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Madinat al-Muslimeen Islamic Message Board
| SHAME OF THE PRACTICING MUSLIM |
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| Aafreen |
| 05/06/03 at 08:22:46 |
| SHAME OF THE PRACTICING MUSLIM www.mpacuk.org HIJAB, SALAT BUT NO JIHAD The Muslim Establishment is producing Muslims who refuse their duty to Allah I did a talk in East London a few weeks ago on behalf of MPAC. Their were about 80 Muslim sisters and another 60 or so brothers who sat listening. I was just one the speakers invited, along with the Young Muslims, MAB and Islamic Relief. Each Speaker in turn pleaded with the Muslims attending to act, not just sit and pray in defence of the Ummah. Finally it was my turn. I spoke up and told the audience that Jihad was FARD upon all of them individually. In fact in priority it was more important then virtually anything else in Islam, Including Haj !. Once I had finished we asked how many people would help out in any one of the groups. Hardly any one put their hand up. Now this made me think. There they were sitting piously with hijabs on, brothers who would never miss a salat but none of them were willing to take part in any form of Jihad. It was of course the biggest lie the Muslims have pulled upon themselves. The lie that as long as 'you perfect your self' you are a good Muslim not a hypocrite. Was i looking at a bunch of Muslims who didnt give a monkeys about Islam. The answer was no, they were all what they like to call themselves 'practicing muslims'. The fact was they had all been neutralised and pacified long before Active Jihad groups like MPAC existed by the myriad of backside groups that teach pacified Islam out there. It was like sitting and looking at an army of Zombies. They could hear you, see you, but couldnt understand you. We were talking Chinese. These pacified Muslims wanted to hear how pretty the Quran is, or how many blessings you get when you attend the Mosque. They didnt want to hear the word 'defend the Ummah' and that it was a FARD duty on each one of them to defend the Ummah. If Islam said it, well thats not the Islam they wanted to hear. That was something that others did. It wasnt their problem. Afterwards i spoke to a few of them. Each one came out with ever more strange so called Islamic reasons why they were not defending the Ummah. Others argued that they were just by waking up in the morning. Jihad is a great deed indeed and there is no deed whose reward or blessing is as that of it, and for this reason, it is the best thing that one can volunteer for. All the Muslim religious scholars unanimously agree that Jihad is superior to Hajj and 'Umra (pilgrimage) and also superior to non obligatory Salat (prayer) and Saum (fasting) as mentioned in the Qur'anand Prophet's Sunna. When i argued how on earth they could wear Hijab or pay Zakat when they were omitting an obligation far more important then both the reasons they gave were astounding: · Walking to the Mosque is Jihad. · Wearing Hijab is my Jihad. · Waking up for Fajr is my Jihad. · My husband doesnt let me do Jihad. · My parents wont let me do Jihad. · I will die for Palestine but first i must perfect myself. It was an amazing show of the effort these Muslims will take to deny their obligation to Allah. Each one had an even better reason not to do anything. Wearing Hijab may be a form of Jihad (Jihad nafs) but that does not allow you to forsake the Jihad in 'defence of the Ummah' which is FARD (ayn - individual duty). As for husbands not letting them, i asked 'if your husband told you to take your headscarf off and stop praying salat would you?' No was the reply, 'Then why have you allowed him to over ride Allahs direct command on Jihad?', there was a moment where the light went on, then just as quickly went off as they put two and two together and realised that if they admitted it was true they may be forced to work. They were far too neutralised to let truth stand in the way. Those who believe say: "Why is not a Surah (Chapter the Qur'an) sent down (for us)?" But when a decisive Surah (explaining and ordering things) is sent down, and fighting (Jihad-holy fighting in Allah's Cause) is mentioned (i.e. ordained) therein, you will see those in whose hearts there is a disease (of hypocrisy) looking at you with a look of one fainting to death. But it was better for them (hypocrites, to listen to Allah and to obey Him). Obedience (to Allah) and good words (were better for them) (V.47:20,21). It was an eye opener. The most pious muslims were in fact no more then zombies often, pre programmed by Muslim groups to forget what the Prophet PBUH was not allowed to forget. If the Prophet was not exempted from Jihad why on earth did these Muslims think they were? Then fight, (O Muhammad pbuh), in the Cause of Allah, you are not tasked (held responsible) except for yourself, and incite the believers (to fight along with you), it may be that Allah will restrain the evil might of the disbelievers. And Allah is Stronger in might and Stronger in punishing. (V.4:84). It is this denial of Allah's greatest obligation onto man that has cost the Ummah our Empire and the lives of millions of Muslims every day. The very fact that the Mosques and groups like the Tablighi Jamaat, the 1000's of Mosques and 6000 other groups refused to teach you the very basics of Islam was proof that the Establishment was responsible for creating not a true Ummah of Muslims who would fight for Islam and their brothers and sisters, but of groups of plebs who looked pious but would never lift a single finger, cast a single vote, join a single political party, call a single Media outlet, picket a single store in defense of their brothers despite it being FARD upon them to do so. You see this new type of pacified Muslim were content to go to countless talks about nothing, feel ever more pious about themselves and let the world and Allah's command go to hell. Its only when Jihad is re-established amongst the Ummah will we be able to ever stop the massacre and destruction we see now. Nothing else, not prayer, not fasting, not attending a Million talks will stop our enemies... to stop them we must do what Allah taught us to do when an enemy attacks....Jihad. It is Fard upon every man and every woman and thats the bottom line. |
| Re: SHAME OF THE PRACTICING MUSLIM |
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| timbuktu |
| 09/24/03 at 08:54:19 |
| [slm] unfortunately, this is the story of the Ummah but for those who heed the call in these times, the rewards are even greater, & the change we desire can be brought out by a few dedicated ones. don't lose hope. |
| 09/24/03 at 09:56:53 |
| timbuktu |
| Re: SHAME OF THE PRACTICING MUSLIM |
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| BroHanif |
| 09/25/03 at 12:59:55 |
| Salaams, [quote]The very fact that the Mosques and groups like the Tablighi Jamaat, the 1000's of Mosques and 6000 other groups refused to teach you the very basics of Islam was proof that the Establishment was responsible for creating not a true Ummah of Muslims who would fight for Islam and their brothers and sisters, but of groups of plebs who looked pious but would never lift a single finger, cast a single vote, join a single political party, call a single Media outlet, picket a single store in defense of their brothers despite it being FARD upon them to do so. You see this new type of pacified Muslim were content to go to countless talks about nothing, feel ever more pious about themselves and let the world and Allah's command go to hell. Its only when Jihad is re-established amongst the Ummah will we be able to ever stop the massacre and destruction we see now. Nothing else, not prayer, not fasting, not attending a Million talks will stop our enemies... to stop them we must do what Allah taught us to do when an enemy attacks....Jihad. [/quote] This article is a bit harsh I must in fact I must stress that this is the case of the ummah today, we expect. quick fixes to our problems. Many of us think that by simply acting on jihad a magic wand will appear in our right hand cast it on our enemies and they'll simply turn into dust. This is not the case. Muslims need to be active in every field of dawah be it in education, relief work government, technology and so forth. Since when did the Tabligh Jamaat say people are not allowed to vote? and not go to pickets? and so forth?. If the Muslims want to solve the problems of the world they need to work together for the common good, merely brandishing brothers/sisters who go in Tabligh Jamat and labelling them as plebs will never bring any justice. How can we gain the help of Allah when we have over so many Muslims not even doing the basics of Farz, yet the Tabligh dawah methodlogy means going out to meet other Muslims in the path of Allah and inviting them to Allah. Simple, and effective because so many Muslims are far from deen that its worrying, let them do what they have to do and lets us work together. Again, if there is a problem in the mosque, work with the committes and try and solve the problem, remember these guys are nothing but volunteers at the most, why complain let us lend our hands forward and try and help our own community rather than creating differences. Trust me I've been in this ill cirlce before and thought like this but the main problem is ourselves. Until we don't help ourselves in helping others, we will carry on blaming others. Salaams Hanif |
| Re: SHAME OF THE PRACTICING MUSLIM |
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| Aafreen |
| 09/28/03 at 14:00:50 |
