Living Hadith in Tablighi Jamaat

Living Hadith in the Tablighi Jama`at
Author(s): Barbara D. Metcalf

Source: The Journal of Asian Studies, Vol. 52, No. 3 (Aug., 1993), pp. 584-608
Published by: Association for Asian Studies
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2058855
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Living Hadith in
the Tablighl Jama'at
BARBARA D. METCALF
THE NORTH INDIAN MOVEMENT of spiritual renewalwidely knownas the Tablighi

Jama'at dates from the 1920s and exists today throughout the world. The movement's
fundamental goal has been tabl/gh: "conveying," specifically conveying shari'a-based
guidance. To this end, it has consistently used vernacularworks based on translations
of the Qur'an and, especially, hadith in its quietistic work of inculcating correct
and devoted religious practice among Muslims. In this use of the vernacular,primarily
Urdu, the movement has been heir to over a century of translation and subsequent
publication of religious works. These publications, often in inexpensive format, have
been produced by the lithographic presses that became especially common in the
late nineteenth century. ' As in the Indonesian cases considered in this symposium,
the 1930s and early 1940s were a key period for translating and printing influential
texts based largely on translation of hadith. In this period, the reformists' printed
texts not only reached a larger number of people but were used in new settings as
Tabligh institutions evolved. Texts were never meant to stand alone and have always
been secondary to practice.
Printed texts in the Tabligh, as in all the cases considered here, not only
communicated the teachings of the movements but shaped the organization and
Barbara D. Metcalf is Professor of History at the University of California, Davis.

I am grateful to many people, above all participants in the Tablighl Jama'at, for dis-
cussions that have contributed to this article. I was able to have many conversations about
Tabligh in the course of trips to India in 1990 and to Pakistan and, on two occasions, to
Britain in 1991. I have also benefited from three recent workshops: on the Tablighi Jama'at
organized by the Joint Committee on the Comparative Study of Muslim Societies of the
Social Science Research Council/ American Council of Learned Societies (convened by James
Piscatori at the Royal Commonwealth Society, London, June 1990); "Making Space for
Islam," also under the auspices of the Joint Committee (held at the Center for Middle East
Studies, Harvard University, November 1990); and "Local Interpretations of Islamic Scrip-
ture in the Twentieth Century" (convened by John Bowen at Washington University, St.
Louis, May 31-June 1, 1991). Thanks to Dr. Khalid Mas'ud for helpful conversations and
encouragement throughout, as well as to anonymous readers forJAS.
'For a brief description of early translations, see Metcalf 1982:198-210. That Urdu
emerged as a vernacular should not be taken for granted and is not unrelated to British
government practices. For issues related to language change in a colonial context, see Fabian
1991.
TheJournal of Asian Studies 52, no. 3 (August 1993):584-608.
C) 1993 by the Association for Asian Studies, Inc.
584
LIVING HADITH IN THE TABLIGHI JAMA'AT 585
experienceof the movement as well.2 To speak of "living hadith," as my title suggests,

has a double meaning. Followers attempt to live by hadith but in such a way that
they aspire to internalize the written/heard texts to the point that they ideally
become,in a sense, "living hadith."
In the texts considered in these articles, we see at least three processes at work.
All the translations, particularly the translations or summaries of hadith, construct
a framework for authoritative cultural critique and a concomitant generation of self-
conscious choice, not only about religious style in some narrow sense but about a
whole range of issues of loyalty and behavior in everyday life. Second, the texts are
produced in a context of competing modes of cultural reproduction: all seek to drive
out alternatives, not only alternative written texts but alternative oral performances,
gatherings, and so forth. Third, all the texts, in their very deployment, contribute
to constituting community: what, with whom, and when you read them all say a
great deal about who you are. This article explores these issues in relation to a
collection of pamphlets or tracts (risdla)particularlyimportant for Tabligh, all written
by Maulana Muhammad Zakariyya Kandhalawi (1898-1982) between 1928 and
1940.
The texts, published in collected volumes since the 1950s, came to be known
as the Tablighi nisdb (The Tabligh Curriculum) or the Faza'il-i a'mal (The Merits/
Rewards of Actions).3 Maulana Zakariyya wrote these texts largely at the request
of the founder of Tabligh, Mauland Muhammad Ilyas Kandhalawi (d. 1944), his
paternal uncle. A graduate of the theological academy at Deoband and a disciple
and successor as spiritual guide to Maulana Rashid Ahmad Gangohi (d. 1905),
MaulanaZakariyyaserved as shaikhor head teacherof hadith at the important reformist
academy, the Mazahiru'l-'uliumin Saharanpur.The study and dissemination of hadith
have been hallmarksof the Deobandi reformersand those influenced by them (Metcalf
1982).
All but one of the books in the collection takes up the faza'il or merits of some
practice of 'ibddat, "ritual" broadly construed to mean a range of acts of worship
or service to God. The collected volume includes the tracts on the canonical prayer,
reading of the Qur'an, repetition of the name of God or other pious formulas (zikr),
the fast, pilgrimage to Mecca, and charity/pious expenditure.4 Significantly, in
2Forthe Indian origins of the movement, see Haq 1972, which is based on Nadwi 1948.
Troll 1985 provides referencesto important Urdu sources. Lokhandwala 1971 includes Ziya-
ul Hasan Faruqi, "The Tablighi Jama'at" (pp. 60-69); Maulana Said Ahmad Akbarabadi,
"Islam in India Today" (pp. 335-39); and Waheeduzzafar, "Muslim Socio-Religious
Movements" (pp. 138-42).
3Morework needs to be done on the history of publication and translation of these texts.
The first collected edition was probably published in 1958. An edition in Urdu from the
early 1960s is cited here as "Malik ed." Note that the volumes do not number pages
consecutively; each risala begins with page one. Unless noted, English texts quoted are
translated from this edition with references to an English edition ("Faizi ed.") given for
convenience. The Faiz1 edition is based on a Delhi translation (published as Faza'il-i a'mdl
(New Delhi: Idara Ishaat-e-dinyat, 1983) and Teachingsof Islam: Tablighi Nisdb No. 1 (Delhi:
Dini Book Depot, 1985). Recent editions appear to be replacing the original title, "The
Tablighi Curriculum" in favor of the title Fazd'il-i a'mdl, "The Merits of Practice," in order
to convey the central teaching that action is a source of blessing/reward. In addition to the
writings of Maulana Zakariyya, current editions add such writings as "Six Fundamentals,"
"A Call to Muslims" (by Maulana Ilyas, 1944), and "Muslim Degeneration and its Only
Remedy" (also by Maulana Ilyas): see, for example, the Delhi and New Delhi editions.
4The dates of writing are as follows: Fazd'il-i Qur'dn, 1929; Faza'il-i ramazan, 1930;
Faza'il-i tabligh, 1931; Hikdydt-i Sahaba, 1938; Fazd'il-i namaz, 1939; Faza'il-i zikr, 1939.
(Note that the English translation of the Fazd'il-i namdz gives the title as the Blessings of
Salat. Thus namdz, originally a Persian word and the common term for the canonical prayer
586 BARBARA D. METCALF
addition, one of the pamphlets is devoted to the behaviorpar excellence

