Women and the Tablighi Jama‘at

By Yoginder Sikand

Introduction

From its origins in early twentieth-century north India, the Tablighi Jama‘at (TJ) has now grown into what is probably the single largest Islamic movement of contemporary times. Writing in 1992, one scholar observed that the movement had a presence in around 165 countries (Faruqi 1992, 43). It would not be wrong, then, to say that the TJ is today active in almost every country in the world where Muslims live. Despite the obviously great influence that the TJ has on the lives of millions of Muslims throughout the world, scholars have hitherto devoted little attention to it.1 Even within the existing limited corpus of writings on the TJ, almost no mention has been made of the participation of women in the movement. This paper is an attempt to address this serious lacuna in our understanding of the role of women in the TJ. It does not claim to be a complete account, though, for given the nature of the movement, the subject of women in the TJ can only be properly studied by a female researcher, preferably a Muslim, with access to female Tablighi respondents who rarely appear before ‘strange’ (ghayr) men.

In exploring the question of the role of women in the TJ, this paper begins by tracing the historical context within which the movement emerged. It then moves to a discussion of the portrayal of the ideal Islamic woman in Tablighi tracts. The Tablighi agenda for women follows from this. In the concluding section of the paper we turn our attention to what implications Tablighi work might actually have for Muslim women, both activists in the movement as well as others.

The Historical Context

The decline of Muslim political power in South Asia towards the end of the eighteenth century witnessed the emergence of several reformist ‘ulama, crusading against the widespread observance of local customs, often seen as ‘Hinduistic’, and calling for Muslims to abide strictly by the shari‘a instead. For these reformists, the decline of the fortunes of the Mughals was a result of Muslims’ straying from the path of the shari‘a. Hence, they stressed, Muslim power could only be salvaged if Muslims were to begin to govern their own lives according to the dictates of Islamic law (Ikram 1963, 14). In pursuit of this aim, they began increasingly devoting their attention to ordinary Muslims who were seen as the bastion of ‘un-Islamic’ customs and practices. This represented a noticeable shift from past precedent, for at the height of Muslim power in the subcontinent the ‘ulama seem to have been primarily concerned with the ruling elite, remaining distinctly aloof from common Muslims.

The growing power of the British, culminating in the overthrow of the Mughal dynasty after the aborted revolt of 1857, saw the Indian ‘ulama making new efforts to cultivate links with the Muslim masses who, with the Mughals now gone, increasingly began to be viewed as the new repositories of Islam. With the eclipse of Muslim political authority, from now on it was to be ordinary Muslims who came increasingly to be seen as the ‘protectors of Islam’. Purged of local customs, beliefs and practices, the reformed Muslim man, and later, woman as well, was to be the new defender of the faith. This concern was best exemplified by the movement spawned by the Dar ul-‘Ulum, a seminary established at the town of Deoband, near Delhi, in 1867.

By training ‘ulama, by issuing opinions in matters of religious law (fatawa) and, most of all, by taking advantage of new printing technology by publishing popular books and tracts in the vernaculars, the Deobandi ‘ulama sought to disseminate the message and teachings of reformist Islam among ordinary Muslims. Of particular concern to them was the religious instruction of ordinary believers in the fundamentals of the faith, including basic rituals practices and beliefs (‘aqa‘id). Marketing a distinct departure from the past, they began paying increasing attention to Muslim women, who they saw as bastions of ‘Hinduistic’ customs and traditions. The reformed Muslim woman was now seen as playing a central role in the project of reforming the Muslim family and, in the process, the Muslim community as a whole. This concern for women on the part of the Deobandi reformists was most strikingly illustrated with the writing of a voluminous text specially for women, the Bahishti Zewar, by the leading Deobandi ‘alim, Maulana Ashraf ‘Ali Thanawi (d. 1943) in the early years of the twentieth century.2 This book, more than any other, grew into the most popular reformist tract for the proper religious instructions of Muslim women in India, a distinction that it enjoys till this very day.

