Thursday, April 9, 2020

Description for video titled - COVID-19: Mere Tableeghi aur Ghair-tableeghi Bhaiyon se ek Aajizana Guzarish - BUZURG BACHAO



For the last few days, Tableeghi Jamaat / Tablighi Jamat (TJ) has a lot been in focus.  Of course, anyone who has seen this video, or knows me, knows what my stand is, about them.  However, for a new person, I am writing down my take on the Markaz-COVID controversy, because I am sure everyone will first want to know whether my take is similar to theirs, before they bother reading / listening to me.  So here it is:

-          Maulana Saad personally, TJ as an organization and Muslims as a community made a big blunder by not cooperating swiftly with the Govt. orders.  All three have been making a bigger blunder, for decades, by pushing Muslims into Dark Ages and making sure that everyone, including a huge chunk of Muslims, start hating Muslims and Islam.
-          Certain people and groups are making an even bigger blunder by using this crisis as an opportunity to drum up hatred against Muslims in general.  This will hurt not just Muslims, but also Hindus and Bharat in so many ways and so deeply that they cannot even imagine. 
-          I personally am sick and tired with this stupid sectarianism which is not only going to hurt the haters & the hated, but is also going to make us lose a lot more in this war against SARS-CoV-2.

Having said this, I need to also place here, my understanding of TJ in general.  There are some corrections, extensions, expansions, clarifications that are needed, for this video.  I will also put them here.  Further, I would also put in my general understanding about what ails Muslims today, as in, why Muslims are so backward, despite having ruled over a large chunk of the world till recently, historically speaking.  I shall also excerpt from an article written by Mr. Asif Ibrahim, ex-Director, IB.  I am not editing this properly since I do not have enough time.  Apologies in advance for mistakes.

General Aspects of Tableeghi Jamaat’s Work:

One aspect of TJ’s work is promoting piety: Prayer, Cleanliness, Respect for Elders etc.  A part of that effort is also to keep Muslims away from social ills like drinking, gambling etc.  One may look at these as desirable.

TJ is also not involved in political activities, and does not support violence.  These can also be seen as positive aspects of their work.