of the movement,
the transmitting of Islamic guidance known as tabligh: tabligh is thus included
among the most fundamental obligations of 'ibadat. The remaining book, the most
read and cherished of the texts, is a template for individual and group behavior,
the Hikdydt-i sahdba, the Stories of the Companions. All are based on hadith. The
Fazd'il-i Qur'dn, for example, is comprised of forty hadith, a number associated
with a range of religious observances: in fact, many more hadith are adduced as
each of the forty is discussed. In the Hikaydt the hadith-based stories are grouped
topically, followed by comments, often signaled by the letter "fe" for fd'ida, the
benefit or moral of the story. The sourcesfor the hadith are sometimes cited, sometimes
not. Arabic texts are often, but not always, reproducedalong with the Urdu translation
and the comment.
The importance of certain books, and the Faza'il in particular, to the worldwide
work of Tabligh is brought home by the location of a major publisher, bookseller,
and exporterdirectly opposite the primarymarkazor center of Tabligh, the Banglewali
Masjid, which adjoins the shrine of the great Sufi saint Hazrat Nizamu'd-din Auliya
(d. 1325), located in a middle-class area of New Delhi. There, opposite the mosque
and its new guesthouse, is the bookshop of the Idara Ishaat-e-Diniyat (Institute for
the Dissemination of Works on Religion), opened in 1950; the Idara also has a
branch in Bombay (illustration 1). As a recent catalogue explains in an introduction
written by Munshi Anis Ahmad, "Being just in the vicinity of the Markaz Tablighi
Jamaat, N. Delhi, and drawing everlasting inspiration from close association with
its activities, the Idara has the honor of publishing hundreds of enlightening works
of the torch-bearersof Tabligh which inspire and guide millions of people throughout
the world." Visitors to the shop must work their way around parcels and shipping
crates destined for Australia, the United Kingdom, the United States, and other
places around the world. The Idara oversees a substantial translation program, not
only from Arabic into Urdu (and Hindi)5 but also from Arabic and Urdu into English;
a recent catalogue lists a full 645 titles in English. Among these titles is the Tablighi
in Urdu, was translated in the English version by the Arabic term, saldt, considered a more
universally known term for English speakers.)
The basic collected volume does not include Fazd'il-i hajj and Fazd'il-i sadaqdt, which
describe the pilgrimage to Mecca and charity, presumably because of their length. They
were written in part when Maulana Zakariyya had an enforced stay in the center of Tabligh,
near the shrine of Hazrat Nizamu'd-din in Delhi, during the partition disturbances of 1946-
47. The work on sadaqdt, related to spending "in the path of Allah" was a response to
Maulana Ilyas's request for books on the fazd'il of sadaqdt, and, interestingly, also on the
faza'il-i tajdrat, trading, which, if pursued in accordancewith divine injunctions, also merits
reward. This is a reminder that many supporters of Tabligh have been engaged in trade.
The work on hajj was stimulated by the increased activities of Tabligh in the Hijaz carried
out by MaulanaYusuf, MaulanaIlyas's successor, following his death in 1944. See Muhammad
Zakariyya(1969:136). Editions include Faza'il-i hajj (Karachi:Madina Publishing Company,
440 pp.), and, in English translation, Virtues of Charity and Haj, Tablighi Nisab No. 2,
trans. Muhammad Masroor Khan Saroha and Yousuf Karaan, Delhi: Dini Book Depot,
1986, 312 pp.; and Faza'il-i sadaqat, trans. Abdul Karim and Malik Haq Nawaz, revised
by Mazhar Mahmood Qurashi and Khawaja Ihsanul Haq (Karachi: Darul-ishaat, 1991, 719
pp.).
5Hindi and Urdu are linguistically identical but utilize different scripts, Sanskrit-derived
and Arabo-Persian-derived, respectively; they also draw on the different languages, Sanskrit
on the one side, and Arabic and Persian on the other, for some of their. vocabulary. Urdu
had become by the 1930s associated with Muslim interests in the subcontinent; Hindi, with
Hindu. Since Independence, Urdu has been a national language in Pakistan but has been
eclipsed in most places in India. Many Muslim children in India cannot read the Urdu
known to their parents. See Rai (1991).
Illustration 1. The bookshop, Idara Ishaat-e-Diniyat, located at the

movement's center in New Delhi.
6Aogteohrtw ok vialei l orlngae r h ur n aln
s
Ab'.h.a.'.
nisib, translatedNdw' lifeoMuamdIy
from Urdu into English, Hindi, Arabic and French.6 The Idara's
books are also available in other shops.
Hadith as Cultural Critique
The Hikdydt-i sahdba, the Stories of the Companions, .invariablythe first work
in the collected volumes, sets the pattern of creating two paths of behavior, one
describing the past, conveyed in tradition, and one describing the present, which
has deviated so greatly from the standard offered by the first. The title page for
the Hikdydt in the Urdu edition chooses a Qur'iinic verse to signal the critique:
"Doubtless, for those of understanding, their stories are a great warning." A subtitle
for the books underlines their authority: "True Stories" (sachchb kahdniyadn). The title
page further describes the audience that should pay attention; these are stories of
men, women, and children Companions, an indication that the stories are meant
for everyone. What is taught is not only external behavior;the chapter titles resonate
with the virtues cultivated above all by the Sufis: steadfastness,fearof Allaih,abstinence
and self-denial, piety and scrupulousness, fidelity to the canonical prayer, salit,
sympathy and self-sacrifice,heroism, zeal for knowledge, and devotion to the Prophet.
Separate chapters focus on stories of women and children, respectively. The final
chapter returns to the subject of love of the Prophet.
The theme of contrast evident in the presentation of hadith finds echoes as well
in the Indonesian and, to a lesser extent, the Afghan texts discussed here. That
theme takes the standard of authority set by the hadith and shows it to be an
authority that is not of human devising and that is not subject to change. The
model serves for all times, and it comments on present failure in order to invite
change. Virtually every story leads to a contrast of then and now, so that the issue
of authority is closely related to a vision of time and the relation of the present to
the past, the contrast embodied in the very juxtaposition of the distinctive Arabic
and vernacular scripts. Every story points to today's failures:
Huzu-rAqdas(the most sacredPresence),on whom be the blessing and peace of

Allah, and the noble Companions,may Allah be pleasedwith them, underwent
such troublesand difficultiesin spreadingreligion that-forget about undergoing
them ourselves-even to think about doing them is hard for us.
(Maliked., p. 9; Faizi ed., p. 15)
This is the character(akhldq)of that noble being whose name we take, but we
breakinto such a passionover some small annoyanceor fromsomeoneutteringan
everydayinsult that we seek revengeour whole life long, and keep engaging in
excess (zulm)upon excess. And yet we make a claim of being Muhammad1and
following the Prophet. The noble Prophet, on whom be the peace and blessings
of Allah, despitesufferingsuch troubleand difficulty, utteredno curseand sought
no revenge.
Thesepeople underwentsuch difficultiesand troubles.Todaywe claim their name
and say we follow them and think that we see such dreamsof progress(taraqq[ycin)
as those of the noble Companionsin the chapteron progress.But if for a moment
we pay a little attention, we are forcedto think that those eminent people made
such sacrificewhile we, what have we done for the sake of religion (dtn), for the
sake of Islam, for the sake of canons(mazhab)?Successis alwaysin proportionto
effortand exertion.We people want luxuryand comfort,and we want to go neck
and neck with the kdfirsin the pursuitof worldlythings. Islamicprogressdepends
on us; so how can this be? [As the Persianversesays] "I fear, 0 traveler,you will
not reachthe Ka'ba;the roadyou are travellingheadsoff to Turkestan."
(Maliked., pp. 23-24; Faizi ed., p. 36)
Certainlywe should place beforeourselvesthe wish for obedienceand desire so
that there be less seeking aftercomfortand a loweringof sights, and, as fits this
age, there be a moderationin the idea that we people at every moment should
advancein the pleasuresof the world. Everyoneis alwayslooking at those who
excel in wealthand propertyand complainingout of envy that so and so has more
resourcesthan me.
Todayamong us folks if someonehas two cents-forget about the work for other
people of the house-she doesn'teven take careof herself.The servanthas to go
put the ljtd in the toilet. ..
(Maliked, 112; Faizi ed., p. 175)
Those in times past lived frugally and humbly, worked with their hands, made any
sacrifice to fulfill divine commands and spread the faith. They were passionate in
their quest for knowledge-knowledge defined, one might note, as remembering
hadith. They did not compete for worldly gains. They did not define tarraqqi as it
is defined today, as accumulation of worldly goods.
All the Tabligh texts emphasize the performance of enjoined practices, indeed,
an impassioned pursuit of those practices. They avoid criticism of bad customary
practices in favor of a kind of reverse Gresham's law of reform that good practices
will of themselves drive out bad. In contrast to most Muslim movements in modern
times, here we have no debate over interpretation, no stance on the sources of the
law, no litmus test of style of prayeror participationin customarypractices. Tablighis
say they emphasize faza'il instead of (the rhyming) masa'il, the differing juridical
opinions that can prove so contentious. Occasionally, a condemnation of specific
practices creeps in, practices like those in the parallel stanzas of the Indonesian Gayo
songs related to elaborate, status-drivenceremonies and celebrations. In emphasizing
deviation from spending money rightfully and piously, for example, MaulanaZakariyya
reminds people of where they go wrong:
Are we readyto just up and give our most belovedpropertyas charityupon hearing
half a sermonor readingor hearinga verseof the Qur'an?If we have the thought
of creatinga pious endowment,it is afterdespairingof life, or with the intention
of disinheritingrelativeswe areangrywith. And we spendyearupon yearthinking
about some schemewherebyduringour own life we can makeuse of the property,
let come what after, come. Yes, if it is a point of name and reputation,like the
festivities of the wedding celebration,then there is no reluctanceeven to take a
loan on interest.
The emphasis is not, however, on error as much as on the comparison of what

good works today's Muslim fails to do compared to the good works done by the
great models of the past. The concern is less with bid'a (reprehensible innovation)
than with laxity. This even allows for explicit criticism of the rulers of the day, as
Maulana Zakariyya recalls the selfless service of the Caliph 'Umar:
Is there todayany monarch,any ruler, any ordinarynotablewho treatshis subject
this kindly?
The answer, of course, is no.