As a product of the Deoband madrasa and a student of Maulana Thanawi, Maulana Muhammad Ilyas (d. 1994), the founder of the TJ, was particularly concerned to popularize the teachings of the new Islamic reformists among ordinary Muslims, including both men and women. The first target of Ilyas’ early tablighi (missionary) efforts, starting in the mid-1920s, were the tribe of nominal Muslim converts known as the Meos who lived in the region of Mewat, to the immediate south of Delhi. In the course of his work in Mewat, he strove to encourage the Meos to cultivate faith (iman), to improve their knowledge of the basic beliefs of their region, and to abide strictly by the rituals of Islam. From its humble origins in Mewat, the TJ gradually grew into the vast international movement that it is today.

In the early years of the TJ, the movement was directed almost entirely at men. Once his movement had established a significant presence in Mewat, Ilyas seems to have realized that his mission would remain incomplete if he did not bring women into active involvement in it. Accordingly, he approached some leading Deobandi ‘ulama with a proposal to start Tablighi work among women. The ‘ulama, however, initially recoiled at the prospect, arguing that this was ‘an age of great disorder’ (fitna ka zamana), with women going out of their homes without covering themselves ‘properly’, and that Tabligh tours might actually be used by women as an ‘excuse’ for ‘turning towards freedom’.


Despite the ‘ulama’s initial hostility to his proposal, Ilyas kept up his pleas for women to be allowed to participate in Tabligh work, until the noted Deobandi ‘alim, Mufti Kifayatullah, finally relented and gave him his consent. Thereafter, Ilyas approached a close disciple of his, one Maulana ‘Abdus Subhan, who was persuaded to let his wife begin missionary work among Muslim women in Delhi, where Ilyas lived and where the TJ currently has its global headquarters. This woman is said to have, under Ilyas’ instructions, formed a small group of women who went off for a few days to Mewat in the company of their husbands and, under the supervision of one Maulana Daud, started preaching among the Meo women of that region. After that, we are told, women’s participation in the work of the TJ gradually picked up in many other parts of the world as the movement began to expand outside the confines of South Asia (Ferozepuri n.d., 105-7).

This is one of the only references we have in the available literature to the actual work of women in the TJ, and even here they remain faceless, nameless people about whom we are told but little. We do know, however, what they and other TJ women activists were, and still are, taught and learnt as participants in the movement, and to that we may now turn.

Principles, Beliefs and the Ideal Muslim Woman

As in the case of Muslim men, the TJ sees every Muslim woman as playing a central and active part in the effort for the revival of Islam. The method in which this is to be done – the tariqa-i tabligh – is, for the most part, common to both men and women. Ordinary Muslim women are encouraged to take time off and form a women’s group or masturati jama‘at that travels to various places to do Tabligh work, preaching the message of reformist Islam among the Muslim womenfolk in the areas they visit. To begin with, ideally, they should spend three days at a stretch every two months in this way. After they have gained enough experience they should start to go on fifteen–day jama‘ats. Thereafter, this should be increased to a chillah, or forty days at a stretch, or even longer, during the course of which they should be encouraged to visit other countries to carry on Tabligh work there.3

Only married women may go out on a jama‘at, and they always be accompanied by a male relative. This should preferably be the husband. If, for some reason, the husband is unable to accompany a woman, she must have her son, brother, father grandfather or some such mehram relative with her.4 The male mehram should, if possible, be one who has already spent a chillah doing Tabligh work. In addition, he must have a beard, testifying to his commitment to Islam (Wali ul- Islam 1996, 17).

Ideally, the jama‘at should consist of ten women and ten male mehram relatives (Ibid., 16). While on a Tabligh tour, all decisions regarding the working of the jama‘at are to be taken by the men folk accompanying the women. The head (amir) of the jama‘at must in all cases be a man. In consultation (mashwara) with the other men he is to oversee the working of the group. Decisions taken by him are relayed to the women through the medium of a woman whom the women choose among themselves. This woman is told of the amir’s decisions by her own husband or mehram relative who is accompanying her, and she, in turn, conveys this information to the other women in her group (Ferozepuri n.d., 108).

When the group reaches its destination the women are taken to the house of a local Tablighi activist, where arrangements have been made to keep them in strict pardah (seclusion). Such a house must have toilet facilities for women inside; women are not to step out of the house to relieve themselves in the fields, as is the practice in much of rural South Asia. If the house does not have a toilet, one must be built, says a Tablighi elder, before the women arrive (Ibid., 107, 109). The men folk accompanying them are put up in separate quarters nearby or may stay in the local mosque. For a few days the women live together like a small community.

