Pakistani Tablighis: Practitioners of the Transnational Islamic Piety Movement

The study of Tablighi Jamaat as a revivalist movement which has its roots in colonial India evoked considerable academic inquiry among various scholars, including Sikand (2002), Metcalf (1978) and Moj (2015). Besides such notable works, ethnographic studies have been carried out to provide a better understanding of the organization’s structure and operations. Essentially emanating from the Deobandi Movement itself and more on the lines of the Arya Samaj’s purification efforts, the main aim of this revivalist movement is to purify Islam of corruptions or innovations (Biddat) that have seeped into the lives of Muslims or accretions that many Muslims in Pakistan associate with Hinduism. Under such circumstances, the Tablighi Jamaat arguably arose as a revivalist response aimed at reforming Muslim practices according to Islamic texts, countering the efforts of Arya Samaj to attract Muslims and liberating them from syncretic traditions of other faiths.