Despite these contrasts, the important message of the text is that while the
standard set in hadith is different from the behavior of society today, the past, while
different, need not be distant. The ideals of hadith can, in fact, be relived. Thus,
in writing about the contempt for wealth characteristicof the pious, MaulanaZakariyya
recalls his own shaikh:
I haveheardfromreliablesourcesthat it was the habit of the most holy eminence,
MaulanaShah 'Abdu'r-rahlm[Raipturl)(may Allah's light be on his grave), that
when he received some sum of gifts (nazrdna), he would distribute all of them after
carefulinquiries. . . . And I often saw my father(may Allah'smercybe on him)
take whatevermoney he had after the sunset prayerand give it to some creditor
. . . and say "I would not like to keep this sourceof trouble with me for the
night."
(Maliked., p. 46; Faizi ed., p. 71)7
Returning to his father in regard to his passionate childhood learning of the Qur'an
Maulana Zakariyya is explicit:
birthdateis apparentlyunknown;he servedas rectorof the Mazahir-
7MaulanaRaipturl's
i'Uluim at the turn of the century and was, thus, a generation older than Maulana Zakariyya
(Azizu'r-rahman 195 8:291-301) .
Now this storyis not of ancienttimes (purtind zamnan);it is an eventof this century.
It thereforecannot be said: Whence today courageand strength like that of the
Companions?
The text, in fact, plays a trick. It purports to tell us about a wonderful past and
a decadent present, but those hearing know, in a sense, a secret: that they have the
potential of surmounting the dichotomy and aligning themselves with the standard
set in hadith. The Arabic text signals distance, but it need not be, in the end,
very far from people today.
The Tablighi hear that people among us have, in fact, embodied the teachings
that set the standard. Today's readers/listeners can do the same. As discussed below
in terms of the practice of the Tablighi Jama'at, its very program is understood to
make the past live. The first line of the first story in the Hikayat, which reports
the rejection of the Prophet in Ta'if, shouts that claim:
nabuwwatmil jane ke ba'd nau barastak nabi akramsalla'llahiu'alaihiwa sallam
makkamukarrima men tablighfarmateraheaurqaumki hidayataurislahki koshish
farmaterahe-lekin th6Ri si jama'atke siwa j6 musalmanho ga'i thi....
(Maliked., p. 9)
After receivingthe prophethood,for nine years the most bountiful Prophet(on
whom God's blessings and peace) had been offeringtablighin noble Makkaand
trying to bring guidance(hiddyat)and reformto his people (qaum).Exceptinga
tiny jama'dtof those who had becomeMuslim . . .
The words italicized above are the key terms of what might be called the lexique
technique of the Tablighis, the words used over and over to tell them who they
are and what they do. The Prophet, a reader or hearer would register, was offering
tabhlghand hiddyat just as we do; he was concerned with his qaum; he, too, lived
amongst a small Jama'dt of the faithful. The key term, tabligh, one might note,
does not appear in the Qur'in at all but comes to be understood as equivalent to
Qur'inic expressions like amr hi'l ma'rkfwa nahf an a! munkar(summoning to the
good and forbidding evil) and d4awa(invitation)8but it resonatesthroughout Maulani
Zakariyyi's description of what the Companions did. Translation recreates a text;
it does not merely reproduce it.
Emulation then recreates the text in fact. In this case, virtually every Tablighl
has "his" Ta'if story, the setting of the story noted here, when the Prophet was
oppressedin Ta'if but refused to seek revenge. In south Delhi, for example, a jama'at
of university teachers and students were attacked in a mosque and several seriously
wounded; despite the urgings of police officials, they were adamant in not pressing
charges. "We came to give hidayat," one of them told me, "how could we press
charges?"The hadith gives meaning to the believer's life and, in turn, his experience
gives life to the text. The past is different from most of what happens in the present
but it is understood, most emphatically, not to be different from what happens in
the Tablighl Jama'it at its best.
Competing Texts, Competing Contexts
The Fazd'il texts, like all the texts discussed in this symposium, were produced
in a context of rivalry for control of what might be called cultural reproduction.
8Thispoint hasbeenmzadeby KhalidMas'ud.
The rivalsin that competition included not only written texts, but a range of individual
and collective performancesthat offered alternate cultural ideals: in the Gayo songs,
for example, we hear about sebuku wailing, longhouse didong, didong drumming.
As in that case, the rivals of explicit concern to Tablighis were other Muslims, not
Europeans or Hindus, and this concern has persisted to the present. The field in
which Tabligh operates has changed markedly over its seventy-year history and the
movement is no longer limited to north India but has spread virtually worldwide.
Nonetheless, the context of competition in the early years is particularly significant
and has had lasting influence on the movement.
At that time, rivals to Tabligh stories included folk tales, the majdlis(mourning
assemblies)and ta'zia (the processions)of the Shi'a, and the new narrativesof emerging
political leaders. The printed book, one must note, was never meant to stand alone,
to compete with what were in the other cases charged human settings. The books
were always expected to be communicated in public settings and, indeed, to be
acted out. Not surprisingly, when cassettes and videos appeared, Tablighis eschewed
them out of their deep commitment to avoiding anything that would distract from
their emphasis on the human embodiment of their cherished texts-as well, no
doubt, from a sense that such media not only communicated material that was
potentially distracting fronmIslamic teachings, but that they also created forms of
consciousness less amenable to those teachings.9
The Hikdydt itself offers evidence of the three competing groups and ideals of
the 1930s noted above. First, in the opening lines of the text, Maulana Zakariyya
identified a prime audience for his text, women in their important role of nurturing
children:
In 1353 [1938-391 there was a requestfrom one of Allah'select servantsand my
guardianand benefactor,that some stories, in Urdu, be written out concerning
the noble Companions(may Allah be pleasedwith them), especiallystressingthe
piety of youth and women. Thus those devoted to the stories, if they see these
insteadof meaninglesslittle tales, will find a sourceof religiousprogress.And the
women of the household,if at night insteadof little stories for children, recount
these, then there will be, along with respectand love for the Companionsin the
heartsof the children, an inclinationfor religiousmatters.
(Maliked., p.7; Faizi ed., p. 12)
In the course of recording model stories about children, Maulana Zakariyya

again underlines the importance of the use of storytelling to shape children's lives:
We people immersechildrenin meaningless,foolishmattersand put confusionin
their minds through false stories. If we seek out and recount the stories of the
pious (Alloghwdle)and, insteadof frighteningthem with storiesof jinn and ghosts,
instill awe and the importanceof Allah's displeasurein their hearts, that will be
useful to them both in this world and the hereafter....
(Maliked., p. 164)
Clearly, however, women were not currently fulfilling this important role:
The truth is that if there be createdamong women a passion for religion and
enthusiasmfor good deeds, then there is a certainimpacton children.In contrast
9Following thinkers like Jean-Louis Baudry and Jean-Louis Comolli in discussing cinema
and television as fostering certain kinds of regression, Robert Stam, for example, speaks of
television as encouraging "a kind of narcissistic voyeurism." See his "Mobilizing Fictions:
The Gulf War, the Media and the Recruitment of the Spectator," Public Culture4:2 (Spring
1992) 101-26, p. 101.
to this, in our times, childrenfromthe beginningareplacedin such an atmosphere

