Jamaat-e-Islami and Tabligh Jamaat: A Comparative Study of Islamic Revivalist Movements

Abstract

Since the turn of the 20th century, a broad range of Islamic revivalist movements have sprung up in Muslim societies around the globe, especially where Muslims have formerly experienced, primarily through European colonisation, a gradual decline in key Islamic institutions and threats to their identity. Islamic revivalist movements have consequently emerged to inculcate religious principles en masse in the Muslim World through institutional developments, socio-political activities, missionary preaching, and propagation. Movements such as Ilyas’s Tabligh Jama’at and Maududi’s Jama’at-e-Islami are at the forefront of this enterprise and have both demonstrated their potential for bringing about important spiritual and social changes, particularly in Muslim-majority societies. Having been initiated in the Indian subcontinent, both movements currently have global and transnational influence. These two movements, however, have some fundamental differences with regard to their attitude towards polity and social development. In this paper, we compare and contrast the major characteristics of the two movements. A comparative appraisal of these two significant revivalist movements is expected to contribute to an understanding of the socio-religious discourse surrounding the phenomenon of Islamic revivalism. With this comparison, we argue that the differences in their methods are complementary rather than antagonistic, and generally pursue a similar greater goal: reviving Islam and returning society to a stable and harmonious state.