The other aspect of it is its focus on and a strong belief that the only valid way of living a life is the one espoused / lived by Prophet Muhammad SAW between 607 and 632 CE, in the region of Hejaz.  That, to say the least is highly problematic:
1.       Challenges presented by any specific region for human habitation is different from any other.  To non-adaptively import the way suitable in one to another is not very intelligent.
2.       Every time / era presents its own unique challenges and to expect all challenges will be the best addressed in the same way is also similarly not very intelligent.
3.       Different cultures are probably as valid as any other cultures.  To find only one to be the only valid one is again rather disingenuous.
4.       To reduce all human experience to that experienced by one human individual from one culture living in one region in one time window lesser than a quarter century, no matter how sensible in those circumstances, is being really foolish.
5.       For anything further, they tend to identify a particular cultural context, perhaps specific to the Indian Muslim social mores of the time TJ was founded, as the only valid way of living for a Muslim person.  This again results in their foisting a certain way of dressing, talking, naming, praying, befriending, respecting, looking at the world which are very harmful for Indian Muslims.  I would go so far as to say that TJ perhaps is the greatest enemy of Muslims.
6.       For instance, they promote isolationism.  Everything is Islamic or unislamic in their dictionary.  This results in Muslims trying to distinguish themselves from whichever milieu they live in, making them distant, and seem problematic to the other members of the social ecosystem.  This is a vicious circle that they have put Muslims in, resulting in a great loss to Muslims in every way possible.
7.       TJ’s focus is on what they consider the rights of Allah.  They have very little focus on the rights of other humans within the social ecosystem.  This results in TJ followers specifically and Muslims generally, not being as productive members for the general society as they could be.
8.       TJ people specifically and Muslims generally believe that they have the only valid system of living available with them, and that all others are mistaken in living the way that they do.
9.       Since what the TJ specifically and Muslims generally believe and follow are things that are imported from another time and another place, these are not amenable to modern living.  Muslims fall farther and farther behind the society generally, and become a drag on it.
10.   Muslims are unable and unwilling to accept that the real reason behind the backwardness in Muslims generally and TJ members specifically is these, their beliefs.  Instead, they blame all the other more successful groups and believe that these other groups are scheming against them and keeping them backward.  That is from where stem the beliefs and statements of people like Maulana Saad that anything that they are not allowed to do is a conspiracy against Muslims.
11.   A small example is that TJ people, especially when traveling, tend to offer namaz in such a way that it becomes bothersome to other travellers.  To these people, their right to pray as they must, trumps all others’ rights, since in their lexicon the others are wrong anyway.  This same attitude resulted in Maulana Saad and TJ hurting our war against SARS-CoV-2 in a big way. 
12.   Among the other effects of TJ brand of ‘reform’, Muslims tend to withdraw from even their neighbours, who in the original teachings of Islam are very important.  TJ’s Islam is imprecise, improbably and impossible.  It makes Muslims a burden, pests or parasites to the society.  The TJ mindset, present in Muslims for the last 800 years, resulted in Muslims having made no important scientific discoveries or inventions.  Although before Ijtehad was ruled undesirable and unislamic, Muslims did make great contributions to Chemistry, Optics, Astronomy, Mathematics, Medicine and other fields. 
13.   Opposing TJ’s stupid beliefs is seen as Islamophobic and anti-Muslim, which to the eyes of any decent human being is simple human decency.  Some of the TJ beliefs and actions are so scintillatingly stupid that it is difficult to believe that they actually do do that.  For example, for them, performing ablutions before prayers in a particular way trumps any other norms of society.  Since, during ablutions, one’s feet should not be in a dirty place, many TJ folks tend to put their feet inside the wash-basin and wash them there.  Not only is it risky for the person doing it, it is also extremely nauseating to any observers who may have to use that wash basin after these people.  However, opposing even these obvious minor mores resulting in these minor anti-social activities is seen as curtailing the rights of Muslims.
14.   All these things result in young minds believing that (a) Islam offers the only valid way of living, (b) Currently accepted interpretation of Islam is the only valid interpretation of Islam, and (c) TJ Islam is the only valid Islam.
15.   All these three counter-factual beliefs in young minds result in them falling farther and farther away from the mainstream society wherever these people live. 
16.   TJ is only the latest nail in the coffin of Muslim sensibility.  If you look at Muslims historically, during the times prior to Al-Ghazali (died 1111 CE), who won the race for interpreting Islam decisively (circa 1200 CE), you find that Muslims / Arabs / Persians were living in effectively secular Islamic dispensations, and doing a lot of Scientific, Mathematical, Philosophic and Rational work.  Post Ghazali win, Muslims have done well in architecture, literature and even in some limited technological areas, however, nothing fundamental about reality has been discovered or developed by Muslims since.
