Purifying Pakistan:The Origin And Development Of The Tablighi Jamaat And Its Relationship With The State 1947-2018

The main aim of the present study is to understand,examine and analyze the origin and development of the Tablighi Jamaat,an apolitical and proselytizing Islamic revivalist movement established by Maulana Mohammad Ilyas（d.1944）during the British rule over India in the 1920s.The concept of Islamic revivalism has always occupied a significant and central role throughout Islamic history.After reading Islamic history,it becomes clear that there had always been a specific group of people who struggled to popularize the idea that Muslims should organize their lives in accordance with the teachings of Islam and the Sunnah of the Prophet Muhammad.The current wave of Islamic revivalism and resurgence in Pakistan is not a new concept and phenomenon.Its roots can be found in the 19^th and 20^th centuries when the centuries-long established socio-political system of Muslims crashed at the hands of the European colonial rulers.The decline and disintegration of the Muslim political power in India alarmed a section within the Muslim community who came forward and struggled to save Islam and Muslims from different‘enemies’around them.Scholars who have worked on the concept of Islamic revivalism in the Muslim world agree that the idea of establishing a society based on Islamic teachings became very famous in the 1970s and1980s.They believe that some major events took place in the 1970s that influenced Muslims living in different Muslim countries.For example,different Arab countries were defeated in the Six-Day War with Israel in 1967.It was commonly believed in the Muslim world that Jews defeated Muslims because of their commitment to their religion and nothing else.The Russian invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 and the emergence of the Islamic fighters supported by the United States of America,Pakistan,and Saudi Arabia.The coup of General Mohammad Zia-ul-Haq in July 1977and the Iranian Revolution led by Ayatullah Imam Khomeini in 1979 were some of the causes that Islamized the Islamic world in general and Pakistan in particular.The growing inequality between the rich and the poor people also played a key role in the popularity of Islamic revivalism in Pakistan.The closed political and economic system of Pakistan which has always protected the interest of a small class of elites in the country also paved the way for Islamic revivalism.The central argument of the current thesis is that Tablighi Jamaat became a popular Islamic revivalist movement in Pakistan because it has always been supported by the civilian and military rulers of the state.In this thesis,I argued that the Pakistani state and the Tablighi Jamaat have been struggling to get some agreed objectives and this has established a sort of what I called a‘sacred relationship’between the two parties.This thesis also argues that pursuing these objectives led to the establishment of an undeclared but sacred relationship between the Tablighi Jamaat and the state of Pakistan.In order to get political objectives and consolidate their political base,leaders of the state have always appealed to Islam and the dawat of Tablighi Jamaat.Working for the cause of Islam and Muslims made this holy alliance between the two parties.However,this relationship is not the only factor that strengthened the roots of the Tablighi Jamaat in Pakistan.The‘apolitical’nature,the ideology that preaching is the primary duty of the followers of Islam,and the notion that the current challenges and problems in society emerged due to the irreligiosity of the ordinary Muslims have also contributed significantly to the popularity of Tablighi movement in Pakistan.Like some other Islamic movements in the country,the Tablighi Jamaat has also propagated the idea that the basic aim of its dawat is nothing but to protect Islam and Muslims from their visible and invisible‘enemies’who,according to Tablighis,have surrounded them from all directions.In the current thesis,I have argued that Tablighis are‘Neo-Traditionalist Islamists’.They seem new when it comes to the process of eliminating various socio-political and other challenges from society.However,at the same time,Tablighis seem traditional Islamists when it comes to the final goal for which almost all Islamists are currently struggling in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan（the official name of Pakistan）.