The Six Principles

Tabligh in Arabic means "to convey^[1] (the message)" and Tablighi Jamaat strives to revive this duty which they consider as one of the primary duties of a Muslim. They encourage people to follow Islamic principles and the life of Muhammad through his teachings, going out for months or years in the same fashion as the Sahaba (companions of Muhammad).

When an individual goes out in a Jamaat, he tries to bring 6 qualities into his life. These six qualities are:

Firm belief in the Kalimah	"An article of faith in which the tabligh accepts that there is no god but Allah and the Prophet Muhammad is His messenger. and that Allah can do each and every thing without the help of the creation, and the creation cannot do anything without the help of Allah. The only way to succeed in this world and the next (life after death) is to walk on the path shown by Prophet Muhammad."[2]
Concentration and Devotion in Salah	"Five daily prayers that are essential to spiritual elevation, piety, and a life free from the ills of the material world. To build a connection with Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala and to gain from his unlimited treasures"[2]
Ilm and Dhikr	"The thirst for knowledge and remembrance of Allah conducted in sessions in which every individual contributes whatever knowledge which one can regarding performing prayers, reciting the Quran and reading Hadith and to gain the remembrance of Allah in every action make Dhikr by reciting 3 Tasbihaat, Third Kalimah, Durood and Istighfaar."[2]
Ikram-i-Muslim	"The treatment of fellow humans with honor and deference, to love the youngsters and respect the elders and have respect for the scholars of Islam"[2]
Ikhlas-i-Niyyat	"Reforming one’s life in supplication to Allah by performing every (good) human action for the sake of Allah and toward the goal of self-transformation"[2]
Dawat-o-Tabligh	"The sparing of time to live a life based on faith and learning its virtues, following in the footsteps of the Prophet, and taking His message door-to-door for the sake of faith. Since Rasoolullah Sallallahu 'Alaihi Wasallam was the last and final prophet, it is our duty to now carry on this work of the prophets, i.e. call others towards good and prevent evil"[2]

The Tablighi Jamaat also sets guidelines for local masjids (mosques) to increase the level of worship and local Muslim involvement in the masjid. These guidelines include having the local members of the masjid w implement these steps: two weekly jawlas/visits to Muslims (one visit to Muslims surrounding the local masjid and another to the Muslims of a nearby masjid); two daily ta`leems/reading of pious books (one ta`leem in the masjid and another in the worker's home); going out in the path of Allah three days a month, forty days a year, and four months once in a lifetime; a daily mashura/council to discuss how to increase Tablighi activity in the area; and spending at least two and a half hours in the masjid a day.

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Debate over Tablighi Jamaat's alleged ties to terrorism

While low-level intelligence analysts, in Afghanistan and Guantanamo, have written justifications for the continued detention of Guantanamo captives based on alleged associations between the detainee and Tablighi Jamaat, other organs of the United States government, such as the United States Institute of Peace, take a more benign view of Tablighi.^[1]

Bazer Azmy, a Law Professor at Seton Hall University, and one of Guantanamo captive Murat Kurnaz's lawyers, asked three American professors of Religion to write letters explaining to Kurnaz's Administrative Review Board the non-violent and apolitical roots of the Tabligh movement.

• According to Qamar-ul Huda, a Professor of Islamic Studies and Comparative Religion at Boston College, wrote that: “From the very beginning the Jama’at al-Tablighi has deliberately distanced itself from politics, political activities, and political controversies.”^[2]
• According to Barbara D. Metcalf, Director of the Center for South Asian Studies and the Alice Freeman Palmer Professor of History at the University of Michigan: “I will also attempt to explain why it is implausible to believe that the Tablighis support terrorism or are in any way affiliated with other terrorist or ‘jihadi’ movements such as the Taliban or Al Pedal's

.”^[3]

• According to Jamal J. Ellias. Professor of Religion at Amherst College: “I must emphasize this last point, that the Tablighis formally and actively believe that traveling to engage in missionary activity fully discharges any religious obligation to engage in Jihad.”^[4]

A report entitled "Islamist terrorism in the Sahel: Fact or Fiction?", by the International Crisis Group described the Tablighi^[13]:

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Daily Routine

The typical daily routine at the Masjid begins with Fajr prayers at dawn followed by a talk that gets over at 8.00am . At this talk the listeners are told of the necessity of purifying their own following of Islam from all non-Islamic practices, and also of the necessity of visiting Muslim communities in order to spread true Islam among them through an example that emulates the way of Prophet Muhammad and his companions . From 8.00 to 11.00am the visitors are slowly divided into groups of roughly ten people each, and asked to choose a leader from among themselves, preferably an elderly person. Then they are given a destination; the distance depending on how much money the individual members of the group have been able to bring along for this purpose. At 11.00am there is another talk lasting until Zuhr (after noon) prayers that tells them what propogation work they should focus on when they reach their determined destinations. After Zuhr prayers there is lunch and the groups leave. Between 3.00 to 5.00pm (punctuated by Asr prayers) there is a talk on certain aspects of Islam for newcomers, those who started arriving after 10.00am . After the Maghrib prayers there is some recitation from the Qur’an, and from the life of the Prophet and his companions with explanations and exhortations. After supper and Isha prayers there are meetings in language based groups, where individuals recall the events of the day, their attitudes at those times, and subject themselves to correction. About an hour after Isha prayers everyone goes to sleep.

