In news- Recently, Saudi Arabia has banned the Tablighi Jamaat and Da’wah group, also known as Al Ahbab, calling it a ‘danger to society’.
About Tablighi Jamaat-
- The literal meaning of Tablighi Jamaat is a ‘society for spreading the faith’.
- It a Sunni Islamic missionary movement that was launched in Mewat in 1927 by the Islamic scholar and teacher Maulana Muhammad Ilyas.
- He first launched his campaign in the Mewat region in northwestern India, where many Hindu converts re-embraced their original faith in response to Arya Samaj’s ‘shuddhi’ campaign, the original version of ‘ghar wapsi’.
- The slogan Al-Kandhlawi coined for his new organization captured the essence of its activities — “Oh Muslims, become true Muslims”.
- The roots of this movement originated from the Darul Uloom madrasa in Deoband.
- While the movement is connected to the Deobandi movement of Sunni Islam, it has much in common with the Wahhabi style of Islam that is associated with Saudi Arabia’s religious establishment.
- It focuses on exhorting Muslims and encouraging fellow members to follow the pure form of Sunni Islam.
- The focus of the organisation was not on converting people from other faiths into Islam, rather it is focussed on ‘purifying’ the Muslim faith.
- The Emir is the leader of the international movement and is always related to the group’s founder Muhammad Ilyas al-Kandhlawi.
- The group also has a Shura Council, which is largely an advisory council with different national units and national headquarters.
- They divide themselves into small Jamaats (societies) and travel frequently across the world to spread the message of Islam to Muslim houses.
- Tablighi is the largest Islamic missionary movement today.
- In 2013, Kazakhstan banned the Tablighi Jamaat and designated it as extremist.
- The movement is also prohibited in countries including Iran, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.
Its six principles-
- 1st is the kalimah, an article of faith in which the Tabligh accepts that there is no God but Allah and that Prophet Muhammad is his messenger.
- 2nd is salat, or prayer five times daily.
- 3rd is ilm and dhikr, the knowledge and remembrance of Allah conducted in sessions in which the congregation listens to preaching by the imam, performs prayers, recites the Quran and reads the Hadith; the congregation also uses these sessions to dine together, thus fostering a sense of community and identity.
- 4th principle is ikram-i-Muslim, the treatment of fellow Muslims with honour.
- The 5th is ikhlas-i-niyat, or sincerity of intention.
- 6th is dawat-o-tabligh, or proselytisation.
Source: The Indian Express
