The Deobandi movement or Deobandism is a revivalist movement within Sunni Islam that adheres to the Hanafi school of law. It was formed in the late 19th century around the Darul Uloom Madrassa in Deoband, India, from which the name derives, by Muhammad Qasim Nanautavi, Rashid Ahmad Gangohi, Ashraf Ali Thanwi and Khalil Ahmad Saharanpuri after the Indian Rebellion of 1857–58. They opposed the influence of non-Muslim cultures on the Muslims living in South Asia. The movement pioneered education in religious sciences through the Dars-i-Nizami associated with the Lucknow-based ulama of Firangi Mahal with the goal of preserving traditional Islamic teachings from the influx of modernist and secular ideas during British colonial rule. The Deobandi movement's Indian clerical wing, Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind, was founded in 1919 and played a major role in the Indian independence movement through its participation in the Pan-Islamist Khilafat movement and propagation of the doctrine of composite nationalism.
Tablighi Jamaat is an international Islamic religious movement. It focuses on exhorting Muslims to be more religiously observant and encourages fellow members to return to practise their religion according to the teachings of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, and secondarily give dawah (calling) to non-Muslims. "One of the most widespread Sunni" islah (reform) and called "one of the most influential religious movements in 20th-century Islam," the organization is estimated to have between 12 and 80 million adherents worldwide, spread over 150 countries, with the majority living in South Asia.
Islam is the largest and the state religion of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Pakistan has over 231.6 Million adherents of Islam. As much as 90% of the population follows Sunni Islam and around 97% of Pakistanis follow Islam. Most Pakistani Sunni Muslims belong to the Hanafi school of jurisprudence, which is represented by the Barelvi and Deobandi traditions.
The Barelvi movement, also known as Ahl al-Sunnah wal-Jama'ah is a Sunni revivalist movement that generally adheres to the Hanafi and Shafi'i schools of jurisprudence, and Maturidi and Ash'ari schools of theology with hundreds of millions of followers, and it encompasses a variety of Sufi orders, including the Chistis, Qadiris, Suhrawardis and Naqshbandis as well as many other orders of Sufism. They consider themselves to be the continuation of Sunni Islamic orthodoxy before the rise of Salafism and the Deobandi movement.
Muḥammad Ilyās ibn Muḥammad Ismā‘īl Kāndhlawī Dihlawī was an Indian Islamic scholar of the Deobandi movement who founded the Tablighi Jamaat, in 1925, in Mewat province.
Islam is the major religion in the Gambia, representing 97% of the 2 million population, with the first Muslim communities in the country arriving in 11th century. Islam has therefore had an influence on the Gambia throughout history, and continues to impact its culture, society and politics. The majority of The Gambia's Muslims are Sunni belonging to the Maliki school of jurisprudence, influenced with Sufism. There is a smaller Shiite community, largely stemming from Lebanese and Arab migration. The Ahmadiyya movement is also present. Other religious societies exist in the country, including Catholics, Protestants, Hindus and Traditional African religions.
Fazail-e-Amaal, authored by Zakariyya Kandhlawi between 1929 and 1964, is a book that primarily consists of treatises from the Fada'il series, originally published in Urdu. Its purpose is to inspire and motivate Muslims in their religious practices by presenting a diverse range of Islamic teachings, stories, and anecdotes. The book's popularity has led to translations in multiple languages, including English and French, establishing it as a major resource for the Tablighi Jamaat, a transnational pietistic movement. Written at the request of Ilyas Kandhlawi, the founder of Tablighi Jamaat, the book was initially named Tablighi Nisab or Curriculum for Tabligh. It is the most popular ongoing publication of Urdu literature in the present era and is extensively read due to its inclusion in the literature of the Tablighi Jamaat. The book's language is appreciated for its simplicity, clarity, and accessibility to readers.