| Again, if there is a problem in the mosque, work with the committes and try and solve the problem, remember these guys are nothing but volunteers at the most, why complain let us lend our hands forward and try and help our own community rather than creating differences. Trust me I've been in this ill cirlce before and thought like this but the main problem is ourselves. Until we don't help ourselves in helping others, we will carry on blaming others. brohanif do u rteally think we havent tried this? millions of times?? i personally have been abused outside mosques for handing out leaflets. i have been refused entry into a mopsque because im a woman, my da got kicked out of a mosque because he objected to them using a prayer mat with the kaaba sharif in it as a door mat...... have a read of this an mpac brother was assaulted outside this mosque. it is a letter to MPAC from someone who attends the mosque: Appalled at the attack I am absolutely appalled by this attack on a Muslim brother by committee members of the tableeghi jamaat and I endorse the legal action being taken against these outdated committees. I whole heartedly agree with MPAC in that the TJ and their extreme orthodox views have played right into the hands of the Kufars and have damaged Muslim relations! How is it that their community who have suffered atrocities and violence at the hands of the Hindus in gujerat now find it acceptable themselves to inflict violence on their muslim brothers!!! It begs the question, that if you (brother) had been distributing leaflets on gay rights, the social worker or even christian missionaries - would they have done the same thing?? I think not. Because these very same groups distribute their leaflets along high street north every week and I don't see TJ doing or saying anything to them. I live round the corner from this mo! sque (Gladstone Ave) where a lot of the TJ comittee members of this mosque and worshippers live. My family and others have suffered verbal abuse, intimidation and threatening behaviour from the TJ over the last few years. The TJ insist on giving our street door to door dawah saying is that 'it is haram for anyone to pray in any other mosque than the nearest one' ie. their mosque. The Kwik save building is owned by the TJ, how is it that they can pray in the same building where alcohol is being sold? Surely if we are not allowed to touch alcohol, label it, handle it or indeed be in a place where it is being consumed (ie. pub) then how can we pray in a building where it is being sold! The kwik save building is on lease to the TJ at £80,000 a year. This money (which is in part is raised by Kwik save management through the sale of alcohol) is then spent by TJ on islamic dawa, islamic projects and islamic education! Furthermore the TJ have found it befitting to renew this lease when it ran out without requesting kwiksave management to hand in their licence to sell alcohol in respect of the buildings significance as a religous place of worship. Despite being told to do so by a TJ scholar who issued a fatwa saying prayer in a building where alcohol is being sold was not valid! My families views on this has resulted in verbal abuse and intimidation from the TJ community - why? Would they do this if I was a socialist? I think not. Some 5 yrs ago now, TJ prevented Jamia masjid (on high st north) from their proposed plans for expansion of their mosque ! by protesting to the council against the granting of planning permission to them - by campaiging and getting residents on our street to sign petitions against it - their reason - 'that masjid committs shirk' and it is their duty to prevent them furthering their actions of shirk, which is fard upon them (according to deobandi fatwa), and that means protesting against planning permission for them. Once again they suceeded in damaging muslim relations and the two mosques now do not talk to each other and worshippers talk of their disgust of each other. This petition was viewable at newham council - and you could see all the TJ names on it! Now ask TJ to do a petition against pro israeli MP's in our area and you are faced with a dumb silence!!! Incidentally, jamia masjid are no better either - they are another comittee that needs to be taken to court for theft of masjid funds and looting of masjid property! Another example of where TJ orthodox and extreme views have damaged muslim relations and played right into the hands of the kufar is that the TJ refuse to talk to muslim women (in necessecity). For example when community issues arise and if my father is not in - they will refuse to speak to me and my mother. When questioned why? They cite some quran and hadith saying 'women are of inferior intelligence' or 'have a tendency to go off on a tangent more than men'. TJ mosques also refuse w! omen to pray there citing a fatwa by their scholars saying 'women should pray in the deepest corners of their homes or in their place of work ie. the kitchen' - quote from sh. riyadh ul haq. This is exactly the sort of thing that plays right into the hands of the kufar who want any