that an influencecontraryto religionis felt, or, at best, an inattentionto religion.
When the beginning of life is spent in such an atmosphere,it is evident what
kind of resultsoccur.
(Maliked., p. 111)
The goal of assimilating women into what were seen as normative Islamic standards
had been evident in writings of the reformers for several decades, notably in their
influential work, the BihishtTzewar, and was clearly a goal of Tabligh as well (Metcalf
ed. 199 1).
In part, the inclusion of women could be seen as the continuation of the efforts
of the reformers in reaching out to the "census category" of Muslims, a category
that was reinforced at every turn by the organization and the rhetoric of the colonial
state (Hardy 1972). More than that, however, the charged concern with including
women in reformist teachings, true of groups other than Muslims in the colonial
context, marked women and the home as a site of cultural self-assertionand resistance
imagined as autonomous from the intrusions of the state and the outside world
overall (Chatterjee 1989; Devji 1991). Explicit concern with the colonial culture
was not, however, at stake in Tabligh writings: it was, rather, in the first place,
the unreformed, the "pagan," that Maulana Zakariyya wished to exclude: the
grandmothers' stories of jinn and bhzitthat were to give way to the fathers' sachchF
kahdniydn, the true and authentic tales.
The Hikayat were also clearly meant-even if not explicitly- to counter those
attractedto Shi'a rituals. These teachings were communicatedabove all in the emotion-
charged storytelling of the majalis, when the heart-rending stories and poems of
the sufferings of Karbala were recounted, as well as in the physical enactments of
the story in the ta'ziya processions held across north India. These stories engaged
the hearers intensely in the lives of the Prophet's family and above all in devotion
to Imam Husain. The thirties were a period of Sunni-Shi'a competition and conflict
in which a key element was the Shi'a tabarradenunciations of the caliphs who were
among the very Companions celebrated in the Hikdyat: the Shi'a regarded these
caliphs as enemies of Imam 'All and his family. Lest the point be lost that it is
with the other Companions that one ought to engage and whom one ought to
venerate, an epilogue to the Hikdydt explicitly sets out the grounds for speaking
respectfully of the Companions and for criticizing those who fail so to do:
Finallya warningon an extremelyimportantmatteris necessary,namely, that in

this age of freedom(dzddi),in which there is a deficiencyin religion and many
other mattersamong us Muslims, there is a particularlymarkeddeficiencyin the
respectand deferenceand recognitionof what is due to the noble Companions,
mayAllahbe pleasedwith them. Indeed,morethanthat, peoplewho flauntreligion
come to the point of insulting their dignity, although the noble Companionsare
the foundationof religion;they are the first propagatorsof religion.
The argument for revering the Companions was made not only in such explicit
statements but was communicated in the text by its very style.
Just as John Bowen's article in this series stresses the importanceof the evocation
of grief in engaging the listeners to the Gayo songs, the stories of the Companions
presented here-like the Shi'a stories of Karbala-are above all stories of hardship
and grief. A central theme in the Hikayat is that life is enormously hard but that,
for those who endure, there is reward. The stories are of stoning, mutilation, chains
and beating, suffering from thirst and branding, desertion in the desert, persecution,
ostracism, and martyrdom. The Companions suffered all this, men, women, and
children, because of their love for the Prophet and their devotion to fulfilling divine
injunctions. The Companions lived in extraordinarypoverty without complaint and
parted readily, with generosity and humility, with whatever they had.
NowadaysMuslimscommonlycomplainof their poverty,but therewill hardlyany

group (jama'at)emergewho have to get by tying stones to their bellies or suffer
hungerseveraldays on end.
No detail is spared in telling these horrific stories, and they are made the more
vivid because only in this book of the entire compendium are the stories retold, not
simply translated from the hadith. In many cases, they are presented with direct
speech: they become a drama, the story conveyed by dialogue. Thus, the story of
the execution of Sa'id bin Jubair by the evil Hajjaj contains several pages in which
Sa'id bests Hajjaj with apt and theologically sound retorts: Hajjaj also tries to be
clever: "You are not the son of Jubair but Kusair [something brokeni." In the end
he forces Sa'id to lie face down before he is beheaded, but even then Sa'id triumphs
as an inexplicable flood of blood pours from his body, explained to Hajjaj by his
doctors, the hadith tells us, as a result of tranquillity and composure at the time
of death (Faizi ed., pp. 132-37).
The stories are meant to engage the listener-or reader-not only intellectually
but emotionally as the good suffer and even children and women endure the worst
of pain and anguish. Several episodes are parallel to Karbala stories, for example
when a bridegroom goes from wedding to martyrdom, and the listener in either
case vicariously experiences the transition from joy to anguish redeemed by faith.
As in the Gayo songs, the depiction of loss and travail engages the emotions in
facing the cultural critique communicated by the texts. Although the promise of
paradise and reward is alluded to in the stories, it is the compelling accounts of
heroic commitment at any cost that serve to communicate the truth and urgency
of embracing the models that are held out.
In interpreting these models, Maulana Zakariyyaand his fellows focused on the
world of the home and the spiritual formation of individuals at the same time as
they explicitly withdrew from the emerging public arena of elections and parties.
Their stance was the more striking since it coincided with a time when others of
the 'ulama' were drawn into both Congress and Moslem League politics to elaborate
and assert the protection of Muslim interests. Such activity for Mauland Zakariyya
was nothing less than the measure of how far today's Muslims had fallen from the
model of their forebears:
We people want luxuryand comfort,and we want to go neck and neck with the
kafirsin the pursuitof worldly things.
(Maliked., p. 23)
Maulana Zakariyya thus offers an alternative to those "leaders" (the English word
used in Urdu) whose very raisond'etrewas to reverse what was perceived as Muslim
decline, under-representationin councils and universities, and so forth. His teachings
encouraged quietism even while implicitly acknowledging the sufferings and trials
felt by many at the time. For him the only history that mattered was the mythological
or "typological" history, always potentially present, of recreating the past. His, and
the Tabligh's, narrative simply opted out of the linear story being constituted in
his day that traced Muslim glory in the recent historical past, subsequent decline
in the face of external conquest, and the current struggle for social and political
reassertion. The Tabligh not only ignored the emerging historical narrative of the
nationalist movement but has continued to ignore the versions of that narrativetold
in the new nation states. Not the state, but the home and the individual together
were to be the target of Islamic action and Islamic teaching.
MaulandZakariyya uses a Sufi idiom throughout the book, quoting apt Persian
verses that contrast ephemeral worldly love with the real passion of love for the
Divine. Iqbal and other publicists of this period had brought a new language and
mentality to Muslim politics as understoodamong Urdu speakers,embodying political
arguments in a Sufi language that called for an emotional group commitment
(Gilmartin 1991). MaulandZakariyyaclaimed that language for a different program.
In a long section of his book on the Merits of the Qur'an, for example, he weaves
verses of love poetry, celebrating the beauty of the beloved and the restless heart
of the lover, in order to argue that all else pales next to love for the Qur'an:
If fervor(josh)for the nationpressesheavilyon you, if you love a Turkishcap only
becauseit is the original Muslim dress for you, if you are especiallydrawn to
nationalistslogans, if you promote them by all means possible, if you publish
articles in the newspapersand pass "resolutions"in meetings [you should know
that] God's prophetcommandsus to do our best to propagatethe Holy Qur'an.
At this stage it will not be out of place to addressthe following complaintto
our nationalleaders:What assistancehaveyou given to the propagationof the holy
Qur'an?
(Maliked., Fazd'il-i Qur'dn,p. 62; Faizi ed., p. 104)
From his perspective, the national leaders had the wrong objects of passion and
devotion.
As the Tablighis sought to be distant from those engaged in politics, they also
sought to distinguish themselves from the worldly, cosmopolitan style often associated
with such activities. In the section celebrating the Companions' fear of God, the
Hikdydt disapproves of the "modern" attitudes of the disenchantment of the world
and of religious moderation:
God's dearestand most belovedProphetpassesby the placesof those subjectedto
punishmentin fear and terrorand, weeping, tells his devoted friendswho give
proofof their self sacrificeeven in this difficult time to leave that place, lest they
meet the same fate. As for us, if a village is struckwith an earthquake,we make
it a place of sightseeing. We visit the ruinsfor recreation.Weeping, let alone the
thought of weeping, does not enter our minds.
(Maliked., pp. 30-3 1, Faizi ed., p. 47)
. . . we people are at every moment sunk in sin, [yet], witnessing earthquakes
and other kinds of punishments,ratherthan being affectedby them and engaging
in repentance,istighfar,prayer,etc., we engagein all kindsof frivolousinvestigations
(tahqfqdt).. . Who remembersthe mosquetoday, even at the time of the worst
calamities?
(Mailiked., p. 25; Faizi ed., pp. 38-39)
In fact, the Sahabawould sacrificethe whole world for their prayer(namaz)
(Malik ed., p. 60)
We may dub it as "Fanaticism,"or make . . . other remark[s. ...
(Faizied., p. 92)
All of Tabligh teachings encourage a radical dependence on God and God alone, a
stance that, in this recent translation into English, could give Tablighis the sense
of being considered embattled "fanatics."
This dependence on God entails individual responsibility. It is in the end up
to each person to identify with the view from the hard rock of authentic tradition
that holds today's behavior up to critical view. It is up to each person to respond
with feeling to the emotional dramas that the stories play out. The individual in
this view must transcend the narrow interests of family and relations. Over and
over, Companions are praised for fidelity to Islam or to the Prophet:
. . . usually a personremembershis family at the end of his life. He wants to