The daily schedule for the women is formulated by their husbands or mehram men folk in consultation with each other. After they have chalked out the women’s programme for the day, it is written down on a sheet of paper and slipped under the pardah to the women’s quarter (Wali ul-Islam 1996, 15). Much of the day is to be devoted to improving the women’s own knowledge and practice of basic Islamic ritual observances. In the course of their stay the women activists are expected to learn, among other things, the principles of Tablighi work, which they are to popularize among the women of their own families once they return to their homes. Of central importance is the learning of what is called in Tablighi parlance the chhe baten or the ‘six points’. The first of these is the kalima shahada or the Islamic creed. The second is namaz, Islamic prayer. ‘Ilm, or knowledge about the basic Islamic ritual practices, and zikr, litanies in remembrance of God, come next. Here women are expected to memorize a number of Arabic supplications that are to be used for various different occasions. This is followed by ikhlas-i niyyat or ‘the purification of intension’. Here, the women are expected to learn that every thought and action of their must be motivated solely by the desire to gain the pleasure of God and to acquire sawab or religious merit. Sixthly, and last, is ikram-i muslimin, the importance of respect for other Muslims, particularly the ‘ulama.

Besides the chhe baten, while on jama‘at the women must busy themselves in reading in a group from the books of faza’il or heavenly rewards for pious deeds. This genre of Tablighi literature consists largely of books containing short episodes from the lives of the early Muslims recounting their piety, and highlighting, in particular, the great rewards that are to be expected in the Hereafter if one follows in their footsteps.

The daily recitation from the books of faza‘il is to be accompanied by bayans, or lectures, that are delivered to the women by a learned and experienced male Tablighi activist, who may either be one of the husbands or mehram relatives of the women or a local Muslim. The bayan is to be delivered from behind a curtain so that although the women may hear the speaker, they may not see him and nor can he see them. The lecture should focus on the need for all Muslims to engage in Tabligh work, to strengthen their faith, improve their practice of the Islamic ritual observances, and to bring Islam into their own personal lives.

Women activists who are experienced in Tabligh work and well versed in its principles may also address the other womenfolk. However, here extreme care should be taken that a woman does not speak in an authoritative tone as if she is delivering a lecture. The reasons for this, says a Tablighi elder, that this is the age of fitna (disorder), of great corruption and degeneration, and ‘much evil’, he warns, can come out of this (Ferozepuri n.d., 109). Just as women should ‘always keep their bodies completely concealed’, he says, so too ‘must their voices be kept in complete pardah’ (Ibid., 111). Unlike a man, who can give a lecture from the pulpit (mimbar) or while sitting on a chair, if a woman is to address her sisters she must, like them, sit on the floor and speak to them. In no case should she stand up to speak to the others, as that goes against what are seen as notions of feminine modesty (Wali ul-Islam 1996, 16). She must speak as she would in an ordinary conversation and not try to imitate the forceful, emotive style of male Tablighi speakers.

As well as serving as a learning forum for the women muballighin or Tablighi volunteers, the jama‘at also functions as a means for communicating the Tablighi message to other Muslim women in the places that the jama‘at visits. Local women are to be invited to join the muballighin in the house in which they are put up. This is done by the husbands or male mehram relatives accompanying the women muballighin. They first approach local male Tablighi activists, and along with them go from house to house exhorting the men to send their wives to join their women in ta‘lim or learning sessions. When going to the venue of the ta‘lim local women should be accompanied by their husbands or a male mehram relative and must be covered in full pardah. Like the female muballighin, they must be very simply dressed. There must be no ostentatious display of jewellery or fine clothes, and every effort should be made to conform to a standard of radical equality.

Besides attending the ta‘lim sessions organized by visiting women’s jama‘ats, local Tablighi activists are expected to arrange for weekly meetings (‘ijtima) where local women get together to learn about the chhe baten, listen to narrations from the books of faza‘il and imbibe the teaching of the TJ. Such ‘ijtimas must, however, be started only after getting permission from the local Tablighi headquarters (markaz).