excuse to say that 'women are oppressed and abused in islam'. When will TJ stop doing this? Furthermore TJ rant (in their door to door dawah and leaflets) in our area partilcularly on august 14th saying that the creation of Pakistan was haram (according to fatwa of deobandi school of thought which said that creation of Pakistan resulted in the splitting of Muslim land and therfore was haram) Incidentally exactly the same as the situation in Palestine now with the proposed two state sol! ution. This ranting has completely polarised the Pakistani and TJ comm unities living in our area. Never before have I encountered such hatred or jealousy of pakistan. TJ extreme views and orthodox opinions have damaged muslim relations yet again! It is about time someone told TJ and all the mosque committees that this is not a 'india' or a 'pakistan'. But a democracy with freed! om of speech and rights for all including women. Which islam gives us too. TJ need to stop playing into the hands of the kufars and damaging Muslim relations. It is not acceptable for them to go round beating up any brothers. They would not think twice about doing the same to a gay rights activist would they? let's make it our duty to take masjid committees to court if they do not perform to what is required of them. wa-salam, anonimous (incase TJ start witch hunt for me) NB: please protect my identity by not publishing my email address – jazakallah |
| 09/28/03 at 14:03:35 |
| Aafreen |
| Re: SHAME OF THE PRACTICING MUSLIM |
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| Anonymous |
| 09/30/03 at 22:47:09 |
| Note for the administrators: I want to post this message in "SHAME OF THE PRACTICING MUSLIM" message in British Souq, please put it there. Thanks. As Salam Alaykum I recently came across this message of yours and was surprised infact saddened the way Taligh Jamat was projected. I just wanted to share with my brothers and sisters that Taligh Jamat always had and still has a positive affect in my life. My family, many of my friends and i are thankful to them for bringing us closer to our center. Once i myself was a critic of Taligh Jamat but their kindness which is their salient feature drew me closer to them. What really stunned me was that thing about picture of mosque on praying mat because from what i have seen they do their utmost to go by sunnah and are against all bid'ahs (innovations). Some people even call them wahabis due to their strictness and jihad against innovations. What's stated in the message above might be true but there are other Taligh groups as well, like those who wear those green turbans, even qadianis have Tabligh group and these people are quite active in England so may be just may be you were talking about some different Taligh group. If that's not the case then people of this mosque are giving a very bad name to Taligh Jamat and it's completely opposite to what i've experienced in my life. I hope i did not hurt anyone if so then i am sorry, in the end i would encourage my readers to read this article, please do. Thanks. Take Care. Wa Alaykum As Salam ** islam and women the case of the tablighi jama`at ** Barbara Metcalf The Tablighi Jama`at is a quietist, apolitical movement of spiritual guidance and renewal that originated in the Indian subcontinent, whose networks now reach around the world. Today Tablighi Jama`at's annual meetings in Pakistan and Bangladesh are attended by over a million people, and, even though meetings in India are smaller, participants may well be as many. Tabligh networks extend throughout the world, not only to places of Indo-Muslim settlement like North America and Britain, but to continental Europe, Africa, Malaysia, and elsewhere. Membership in the Tablighi Jama`at entails its male members leaving their homes in small groups, for varying periods of time, to teach correct Islamic practices to fellow Muslims and to invite them to join the Jama`at in the work of da`wa or tabligh [proselytizing]. Due to its absence from the political arena and low institutional profile, there are relatively few studies of the Tablighi Jama`at, and most of this literature is strikingly silent on the involvement of women in the Jama`at. Yet popular opposition voiced against the Jama`at, in subcontinental cities at least, often focuses on issues related to women: men who leave for proselytizing are often accused of failing in their masculine roles to care for their families and implicitly encouraging the cultivation of what are considered to be effeminate attributes (gentleness, humility, and modesty). In this paper, I examine gender relations in the contemporary Tablighi Jama`at in Pakistan by drawing on my long-term interest in the Deobandi scholarly movement from which the Tablighi Jama`at emerged.