Tabligh Jamaat: Rebirth as a Muslim
Osama Khan University of Surrey
Background
It was in summer 2002 in University of Cambridge, students were toasting Champaign to celebrate the end of the academic year, trying out fancy gowns and Venetian masks for the grand May Balls in various prestigious Cambridge Colleges, swans were fed overwhelmingly in River Cam by the rejoicing students while punting in bands, and of course many were crazy enough diving into River Cam with their loved ones from various historic bridges like Mathematical Bridge or Bridge of Sigh.
A group of students (informally aka the Ministry of Brotherhood) who are the formal members of the University of Cambridge Islamic Society (ISOC: http://www.isoc.co.uk/) were pondering on how to bring some touch of spirituality into their lives at the time of euphoric celebration that drive Cambridge crazy in the early months of every summer. I happened to be one of them! It was tough enough to sit in our dingy small prayer room with some bearded boys who are overwhelmingly mature trying to philosophise the purpose of life denying the ecstasy that the world had to offer outside. On top of that they planned that they would send a small convoy of brothers to London Markaz (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Markaz) to spend a weekend with Tabligh Jamaat (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tablighi_Jamaat), the Muslim missionary and revival movement recognized as the largest non-political movement in the world. All of a sudden I was pointed by the pack leader, the president of ISOC, to join the team as I was an international student with bit of age in my baggage. My God they did not know that the wisdom that comes with age was totally absent in me!
The convoy who dared
It was group of five brothers, as we used to call each other. All of us were pretty accomplished students in different subjects at the University of Cambridge. I will refrain from naming my brothers but I will give each of them pseudo name for the purpose of this story. I was doing my MPhil in Real Estate Finance and Investment, thriving for the top position in my class, who was a practicing Muslim but sceptic about the missionary style followed by Tabligh Jamaat. There was a scientist, doing his doctoral research in applied mathematics and theoretical physics in Prof Stephen Hawkin’s research group. He used to have all the scientific explanation behind spirituality and faith, therefore, used to have a lot of mind boggling mutually conflicting theories! A joker joined us too to keep us amused during the trip who was studying Aeronautical Engineering from Pembroke. A true philosopher and devoted Muslim studying Natural Science from Churchil decided to join us to keep us steadfast with e objective of the trip. Last but not least, a universal lover aka “Romeo” thought of strengthening his love potion by preaching Islam door-to-door, what a miserably bad idea! Romeo studied Law and Philosophy from Trinity. On the 31st day of May in year 2002, we embarked on a grey Toyota people’s career to London Markaz in Stratford, East London. We packed our backpacks with bare necessities, sleeping bags, and a copy of Holy Quran with translation.
The trip that engulfed us
It was a true immersive experience. We were literally consumed by the activities. We arrived before noon prayer at London Markaz, where groups were assigned with localities to preach Islam particularly to Muslims from their local mosques over the weekend i.e. during 1st and 2nd of June 2002. Our group was congregated with another experienced group of preachers, who had a true wisdom of age. The leader of that group was appointed as the Amir of our entire convoy. Amir means the leader, who acts as the authority to run any activity within the group during the missionary period. Our Amir was an absolute gentleman in his 50s who happened to be a businessman from London. We were assigned to Wimbledon Mosque for that weekend.
The Markaz was a big mosque with extensive dinning and cleansing facility. As soon as we entered the mosque we found people from all races, colours, and sects with hundreds of different professions waiting to be allocated to a convoy to an unknown location for preaching Islam over the weekend or even over a period of 10 days, 40 days, or 4 months! We had our congregational prayer followed by lunch, where we realised that we had to volunteer for some work to facilitate the luncheon to get fed. We, the five students from Cambridge, volunteered to do washing up and cleaning the place after lunch. We realised that people volunteered to shop for thousands of people, some cooked for us, and some streamlined the whole process for an orderly disciplined distribution of nutritious well-balanced food. We learnt that the whole institution of Tabligh Jamaat runs on participants’ contribution in kind and cash. They do not do any fundraising and ask all the participants to volunteer for tasks on the sight and during any preaching trip. We knew after lunch that this weekend will definitely be filled with tasks for our small convoy of 12 people including five of us. At that point I missed Cambridge and all that it had to offer over that weekend! Whereas I noticed our scientist having an intense debate with a group with regards to faith, spirituality, and science, who was supported by our philosopher. The Romeo and the joker fell in love with the whole process of taking care of each other.
In the late afternoon we had another small journey to Wimbledon, South London. We arrive at our designated mosque, where we met the mosque committee to agree on our conducts and the occupancy of the premise over the weekend. It was a bizarre feeling having to stay in a mosque, where we always visited regularly since childhood but strictly for congregational prayer. We discovered that the mosque has a kitchen and shower cubicles for preachers like us but we had to sleep in our bags in the main prayer hall. They said that whenever one travels outside of his/her home and family to preach Islam, God and His Angels protects them from all calamities and keep them in peace. It was uttered to us repeatedly to bring peace in us during this exceptional trip. I must admit that as soon as we stepped inside the mosque we felt this eternal calm in ourselves. All of a sudden we kind of accepted our way of life for that weekend forgetting our so called “Posh” background enshrined in extravagance environment in Cambridge.
