction has evolved and been reinforced in recent decades following the growth of Islamist movements worldwide and in Pakistan in particular since the 1980s and following the global war on terror post 9/11.…”

Cuerpo, tiempo y espacio en el estudio de comunidades Musulmanas en España: El caso de la Jama’at at-Tabligh

“…Se trata de términos que a menudo aparecen relacionados a la tradición Islámica deobandí, originaria del subcontinente indio, y en particular a la Jama'at at-Tabligh (Masud 2000;Metcalf 1993Metcalf , 1995Metcalf , 2003Metcalf , 2004Sikand 2002). Como he apuntado inicialmente, este movimiento organiza encuentros regulares en los que sus seguidores discuten acerca de sus preocupaciones cotidianas y en relación a la tradición Islámica sunní y al modelo ejemplar para la experiencia, centrado en el Profeta Muhammad y recogido en la Sunna, en concreto en los Hadith.…”