Women’s jama‘ats, as well as the periodic local-level ‘ijtimas, also serve as occasions where women can gather together, an opportunity rarely afforded to them in families where strict pardah is observed. Although they are expected to spend all their time in meditation, prayer and learning, as well as teaching other women about Islam, women can find in these occasions spaces where they can share their own stories, their own joys and sorrows, with each other. Thus, Rukaiyya Begum, a woman who works in a non-governmental development agency in Barisal, Bangladesh, speaks of how some male Tablighi activists in her town are critical of the women’s jama‘ats and ‘ijtimas because, according to them, ‘women who attend them spend much of their simply gossiping with each other rather than talking and thinking only about the din (religion)’. ‘ They might talk about their children or their problems with their mothers-in-law or even about the risking price of rice and fish,’ she says, and this irks the men because they see these as worldly (duniyavi) matters that completely distract one from the single-minded pursuit of the din.5

Women’s jama‘ats can also prove to be occasions for women to get away from domestic chores and family responsibilities for a while. They are not allowed to take their children with them on jama‘at, as otherwise their attention might be diverted from the mission of Tabligh. Thus, for a few days, women can leave their household tasks and their children in the care of other women and gain a respite from the drudgery of domestic work. Gulshan Siddiqui, a housewife from Dhaka, who once traveled on jama‘at, but is now no longer involved in the TJ, describes her experience thus:

"I had been married for seven years and every day, day in and day out, it was the same old routine – cooking, washing, cleaning, making endless cups of tea for my father-in-law, scrubbing the floors. I badly needed a break. My husband was deeply involved in Tabligh work in those days. One day, he came home from the Tablighi markaz and told me that we both should go for a few days on jama‘at. At first, I was apprehensive. I did not know what I would have to do. But later I found that I had really enjoyed myself. I learnt so much, and, besides that, visited some places that I had never been to before. And those few days provided me some respite from the monotony of housework." 6

Notions of Femininity and the Ideal Muslim Woman

The pedagogical function of the women’s jama‘ats and local ‘ijtimas is not simply limited to imbibing the teachings of the chhe baten and the stories from the books of faza‘il. Women’s groups in the TJ serve as crucial arenas where women’s identities are sought to be crucially re-defined in line with Tablighi understandings of the ideal Muslim woman. Indeed, this can be seen, in some sense, as the central function of Tablighi work among women. Through the lectures of the muballighin and Tablighi elders and through numerous Tablighi-type texts an attempt is made constantly to communicate and reinforce the image of what is regarded as model Islamic womanhood.

Tablighi notions of ideal Islamic femininity echo, for the most part, the Deobandi understanding of the role of women as wives and mothers. To reinforce the image of the submissive wife Tablighi texts freely draw on weak (za‘if) and concocted (mauzu) traditions (ahadith) attributed to the Prophet, which critics argue are completely violative of the actual Qur’anic mandate of gender equality and which were later fabricated in order to lend support to extreme patriarchal notions. As a wife, a Tablighi ideologue writes, a Muslim woman must constantly remember that God has appointed her husband as her master (sardar). To obey him (uski ita‘at karna) is a duty (farz) that is binding on her (Ferozepuri n.d., 104). Participation in jihad not being a farz (religious duty) for a woman, she can gain the same divine reward simply by being obedient to her husband (‘Azmi 1993, 1-2). If her husband should, for any reason, get angry with her, a woman should bear his wrath cheerfully and not complain (‘Alam 1995 11-12). One Tablighi writer approvingly quotes a story attributed to the Prophet, according to which Muhammad is said to have declared: ‘O Woman! Your heaven and tell is your husband’ (‘Azmi 1993, 2). This, he says, implies that a woman ‘will enter heaven if the husband is pleased with her and hell if he is displeased with her’. He goes on to adduce a long list of forty more such stories attributed to the Prophet to prove his point that, in order to gain bliss in this world and the hereafter, a woman must follow every command of her husband, should bear his anger cheerfully, and should not protest when he does wrong.7

This view is repeated in several other tracts written by other writers associated with the TJ. Some of these texts are specifically targeted at a female readership. A good illustration of this is an Urdu book titled Muslim Khawatin ke Liye Bees Sabaq (‘Twenty Lessons for Muslim Women’), written by a leading Indian Tablighi scholar, Maulana ‘Ashiq Elahi Bulandshahri. This book, suggests the author, ‘should reach every single house’ in order to ‘put an end to the increasing deviance (ghaflat) on the part of women’. In addition, he strongly recommends that it be included in the school curriculum for Muslim girls (Bulandshahri n.d., 4).