In our first Talim (meaning teaching circle) right after afternoon tea and prayer, our Amir informed us about the six qualities we had to bring in ourselves to be a good Muslim. These qualities were there among the Sahabas, the followers of the Prophet Muhammad (Peace be up on him). These were:
- Firm belief in the Kalimah: the fundamental faith believing in Allah and His Messenger
- Concentration and Devotion in Salaat: praying five times a day with true spirit
- Ilm and Dhikr: seeking knowledge and remembering Allah in every step of the way
- Ikram-i-Muslim: treating fellow humans with honour and dignity
- Ikhlas-i-Niyyat: doing everything to please Allah to reach self purification
- Dawat-o-Tabligh: sparing time to live a life only to learn religious virtues from the Prophet’s and his followers’ lives, spreading Islam door-to-door and renewing all the above qualities
We were not only informed about these qualities but also given examples from the Sahabas lives. Subsequently we were asked to formulate our own verbal presentation to preach these qualities instantaneously. It was nerve wrecking to stand up and talk about these virtues in front of a crowd of worshippers. I believe my heart never pounded so hard before that day. One can teach and lecture on a topic but to preach qualities based on spirituality and moral is hard as one has to possess those to guide someone else. It was obvious that the philosopher excelled in this art and caught the attention of our Amir as the brightest one among us. At the end of the talim, we also discussed the way we will look after each other. In that process I was given the job of a kitchen assistant to help with the cooking for the convoy. Although the Amir played a strict leadership role but the process was extremely democratic and we always sat in round circle to discuss any issue or teaching and everyone had some say in the process. It was amazing to see how people from different background, educational exposure, and up bringing can work so closely together while staying under the same roof. We all looked after each other, worked for each other, prayed together, slept together, learnt together, even wept together while praying to Allah for our guidance and purification. It was mesmerizing to see how we bonded so close over a span few hours to be able to cry on each others’ shoulder sharing whatever we wronged in our lives and repenting for them. I felt uncomfortable at times but I saw the joker redefining his perception to life and its purpose with absolute ease.
This story can go pages after pages describing our immersive experience but I will try to bind myself to a specific aspect of this trip to conclude. During these two days beside the learning sessions (talim), praying five times, reading and reciting Quran, and discussing the way of Allah and His messenger, we had to go out and visit door-to-door the local Muslims inviting them to our Talims. The purpose is to reconnect the Muslims in the locality to Islam and its true meaning i.e. absolute submission to Allah. The mosque authority gave us a comprehensive list of names and addresses of all the local Muslims. We distributed these addresses among ourselves and visited all these households in pairs. Just imagine how it would have felt to a Cambridge student to dress in long robes loitering around an unknown neighbourhood knocking on door-to-door, preaching the six qualities that he barely possess himself! It was mind blowing for me to knock on the first door assigned to me. I stood quietly for five minutes before gathering the strength to ring the bell. I remember a smart young gentleman opened the door. I lost my word as soon as I saw him and was feeling lightheaded. I balanced myself getting support from my partner who was experienced and standing behind me. I said everything that I had to say quickly almost in one breath. The gentleman on the door sensed my anxiety and rookie status. He also happened to be back from work and tired. He almost shouted at me to be busy with my own life and preach Islam to non-Muslims. My partner very kindly took control of the situation and apologised to the gentleman and left the scene. I remember I cried for few minutes until I reached the next door. I realised how heartbreaking it is to say good words to someone only to be scolded harshly. I had to knock seven more doors after the first miserable encounter.
During this trip I discovered all my limitations as a person, as a Muslim, and as a friend. It was almost like rediscovering me from inside out. We all felt like that, specially the scientist remained utterly silent on the last the day not raising a single debate. We all learnt that there are things beyond debate that brings absolute peace in one’s heart. It was trip to be immersed in such experience where you can taste the sweetness of absolute peace and harmony of one’s heart, spirit, and body with the surrounding environment. Islam and being a Muslim should always remain under constant scrutiny for all who follow this faith. It should be dynamic yet steady; it has to be welcoming and meaningful. All of us learnt during that weekend that one can rediscover oneself only through such immersive experience denying oneself the materialistic aspect of one’s life but diving into the immaterial sweetness of unfathomable love, passion, respect, knowledge, understanding, and peace.
Lesson learnt
I believe such immersive experience can be emulated in higher education too. One of the core aspects I picked up from this experience is the power of seclusion. I think to be immersed also means to be isolated from other aspects that influence our lives. Isolation gives the space to focus and learn something with attentive and inquisitive mind. I sincerely hope to share this hypothesis with experts in this conference.
Page Information
|
Wiki Information |
Recent PBwiki Blog Posts |
Create your own educational wiki!