Islam on the Move: The Tablighi Jama'at in Southeast Asia

257 Pages·2012·1.02 MB·English

by  Farish A. Noor

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The Tablighi Jama’at
in Southeast Asia
Farish A. Noor
amsterdam university press
islam on the move

Islam on the move
The Tablighi Jama’at in Southeast Asia
Farish A. Noor
Cover illustration: Tablighis preparing for sleep at the Tablighi Jama’at
Markaz in Jakarta. Illustration by Farish A. Noor, 2003
Cover design: Maedium, Utrecht
Lay-out: V3-Services, Baarn
isbn 978 90 8964 439 8
e-isbn 978 90 4851 682 7 (pdf)
e-isbn 978 90 4851 683 4 (ePub)
nur 717
© Farish A. Noor / Amsterdam University Press, Amsterdam 2012
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved
above, no part of this book may be reproduced, stored in or introduced
into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (elec-
tronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the
written permission of both the copyright owner and the author of the
book.
For Amy

Table of Contents
A Note on Proper Names and the Spelling Used in This Book 11
Glossary 13
Introduction
Brother Bismillah and My Introduction to the Tablighi Jama’at 17
I At Home Across the Sea
The Arrival of the Tablighi Jama’at and Its Spread Across Southeast
Asia 27
A network among many: Locating the Tablighi Jama’at in an overcrowded
Southeast Asia 30
Landfall and homecoming: The Tablighi arrive in Southeast Asia 33
Touchdown in Jakarta: The arrival and spread of the Tablighi Jama’at
across Java 35
Go east, Tablighi: The Tablighi Jama’at’s expansion to Central Java,
1957-1970s 38
Go further east, Tablighi: The Tablighi Jama’at’s expansion to East
Java, 1990 to the present 43
A home to call their own: The Markaz Besar of Temboro and the
building of the Kampung Madinah 46
Today Java, tomorrow the archipelago: The Tablighi Jama’at spreads
out 48
Kampung Madinah, again: The Tablighi’s centres in Jala and Sri
Petaling 55
Unity in dispersion: The Tablighi Jama’at network at a glance 58
Movement and piety: The Tabligh’s aim of reconstituting the ideal Muslim
society 60

II Learning to Be
The Foundational Literature of the Tablighi Jama’at and Its Role in
Defining the Movement 63
The discursive economy of the Tablighi Jama’at: The foundational texts of
the Tablighi and the quest for Islamic authenticity 66
From text to discourse: The discursive construction of the Tablighi
worldview with the Prophet and his companions as the model Muslim
community 74
Approximated mimesis and the impossibility of perfect imitation 78
Drawing the discursive frontiers of the Tablighi Jama’at: What it is, and
what it is not 83
Another discourse, another mindset? The foundational texts of the
Tablighi Jama’at as a window to the Tablighi worldview 85
III Learning on the March
The Portable, Reader-friendly Literature of the Tablighi Jama’at and Its
Role in the Self-identification and Reproduction of the Movement 89
It’s great to be poor: Ustaz Abdurrahman As-Sirbuny’s Untung Jadi
Miskin 90
A necessary (though fictitious) evil: Ustaz al-Bama’s cautious use of
fiction for the higher good 93
Joy in work: Ustaz al-Enjoy’s report card on the Tablighi Jama’at 97
The commandos of God: Ustaz Fahim’s strategy to defeat the
Komando Iblis 100
Onward to India: Ustaz al-Hidayah and the centrality of India 103
The power of the vernacular: Assessing the merits of the Tablighi Jama’at’s
portable literature 107
Uniformity of form and mode of production 108
Regularity in presentation and content 110
Oppositional dialectics and the avoidance of direct confrontation 110
A different discourse, a different form of life? 112
IV The Stories We Tell
The Conversion Narratives of the Tablighi Jama’at and the
Internalisation of Tablighi Identity 115
 ISLAM ON THE MOVE
‘Then I prayed, “Oh God, please make me happy like them”’: The
conversion narrative of Ustaz Talib Zulham 118
‘Oh how the girls were screaming for me!’: The conversion narrative
of Ustaz Haji Ataullah Muhammad Ramzan 122
‘I realised I was Indian as well’: The conversion narrative of Ustaz Dr.
Murshid Ali Khan 126
‘No, the Tablighi never forgets us’: The conversion narrative of Ustaz
Imam Abdullah Suparsono 131
‘All that we do, we do for Allah, with the Prophet as our model’:
The conversion narrative of Cikgu Sidek Saniff, former cabinet
minister of Singapore 134
Speaking (and reading, writing and reproducing) a common language-
game: The discourse of the Tablighi Jama’at as a form of life 139
Valuing the (Tablighi) present and devaluing the (non-Tablighi)
past 140
Sacrifice and the Spartan spirit: A return to authenticity the hard
way 141
Proximity to God and salvation: The personal piety of the
Tablighis 143
V Learning to Be Tablighi
The Rule-governed World of the Tablighi and the Disciplining of the
Self 145
The normative world of the Tablighi Jama’at: Stage-setting, and the rites
and rituals of mutuality and association 146
Dress matters: What you wear is what you are in the world of the
Tablighi 147
Body matters: The disciplining of the body as part of the cultivation
of the self among the Tablighi 150
Contempt for the body: Beyond the body and into the self of the
Tablighis 153
Why hasn’t the Tablighi Jama’at fragmented? 159
What do change and conversion mean for the Tablighis? 165
VI How We Look and What We Are
The Tablighi Jama’at Framed in the Eyes of Others 169
TABLE OF CONTENTS 