SPIRITUAL WAYFARERS IN A SECULAR AGE: THE TABLIGHI JAMA’AT IN MODERN BRITAIN RIYAZ TIMOL
School of History, Archaeology and Religion Cardiff University Submitted in partial fulfilment of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2017
The copyright of this thesis rests with the author and no quotations, photographs or information derived from it may be published without written permission and proper acknowledgment.
PhD Thesis: Spiritual Wayfarers in a Secular Age
Abstract The Tablighi Jama'at (TJ) is widely regarded as the largest movement of grassroots Islamic revival in the world yet remains significantly under-researched. This thesis examines the British branch of the movement based on sustained ethnographic fieldwork conducted over 18 months. Intensive participant observation was combined with 59 semi-structured interviews to present a detailed typology and topography of the movement's organisational structure in Britain. Further, the issue of intergenerational transmission is explored – based on an analysis of the cultural identity markers of language, clothing and food – with clear shifts identified between the first-generation 'Old Guard' and the British-born 'Avant-Garde.' The thesis argues that TJ should best be characterised as a movement in transition located within broader processes of indigenisation operative within British Islam more generally. Theoretically, the thesis augments Berger and Luckmann's sociology of knowledge with insights derived from Bhaskar’s critical realism to propose the twin 'generative mechanisms' of secularity and spirituality from which empirically accessible social phenomena emerge. These are used to anatomise the process of 'intra-religious conversion' which emerges as a key motif of contemporary TJ experience. Turner's concept of liminality and Schutz's phenomenology of consciousness are further deployed to examine ritual and semantic dimensions of conversion that see the neophyte’s attachment to religion transition from a nominal to a passionate state. Generic theories in the sociology of religion are also consulted to explore issues of retention and post-conversion strategies of commitment-maintenance. Finally, utilising insights from Peter Berger’s vast oeuvre, the thesis explores the intersection of 'Islamic Revival' with secularisation theory in Europe. It argues that, in the context of contemporary ‘Eurosecularity,’ the willed and conscious exercise of agency in ways which publicly affirm faith is intrinsically imbued with a disconcerting ‘debunking’ potential for those who have unthinkingly imbibed into interior consciousness the taken-for-granted suppositions of a secular nomos.
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PhD Thesis: Spiritual Wayfarers in a Secular Age
Declarations STATEMENT 1 This work has not been submitted in substance for any other degree or award at this or any other university or place of learning, nor is being submitted concurrently in candidature for any degree or other award.
Signed ………………………………………… (candidate) Date …………………………
STATEMENT 2 This thesis is being submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of PhD
Signed ………………………………………… (candidate) Date …………………………
STATEMENT 3 This thesis is the result of my own independent work/investigation, except where otherwise stated. Other sources are acknowledged by explicit references. The views expressed are my own.
Signed ………………………………………… (candidate) Date …………………………
STATEMENT 4 I hereby give consent for my thesis, if accepted, to be available for photocopying and for interlibrary loans after expiry of a bar on access previously approved by the Academic Standards & Quality Committee.
Signed ………………………………………… (candidate) Date ………………………
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PhD Thesis: Spiritual Wayfarers in a Secular Age
Dedicated to the memory of my late father, Mohmedazam Ismail Timol (1932 – 2004), whose wise words and gentle counsel continue to illumine my path to this day.