[1] history of the tablighi jama`at In the period after the First World War in India, with the failure of the Khilafat movement and the exposure of the hollowness of British war-time promises, many Muslims turned from political action to the formation of voluntary associations focused on individual and community regeneration.[2] Tablighi Jama`at, whose origin is typically dated to 1927, emerged as part of this larger movement. The Jama`at was first conceived by Maulana Muhammad Ilyas, a pikus, learned religious leader based in Delhi, who died in 1944. The principal behind Tabligh work was that all Muslims could teach fellow Muslims key Islamic values and practices and that the process of instructing others would help the teachers learn and perfect their own practices. Thus, by going out to offer guidance to other Muslims, any sincere Muslim could, in effect, undertake what had heretofore been the province of men distinguished by education, saintly achievement, and, often, notable birth.[3] The central feature of the Tabligh movement is the tour, which consists of a jama`at, or party, of about ten men who travel to proselytize either for an evening, a few days, or a prolonged journey. Undertaking the tour occasions a radical break with all usual enmeshments, including the intense face-to-face obligations and hierarchies of family and work typical of everyday interaction. This break, Maulana Ilyas believed, would transform the proselytizer more than the audience because the journey, with its attendant tasks, inculcates a modest and humble disposition--a disposition of which prayer is an important part, since it renders a Muslim humble before God.[4] Since proselytization is a situation in which each participant continually risks rebuff, it is meant to further instill humility in him. In this sense, travel is believed to encourage a state of permanent vulnerability and uncertainty in which one learns to be dependent on God, outside of one's normal moorings. Beyond these efforts, a range of practices fosters a leveling of socio-economic status among the participants, a leveling modified in principle only by degrees of fidelity and faith. In a society where dress is a clear marker of status and particularistic identities, for instance, all Tablighis alike dress in simple garments. In a society where any speech act may betray hierarchic gaps of economic and educational status (above all, that of English and vernaculars, and among the vernaculars, between elegant Urdu and simple language), all Tablighi Jama`at members cultivate simple language. Similarly, in comparison to the popular attitude of looking down on manual activity, everyone on a tour carries his own bag and performs the most menial tasks. Since there are no criteria for entry or membership in the Jama`at, the very openness of the group further diminishes hierarchy. Any Muslim who seeks to join the Jama`at is welcome in a way that is virtually unknown in highly institutionalized and stratified societies. No priority is given to intellectualism and each person, by virtue of being born a Muslim, is assumed to be a potential participant worthy of respect. Each Jama`at member is considered to have the same capacity for full participation by the simple act of embracing readily accessible teachings and committing himself to spreading them. Among those on a tour, the elimination of hierarchic distinctions is relentless. Decisions are made through a process of consultation known as mashwara. The amir [leader] is chosen by the group, and should ideally be distinguished by the quality of his faith, rather than his worldly rank. Consequently, even a peon or servant can be an amir, and authority, in principle, is not based on outward attainments or birth among the Tablighis. There are echoes in this practice of the Sufi conviction that the least likely person may be one of the spiritual elect. Different roles are assigned to all members of a mission. Key to these roles, and to Tablighi thinking generally, is the concept of service or khidmat.[5] Ideally, roles over the duration of a tour change so that the same person may act as a teacher or preacher on one occasion, and a humble cook or cleaner on another. Maulana Ilyas argued that to do service was in fact to attain two rewards: serving one's companions and freeing them to engage in tabligh.[6] As a result, all Tablighis learn to cook and serve food, to nurse the ill, and to wash and repair clothes. These are jobs that are commonly associated with women and with the lower-born in the society at large. Praise and admiration for this kind of service is expressed in a letter, preserved by Maulana Ilyas, that describes the khidmat of one Jama`at amir: He looked after everyone's comfort throughout the journey, carried the luggage of others on his shoulders, in addition to his own, in spite of old age, filled the glasses of water at mealtimes and refrained from sitting down to eat until everybody had been seated comfortably, helped others to perform [the ablutions] on the train and drew their attention to its rules and proprieties; kept watch while the others slept and exhorted the members to remember God often, and did all this most willingly. For a person who was superior to all of us in age, social status and wealth to behave as the servant of everyone was the most unforgettable experience of the tour.