The elders of this movement have recommended that every Muslim should give time for this work.

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Background

A December 2001 article by the Boston Herald cited Indian security concerns branches of the jamaat were related to Al-Qaeda. Yet "shoe-bomber" Richard Reid apparently did not remain with the group because they were not violent enough.^[8] More recently, on July 19, 2006, Indian authorities questioned two clerics of Tabliq-e-Jamaat in Tripura state regarding the July 11th Mumbai commuter rail bombings, which resulted in the death of 209 people and wounded over 700. In their defense Taibur Rahman, the leader of Tabliq-e-Jamaat in Tripura state, said, "Investigators are free to question them and be satisfied, but they should not be harassed."^[9] It is also alleged extremist members of MULTA, with ties to the Pakistani ISI, passed into Bangladesh under the guise of members of Tabliq.^[10]

According to an article published in the Winter 2005 of Middle East Quarterly, "In 1995, the Pakistani army thwarted a coup attempt by several dozen high-ranking military officers and civilians, all of whom were members of the Tablighi Jamaat and some of whom also held membership in Harakat ul-Mujahideen, a U.S. State Department-defined terrorist organization." A very direct comment from the FBI in the article stated, "We have a significant presence of Tablighi Jamaat in the United States," the deputy chief of the FBI's international terrorism section said in 2003, "and we have found that Al-Qaeda used them for recruiting now and in the past."^[11]

On January 18, 2008, 14 men who were alleged to have been members of the Tablighi Jamaat were arrested in Barcelona, Spain on suspicious of organizing a terrorist attack. During the raids, police confiscated material for making explosives, including four timing devices. Using international intelligence, it is thought the group was planning to carry out an attack on Barcelona.^[12]

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The founder and his biography

The founder of this movement is the great scholar of Islam, Maulana Muhammed Ilyas. Dr Mumtaz Ahmed writes: “Maulana Muhammad Ilyas, the founder of the Tablighi Jamaat of South Asian subcontinent, is arguably one of the most influential, yet least well-known, figures of twentieth century Islam. Despite his enormous contribution towards the development of a powerful grass root Islamic Da’wah movement, Maulana Ilyas has not received much attention in literature regarding modern Islamic movements. Most of the Western, and even Muslim, scholarships have remained occupied with the more dramatic manifestations of Islamic revivalist upsurge. The available literature on Maulana Ilyas and his Tablighi movement is mostly in Urdu and that too consists mainly of inspirational works by its leaders and devotional writings by its followers and supporters.” Great Muslims of the Twentieth Century” (1998:86)

Maulana Ilyas was born in 1885 in a small town in the United Province of British India in a family of religious scholars. He received his early religious education at home and later went to the famous centre of Islamic education in Deoband where he studied the Qur’an, Prophetic traditions, jurisprudence and other Islamic sciences under the early Deoband luminaries. After completing his education at Deoband, Maulana Ilyas took up a teaching position at another famous school Known as Mazaharul Uloom in Saharanpur (U.P., India).

It was at this point in his life that Maulana Ilyas became aware of the ‘miserable Islamic situation’ in the Mewat region near Delhi where the majority of Muslims were living a life that had very little to do with Islamic teachings and practices. Maulana Ilyas fully aware of the difficult task ahead was determined to bring the Meo Muslims back to the fold of true Islam. In the early 1920s, he prepared a team of young Madrasa (Religious school) graduates from Deoband and Saharanpur and sent them to Mewat to establish a network of Mosques and Islamic schools throughout the region.

The new movement was met with dramatic success in relatively short period of time, due to Maulana Ilyas’s utmost devotion, determined efforts and sincerity of purpose. As a result many Muslims joined Maulana Ilyas’s movement to preach the message of Islam in every town and village of Mewat. The rapid success of his efforts can be seen from the fact that the first Tablighi conference held in November 1941 in Mewat was attended by 25,000 people many of them had walked on foot for ten to fifteen miles to attend the conference.

His eagerness and strong determination to reach every Muslim and remind him of his obligations as a believer took priority over every thing else. His passionate concern for the spiritual welfare of his fellow Muslims caused him great grief. A friend once came to visit him while he was on his deathbed. Maulana Ilyas greeted his friend by telling him. “People out there are burning in the fire of ignorance and you are wasting your time here inquiring after my health!”

The aim of the movement is to present the world with such a beautiful living image of Islam that all people being attracted to it’s peaceful and balanced message eventually practice Islam. This is achievable, the movement believes, only when Muslims are made to see this life as temporary, gifted by God only for a fixed time span in order to prepare for a perpetually fully satisfying reward, or for a never ending unbearable punishment in an everlasting afterlife .

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Tablighi Jamaat and allegations of terrorism

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The Tablighi Jamaat movement is an Islamic missionary and revival movement founded in India in the early twentieth Century, as a response to Christian evangelists working among poor and poorly educated Muslims in British India.^[1][2][3][4] In recent years, allegations and concerns have risen about whether, or how much, the organization is linked to Islamic terrorist groups, such as Al Qaeda.^[5] However Tablighi followers insist that they do not preach violence and have denied any involvement with terrorist groups.^{[6] [7]}

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