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PhD Thesis: Spiritual Wayfarers in a Secular Age
Acknowledgements
َاس َ ََُّللاَ امنْ َلاَ اي ْش ُكرَُال هن ا لاَ اي ْش ُكر ه ا “He is not grateful to God, who does not thank people.” Hadith of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ (Sunan Abi Dawud 4811)
Any piece of work, not least a PhD, stretching over four years inevitably incurs a number of debts. Here I attempt to recount the most salient. My heartfelt gratitude goes to Mr Yousef Jameel for generously funding the scholarship that made possible the research upon which this PhD is based.1 Also thanks to Waltraud Rosner, Academic Program Director, for her administration of the programme, including the lively Summer School, and Sarah Price, Acting Director of Development & Alumni Relations at Cardiff University, for her unfailing sympathy, support and friendliness. Next, my greatest debt is to my primary supervisor Professor Sophie Gilliat-Ray whose gentle yet firm steering saw this PhD come to shore over four long years. Sophie is a model of incisive comment, indefatigable energy and meticulous professionalism – all qualities I hope to take with me on my journey through academia. Also thanks to my secondary supervisor, Mawlana Dr Mansur Ali, for his friendship, advice and hospitality; we enjoyed more than a few laughs (and good food) along the way! The Revd Canon Dr Andrew Todd, Director of the Cardiff Centre for Chaplaincy Studies, has also been unusually involved in the gestation of this thesis, acting as my internal reviewer throughout the four years and also stepping into the breach as my supervisor for several months toward the end. His unfailing commitment to always read my lengthy drafts, and provide very useful feedback, has been invaluable. In particular, the section on liminality in this thesis (Chapter 9), owes its provenance to thoughtful discussions with Andrew. Thanks also to staff and postgraduates at Cardiff University’s Centre for the Study of Islam in the UK, in particular Mark Bryant, for collegiality and general support - and to Yunus Ali for graciously allowing me to crash out on the floor of his studio flat during the first year and for proofreading sections of this thesis. Within the university, two more people deserve special thanks. Helen Szewczyk, in the Postgraduate Office, kept the administrative cogs turning smoothly throughout the four years with admirable efficiency. And Erica Swain – and, by extension, the entire team she heads up at the Arts and Social Sciences Library – was simply brilliant in schooling me in the vagaries of academic databases, helping me track down obscure resources and dealing with my foibles (towards the end) as a distance learner – all with a smile on her face. Thank you. I owe a huge debt of gratitude to all of my very many respondents who shared so generously of their time and intimate life experiences to help me try to grasp the meaning of their inner life-worlds. I was also the recipient of heart-warming hospitality on more than one occasion. In particular, I wish to thank SN for the lengthy and fascinating conversations I would enjoy after the daily Fajr prayer in 1
See: http://www.yj-academic.com/programs-scholarships/cardiff-university-uk v
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PhD Thesis: Spiritual Wayfarers in a Secular Age
early 2014 (which would usually make him late for work!) and FSD for providing feedback on Chapter 5. Thanks to Dr Zacharias Pieri for making his thesis available to me, despite the embargo that preceded the publication of his book, and to Dr Anabel Inge for her friendship, helpful discussions and for also sending her thesis to me. I’m also grateful to Dr Matthew Wilkinson for his early encouragement and for providing feedback on sections of Chapter 4. I wish also to thank Professor Grace Davie for the generous interest she showed in my work during The British Sociological Association’s Sociology of Religion (Socrel) 40th Anniversary Conference and, crucially, for facilitating an introduction with Professor Peter Berger. I am deeply grateful to Professor Berger who, despite his busy schedule and sad bereavement in 2015, has consistently and graciously continued an extended correspondence with me that I am privileged to enjoy to this day. As well as validating my interpretations of the way some of his ideas might be used to theorise the contemporary situation of Muslims in Europe, we have discussed an eclectic plethora of issues spanning the subtleties of Sufism, the possibility of developing an ‘anthropological theology’ of Islam, or the recent outrages of ISIS. In particular, I have been delighted when our discussions would, on occasion, lead to a blog article.2 In his intellectual autobiography, Professor Berger (2011, p.135) recounts how, during his formative years training as a sociologist, a bearded apparition of Max Weber continually hovered over him. Certainly in the latter half of my PhD, a bald-headed apparition of Professor Berger has frequently hovered over me and I have been delighted to be able to engage in meaningful communication without resorting to the services of a séance. Over the course of these four years, I have greatly benefitted from the opportunity to present my work at numerous conferences organised by the Muslims in Britain Research Network (MBRN), the British Association of Islamic Studies (BRAIS) and Socrel, all of whom I would like to thank – especially Dr Seán McLoughlin of MBRN who very kindly submitted an abstract on my behalf while I was conducting fieldwork in Bulgaria. I also wish to express my appreciation for the continual support and encouragement of the Muslim Council of Wales during my time in Cardiff, in particular Saleem Kidwai OBE. Outside of academia, I wish to express gratitude to Andrew Farrar OBE for being an inspirational manager and providing the opportunity for me to explore alternate horizons. And thanks also to Steven McLaughlin (author of Squaddie) for his friendship and encouraging me, all those years ago, to simply put finger to keyboard and start writing. Lastly, the laughter and squabbles of my three delightful children Yahya, Maariyah and Humayrah, deserve a special mention for helping keep me sane. And to my wonderful wife Munira, who kept everything ticking along smoothly while I gallivanted off from Bradford to Bulgaria, and many places in between, it is patently an understatement to say that this would never have been possible without you.