[7] In undertaking the journey, Tablighis ideally pay their own way so that no one is a patron and/or dependent. Tablighis thus strike a dramatic contrast against the structures of subordination and hierarchy that organize much of subcontinental life and stand apart from all its elaborate transactional arrangements.[8] This is in stark contrast to a society where the careful calibrations of age, gender, and birth are learnt at an early age and displayed in a range of obligations, manifestations of deference, and expectations of respect in virtually every daily interaction.[9] Boys are not only subject to the authority of elders within the family but, as they move into the public world, are expected to respond unquestioningly to the authority of teachers and spiritual leaders and to exercise control over women in their families. women in the tabligh jama`at The fact that the literature on the Tablighi Jama`at is largely silent on women is not surprising, since it is men who go proselytizing, and it is men who are seen traveling in small groups by bus/train in Indian cities, going from door to door in college hostels and neighborhoods. It is men one sees, dressed in simple, white, loose pants, long shirt, and cap, modest bedding on their back, disappearing into a mosque where they often spend the night. Yet women are involved in the Jama`at, and it is important to consider the gendered context of social roles that both Tablighi women and men are expected to play. The Tablighis, like the followers of the larger Deobandi reformist movement from which they derive, espouse an ideal of human behavior they understand to be exemplified by the Prophet. This ideal, in fact, resonates with qualities typically associated with femininity: everyone, male or female, is expected to be gentle, self-effacing, and dedicated to service to others.[10] Men engaged in Tabligh activity, rich and poor alike, are meant to learn new ways of relating to other people and standards of humility by learning to cook, wash their own clothes, and look after each other. In this sense, Tabligh encourages, particularly in the experience of the tour, a certain reconfiguring of gender roles. The gentleness, self-abnegation, and modesty of the Tablighi men, coupled with their performance of tasks associated with women, marks them as inculcating values that are culturally considered quintessentially feminine, but which are also religious in this case. In the course of da`wa, as practices of hierarchy are reconfigured, the hierarchical structure as a whole, which includes relations between women and men, is also modified. For example, I interviewed a young man who, as a father of two small children, felt that the personal traits he was honing in the Tabligh had made his family life more cooperative and harmonious. He criticized his society generally for widespread harshness, including physical punishment toward children. Another Tablighi member said he was less likely to be critical of his wife's cooking, after learning to cook himself on a da`wa mission. Tablighi women, although expected to conform to rules of modesty and seclusion, share in a common model of personal comportment as well as a commitment to tabligh. The women enjoined as models, in such cherished texts as the Hikayat- us-sahaba,[11] are celebrated for the same attributes that men are to cultivate: humble, generous, pious, scrupulous in religious obligations, and brave in the face of persecution. Women, in the reformist tradition generally, are expected to become educated in religious teachings. In practical terms, just as men in the course of da`wa tours experience some redrawing of gender roles when they cook and wash, women left at home may also take on a range of typically male responsibilities in order to sustain the household. In addition, women's lives are altered through involvement in the movement itself. Women in the Jama`at are encouraged not only to seek education and piety, but are also invited to engage in Tabligh, as long as they do not mix with unrelated men. They are expected to engage in da`wa work among other women and family members.[12] Although unusual, women jama`ats do go out accompanying their men folk; some Pakistani women described to me visits not only from expatriate and other South Asian women, but also women from such distant countries as France. Invariably, there are also jama`ats of women at the large annual meetings: one recent annual meeting in Bhopal, India was reportedly attended by groups of people from as far as the United Kingdom, Hungary, Cuba, Poland, Egypt, Uzbekistan, Ukraine, Russia, United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia. It was also reported that the meeting was well attended by women who held a day-long meeting at a separate mosque and were joined by Muslim women from the surrounding areas.