Zakariyya Kandhlawi was a mid-twentieth-century traditionalist Sunni scholar and an authority in the study of hadith, also known as Sheikh al-Hadith, hailing from India. He was an influential member and ideologist of Tablighi Jamaat and the author of the Fada'il series, which is a crucial propagation literature for the movement. Born into a family deeply rooted in Tablighi Jamaat and associated with the Deobandi movement, he studied under Mazahir Uloom and eventually became a teacher there in 1917, retiring over half a century later in 1968. Engaging with Sufism, a distinctive feature of the mainstream Indian Ulama, he was a student of Khalil Ahmad Saharanpuri in both hadith and spirituality. Together, they embarked on a ten-year journey to compile Badhl al-Majhud, an explanatory work on Sunan Abu Dawood. Initially published in five volumes, he expanded it to a twenty-volume collection. He made his first trip to Medina with Saharanpuri at a young age, and in 1972, he settled in Medina and continued his missionary work from there until his death. He was buried next to his teacher Saharanpuri at Al-Baqi Cemetery, whose successor he had been named. During his initial stay in Medina, he began working on a commentary on Muwatta Imam Malik, eventually publishing Awjaz al-Masalik over a thirty-year period. This work quickly earned him a reputation for his expertise in interpreting the Maliki tradition. The first edition, published in six volumes in India, was followed by a fifteen-volume second edition, with the first three volumes printed in Cairo and the remaining volumes in Beirut.
The Markazi Masjid, also known as the Dewsbury Markaz or Dar ul Ulum, is a mosque in the Savile Town area of Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, England.
Farish A. Noor also known as Badrol Hisham Ahmad Noor is a Malaysian academician, historian, and political scientist that is currently serving as a professor of Politics and Political Science at the Faculty of Social Sciences, International Islamic University of Indonesia.
Jamaat-e-Islami is an Islamist fundamentalist movement founded in 1941 in British India by the Islamist author, theorist, and socio-political philosopher, Syed Abul Ala Maududi, who was inspired by the Muslim Brotherhood. It is considered one of the most influential Islamist organisations, and was the first to develop an ideology based on the modern revolutionary conception of Islam. Its founding branch in Pakistan is the nation's largest fundamentalist party.
Jamia Salafia, Varanasi is an Islamic jamia or seminary university located in the city of Varanasi in India. It was set up in 1966 by the Jamiat-Ahle Hadith-e-Hind. The then ambassador of Saudi Arabia to India Yusuf Al-Fauzan inaugurated the Jamia. It is the largest Salafi-Ahle Hadith institution in India. The university is funded by government of Saudi Arabia and most of the teachers are graduated from Saudi Arabian Islamic universities. Saudi government prescribe Indian Muslims to take education from the university. The institution follows Salafi doctrine.
Raiwind Ijtema is an annual three-day congregation held at Raiwind Markaz, Lahore, Pakistan.
A Tablighi Jamaat religious congregation that took place in Lahore's Raiwind Markaz in early March 2020 was a COVID-19 super-spreader event with more than 539 confirmed cases linked to the event being reported across the country. Science and Technology Minister Fawad Chaudhry blamed the "stubbornness of the clergy" for the event having gone ahead despite the COVID-19 pandemic.
A Tablighi Jamaat religious conference that took place at the "Masjid Jamek Sri Petaling" in Kuala Lumpur's Sri Petaling district between 27 February to 1 March 2020 became a COVID-19 super-spreader event with more than 3,300 cases being linked to the event. By 19 May 2020, the Malaysian Director-General of Health Noor Hisham Abdullah confirmed that 48% of the country's COVID-19 cases (3,347) had been linked to the Kuala Lumpur Tablighi Jamaat cluster. Additionally, nearly 10% of attendees were overseas visitors, causing COVID-19 to spread to other countries in Southeast Asia. On 8 July 2020, this cluster was declared over by the Ministry of Health.
Revival from Below: The Deoband Movement and Global Islam is a book by Brannon D. Ingram, a professor affiliated with Northwestern University. This scholarly publication, brought to readers in 2018 through the University of California Press, explores the reformist agenda of the Deobandis and delves into the understudied aspect of their expansion beyond South Asia, with a particular focus on South Africa. The author reexamines the Deobandis' articulation of their reformist goals, unveiling a dimension that has received inadequate scholarly attention: their networks' reach and influence in regions outside of South Asia. The author offers compelling insights into the meaning of the Deobandi tradition and delves into the Deobandis' understanding of religious and social reform. Through a balanced approach encompassing both textual sources and individual agency, Ingram elucidates the intricate dynamics of Deobandi practices and analyzes the implications of their transnational expansion in the post-colonial era. Despite its paramount significance, the Deobandi stream of thought within Hanafi Islam is often subject to misinterpretation and unwarranted criticism. In reality, it stands as an influential Muslim reform and revival movement, surpassing all others outside of the Middle East.