17.   Till the time Al Ghazali’s writing decisively won the Islam-interpretational battle for the Muqallids (Blind Followers), the Muftis (Interpreters of Islam) were required to be Mujtahids (Enlightened Reasoners).  A specific movement promoting the Mujtahids / Ijtehad was Mu’tazila.  Al Ghazali was an enemy of Mu’tazilites.  Mu’tazilites believed that good and evil are not always determined by revealed scripture or interpretation of scripture, but they are rational categories that could be "established through unaided reason"; because knowledge is derived from reason; and reason, alongside scripture, was the "final arbiter" in distinguishing right from wrong.  This part alone made them the enemy of those who followed the Hadith and Tafsirs.  These latter were supported by Al Ghazali for reasons that had to do with more than just the dichotomy between Reasoning / Following.  But the result was that, never again did Muslims ever believe that reason has a part to play in the understanding of Islam.  No wonder, Muslims are always the followers (of what they are told is ancient Islam) and extremely rarely, the reasoners.  Unfortunately for Muslims, the world can only run on reason, not on blind followership.  Thanks, Al Ghazali from making our lives miserable. 
18.   Most supporters of Al Ghazali do not see this connection.  For that we need to go on a little more of a detour. 
19.   The Nizamiyyah were a group of the medieval institutions of higher education established in the 11th century by Khwaja Nizam al-Mulk (Abu Ali Hasan ibn Ali Tusi, a Persian scholar and vizier of the Seljuk Empire).  The name Nizamiyyah, as well as the Dars-e-Nizami, the syllabus still followed in Islamic seminaries in India / South Asia, derive from his name. Founded at the beginning of the Seljuk Empire, these Sunni Islam theological schools are considered to be the model of later madrasahs, or Islamic religious schools, including Darul Uloom, Deoband, from which the founder of TJ completed his studies.  The most famous and celebrated of all the nizamiyyah schools was Al-Nizamiyya of Baghdad (established 1065), where Khwaja Nizam al-Mulk appointed Al Ghazali as a professor.
20.   Al Ghazali redefined the Mufti in Islamic realms, from a mujtahid to a muqallid.  He also defined the limits within which the Nizamiyyahs were to accept Greek foundational philosophies, the parent of all Scientific and Mathematical and thus, Technical, Military, Economic, Political and Cultural success today.
21.   Mu’tazili philosophers highly valued Aristotle’s Organon.  The works of Al Ghazali and other Persian Muslim logicians often criticized and limited the acceptance of Aristotelianism.  The use of Aristotelian logic in Islamic theology had already begun to decline from the 10th century, with the rise of Ash’ari theology to the intellectual mainstream.  Ash’ari’s rejected Causal Reasoning in favour of clerical authority.  Al Ghazali, supporting Ash’aris ensured the rejection of Causal Reasoning and Aristotle, widely considered the father of Science.
22.   From Ash’aris, through Al-Ghazali, Nizamiyyahs, Darul Ulooms, TJ and Maulana Saad, we stand today at the cross roads where a number of Muslims have been brought up on a generous daily dose of anti-Science diet.  We are insistently told daily to specifically ignore the principle of Causality and stick to blind followership of whatever, men with no moustaches and large flowing beards think of early Islam, and thus the orders of the Almighty Lord and owner of all realms.
23.   This counter-factual belief system then is the basis of all backwardness in Muslims.
24.   How can it be corrected?  Who can correct it?  These questions have answers that I have no ability to find and/or communicate.  However, all I can do is encourage all educated Muslims, especially the youth to do the following:
a.       Try living through reason and evidence and not through received dogma.
b.      Respectfully, but firmly oppose the elders / peers who promote dogma.
c.       Help explain life in terms of causal, scientific, rational and evidential truths to youngsters.
d.      Understand that there is no evidence that any religious model of reality (most definitely including Islam) correctly understands it.
e.      Understand that the current interpretation of Islam is not the only possible valid interpretation of Islam.
f.        Understand that TJ Islam is not the only Islam, let alone, the only possible explanation of reality, or even, the only Islam.
g.       Do not defend the indefensible acts of religious zealots & TJ generally and of Maulana Saad specifically.
h.      Cooperate, work with and live as the mainstream.
i.         Do understand that any violence or stupidities done by any Muslim will reflect upon you.  You will be expected (reasonably or unreasonably) to accept the responsibility for the same.  If you ask me, it is indeed the responsibility of all Muslims (TJ, or otherwise; Practising, or otherwise; Believing, or otherwise) to reign-in the stupid elements within our community.  Why is it reasonable to say this?  Because when we support the fight for the rights of other Muslims, in and as Muslims; when we say that injustice with one Muslim is injustice with all Muslims, then we cannot say that wrongdoings of one / some Muslims is not our responsibility.  What have we done to curb them?  Who will curb them?  If non-Muslims try, they are labelled as anti-Muslim Islamophobes.  WE have created this no-win situation for ourselves, by not opposing elements like the TJ amongst us.
j.        This crisis created by Maulana Saad and TJ will blow over.  Everything generally does.  But this is a grand wakeup call for all persons with Muslim names.  Either give up everything Muslim, which might even mean giving up your family, and even a part of your very self, or make sure that Muslims integrate with mainstream, and all those who wish to take you 1400 years, or even 100 years back are thoroughly discredited by us Muslims.  Remember, no one else can do it, even if they want it, without a tremendous amount of bloodshed.  We, ourselves, MUST kill the cancer of this unreasonable,  irrational, isolationist mentality that TJ / Salafis / Muqallids / Modern-day Asharis promote.  Else, start writing our own obituary.

