Noor · Islam on the Move the on Islam Islam on the Move 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 The view from the outside: How the Tablighi Jama’at figures in the perspective of political Islamists 170 Enemy at the gates: The construction of the Tablighi Jama’at as a security threat in the discourse of anti-terrorism 179 Worlds within worlds: The Tablighi Jama’at in the age of the war on terror 190 VII Finally, a Summing Up The Tablighi Jama’at as the Complex Thing That It Is 193 Notes 197 Bibliography 243 Index 251 ISLAM ON THE MOVE A Note on Proper Names and the Spelling Used in This Book With the exception of three cases, all names referred to in this book are proper names. But as three of the interviewees insisted on maintaining their anonymity, I have changed their names accordingly. Throughout the book I have used local spellings whenever I could. This applies to all quotations from interviews as well as local textual sources, which accounts for some of the discrepancies between the spellings in Bahasa Malaysia and Bahasa Indonesia, which are not entirely similar and/or consistent in some cases. Glossary Ahli Kitab: people of the book; refers to Jews, Christians and Muslims who belong to the same Abrahamic tradition Ansor (Arabic = ansar): helpers, volunteers: Muslims who volunteer their time and energy to work in the name of Islam. The term was first ap- plied to those Muslims who volunteered to help the Prophet Muham- mad in his work to propagate the teachings of Islam Akidah: creed Batin: the inner, esoteric dimension of meaning Dzikir: remembrance of God; a ritual of uttering the names of God as an act of remembrance Fakir: beggar, mendicant Fakir miskin: the poor and destitute Fardu: religious duty Fiqh: Islamic jurisprudence Guru: teacher Hajj: the pilgrimage to Mecca. Haji refers to those who have performed the pilgrimage to Mecca Halal: that which is sanctioned in Islam Haram: that which is forbidden in Islam Hijab: Veil. In the tradition of Islamic mysticism, the hijab also refers to the veil between apparent reality and the truth of God Hukum: judgement. In Bahasa Malaysia and Bahasa Indonesia, it also means to pronounce judgement on others Ijtihad: to exercise rational judgement in the process of interpreting reli- gious doctrine and law Ijma: consensus Ijtima: gathering. In Tablighi circles, the Ijtima refers to the gathering of members of the movement. Some of the grand gatherings of the Ta- blighis may involve the meeting of tens of thousands of Tablighis at a given location Imam: leader Iman: faith Islam: submission to the will and commandments of God Jihad: to struggle. Scholars have noted that in Muslim history there has always been a distinction between the greater Jihad (Jihad Akbar) – which is the struggle against one’s own ego – and the lesser Jihad (Ji- had Asgar), which is the struggle that takes place in society Kafir: unbeliever, non-Muslim. Jews and Christians, though regarded as people of the book (Ahli Kitab), are nonetheless regarded as unbeliev- ers too Kalimat Thayyibah: verses from the Quran that specifically refer to the concept of the oneness of God Kalimat Tasbihat: verses from the Quran that are often recited during dzikir practices as a means of remembering the eternal presence of God Karkun: a term often used in Indonesia and parts of Malaysia to refer to Tablighis who have spent time out on missionary tours (khuruj) Kepiah (Malaysia): a skullcap, normally made of light cotton, that covers the top of the head but leaves the hair on the back of the head ex- posed. Spelled kopiah in Indonesia Khuruj: the practice of going out into the world for days, weeks or months in order to bring the message of the Tablighi Jama’at to other Muslims. In Indonesia and Malaysia, khuruj is also sometimes referred to as tashkil Kopiah (Indonesia): a skullcap, normally made of light cotton, that cov- ers the top of the head but leaves the hair on the back of the head exposed. Spelled kepiah in Malaysia. Ma’aruf: the common good Madrasah: religious school; a school where religious classes are taught Markaz: base, station, camp.