SPIRITUAL NOMADISM IN THE PRACTICES OF TABLIGHI JAMAAT

Early in the 20^th century a new movement emerged in the region of Mewat in India, where Maulyana Ilyas Zakariya, who was both a member of a Sufi order and a religious scholar, proposed that the state of affairs of the Muslim communities around the world will not improve until Muslims improve their own religious practices and transform themselves into better individuals. He also proposed that a person cannot correct himself if he is always in the environment of worldly matters. To transform, one needs to leave his comfort zone, his work, family and his daily trifles and spend more time in the environment of din (religion). Maulyana established a regular practice of traveling, in which travel was performed in jamaats (groups) of 8-12 people and involved staying in a mosque for two-three days before moving into another one in the near distance. Main daily activities inside the mosque would include: taalim and muzakirah (study circles), daily prayers, zikr (remembrance of God), bayan (talk), and gasht and ziyarah (visiting people in the locality to invite them to the mosque). This practice became very popular and very soon it spread all across the Indian subcontinent.

Nearly eighty years passed since then and the movement became truly global, but very little changed in the way that tablighi is performed today from the times of Mawlyana Ilyas and just like before – travel remains the most crucial element in the practices of tablighi. It is believed that only in traveling people are able to completely detach themselves from their worldly matters and devote their time and energy to proper religious worship and learning.

When combined with time and space, ‘travel’ has a special meaning in the tablighi discourse. It is a physical movement from one’s present space (house, city, or country) to another. It is comparable with the concept of Hijra, both in the sense of migration and withdrawal. In these senses it is travel within one’s self. One temporary migrates from duniya (worldly pursuits) to din (religious concerns), a favorite dichotomy among the Tablighis. It is a migration from corruption to purity, withdrawal from worldly attachments to the Path of God.[7]

What makes me suggest that Tablighi practice is a kind of spiritual nomadism? First of all, it is the regularity of travel. Tablighis are encouraged to spend at least one three-day travel a month, one 40-day trip a year, and one four-month trip in a life-time. Regularity is very important and always stressed. When the time for a travel comes, one is encouraged to travel “no-matter what”. One reason for it is that this way travel becomes an important part of one’s life: there is a bit of travelling every month and more significant travel every year. Many wonder about the economic aspects of Tablighi traveling practices and funding sources for distant journeys and large gatherings. The main principle of any travel is self-financing. There are simply no funds, which would pay for anyone’s journey. Every participant is expected to completely finance his own trip. He must show sufficient amount of money before he would be allowed to join the group. That is why not all Tablighis can afford international travel, but many try to save for several years in order to perform such trips. One thing that makes traveling to the Indian subcontinent easy is the local hospitality. Particularly in India, local Tablighi participants in every mosque consider it a duty to arrange food for the visiting jamaat (group) during all of its stay in their mosque. In my 40-day journey, we hardly had a chance to cook for ourselves. That is why the major cost was that of a round-trip air-ticket from Bishkek to Delhi (about US$600), on the top of which I spent no more than $100 for various small purchases.

Secondly, the amount of time spent in travel is quite significant. Three days a month – makes 10% of one’s time and 40 days a year add another 10%. So, a committed Tablighi spends at least one fifth (20%) of his lifetime in a journey. Once in a life time people are encouraged to go for four months. However, this is a minimum. Many veterans of Tablighi movement at some point decide to spend four months every year. In a combination with three-day trips it makes for more than 40% of their lifetime. In more extreme cases, people can travel for a year and perhaps in most extreme cases, usually in the old age, people decide to spend all of their time in travelling. I spent two weeks with an elderly Indian Muslim from Mewat, who was a retired government official, had a retirement pension and spent most of his life in a journey. He returned home between his four-month trips, to get some rest and deal with family matters, just to depart again in a couple of weeks. Obviously, when people spend anything between one tenth to one half of their life on a road it cannot but have some major effect on their own lifestyle and on the life of their families.

Therefore, my third argument for calling Tablighi members – spiritual nomads, is that their travels have strong influence on their life when they return. One of the main things they bring from journeys is the attachment to mosques. During the short three-day trips they pray in the mosque with the local jamaat and participate in all mosque activities. When they return, they are encouraged to continue praying with the jamaat in their local mosques and start participating in the local amals (activities), such as taalim (study circle), gasht (rounds in the neighborhoods) and mashvara (council).

During travel they also get engaged in activities like cooking and cleaning. When they go back, they are instructed to change their attitudes to their families and do more of kyzmat (help) to their wives, to treat all their family members with love and respect and to introduce a taalim-circle at home. They can also take their wives, mothers, daughters and sisters on what is called masturat (closed) jamaat. Masturat jamaats can travel for three days, 15 days and 40 days. It is recommended for a woman to travel for three days once in three months. When only men travel, women stay at home, sometimes for very lengthy periods. That brings new arrangements in the organization of household activities, like it is a case with many migrant families.

Finally, having regular monthly and yearly travels require Tablighis to make special arrangements at their work places or to choose a kind of work that would give them flexibility in terms of time and commitments. Many Tablighis become engaged in trade or open their own businesses to be their own bosses. One Tablighi I knew used to work for 10-11 months, then quit his job, travel for four months and every time when he came back he would look for a new job. That continued for almost twenty years, until he found a job at the Islamic school with a Tablighi orientation, where he would not lose it because of traveling.

But perhaps the major effect of spiritual journeys on Tablighis – is less tangible; it is on the level of personal transformations and changes of their worldviews. During these trips they build new ethical, philosophical, and religious foundations, which then have more prominent effects on their life in general. Because these new perspectives are obtained in journeys, they embrace many elements of the spiritual nomadic lifestyle.

Date: 2015-12-11; view: 1005