Current Markaz-COVID-19 Controversy:

A lot of Muslims feel hurt at the blatantly communal coverage of the blunder, by the Godi media.  While there is merit in the accusation that most of the mainstream media is doing everything they can do to drum up hatred against Muslims in general, Muslims also need to look at some of the facts of the matter.  I would like to ask a few questions of all the Muslims who are feeling hurt in this matter:
-          If we choose to always deny our responsibility, then what else can we expect?  When has any Muslim person ever accepted any responsibility for Islamic terrorism?
-          Why did the NSA have to visit Maulana Saad (MS) before he agreed for clean up?  Did no one in TJ ever advise MS to start worrying about the pandemic, especially when TJ has presence in so many countries?
-          Why did MS insist that the health advisory to close places of worship was a conspiracy against Muslims/Islam?
-          Why we insist on living in this country, and insist on changing its ways, despite having asked for, being given and having accepted our own country in 1947? 
-          And if this country has such a large heart to accept us, why does it not occur to us that the Hindus are actually BETTER than us? 
-          And that Hinduism as a social system is BETTER than our system? 
-          Do any of the Muslim countries that Indian Muslims spend their working lives in, even allow them permanent residence, let alone citizenship?
-          When are we ever going to act like good humans instead of 'bad' Muslims?
-          Does any Muslim ever have balls to oppose these ulema when they stand up and curse science and scientists and some even have the temerity to ask us to not make Hindu friends?
-          Why do we always expect others to be fair to us, without ever being fair to others?
-          And how many questions do you want me to ask you before you think that we actually need to take SOME responsibility?
-          So, while the many Hindus do definitely spread hate against Muslims, do we ever think about what we actually deserve?  I, being born in a Muslim family, living in a Muslim family, in a Muslim ghetto of my town, am thoroughly fed up with Muslims.  We are pests.  We never contribute, but always keep asking for more.  Why should they not be fed up?  What do we ever do in order to gain the love and the confidence of our Hindu brothers and sisters?
-          And what do we do when we are in the majority?  Do I need to talk about the cruelty of Muslims in Pakistan?  Of Pakistan’s cruelty on East Pakistan Hindus and Muslims?  About the terrorist murders in Bangladesh?  Of ISIS?  Of Boko Haram?
-          And who do you have the power to correct, yourself or others?  Will you clean your own bedroom first, or be bothered about how I keep my bedroom?  Which one do you have the power to clean up? 
-          Why don't Muslims ever focus on improving Muslims, as human beings, not some idea of what we should have been 1400 years back?
-          Why do we keep asking Hindus to become better, when even communal Hindus are actually better and fairer than average Muslims anywhere in the world? 
-          I suggest that educated Muslims take lead in figuring out how we can make ourselves better humans.  Do not leave that job to be done by MS, TJ or other assorted ulema.  It is OUR job.  EACH ONE of us is responsible for becoming better humans.  Become that.  And then I promise you that my country and my fellow Indians will not subject you to seeing such kind of reportage as you are seeing today.  My Indians have the largest heart in the whole world.  Just give them a chance to keep you in it!
-          As for the Markaz-COVID blunder, ALL ANYONE NEEDS TO DO IS TO HONESTLY ACCEPT THEIR MISTAKES... and do their very best to never repeat the same mistakes.
-          Maulana Saad, my Tableeghi brothers and sisters... ARE YOU LISTENING? Please stop being childish. Please understand that we have no options but to follow Govt instructions, AS THEY (will have to) CHANGE from time to time.
-          Please stop opposing Govt instructions. Please stop opposing scientific advice. Please start learning Sciences and Mathematics. Please stop trying to go back 1400 years.
-          Please know that we are all one:  ALL HUMANS, not just Indians, not just Muslims, not just Sunnis, not just Deobandis, not just Tableeghis.
-          Please know that the virus does not and CANNOT distinguish between Hindus and Muslims; Mosque-goers, Temple-goers, Church-goers and Inside-own-soul-goers.
-          Your stupidity will kill not just you, but your beloveds too. And the rest of us too.
-          I know I will die one day. But I would like to die for a reason better than merely your bullheadedness.
-          See for you, your 'steadfastness' in your belief is a good enough reason for you to die for.  For me it is definitely now.  For that reason, for you, I am stupid.  But what you must realize that your sentiment is fully requited by me.
-          And, also, just by the way, I do not give you the right to murder me. And no one else does that either. Not even your own family members.
-          Unfortunately, your pretensions to knowing Islam notwithstanding, Islam does not give you, EVEN, the right to kill yourself. Your life belongs to Allah. And exposing yourself to the virus will result in your going to hell.
-          Tableeghi brothers and sisters, know that following the likes of Maulana Saad will get you also shunted to Jahannum.  Wanna go there? Be my guest. Just don't drag the rest of us there.
-          Instead, Be safe. Be happy.