A central concern of this book is the portrayal of the ideal Muslim wife. Quoting numerous reports attributed to the Prophet, the author argues that only that wife who willingly obeys the commands (hukm) of her husband and does not answer him back shall gain entry into heaven. According to one report that he cites, the prayers of three people shall not be accepted by God: a runaway slave until he returns to his master; a person in an intoxicated state; and a wife whose husband is angry with her. The Prophet, he claims, had himself declared that the majority of the inhabitants to hell would be women who were ungrateful to their husbands and used foul language (Ibid., 56-57).

The ideal Muslim woman is seen in Tablighi discourse as bound within the four walls of her home. The moment she steps out of the house, says Bulandshahri, the devil (shaytan) himself begins to accompany her (Ibid., 78). ‘God has told men that he has made women for them’ and ‘she is the ornamentation (zinat) of your home’, another Tablighi activist tells his (presumably all-male) readers. She must be hidden ‘even more carefully than silver, gold and precious stones’. Allowing her to go out of the home will result in all manner of fitna, he warns. Just as if costly things are left outside the home, robbers and dacoits and even otherwise honest people will be tempted to steal them, so also if a woman ‘is paraded outside without pardah’, the ‘lascivious eyes’ of men will fall on her. This will ‘open the doors of adultery (zina)’ and the woman will lose her shame and modesty’ (Ferozepuri n.d., 103).

Furthermore, Tablighi scholars advise that care should be taken that women do not adorn (banao singhar) themselves, for they might otherwise become ‘a great source of temptation’ for men and, consequently, a perennial source of fitna. Such women are assured that they shall ‘neither gain admittance into heaven and nor even get to smell its fragrance’ (Khan n.d., 5). Likewise, and for the same reason, women should wear only very simple clothes and should not use any make-up, for the Prophet is said to have declared that God cursed the Children of Israel for having let their women dress in such a manner (Ibid., 10).
Since woman is a thing that must be ‘hidden’ (chhippana) from ghayr males, if, under dire necessity, she has to step out of the house, she should do so only in the company of a male mehram relative, and that too in strict pardah. On such occasions she must cover herself, says a Tablighi ‘alim, with a burqa (veil) that stretches from heat to foot, covering the entire face as well. So as not to attract any male attention, the burqa must be as simple as possible. It should not be decorated or embroidered.8 Even in the house, she must not appear before any non-mehram male. She should never even see any such man, even though the man may be blind. This is because just as it is forbidden (haram) for a man to see a non-mehram woman, so, too, must a woman never see a non-mehram man (Khan n.d., 3). She must not be present at any place where she can see a non-mihram man.9 She must not even open a window to look out if her face is not covered. If she goes to the market she must not, under any circumstances, lift the veil from off her face, not even to see what she is buying (Bulandshahri n.d., 75). Indeed, says this writer, pardah is so important that is must be observed with the same degree of strictness as with non-mehram males with certain classes of non-Muslim (kafir) women. Interestingly, under this category he mentions only women from the ‘low’ Hindu Dhobi (washermen), Bhangi (sweeper) and Chamar (cobbler) castes, though he does not specify why he singles these out among all others (Ibid., 76-77).

Since the ideal Muslim woman must be confined to the house, her sphere of work is the myriad household tasks that she must perform. These tasks must not be seen as drudgery, however, for great heavenly rewards are said to await the woman who performs them cheerfully as religious duties. Thus, a leading Tablighi elder writes that the woman who massages the tired body of her husband without having been asked to do so acquires the merit equivalent to giving seven tolas of gold in charity (sadaqa). However, if she were to do this only on being requested by her husband, she still gets a reward, but this time only that for giving away seven tolas of silver (Khan n.d., 5). Elsewhere, this source puts the reward for the former as equal to half of that a martyr (shahid) (Hadiser Aloke). Great divine blessings also await that woman who does all her domestic chores properly and tends to her children (Khan n.d., 2-5). Thus, the woman who feeds her child with her own milk gets the reward of one good deed (neki) for each drop that is drunk. The woman who sweeps her house while engrossed in zikr will receive with the reward for sweeping the Ka‘aba itself (Hadiser Aloke).