see their faces,wants to give a messageand to sendgreetings. But if these eminent
men [the Companions]want to give messagesand send greetings, it will be to the
Prophet
The women are especially notable as they abandon all the conventional restraints,
so intimately linked to family honor, in order to travel, to bring aid on the battlefield,
even, themselves, to fight.
Individuals must also, and most profoundly, be responsible for their own soul's
achievementsand not think that the intercessionof someone else will lead to salvation.
In answer to a Companion who asked to be present with the Prophet in paradise,
he responded that she herself had to help him by being faithful in prayer:
This contains an admonitionfor us. We should not rely on supplication(du'a)

alone, but [realizethat] it also takes practicalefforts[to gain our objects).
Thosepeoplewho dependon the prayersof this or that spiritualguide (pfr) or this
or that pious man (buzurg)are badly mistaken. God has set this world in motion
accordingto causeand effect. . . . It is astonishingthat we do not rely solely on
Providenceand supplicationsand make fifty differentkinds of effortsin worldly
matters,but that, when religion is concerned,[belief in] Providenceand [reliance
on] supplicationinterfere[with ourefforts].Thereis no doubt that the supplication
of pious people (Alldhwdle)is most important,but the Prophetinstructedher to
augmenthis supplicationby her own frequentprayer(sijda).
(Maliked., p. 64; Faizi ed., pp. 98-99)
This discussion recalls similar issues in the Indonesian cases on the intervention of
other people in contrast to the importance of one's own good deeds in gaining divine
reward.1
Participantsin Tabligh choose to identify with the models of hadith that distance
them from the life of much of their society, identifying with the sorrowsand passions
of great Muslims of the past and of Muslims who live the past in the present even
today. That choice can shape every aspect of daily life, of every expenditure of time
and money, of family rituals and relationships, of the social groups with whom one
identifies-and even of the bedtime stories-the true stories of the hadith-one
tells to children.
The fact of choice is itself important, and is, again, like the emphasison individual
responsibility, a pervasivecharacteristicof modern life. Communicationof alternatives
through print, as is the case at least in part here, makes choice possible for more
people and conveys a sense of autonomy to those who, to some extent, can encounter
and assess such texts, and make self-conscious choices, on their own. The choices,
'?Thus, for example, the same hadith, "Three things accompany a person to his grave
. "iscited in the Hik-yt (pp. 80-82) and is discussed at length in the Riyaz.
moreover, produce a realignment of social relations in which not only men, but
women as well, identify with groups outside those defined by birth and inherited
status alone.
Texts in Context
It is when we look at the way the Tabligh books are used and how the society
of the Tablighi Jama'-atis constituted in dialogue with the texts that we get some
sense of why this choice is so powerful for so many people. The movement's basic
book, the Faza'il-i a'mal, claims authority by its very appearanceand presentation.
A person using this book is marked as someone engaged with a text that is
both weighty (literally, since it runs close to a 1,000 pages) and religious. The
multi-colored cover page of the Malik Brothers Urdu edition sets the title in an
oval medallion of green surrounded by a pointed band of red and a flowering wreath
of yellow (illustration 2). A banner across the top bears the Qur'anic verse in Arabic
and in Urdu translation: "Doubtless, well-being and success come to those who
recite their namaz with humility," a Qur'anic sanction for the Tabligh's double
theme of faithful practice and modest piety. The author is identified as hazrat,
maul/na, al hdfiz, al hajj, al muhaddis, "the presence," the religious scholar who
knows the Qur'an by heart, has made the hajj, and is a scholar of hadith. The cover
also has a picture of the famous green-domed tomb of the Prophet in Medina,
identifying the text with those who stress devotion to the Prophet as expressed by
visiting his tomb (as some of the anti-Sufi reformersdid not.) (The same title page
is reproduced for each segment of the book except that a different Qur'anic verse
is chosen in each case.) The Kutb Khana Faizi edition also uses the tomb as a logo,
with an outline drawing of the building set in an open Qur'an on the title page.
That edition is embossed in gold and has beautifully marbled edges. All the editions
have ribbon page markers. While the -texts combined in these collected volumes
have often been published separately as inexpensive pamphlets, "1the larger volumes
have become more commonly available since the 1950s. In size and presentation
they recall the Qur'an, the Book par excellence,but offer a book meant to be used
casually, albeit respectfully, and organized for ready consultation and guidance. A
less important allusion in the presentation, also meant to carry authority (but now
largely abandoned), is the very title nisdb, and indeed some editions do look more
like textbooks than like the classic Arabic texts they more centrally emulate and
replace (illustration 3).
The actual use of the text recalls the classic models in many ways. The Fazd'il,
significantly, is not one book among a library of books for most participants. This
is not a movement that encourages reading over all. To that extent, even compared
with the Deobandi reformers of the late nineteenth century, whose heirs they are,
Tablighis encourage a kind of narrowing and intensification of the use of texts. One
recalls how a Deobandi like Mauland Ashraf 'All Thanawi, in his compendium for
girls and women written at the turn of the century, revieweda long list of publications
in orderto guide readersthrough the new proliferationof titles (Metcalfed. 1991:374-
80). The little girls I saw, scampering home from religious school in Dewsbury
(the European center of Tabligh located near Bradford, England), had copies of the
Tablighi nisdb under their arms: this is presumably the text they will study over
1"Thus, "The Virtues of Salat" (Lyallpur: Malik Brothers, second ed., 1966), 111 pp.,
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and over. A Tablighi in Delhi, being asked to explain how the Tabligh functioned
in Saudi Arabia since it was prevented from importing publications, shrugged and
said the prohibition in the end was irrelevant: "people [presumably the core
participantsl come to know most of the texts by heart anyway."
Also suggestive of earlier patterns of the use of texts, the Fazd'il is often used
in public settings and often read out loud. The emphasis is not on private reading
and study. This has been true of key texts of the reformist movements throughout,
dating back to the first important Urdu reformist text, the TaqwFyatu'l-Fmcn of the
jihad movement of the 1820s. The career of a single copy, passed hand to hand and
read aloud to those unable to read themselves, is epitomized in an anecdote recalling
the advent of the Taqwfyat in a town in north India:
In the town . . . there lived a very old man . . . [who] was barelyable to see
or hear. When the Taqwiyatu'l-iman was first published,copiescame to his town.
People engaged in extensive debates and discussions,some being for the book,
some against. Finallythe old man said, "I see you young men flourishingsheaves
of pages aroundand talking incessantly.What is going on?"They explainedthat
a new book had been publishedand, at his request, then proceededto read him
the entire work aloud, from the first page to the last. When he had heardit, he
askedthem to assemblethe entire town to hearhis [favorable]opinion.
(Zuh-uru'l-hasan Kas6li 1950:82; in Metcalf 1982:201)
One can imagine similar scenes transpiring repeatedly as vernacularbooks have been
read out and discussed. Mauland Thanawl in the BihishtTzewar, written in the first
decade or this century, gave directions for its use that encouraged the literate to
gather other women of their family and neighborhood, and even the servant women,
to hear the book read aloud, an exercise deemed of benefit to reader and listener
both. 12
The repetitions and recapitulations of these books, as of the FazY'il, also suggest
their affinity for oral use (Sweeney 1987). Not only are the books repetitive but,
as noted above, their reading is to be repeated. The intense use of these texts in
oral settings is a pattern common in South Asia. As A. K. Ramanujan has noted
in the case of Kannada:
In India, literacyhas alwaysbeenrestricted.... Writtentraditionslive surrounded
by oralones and areeven carriedby oralmeans. ... until recentlyto readmeant
to readaloud. . . . Writing was an aidememoir, a mnemonicdevice, for materials
to be renderedoral again. Speechlies dormantin writing until it is awakenedby
one's own or another'svoice . . .
(Ramanujan1990:8)
The close link of text to oral use takes its pattern for Muslims, of course, in recitation
of the Qur'an.
Maulana Zakariyya himself explicitly noted this advantage of the written text
for oral performance in his introduction to the Hikdydt:
Anotherissue to be emphasizedis that these materials,be they the sayingsof the