To my Muslim hating brothers and sisters, I would like to say this:
-          Hatred always eventually hurts the hater too.  Please do not hurt yourself.
-          Please understand that similarities are more important in winning a war than differences; togetherness is more important than one-upmanship.
-          By pillorying Muslims in general you are actually doing something very much against the principles of Hinduism.
-          Any improvement always comes when the insides change.  Work with the Muslims that are trying to change the Muslims for the better.  Because any other option will result in worse outcomes.
-          Read history.  All pandemics are spread the most by different kinds of religious activities.  This is not the time to start counting how the adherents of which religion hurt which war against which pandemic.
-          Love.  Not hate.

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CORRECTIONS:

There could be several mistakes in the video, as well as in the writeup here.  I request you to look at the big picture instead of getting lost in minutiae.  I also request you to not resort to whataboutery (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whataboutism) when you are reading this / listening to this.  That others may make the same or worse mistakes does not let us off the hook.  As I used to be told when I was a kid: if the other person jumps in a well, will you also do that?
-          5:09 – “Ulema” should be “Ulema and Leaders”.  Ulema = Religious scholars
-          6:25 – Satish
-          6:38 – My nephew
-          6:54 – Hotel is mentioned for generalization purposes
-          9:38 – Dahariya = a worldly person
-          13:07 – Munafiqoon: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Munafiq

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Excerpts from “Tabligh, Religion, and Corona”
Mr. Asif Ibrahim IPS, former Director of the Intelligence Bureau.