Domestic work alone is the proper sphere for women. While performing all these tasks, a woman should constantly be engrossed in zikr, the remembrance and praise of God. Her spare time she should spend in zikr and namaz and in counting her rosary (tasbih). She must say her prayers five times a day in a space kept apart in the house itself, for that is her mosque. She should recite (tilawat) portions of the Qur’an every day as well as a number of Arabic supplications. She should also make adequate arrangements for the religious training (tarbiyat) of her children. In this regard, she should strive to follow the example of Khamsa, a Muslim woman who, during the rule of the second Sunni caliph ‘Umar, cheerfully sent her four sons on jihad against the unbelievers where they all lost their lives on the battlefield (Akhtar ul-‘Alam 1995, 3-14).
Besides properly carrying out the various domestic tasks that have been assigned to her, a woman is promised great heavenly rewards if she takes care of her own appearance to please her husband and to conform to the demands of proper Islamic hygiene. Thus, according to one leading Tablighi elder, if a woman lowers her head in humility, properly combs her hair with a central parting (chir), uses a tooth-stick (miswak) to clean her teeth, cuts her nails regularly, shaves her pubic hair and arm-pits, uses a cloth during her menses and properly cleans herself after excretion , she will receive the enormous reward equal to that of a hundred martyrs (shuhada), and shall be blessed with the intercession (shafa‘at) of Muhammad on the Day of Judgment (hashr), because that is the blessing that God has announced for every sunna or practice of the Prophet, both great and small, that has gone into disuse and is revived in this age (Hadiser Aloke).

Muslim Women and the TJ's 'Islamization' Project

The active involvement of women in public Tabligh activity, an arena hitherto completely closed to them, coupled with the traditional images of Muslim womanhood that the TJ seeks to project and constantly reinforce, provides what seems, at best, an ambiguous and confused portrayal of the role and status of the ideal woman Tablighi volunteer. Is the Tablighi agenda for Muslim women to be seen simply as bringing them to participate actively in their own subordination and confinement within the iron cage of patriarchal tradition? Much evidence suggests that the concern of the TJ with the question of women can, in fact, be seen as a reaction on the part of male defenders of tradition to the threat of increasing female independence. Thus, in his introduction to a pamphlet directed specifically at women written by a leading Tablighi elder, a Tablighi activist writes that the need for Tabligh work among women is today ‘particularly urgent’, as increasing numbers of female are ‘going in for co-education, have started reading novels and stories, are watching television and going to the cinema, are strolling freely in parks, and are increasingly going out of the house without a mehram male to accompany them’. This, he says, is making women lose ‘all sense of shame’. He castigates Western feminism as having only ‘further bound’ women in heavy chains. As a way out of what he sees as this growing ‘irreligiousness’ on the part of women, he suggests that girls and women must ‘always remain in strict pardah, mix only with pious Muslim women and should read only those books that strengthen their faith’, particularly those that contain stories about the wives of the Companions of Muhammad and brave Muslim women.10 In a similar vein, another Tablighi activist puts the entire burden of women’s low status on the fact that they are ‘abandoning the pardah’, all in the name of ‘female liberation’ (Palanpuri 1995 35-36).

However, to see Muslim women in the TJ as simply passive collaborators in a project designed to curb all assertion and agency on their part would, perhaps, not be doing justice to the great complexity of the situation. For, although the movement aims at reinforcing the traditional gender division of labour, it affords, in the process, new role models for women to emulate which can be seen as providing, at one level, significant departures from traditional gender norms. What is particularly interesting here is the central role that women come to be seen as playing in the spread of normative Islam, a role that in South Asia at least, had hardly been envisaged for them before.