Prophet, depictionsof the lives of saints, books concerningthese issues, or the
preachingsand instructionsof reputableMuslims,arenot disposedof in one reading.
Rather,one should read them repeatedlyaccordingto one's situation and talent.
AbiuSulaimanis a famoussaint. He writes:"I attendedthe assemblyof a preacher.
l2'fyou read this section aloud over and over to illiterate women, their hearts and habits
will also be set right." Metcalf ed. 199 1:239.
His discourse affected me, but when the discourse ended the effect also ended. I
attended his assembly again. The effect of this discourse lasted until the meeting
was over and even on the way home. I attended a third time, and the effect stayed
with me till I reached home . . ." This is also the case with religious books.
Reading them only once in a cursory manner will have little effect. That is why
one should keep reading them from time to time.
(Malik ed., p. 8; Faizi ed., pp. 13-14)
What the books tell-one might note-like the saint, conveys not only facts but
charisma (baraka): thus Maulana Zakariyya began the stories of the Companions
with a story of the Prophet in order to convey particular blessing quite apart from
the intellectual content of the story. 13
Participants themselves describe this oral and repetitive use of the texts. One
young woman, accompanying a missionary group (jama'at) including her husband,
described to me the way her father, after he began Tabligh activities, would gather
the family every night to read the Faza'il out loud. She recalled herself, as a "foolish"
adolescent, trying to slip away as the family meal came to an end before the reading
began; but her father would follow her and gently persuade her to return. Other
women told me the story of a woman who initiated Tabligh activities in her family.
Every night she would read aloud from the Faza'il while her husband ignored her,
until one night she simply ceased. Her husband asked why she was not reading as
usual; she, understandably, replied that she had stopped reading because he would
not listen. Under those circumstances, the husband himself began to read out loud!14
Gilles Kepel has described Tablighis in Paris reading from the Riydz as-Sdlihin
(Imam Nawawl, d. 1277), the influential hadith collection analyzed in this sympos-
ium by Mark Woodward in relation to Indonesia."5 As Tablighis in the subcontinent
use the Fazd'il, Tablighis in France tend to use the Riyaz, Kepel explains, whether
for local meetings or when they go on missionary rounds.
The Riyaz is similar to the Fazd'il in citing many of the same hadith and being
informed throughout by the attention to spiritual virtues that dominated the Sufi
milieu of the thirteenth century as it does so many Islamic contexts of the twentieth.
The stress in both is on personal virtues. The Hikayat, as noted above, includes
chapters on steadfastness, fear of Allah, abstinence and self-denial, piety and
scrupulousness, devotion to prayer, sympathy and self-sacrifice, courage, and zeal
and devotion to the Prophet. The Riydz includes chapters on sincerity, repentance,
patience, truth, piety, steadfastness, and so forth. In inculcating these personal
characteristics, these texts offer detailed guidance for every aspect of daily life. Kepel
writes:
13This was also true for Maulana Thanawi's book on good women, also introduced by a
sketch of the Prophet as a source of baraka. See Metcalf ed. 1991:241-43, 253-58.
14These stories were told to me by South African women of Gujerati origin. I am assuming
that these patterns are universal among Tablighls and look forward to confirmation when
more work appears. Two Indian researchersare currently engaged in fieldwork-based studies
of the Tablighi Jama'at:Syed Zainuddin, Department of Sociology, Aligarh Muslim University,
and Muhammad Talib, Department of Sociology, Jamia Millia Islamia.
15In the opinion of a senior, full-time Tabligh worker in Pakistan, who has been on
frequent missionary tours throughout the world, Arab-speaking Tablighi appear to prefer
the Riydz because the Fazd'il speaks to some local concerns of subcontinental Muslims.
Moreover, the Fazd'il includes, he argued, not only well-attested hadith but some that
scholars classify as weak or even defective: this, too, may be of concern. (Maulana Zakariyya
himself points out that scholars of hadith show great latitude in accepting as authentic those
traditionsthat are related to blessings.) In any case, the Riyazseems nowadaysto be increasingly
used among Tablighis in the subcontinent as well. It is now widely available in editions
that include the Arabic text and either Urdu or English translation.
Thus to understand why the Tablighis dress as they do, it is necessary and sufficient
to open [the book] at the page [on dress] (the book of clothing). The first section
headed "White dress is recommended, red, green, yellow, and black are permitted;
cotton, linen, horsehair, wool, and so forth are allowed-only silk is not" continues
with two Quranic verses. . . . followed by hadith of the Prophet. . . . Another
chapter provides legal disquisitions on the shirt, coat, the tail of the turban left
hanging down the back, prohibition of taking pride in dress, etc. In short, The
Garden of the Pious Believers[the Riydzj provides the Tablighl with an answer to
all practical everyday questions and allows him to conduct himself as closely as
possible in imitation of the Prophet. It is his code of conduct . . . abounding in
injunctions (thus it indicates which prayer to recite when leaving on a trip, entering
the house, belching at the table, etc.) as well as in prohibitions ranging from
deviant religious practices (participation in the cult of tombs, for example) down
to socialization of the most trivial bodily functions (prohibition of defecation on a
path or urination in water that is not flowing). . . . Two characteristics made the
Jama'at al Tabligh chose this collection: its method of thematic classification which
allows its use as a manual and its abridged length (since each hadith is only preceded
by the name of the first transmitter)so that it is an ideal vade-mecum for "missions."
Kepel describes how the book is both read aloud and consulted for guidance.
Sermons focus on explication of the hadith and enjoin their guidance.
Kepel also observes the use of Maulana Zakariyya's Hikcydt-i sahcba, translated
into French:
Before the evening prayer, they read accounts of the pious companions of the Prophet
. . . and then, the canonical prayer completed, they eat together, recalling and
applying the hadith which codify the table manners of Muhammad.
(Kepel 1987:202-5)
While Kepel's observations are based on observations of North African Tablighis