Darul Uloom Deoband was established in 1866 in the Saharanpur district of Uttar Pradesh, India, as part of the anti-British movement. It gave rise to a traditional conservative Sunni movement known as the Deobandi movement. Students from various regions, including Sistan and Baluchestan in Iran, attended Deoband, which led to the spread of its founders ideas. This movement had a significant impact on some of the new generation of Iranian intellectuals in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. After entering Iran, the students of this madrasa continued to expand this thinking and with the formation of missionary groups. These thoughts have been strengthened on one hand due to the cultural relationships between the Baloch tribes and on the other hand due to the connection of Sistan and Baluchestan's Iran and India's Hanafi religious leaders in Iran. Today, the Deobandi movement is one of the intellectual currents in Sistan and Baluchestan and preaching groups are active in different cities and villages. Its playing a crucial role in Iran's political landscape. The Deobandis aimed to homogenize religious schools and were opposed to certain popular practices.The Naqshbandi order played an important role in the Deobandi school of thought in the Persian-speaking world.
Islam, Youth, and Modernity in The Gambia: The Tablighi Jama'at is an ethnographic account examining the Tablighi Jama'at movement within The Gambia. Authored by Marloes Janson and published by Cambridge University Press in 2013, the book investigates the intricacies of Tablighi members' lives, presenting insights into how the movement shapes established Islamic practices, authority structures, and gender roles. Shortlisted for the 2014 The Thinking Allowed Award for Ethnography by BBC Radio 4 and the British Sociological Association, it is the first full-blown study of the Tablighi Jamaat movement in Africa. Drawing from 12 months of fieldwork in the early to mid-2000s, initiated in the late 1990s, Janson's narrative focuses on the experiences of five members, highlighting the nuanced interplay between modernity, Islam, and youth in the Gambian context. The book emphasizes the movement's resonance with urban youth aged 15 to 35 and its distinctive characteristics in The Gambia, including active women's participation in missionary activities. At its heart, the book thoroughly studies the repercussions of Islamic reform on gender dynamics in The Gambia. Janson characterizes the Jama'at as a youth movement, analyzing how Tablighis redefine identity, social dynamics, and gender roles through practices like missionary tours and teaching/learning sessions.
Resisting Regimes: Myth, Memory, and the Shaping of a Muslim Identity is a political anthropological account and social history detailing the Meo, an ethnic group native to the Mewat region in north-western India—the birthplace of Tablighi Jamaat. Authored by Shail Mayaram and published by Oxford University Press in 1997, this work is recognized as the first in its genre. Through a combination of archival research and fieldwork, the book scrutinizes the intricate processes of state formation and the evolution of ethnic identity within a dynamic milieu marked by nationalist fervor, ritual sovereignty, pan-Indian and global movements, tensions between Hindu and Muslim organizations, and instances of genocidal violence in the princely states of Alwar and Bharatpur during the twentieth century. The narrative develops through the lens of the Meo oral tradition. The author argues for a liminal identity for the Meos, incorporating elements of Hindu, tantric, and Islamic beliefs. Over time, historical events catalyzed an Islamization process within the Meo community, particularly influenced by the presence of Tablighi Jama'at. This book is an integral component of the author's broader project focused on Meo oral traditions in eastern Rajasthan.
Inside the Tablighi Jamaat is a book by Ziya Us Salam, a journalist at The Hindu. The book is an analysis of the Tablighi Jamaat from a critical standpoint. Written after the controversy surrounding the Tablighi Jamaat COVID-19 hotspot in Delhi in 2020, it examines the group's history, practices, controversies, and internal dynamics. It highlights the mission, organizational structure, and impact of the Tablighi Jamaat on the Muslim community and presents insights into the Tablighi Jamaat's philosophy, its approach to spreading Islamic teachings, and its influence worldwide.