2
For instance, see: http://www.the-american-interest.com/2015/12/02/where-are-the-muslim-voices-againstislamist-terror/ vi
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SUMMARY TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 1 – Introduction
1
SECTION ONE: PRELIMINARY CONSIDERATIONS CHAPTER 2 – Literature Review: The Tablighi Jama’at in Modern Britain
13
CHAPTER 3 – Methodology: Walking the Ethnographic Tightrope
41
CHAPTER 4 – Laying the Theoretical Foundations
72
SECTION TWO: EMPIRICAL FINDINGS CHAPTER 5 – An Anatomy of British TJ
101
Chapters 6-7: Between the Old Guard and the Avant-Garde: TJ as a Movement in Transition CHAPTER 6 – Black Beards, White Beards and 40 Shades of Grey: Intergenerational Transmission in British TJ 138 CHAPTER 7 – Language, Clothing and Food as Markers of Avant-Garde Identity
164
SECTION THREE: THEORETICAL CONTRIBUTIONS Chapters 8-10: Desocialisation and Resocialisation: the Mechanics of Conversion and Commitment to TJ CHAPTER 8 – The Appeal of TJ in Contemporary Britain
203
CHAPTER 9 – Ritual and Phenomenological Approaches to Liminality
225
CHAPTER 10 – Da’wa and Istiqaamah: Strategies of Resocialisation and Commitment
253
CHAPTER 11 – The Giant’s Nervous Tic: Islamic Revival in Secular Europe
274
CHAPTER 12 – Conclusion
307
BIBLIOGRAPHY
323
APPENDICES
367
PhD Thesis: Spiritual Wayfarers in a Secular Age
DETAILED TABLE OF CONTENTS
Abstract ............................................................................................................................................ ii Declarations ..................................................................................................................................... iii Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................................... v Summary Table of Contents..............................................................................................................vii Detailed Table of Contents .............................................................................................................. viii
CHAPTER 1 – Introduction 1.1
An Ethnographic Vignette ...................................................................................................... 1
1.2
A Historical Sketch of TJ’s Origins ........................................................................................... 3
1.3
Organisation of Thesis: An Ethnography of TJ in Modern Britain............................................. 8
SECTION ONE: PRELIMINARY CONSIDERATIONS
CHAPTER 2 – Literature Review: The Tablighi Jama’at in Modern Britain 2.1
How has TJ been written about to date? .............................................................................. 14
2.1.1
Primary Sources ........................................................................................................... 14
2.1.2
Academic Sources ........................................................................................................ 15
2.2
A Chronological Overview of TJ in Britain ............................................................................. 19
2.2.1
A Historical Précis: The Early Days ................................................................................ 19
2.2.2
Coming Home to Roost: The Rise of Deobandi Institutions ........................................... 22
2.2.3
Cultural Apartheid and the Controversy of the Olympics ‘Mega-Mosque’ ..................... 25
2.2.4
TJ as the “ante-chamber of terrorism”? ........................................................................ 28
2.2.5
TJ on the Modern British Muslim Scene ........................................................................ 30
2.2.6
Interrogating Yoginder Sikand’s Study of TJ in Britain ................................................... 31
2.3
2.2.6.1
A summary of Sikand’s findings................................................................................ 31
2.2.6.2
Gauging subsequent developments within the UK ................................................... 33
2.2.6.3
A note on Sikand’s methodology and sources .......................................................... 34
2.2.6.4
Contextualising Sikand within subsequent international scholarship on TJ ............... 37
Conclusion ........................................................................................................................... 40
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CHAPTER 3 – Methodology: Walking the Ethnographic Tightrope 3.1
Pulling My Selves Together: Reflexivity and the Negotiation of Multiple Field Identities ....... 42
3.1.1
Mapping the terrain: the emergence of self in qualitative enquiry ............................... 42
3.1.2
Anthropology at home: from ‘there’ to ‘here’ .............................................................. 44
3.1.3
Inside out: methodological issues arising from indigenous research ............................ 46
3.2
Walking the Ethnographic Tightrope: an Indigenous Study of TJ in Modern Britain .............. 49
3.2.1
Negotiating access to the field ..................................................................................... 50
3.2.2
Seeing and being seen: the development of a field persona ......................................... 54
3.3
Methods of Data Collection and Analysis ............................................................................. 57
3.3.1 3.3.1.1