in Paris, they confirm descriptions of the practices of subcontinental Tablighis as
well.
As the description of the meal suggests, the Tablighl hadith texts serve as
models for everyday life. They also provide what one might call a rhetoric of thought
and words. One can almost speak of men as books in relation to the Tabligh, as
individuals internalize written texts. Recent life histories of Tablighis elicited by
Mohammad Talib, a Delhi-based anthropologist, show that endlessly retold
explanations are readily invoked to describe human behavior and to justify life choices. 6
The Tablighis share a common language, a common pool of metaphors, a common
mode of explanation. "The world is like an inn," one may begin, and everyone
knows the elaboration that will follow: if one mistakes this inn for home, and
becomes absorbed in furnishing it (with the temptations of this world) one will
never reach one's real home (which is heaven). "Each act of good is a bank deposit
for the afterlife": and again the story flows of investment in real and not fleeting
worth. When I met a group of Tablighis, they talked so earnestly and volubly that
the tea placed before them was left to grow cold until our host took it away, brought
back fresh tea, and implored them to drink: we relived the habits of Maulana Yiusuf
enshrined in oral and printed lore, who similarly would forget his tea when engrossed
in Tabligh (Wahiduddin Khan 1986:35-36). For the Tablighis, books, and the
lives of those who embodied those books, live.
16Talib 1990. The author emphasizes other themes in these life histories; I impute the
fit between written text and individual behavior to his material.
They live in part as they literally say the words their predecessors said. The
FazY'il texts are set up with sections that are meant to be memorized, organized
as distilled lists of important hadith (Fazd'il-i Qur'dn,Faizi ed., pp. 19-21; FazY'il-
i namcz, Faizi ed., pp. 27-30). Thus part of the education of Tabligh is the classic
one of religious texts and poetic texts both: that an educated person not only is a
repository of memorized texts, but is a person who knows the occasion to invoke
the hadith juste (Eickelman 1978). Many Tabligh participants learn a rhetoric of
speech and reasoning and develop an almost stereotypical personal style. Tablighis
not only hear a vocabulary that describes their own life in the hadith but see the
whole pattern of their lives as reliving, as they believe no one else has ever done,
the model of the first and best followersof the Prophet, above all becauseof dedication
to spreading the Prophetic message and cultivating steadfastness in adversity. This
embracing of the Prophetic experience, as it was seen, had been lost, and now had
to be renewed, not only in terms of following the practice (sunna) of the Prophet
generally, but in the very specific mode of conducting campaigns to spread Islam.
For Tabligh's founder, MaulandIlyas, the critical Qur'anic teaching was that Muslims
were "the best community" only in so far as they "enjoined the good and forbade
evil," an enterprise he summed up as tabligh. What comes to seem transparently
evident in hadith-that all Muslims and not just the 'ulama' are teachers-is, in
fact, the novelty of the movement and a mark of its twentieth-century pattern: it
recalls David Edwards's discussion of da'wa as a perpetual and universal obligation
in the far different context of the Afghan revolution where participants respond to
the Marxist concept of praxis.
For Tablighis, "jihad" has been understood as active preaching, not military
action. Through that jihad, Muslims would regain their dynamism. Ilyas's model
was above all that of the Prophet's community in Medina when the Companions
ventured forth on excursions coupling jihad and tabligh, only now the mujchidFn
would be preachers. Each leader was to be known as amTr,suggesting a military/
political leadership rather than an intellectual or spiritual one; the tours of the
jama'at were to be termed gasht, patrols, or khurz7j,forays or excursions. Indeed the
very movement to Medina was encapsulated in the importance given to leaving
home and the notion that every gasht was in fact a hijra ("hegira"). Maulana Ilyas
was explicit that the urgency of movement in this age was related to the decadence
and corruption inherent in settled life, above all in urban life.
The mythic account of the conversion of Mewat, the area where the movement
first flourished, is relevant here. 17 The story of the unlettered but sturdy Mewatis
is told as the story of the Arab bedouins of the pre-Islamic period of ignorance
(jchiliyya), whose lives were transformed through Islam. Even Maulana Maudiudl,
whose Jama'at-i Islami was to emerge as a critic of the Tabligh because of its neglect
of Islamic political and social organization, superimposed this "jahiliyya model" in
enthusiasticallydescribing the work of MaulandIlyas in 1939. Maud-udi'sdescription
of the Mewatis with their Hindu names, their ignorance of prayer (so that they
would gape at a namazi and worry that he had a stomach ache), their idols and
17Aggarwal 1971. Aggarwal argues that the influence of the Tabligh in his particular
section of Mewat came only after the terrible dislocations of partition when many Meos were
dispossessed of their land and there were forcible conversions to Hinduism. Imtiaz Ahmad
(JawaharlalNehru University, oral communication 1990) has pushed the date of substantial
Tabligh influence in Mewat (manifested particularly by a diminution in the importance of
saintly shrines) to the new prosperity and new urban contacts that have come with roads
built in the last twenty years, enabling a trade in milk to develop. This has encouraged an
identification with more cosmopolitan religious styles and, at an individual level, religious
patronage appropriate to upwardly mobile people. See also Wahiduddin Khan 1986.
tufts of hair, has been absorbed into Tabligh legend. "It seemed as if that very
spirit, with which at the beginning of Islam the Arab bedouin rose up for the
tabligh of the straight path, now had been born in these people." For the Tabligh
to relive Medina, it had to have bedouins (Abu'l-a'la Maududi 1939:25). 18
The vision of the Prophetic model permeates discussion of the organization as
well. The use of the mosque instead of a separate building is understood as reviving
the multiple roles of the mosque as place of accommodation, seat of councils, and
forum for organizing campaigns. The lack of a formal organization in favor of grass-
roots jama'atsis meant to echo the mosque community. MaulanaMuhammadManzur
Nu'mani, in a letter purportedly written to an official investigating the group, and
particularly its lack of formal organization, cites the historic precedent, "You have
studied history . . . did the founders of hindg dharmor Mahatma Gautam Buddh
or Lord Jesus or the Prophet of Islam . . . form a 'party' or anjuman, were there
members,' a chairman, a 'secretary'?Did they establish a 'fund' for subscriptions?"
(Muhammad Manz-UrNu'mani 1980:17-18; the words in quotes are transliterated
English.) Tabligh authenticity is taken as self-evident. Two critical differences,pointed
to by opponents, are that there is no military component in the campaigns and that
they are directed only toward Muslims. This de-emphasis of large-scale social and
political activity has also, of course, been a critical aspect of the Tabligh capacity
to flourish in multiple twentieth-century environments where there could be no
question of military campaigns or political rule.
Beyond the model of early Muslim jihad, a second discourse permeating the
Tabligh has been that of sufism, several of whose terms were given new meaning.
Chilla in the Tabligh lexicon, for example, far from indicating the forty-day period
of seclusion and absorption in sufi disciplines, now came to mean the length of the
tour each Tablighi ideally undertook once a year. Although some workers may seek
initiation from elders, Tabligh itself is not organized as a Sufi order. Just as the
organizationof tabligh means that each person, however modest his origins or limited
his education, can become a preacher, in the same way each participant is understood
to have virtually instant access to certain spiritual states granted travelers on the
sufi path.
The activities and organizationof the Tablighl Jama'atcreatea patternof individual
and organizational life radically unlike that of the larger society (Metcalf 1993). In
this, the availability of printed texts has clearly played a role. In this movement,
as in so many in the twentieth century, we see what David Edwards, in his article
in this symposium, calls a move to "horizontal" instead of "vertical" relationships.
Printed books make possible religious learning outside the theological schools and
the privileged relationshipsof teachersand students: this movement explicitly proclaims
that any Muslim can be a preacher, not only the 'ulama'. Similarly, no single shaikh
was to be the source of absolute authority; authority, rather, was to be constituted
in the body as a whole, acting in consultation and, at some level, functionally
superseding the authority of any individual shaikh. This was a radical innovation
in its investment of authority in Muslims who did not have either a classical Islamic
education or the charisma of sanctified descent. The movement thus challenged the
monopoly on religious guidance of the 'ulama' and the shaikhs, while proclaiming
respect for them and engaging many of them in its work.
18Seealso WahiduddinKhan 1986:8. British sourcesapparentlyreferredto the Mewatis
as "half-Hindu."The British classificationof the Mewatisas criminal tribes fed into the
Tablighiconstructionof Mewathistory.Aggarwal(1971) reconsiders his uncriticalacceptance
andpondersthe motivationfor this kind of colonialclassification
of this labelin his dissertation
and its impact on the self-imageand social treatmentof those so labeled.
The text itself suggests criticism from those who questioned this diffusion of
authority. Mauland Zakariyya, therefore, insisted throughout that there was a place
for the 'ulama'and even cautioned participantsabout the limits of using translations:
. . . scholarsinstruct us that it constitutes ignoranceto assume that one is a

scholarof the Qur'anafter having merelyconsultedliteral translations.
(Maliked., Fazd'il-i tabligh,p. 17)
[Some]people claim to be perfectscholarsafterhavingseen only some translations
of the Holy Qur'an.The truemeaningsof the Holy Qur'ancanbe properlyunderstood
only by those who have looked deeply into its versesand are well-informed.
(Faizi ed., p. 24)
While himself contributing to the diffusion of religious learning through the medium
of Urdu, he underlined the value of Arabic, especially in the Qur'an:
Everydiscoursecarriesthe qualitiesand imprintsof the speaker.It is obviousthat