In some Tablighi accounts women are portrayed as, in some sense, capable of making greater sacrifices for Islam than men. God, says the late Enam ul-Hasan (d. 1995), the third amir of the TJ, has made women ‘weak’ and ‘emotional’, as opposed to men, whom He has made ‘strong’, ‘brave’ and ‘relatively hard-hearted’. (Nizami 1993, 21). Because of their ‘tenderness’, many Muslim women have displayed a greater receptivity to Islam than have many men. Thus, Abu Lahab, an uncle of the Prophet, stiffly opposed Muhammad, and another uncle of his, Abu Talib, refused to recite the Islamic creed of confession even on his death-bed despite being convinced of Muhammad’s divine mission, while all of Muhammad’s aunts had accepted Islam in his lifetime (Ibid., 23). Likewise, the first martyr in the cause of Islam was a woman, Samiya, and it was a woman, ‘Umar’s sister, who was instrumental in bringing ‘Umar, later the second Sunni Caliph, into the Muslim fold. In the same manner, Akramah, who later went on to sacrifice his life in a battle for Islam, was brought to Islam by his wife (Ibid., 25-27). Muslim women are exhorted to take these women as role models to emulate, as also the Prophet’s wives – Khadija, the first convert to Islam, who helped Muhammad by consoling him when he was the target of oppression by his enemies in Mecca and assisted in his mission with her wealth, and ‘Aisha, a renowned narrator of many ahadith herself, who taught the Qur’an and the Prophetic traditions to the Muslim women of Medina (Ibid., 33-35, cf. Qasmi 1995, 25-26).

As active agents in the project of Islamization, Muslim women need first to enhance their own knowledge and strengthen their own practice of Islam through participation in the work of the TJ. They are then to share this knowledge with others, although keeping strictly within the confines of pardah. Most importantly, they must now see themselves as playing a crucial role in transmitting Islam to their children, bringing them up to be pious, committed Muslims. They are, a Tablighi elder writes, to consider themselves as the first madrasa or school of their children (Khan n.d., 12). Women must also make every effort to encourage their husbands to spend as much time as they can on Tabligh work. A woman who sends her husband ‘on the path of Allah’ for Tabligh work and maintains her modesty while he is away will, or so promises a Tablighi elder, ‘enter heaven 500 years before her husband, where she will be crowned as the sardar of 70 thousand angels and heavenly houris’. She will, he says, ‘be bathed in the waters of heaven and, seated on a horse made of yaqut, will await the arrival of her family’ (Ibid., 2-3). The rewards for encouraging their men folk to go regularly on Tabligh work may actually be received by women in this world itself for, according to a Bangladeshi Tablighi activist, ‘It is possible that husbands doing Tableeg would be comparatively more religious and be loyal to their wives’ because, by being fully engrossed in Tabligh work, ‘they might have less time to run after other women’ (Shamsul ‘Alam 1993, 727).
Within the family setting, Tabligh work may open up new spaces for women, who may now appear to exercise greater say in religious affairs than has hitherto been allowed for. At least half an hour must be set apart every day when the family should get together for what is called the ghar ki ta‘lim session (Qasmi n.d.). In the course of this, the Fazail-i‘Amal (Zakariyya 1990), the main book of faza‘il used in the TJ, and the chhe baten should be read out by the husband, wife or children. According to one Tablighi source, women should actually take the responsibility of organizing the ghar ki ta‘lim because their men folk have usually to go out of their homes to work (Akhtar ul-‘Alam 1995, 5). Another part of the day should be fixed for the husband and wife to discuss how best they can improve the Islamic milieu of their home. From here they can progress to planning Tabligh work for their locality, city, country and, eventually, the whole world. Women must also make every effort to spread the message of the TJ to all their female relatives, guests, and neighbours who come to their homes, as well as even to female beggars who knock on their doors, soliciting alms (Nadwi 1983, 40), Women, thus, are provided with a new instrumentality that they hitherto have lacked.