“Tabligh men organised a congregation of 250,000 participants near Lahore in Pakistan on March 11, despite the request of the Pak authorities to postpone or cancel it. And they gifted the perils of Corona virus, and deaths to whole of the Muslim world from Gaza to Malaysia. They have orchestrated a similar affliction in India, and brought death and gore to many families across the country.
“The arrogance comes to the Tabligh men from the belief that they are doing God’s work, and God is their refuge.  Care and caution, the advice of the medical practitioner, a directive of the government-- go to hell.”
“Today, in the age of Covid-19, the saving grace for us is science, medicine, and information. We know how the virus spreads, and how to fight it.  But Tabligh people are redoing the Catholic Church of medieval Europe. They believe that Corona virus is a curse of God let loose on the sinful humans to teach them a lesson; and a solution to this problem is religious rites, prayers, and visit to a mosque.  The punishment has descended from God on people for being too much with the world, and for absenting from the mosques/temples. The answer to this threat is not closing the gates of mosque/church, but opening them to allow people bow before the altar of God.” 
“The problem of Tabligh Jamaat is not only a lack of knowledge about the modern world and how it works, but also of religion, which it champions. The illiterate clerics feed the common Muslims that Corona virus is a conspiracy to damage the religious traditions of the Muslims. Mosques are ‘deserted’ because Muslims have no love for or fear of God, and they are mandated to ‘populate’ it.   Though many Muslims associate themselves in India with the activities of the Tablighis, which is a puritanical movement, and seeks to drag the Muslims 1400 years back, most of the Muslims are very critical of it, and oppose it tooth and nail. They call it ‘Taklifi Jamaat’, as, according to them, it maximises difficulties of its followers and of the Muslims. They see it as an enemy of the Muslims, since it persuades the Muslims to  renounce the world, and take to prayers and propagation of the puritanical form of religion as a full-time activity.
“The Tablighis move in cities, towns, and villages, and stay in the mosques, and engage with the Muslims of the locality. They tell the young minds to distance themselves from the world, education, career, and wallow in the opium of religion. Many Muslims believe the Tablighis indulge in what the worst enemy of the Muslims would dream to do. They emaciate the community, preaching them to shun academics, politics, business, and so on, as they are irrelevant in the eyes of God.  They tell the followers what the Bible says: See the birds in the air. They sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns. Yet God feeds them. Are you not much better than them?   Inference of this is: there is no need to open your shop, earn money, plough field. Allah would take care of everything, even of the children they give birth to.
“They inform the participants about what happens after death, in the grave, and thereafter, and how to prepare for that. This worldly life is too insignificant to bother about. Once one becomes Tablighi, nothing interests him, except religions and its precepts.”
“The irony is that when the grand mosque Kaba in Mecca (was) closed, Tablighis (were) ‘propagating’ the ‘correct’ form of Islam going door to door among the Muslims during a pandemic.  The touchstone of religion is belief, the strength of science is doubt. Science questions and doubts everything it arrives at. By this method, it evolved, discovered secrets of nature and gave humans solutions to problems like plague, measles, small-pox, etc. But, if you doubt a religious precept, or the Zeus himself, you are a friend of Satan. Older the percept, and the temple, the closer you are to God, and his mercy. 
“Yuval (Noah) Harari, writer of the celebrated book ‘Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind’, says ‘When a thousand people believe some made-up story for a month–that is fake news. When a billion people believe it for a thousand years–that is a religion, and we are admonished not to call it fake news in order not to hurt the feelings of the faithful.’ Interestingly, most communities moved away with time. They threw religious directives, and scriptures out of their window. Muslims are the only community on the earth shouldering the burden of religion in its (purported) pure form, and not surprisingly, they are the most backward people on the earth.”


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Final Request:

Please help the Nation fight this war with SARS-CoV-2.  You will find many aspects of this war distasteful.  A lot of people will make a lot of mistakes.  Many will unethically use this crisis to line their own wallets and consolidate their power.  But please understand that for the virus we are all one.  Therefore we will have to be all one.  Please work under the Govt. leadership that we have, with your best efforts.  Please do not lose yourself in the TJ messages about the right clothes and events and social behavior.  Please do not worry about praying in the mosques.  What we need now is the right scientific response to the attack of the virus.  Give that.

We have a strongman for a Prime Minister who carries the people’s imagination.  This is precisely what we need in order to address this crisis effectively.  Though I am sure many mistakes will be made.  But decide who you are – a human or a SARS-CoV-2?  Be with the human team.

The world will be very different on the other side of this crisis.  Many old ways will become invalid.  Many new ways invented.  If you are still desiring to return to the world 1400 years back, you will make us all lose.  Worse, Maulana Saad has hurt the cause of Indian Muslims more than anyone has ever done.  Let him get his just desserts.  Worry about the rest of the humanity. 
And keep your chin up.  We will win.





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