recitingthe poetryof immoraland wickedpeople has its [evil] effects, [while] the
poetryof pious people brings forth their rewards. . . . For this very reasonboth
Persianand English are equal as languages,but, becauseof the differentimprints
of the authorswhose books are read, there are differencesin the results. In effect,
becausea discoursealwayscontainsthe imprint of its author, repeatedrecitation
of the divine word will cause the qualitiesof its Originatorto appear.
(Maliked., Fazd'il-i Qur'dn,p. 35; Faizi ed., p. 59)
Knowledge and use of Arabic is prized, but the Tablighi Jama'at has still insisted
on the capacity of every Muslim to teach and benefit others. The texts, and the
choices they invite, in principle fall on all.
Printed texts do more than enhance access to information. As Benedict Anderson
(1991) has argued, the very existence of printed texts disseminated throughout a
population has served to constitute in imagination a sense of individuals, each engaged
with common texts, sharing a cultural and, in some cases, a political space. The
language used for the Fazd'il texts is interesting here. To my knowledge, they
circulateprimarily in Urdu and English, whereasan earlierreformisttext, the Bihishtf
Zewar, has circulated not only in these two languages but in a number of regional
languages as well, among them Gujarati, Bengali, and Pashtu. Diaspora Muslims
in Britain, for example, or at least their leaders, have unified around Urdu and
English as shared languages for many activities, including Tabligh, even though
Gujaratis and Bengalis play a pre-eminent role in the movement. Tabligh, using
Urdu, English, Arabic, and French, is oriented today to a mobile and transnational
society.
Today, the shared experience of the Tabligh and the shared texts have succeeded
in producing people throughout the world who are characterized by a common
cosmology and a common ethos. The person and the book overlap. Far from finding
a "real world" apart from the descriptions of normative books, field investigations
demonstrate that the books constitute a significant part of the reality. The Tablighis
tell themselves stories from the core normative texts of Islam, but into these stories
merge stories of their immediate forebears and stories of themselves. Muslims in
Faisalabad, Dewsbury, Marseilles, or Toronto implicitly withdraw from the meta-
narratives of nationalism or immigration into which others might inscribe them.
They, rather, in a global society of intrusive competing cultures, choose to present
themselves as subjects in a story they regard as both greater and truer than those
other people may tell. That story takes its meaning and power from the intense
everyday experience of the jama'at when participants enjoy a radical commonality

and purposefulness, confirmed in sacred text and unlike the social experiences they
encounter in the larger world of everyday life and work.
Conclusion
In looking at hadith translations and their use we get some sense of how a
historic religious tradition takes shape in a particular time and place. The "Islam"
of the Tabligh texts is "Islam," plain and simple, to the participants: timeless,
authentic, and sacred. But it is also a product of and, to be effective, attuned to,
the larger world of which it is a part, initially in this case, the world of British
colonialism, emergent nationalismand communalism, and physical and social mobility.
It is misplaced to look for some wholly autonomous subaltern tradition: there is no
Islam, as there is no other cultural tradition, apart from the specific contexts in
which it is lived. Even though Tabligh texts are not derivative of colonial or
Westernized discourses, they nonetheless speak to many of the same issues and
contexts as do other ideologies of their time. 19 Mauland Ilyas's question-What is
the cause of Muslim decline and how can Muslims again be great?-is in itself very
much a question of the twentieth-century colonial world. In it he spoke out of and
spoke to one of the "particular"domains being constituted in the India of his day,
a domain neither "public" in an undifferentiated way, nor "private"/familial, but
one defined in colonial sociology and shaped by Muslim participation (Gilmartin
1991). Answered in different ways, every Muslim leader asked the same question
oriented to the same newly imagined, census based "Muslim community." Even
the use of Urdu should not be taken as "natural," but seen, again, as constituted
in a dialogue between colonial categories and indigenous activities (Fabian 1991).
The Tablighl Jama'at takes shape in a period of parties and movements, and,
even if participants want to think of themselves as something other than a "party
but rathera leaven throughout all institutions and all cornersof society, the movement
is, nonetheless, jama'at-likein offering participantsa shared program and a voluntary
group of like-minded people. It offers purposeful action and company, specifically
noteworthy in this case for its explicit program of transcendingthe hierarchicchasms
of the larger society in favor of a regime of humility and mutual service.20 Its
emphasis on grass-roots recruitment and its particular ideology of nonconfrontation
particularly resonate with the nationalist, and specifically Gandhian, movements of
this period that were so effective in the areas of north India where the Jama'at also
operated. MaulandIlyas and other Tabligh writers of the 1930s, moreover, explicitly
countered Christian activism in the area (Faizi ed., Fazco'il-i tabligh, p. 11), and
responded as well to movements of "re-conversion" of the Hindu Arya Samaj, a
movement that targeted the very Mewatis among whom Maulana Ilyas and other
early Tablighis had their first success. Tabligh offers an equivalent to all these
challenges.
Tabligh, however, was distinguished by its disengagement from the political
domain. It did not oppose politics but ignored them, and by not entering into
'9For these issues of "sub-alternity" in the South Asian context, see in particular Selected
SubalternStudies, ed. Ranajit Guha and Gayatri Spivak, New York: Oxford University Press,
1988.
201nMetcalf 1993, I describe at length the key Tablighl practicesof mashwaraand khidmat,
as well as the general ethos, that encourage abandonment of issues of worldly status.
conversation, in significant ways did not participate in the creation of a shared

discursivefield. Most significantly, Tabligh asked no questions and offered no answers
to defining the nature of the nation or state, or even of societal ideals.
Yet Tabligh is very much a modern movement. It createsa voluntary, transnational
society, apart from the state. It helps constitute an ideology of individualism in its
radical concern with personal salvation, made possible by faithful action and in its
emphasis on individual choice, choice which is, in a way unusual in Muslim societies,
seen as real conversion.21 Also characteristic of many modern movements is Tabligh
self-consciousnessabout "authenticity,"coupled with an ideology that is increasingly
expressed as an alternative to "the West."
In all this, vernacular texts, communicated by print, play a significant role.
The Tablighl Jama'at creates a society defined by shared cosmopolitan languages as
people read Tabligh texts and imagine a worldwide community of individuals also
reading them. Printed texts democratizeknowledge and enhance voluntary, horizontal
ties that change the status of the historic leadership. The printed texts encourage
individuals to make what seem autonomous choices. Participants self-consciously
opt for what is seen as an authentic standard of behavior represented in hadith that
are read, re-read, and embodied, in contrast to a larger world that has strayed.
Tablighis have insisted that texts can only be effective in lived experience, that
alone they are dead. Particularly in the periods when they are abstracted from their
normal lives to engage in missions, Tablighis live intensely their interpretation of
the texts that they listen to and read.
Printed texts are used and spread in many different ways. The Tablighi Jama'at
used and uses vernacular religious texts in two distinctive ways: a limited range of
texts is read intensively and life in the jama'at is interpreted as life in the texts.
The resultant pattern is above all a lived statement about history, that the past can
be encountered in the present. Against this, the history that tells the stories of
colonialism and nation states has, in mainstream Tabligh teachings, no appeal.
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Living Hadith in the Tablighi Jama`at

Author(s): Barbara D. Metcalf

THE NORTH INDIAN MOVEMENT of spiritual renewalwidely knownas the Tablighi

Barbara D. Metcalf is Professor of History at the University of California, Davis.

experienceof the movement as well.2 To speak of "living hadith," as my title suggests,

addition, one of the pamphlets is devoted to the behaviorpar excellence

Illustration 1. The bookshop, Idara Ishaat-e-Diniyat, located at the

Hadith as Cultural Critique

Huzu-rAqdas(the most sacredPresence),on whom be the blessing and peace of

The emphasis is not, however, on error as much as on the comparison of what

The answer, of course, is no.

Competing Texts, Competing Contexts

In the course of recording model stories about children, Maulana Zakariyya

to this, in our times, childrenfromthe beginningareplacedin such an atmosphere

Finallya warningon an extremelyimportantmatteris necessary,namely, that in

NowadaysMuslimscommonlycomplainof their poverty,but therewill hardlyany

. . . usually a personremembershis family at the end of his life. He wants to

This contains an admonitionfor us. We should not rely on supplication(du'a)

... .... .....

Illustration 2 Cover page o t F i A ma (e e

viXt ~ ~ ..: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Anotherissue to be emphasizedis that these materials,be they the sayingsof the

While Kepel's observations are based on observations of North African Tablighis

. . . scholarsinstruct us that it constitutes ignoranceto assume that one is a

Everydiscoursecarriesthe qualitiesand imprintsof the speaker.It is obviousthat

everyday experience of the jama'at when participants enjoy a radical commonality

conversation, in significant ways did not participate in the creation of a shared

ABU'L-A'LA MAUDUDI, MAULANA. [19391. "Ihya-yi din ki jad o jahd ka sahih

RAMANUJAN, A. K. 1990. "Who -Needs Folklore?: The Relevance of Oral

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