[13] Most important, and more common than such distant travels, are neighborhood meetings arranged by women which involve them in da`wa work, albeit in a manner that is not easily visible to outsiders. Women's da`wa meetings offer an unusual venue for women to congregate religiously, since women in South Asian Islam are discouraged from going to the mosque and, in some traditions, even prevented from visiting saintly shrines typically popular among women. Tablighi women, on the other hand, may also pray together in mosques. In Karachi, for example, women meet on Fridays at the Makki Masjid in the heart of the city between the noon and late afternoon prayer. At a meeting I attended in July 1991 at the Makki Masjid, a woman and a man addressed a crowd of approximately a thousand women over a loudspeaker: the warmth, gentleness, and simplicity of the discourse was palpable as women were reminded of their responsibility for their own piety, for guidance to their family, and for support to those going out on da`wa tours. Women listened, prayed, meditated, and, at the conclusion, chatted and visited as they gathered their wraps to depart. In these settings, women from humble backgrounds may take on roles of leadership and guidance for others: a practice that emphasizes the larger Tablighi principle of conferring authority based on personal work and qualities, rather than markers of birth and status. In a sense, differentially favorable opportunities for men matter less in the Tabligh movement than in more politically oriented religious movements because neither male nor female members in the Jama`at seek prominence and status in public life. Just as social differences are erased for Tablighi men and women in the public sphere, Tablighi ethic eliminates whole arenas of customary ritual and ceremonial life which have been the purview of women. For example, participants in an annual Tabligh meeting told me that marriages are celebrated by proxy dozens at a time in such meetings. Since marriages in South Asia are typically occasions that entail elaborate social interaction and expenditure, Tablighis in their practice of simple marriage rituals opt out of such social enmeshments and obligations. Women's status and prestige among Tablighis is, therefore, not to be measured by the number and kinds of participants who attend their ceremonies, nor by the lavishness of the hospitality they offer, but by their piety--especially in their ability to persuade male kin to join the Jama`at. Indeed, during the course of my work, I heard several stories about women who had inspired men in their families to join the Jama`at. Perhaps the most serious criticism leveled against Tabligh participants is that the men neglect and mistreat their families, especially when on the da`wa tours, and are irresponsible toward their jobs. However, the participants argue that, from their point of view, everyone should be engaged in Tabligh, and that women and children are no more an impediment to men's fulfillment of their duties than men and children are for women. The biography of Maulana Muhammad Ilyas's son and successor, Maulana Muhammad Yusuf (1917-1965), describes Yusuf's frequent absence from the side of his ill wife without condemnation.[14] One is reminded of similar accounts in the biographies of other Tablighi leaders, such as Maulana `Abdul-Rahim Raipuri, who did not let his son's illness distract him from accompanying his disciples to the Haj [pilgrimage to Mecca].[15] Women are also urged to follow similar models of behavior. A talk given at an annual Tabligh meeting, for example, reminded men that women also had a responsibility to Tabligh, and that men should not only refrain from objecting but should actively facilitate women's participation by providing child care. The speaker reminded his audience that since the Prophet had said that women have the right to refuse to nurse should they want to, women certainly could decline to provide child care for a task as important as Tabligh.[16] The same point was apparently made at the Bhopal meeting, noted above, when "community leaders told the women [participants] that their duties were not just confined to bringing up children."[17] Tablighis remember that Maulana Muhammad Ilyas, the movement's founder, had encouraged da`wa work among women from the very beginning of his mission. On his encouragement, the wife of Maulana `Abdus Subhan, one of the prominent men of his school at Nizamud-Din in New Delhi, began work among women in Delhi and formed a women's jama`at whose members were accompanied by a close male relative. Although other religious elders had reservations about women undertaking Tabligh, Ilyas gradually won their support, including that of the respected Mufti Kifayatullah.