One can also observe in Tablighi discourse on women a hidden critique of certain traditional notions of femininity and domesticity. Exhorting women to follow the example of the wives of the Prophet, Enam ul-Hasan writes that whereas today women find themselves in the kitchen almost the whole day, in the homes of the wives of Muhammad the stoves were lit only very occasionally. They spent but little time cooking, for their habits were simple, and they and the Prophet subsisted largely on dates and water for months, while sometimes an Ansar of Medina would send some milk to them as a gift. Even this milk, he notes, was drunk without having to be boiled. Likewise, marriages in the days of the Prophet were conducted with almost no expense, unlike today when the bride’s family must spend a great deal of money, often having to land in deep debt as a result (Ibid., 29-31). In line with this great stress on simplicity and austere frugality, at large Tablighi gatherings it is common for mass marriages to be arranged at little cost to either side, and sometimes dispensing with the customary dowry which, in South Asia, can been seen as a crucial symbol of the devaluation of female worth.

Conclusion

Probably the most widespread Islamic movement in the world today, the TJ has its roots in the reformist tradition that emerged is South Asia in the wake of Muslim political decline and the rise of British power in the region. In the absence of Muslim political authority, for the reformist ‘ulama who emerged in this period, every Muslim, man as well as woman, now had the onerous responsibility of ‘preserving’ and ‘protecting’ Islam. Growing out of the Deobandi concern for the ‘proper’ Islamization of Muslim women, who were seen as the bastion of ‘superstition’ and ‘un-Islamic’, ‘Hinduistic’ traditions, the TJ made women’s active involvement an integral part of the reformist Islamization agenda.

The implications for Muslim women of the efforts of the TJ seem to send different signals for patriarchy. On the one hand, the TJ seeks to impose on Muslim society an extremely restricted and narrow gender regime as a response to the challenges of modernity. In this process, not only are the traditional sources of women’s subordination sought to be reinforced, but even the limited spaces afforded to women within traditional custom-laden South Asian Islam, such as attendance at Sufi shrines, are fiercely attached as ‘un-Islamic’ aberrations. Because of the importance that is placed on the regular reading of specific texts in Tablighi circles one might expect involvement in the TJ to help promote literacy among women active in the movement. No firm statistical evidence can be cited in this regard, however. That Tabligh activity may not necessarily lead to greater female literacy is evident from the fact that in Mewat, which is held by Tablighi activists to be their most successful experimental ground, the female literacy rate is said to be no more than an abysmal 2 per cent. On the other hand, the TJ provides women with new sources of mobility and a significant instrumentality within the family and the neighborhood as active agents in the Islamization process. Furthermore, within the sternly patriarchal discourse of the TJ, one can discern a faint critique of certain traditional structures of male supremacy.

NOTES1. For a detailed study of the Tablighi Jama‘at, see Sikand, 2001. See also Nadwi, 1983 and Anwar ul- Haq 1972. For a good summary of the basic principles of the TJ, see Metcalf 1994.
2. For selected portions of the book translated into English, see Metcalf 1990. 3. Wali ul-Islam 1996,15. The length and frequency of Tabligh tours for men differs in certain respects from this, however. 4. A mehram relative is one, such as a son or father, whom a woman is forbidden to marry under Islamic law.
5. Interview with Rukaiyya Begum, Barisal, 11 November 1996. 6. Interview with Gulshan Siddiqui, Dhaka, 15 November 1996. 7. ‘Azmi 1993, 1-10. Several of these reports are mauzu (fabricated) or za‘if (weak) and not sahih (authentic). Several critics of the TJ have pointed out that the books of faza’il used in the TJ can be faulted on the grounds of containing stories attributed to the Prophet that are actually concocted. Further, even in the case of authenticated Hadith reports, there is the possibility of their being interpreted in ways different from how they are seen in Tablighi circles.
8. Bulandshahri, 70. A Bangladeshi Tablighi activist writes that the burqa covering the entire body, including the face, is compulsory for all Muslim women because, he says, this it the ‘age of fitna (disorder)’ (At-Turag, No.80, 1 January 1993, 12-13). 9. Bulandshahri, 74-75. Thus Khan (n.d., 10) quotes a story, according to which the Prophet once asked his Companions to tell him which woman was the most superior (‘ala) in terms of qualities (sifat). ‘Ali, on hearing this, went to his house. His wife, and the Prophet’s daughter, Fatima, told him that woman was superior to all who ‘neither sees a ghair mard (‘strange man’) nor is seen by such a man’. 10. ‘Abdul Matin’s introduction to Palanpuri n.d., 8-9 Cf. Ferozepuri n.d. 104.
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