Deobandi Islam in Pakistan and the Diaspora

South Asia’s encounter with Western colonialism preceded that of the Arab world, arguably rendering it more sensitive to the intellectual challenges implicit in political subjugation. Consequently, scholars of South Asian Islam, such as Francis Robinson, have highlighted its role historically more as an exporter than as an importer of reformist ideas, particularly during the decades of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The subject of this book, Shaykh Abu al-Hasan Ali Nadwi (1915–99), exemplifies both these tendencies through his life and works. First, he confronts head-on the challenges posed to Muslim civilization by Western cultural and political hegemony. Second, through a corpus of eloquent and passionate Arabic publications and frequent lecture tours abroad, he speaks to the trauma of a post-colonial Arab world still reeling with the shock of its inglorious place in the new global political order.

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The phenomenon of travelling religious traditions has attracted the attention of various scholars, but a differentiated understanding of its nature and impact is still lacking. This essay addresses the transnational and transregional impact of educational traditions in Islam in the South-South direction. It traces the impact of two education networks based in South Asia on Islamic learning in South East Asia. Both the modernist institutions of the International Islamic University and the
conservative Deoband schools together with the affiliated Tablighi Jama'at have made significant headway in Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore and beyond. The case study argues that the impact is far from unidirectional and more multifaceted than often assumed. It is largely shaped by the social and cultural experience of local society and driven by its needs, rather than by a transnational agenda.

In this public lecture delivered at Cardiff University’s Centre for the Study of Islam in the UK, Riyaz Timol presents the findings of his doctoral research on the Tablighi Jama’at (TJ) in modern Britain.  Though widely regarded as the largest movement of grassroots Islamic revival in the world, TJ remains significantly under researched.  Based on extensive recent ethnographic fieldwork with the British branch of TJ, Riyaz explains its appeal to second and third generation Muslims raised in a predominantly secular sociocultural milieu.

Link to the lecture: Spiritual Wayfarers in a Secular Age: The Tablighi Jama’at in Modern Britain

The paper introduced the various formats of mediatic self-representation of the Islamic school of higher learning (Darul Uloom) of Deoband, India, since its foundation in 1866 and in the late colonial period until 1947, as compared to their evolution and current formats in journals and also wallpapers until today. It thereby shows that the allegedly static Deoband madrasa is in fact alsways adapting to social and cultural changes in societies.

Unfortunately for the last few years there have appeared dissensions within the tablighi fold, especially at its global headquarter at Hazrat Nizamuddin Markaz, New Delhi between the followers of Maulana Saad Khandhelvi, a contender for single leadership (A’mir) and others who are members of the Shura (an executive world body with equal power), leading to a slackening of the jamaat’s hold on the masses. Your magazine Eastern Crescent carried a detailed editorial in its July, 2016 issue “The Most Successful Movement of 20 Century Islam Tablighi Jamaat is at Crossroads” with a balanced account of ongoing leadership dispute within Tablighi Jamaat.

Apart from the leadership and administrative crises in the jamaat there have been talks among scholars and ulama on Maulana Saad’s unchecked or out of the way statements in his bayans (sermons) for past several years. Mainstream scholars and elders within jamaat, including its sympathizers, were finding it hard to cope with some of the irreligious statements and ideals of Maulana Saad. They started sending documented letters to Darul Uloom Deoband, the fountainhead of the Tablighi Jamaat, seeking fatwas and its religious guidance on some of the infamous statements of Maulana Saad Kandhelvi for past years.

The renowned Islamic seminary of the world, Darul Uloom Deoband took cognizance of these vitiating statements and on urging by the jamaat’s followers and sympathizers has issued a lengthy directive for Maulana Mohammad Saad to correct his wrong ideas being disseminated publicly and repent to Allah immediately, else he and his followers may derail from the original path of Islam. Darul Uloom sought a clear oral and written retraction from Maulana Mohammad Saad on his documented objectionable statements in the past and advised him to shun such unIslamic statements in future. It also warns him to do the required retraction within a limited time period both in public and private else Darul Uloom will release its public statement about him.

The article discussed the South Asian Islamic movements related to the Deobandi madrasas and to the missionary Tablighi Jama'at as "agents of change" in the late colonial era in British-India before independence in 1947. It looks at forms and formats how religious mobilisation engaged with the social dynamics of the time.

"In Aqaid e Azeem he try to explain " Sunni Islam" which has six articles of faith known as the six pillars of iman that all Sunni Muslims are united upon in belief,
Reality of one God Allah
Existence of angels of Allah
Authority of the books of Allah
Following the prophets of Allah
Preparation for and belief in the Day of Judgment
Supremacy of Allah’s will, i.e. belief in predestination good or bad is from Allah alone
He is disciple of Hazrat Shah Abdul Qadir Dehlvi and Hazrat Shah Abdul Aziz Dehlvi in reformist school of Hazrat Shah Waliullah Dehli .
He wrote in local language ( Haryanvi Urdu )."

The mosque occupies a central position in the social as well as religious life of Muslims. It is not only a place of worship where rituals are performed, but also serves as a social space where Muslims take part in welfare activities. The design and architecture of the mosque have local as well as global influences, representing religious, economic, and esthetic dimensions of Muslim social organization. Therefore, Muslims' association with the mosque has much significance from social, political, and economic perspectives. Based on an ethnographic example, this report aims to highlight the use of mosque space in the cultural context of rural Pakistan. In addition to discussing the sociospatial relationships around the mosque, I discuss how Muslims' beliefs about the world and the afterlife shape these relationships.

Free speech and inquiry is under threat in Britain's schools from the rise of Islamists. Some of those who might be expected to oppose this - such as Britain's trades unions - have proven to be extremely weak. This is dangerous, as activists now wish to challenge other areas of teaching - such as sex education - that they disapprove of.

This paper highlights influence of colonizers on the Muslim educational systems of the Indian subcontinent which has a mixed reaction among Muslim educationists-some of whom consider colonization as an actor of educational development and most of whom found the devastating impact of colonization on Muslim education. This deserves rethinking the role of colonization on Muslim educational systems because without reflecting on it, current Muslim educational development would be impractical even it would be unknown to the Muslims that how the present came into being and what trends will dominate in the near future. The British modernized the education of India and this modernization does not contradict the essence and target of Islamic education if the education integrates Islamic epistemology with learning resources. Perhaps the clash starts when the scope of Muslim education is thought as the madrasah education but in fact madrasah education is only a part of entire Muslim education system.

This is an abstract of my PhD Dissertation which I wrote at Princeton's Department of Near Eastern Studies and  defended on 10 September 2015. The Committee Members were Muhammad Qasim Zaman, Faisal Devji (Oxford), Bernard Haykel and Michael Cook. My dissertation was awarded the 2016 S. S. Pirzada Prize on Pakistan by UC Berkeley's Institute for South Asia Studies (http://southasia.berkeley.edu/pirzada-awardees).