[18] conclusion Unlike modern political Islamist movements, such as the Jama`at-i Islami founded in the 1920s, most Tablighis do not idealize women's domestic roles and their supposedly unique feminine qualities. From the Jama`at-i Islami's founder, Maulana Maududi, to its present leadership, the position and nature of women is systematically depicted as essentially different from men and assigns them a distinctive spiritual role in the domestic sphere. While there are some Tablighi writers who use the language of "opposite or complementary" sexes,[19] the dominant attitude in the Tablighi Jama`at is an emphasis on a common nature and set of responsibilities shared by women and men. However, there is little scholarship on changes in Tablighi attitudes toward women and differential notions of gender roles over time in Tablighi history. I would argue that the reason political Islamic movements (such as the Jama`at-i Islami in Pakistan) emphasize women's domestic roles, in contrast to the Tablighis, is due to the distinctive status accorded to women's roles and feminine nature in the discourse of modern nationalist politics and its accompanying notions of the private and public realms. Jama`at-i Islami is a movement forged in the context of the institutions of the nation-state, which examines and reconfigures Islam to adapt to the principles of a social order mandated by modern national politics. Issues related to women have occupied a central space in public discussions on law and politics in Pakistan, and the Jama`at-i Islami has played a critical role in formulating these discussions. Women have become a powerful public symbol for the institutionalization of what Islamists call an "Islami nizam" [Islamic order]. While the control of women has always been important to all male- dominated societies, the notion that women bear a special burden of embodying Islamic teachings and norms is traceable to the emergence of nationalist politics. [20] Tablighis, unlike Jama`at-i Islami members, are not involved in state politics and even abjure all debate with other Islamic movements. Their focus on religious practice, an arena where women and men are fundamentally on the same ground, may help explain their unique attitudes toward gender roles. Even though women are expected to stay at home, men, while they travel the world, devalue the public realm in which they participate. The popular criticism leveled against the Tablighis may in part be explained by the anxiety Tablighi men provoke through their reconfiguration of popular gender roles. Tabligh's fundamental devaluing of everything that most of the society urgently seeks--wealth, success, rootedness--cannot but be threatening to those who stand outside the Jama`at. Accusations of Tablighi men's mistreatment of women kin may be interpreted as a metonym for all the values that the simply dressed, non-instrumental itinerants implicitly undermine in terms of the bourgeois family, consumer culture, and nationalism. In its apolitical piety, Tabligh clearly offers men and women an alternative to these dominant ideals. The Tabligh movement is similar to apolitical pietistic movements in other religious traditions that seek to minimize social distinctions and relations with the larger society in favor of cultivating personal piety and a shared religious community. Women, like other socially humble communities, may find in Tabligh a less hierarchic familial structure and means of resisting conventional social hierarchies. Scholars studying European societies have identified a range of opportunities presented to women through religious organizations and practices that have, in many cases, created alternatives and means of resistance to paternal or state authority. [21] Tabligh participants, in withdrawing from all physical or ideological contests and focusing on injunctions from the revelation, shape and interpret their behavior in ways that arguably bear no reference to the hegemonic nation-state-oriented ideologies that surround them. While critics in Pakistan may lump them with "fundamentalist" Islamic political tendencies, and critics in India may label them "communalist," such categories conflate movements that forcefully instruct Muslims about Islam with the Tablighis, who consider themselves the most gentle of reminders. Labels such as communalism and fundamentalism also distort the distinctiveness of a movement that eschews political involvement in favor of cultivating religious piety among women and men. Source: http://www.stanford.edu/group/SHR/5-1/text/metcalf.html |
| Re: SHAME OF THE PRACTICING MUSLIM |
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| 09/30/03 at 23:00:13 |
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