Issues of ethics and gender ...................................................................................... 57
3.3.1.2
Participant observation with the TJ .......................................................................... 58
3.3.1.3
Inscribing my experience: fieldnotes ........................................................................ 60
3.3.2 3.3.2.1 3.3.3 3.4
Participant observation ............................................................................................... 57
Ethnographic interviewing ........................................................................................... 62 Formal and informal interviews ............................................................................... 62 Data analysis ............................................................................................................... 68
Conclusion ........................................................................................................................... 71
CHAPTER 4 – Laying the Theoretical Foundations 4.1
Broad Theoretical Considerations ........................................................................................ 72
4.1.1 Social constructionism and critical realism: the dialectic of objective and subjective realities .................................................................................................................................... 72 4.1.2
Outlining the contours of my theoretical position ........................................................ 76
4.1.3 Between the sacred and the secular: the generative mechanisms of a critical realist ethnography ................................................................................................................................ 78 4.2
Processes of Primary and Secondary Socialisation ................................................................ 84
4.2.1
Primary socialisation and Muslim nurture .................................................................... 84
4.2.2
Secondary socialisation and the contemporary British collective conscience ............... 88
4.3
The Objectivation of TJ in Space and Time............................................................................ 96
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SECTION TWO: EMPIRICAL FINDINGS
CHAPTER 5 – An Anatomy of British TJ 5.1
A Topography of British TJ .................................................................................................. 102
5.1.1
Dewsbury as a central hub ........................................................................................ 102
5.1.2
TJ and the local mosques ........................................................................................... 106
5.1.3
The regional maraakiz: local, regional and national divisions of TJ .............................. 108
5.1.4
The functioning of a regional markaz ......................................................................... 112
5.1.5
On the interface of the local and global: TJ’s ‘glocal’ activism .................................... 115
5.2
A Typology of British TJ ...................................................................................................... 120
5.2.1
TIER 1- The National Shura and other Full-Timers ...................................................... 123
5.2.2
TIER 2 – Regional Shuras and Amirs ........................................................................... 124
5.2.3
TIER 3 – TJ activists (and an overview of the Five A’amals) ......................................... 125
5.2.4
TIER 4 – TJ sympathisers ............................................................................................ 130
5.2.4.1
Critical sympathisers .............................................................................................. 131
5.2.5
TIER 5 – The broader Muslim community of Britain: indifferent ................................. 132
5.2.6
TIER 6 – Active hostility toward TJ.............................................................................. 134
5.3
Conclusion ......................................................................................................................... 135
Chapters 6-7: Between the Old Guard and the Avant-Garde: TJ as a Movement in Transition
CHAPTER 6 – Black Beards, White Beards and 40 Shades of Grey: Intergenerational Transmission in British TJ 6.1
The Broader ‘Turn to Islam’ Among British-born Youth in the 1990s................................... 139
6.2
The Significance of the 1994 ‘World Ijtima’ ........................................................................ 141
6.3
An Analysis of my Interview Sample ................................................................................... 146
6.4
TJ and Secular Education: an Appraisal ............................................................................... 155
6.4.1
The influence of Sikand’s narrative ............................................................................ 155
6.4.2
TJ, secular education and the role of Rangooni .......................................................... 156
6.4.3
Conclusion: is TJ inimical to secular education? .......................................................... 158
6.5
Conclusion: Between the Old Guard and the Avant-Garde ................................................. 161
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CHAPTER 7 – Language, Clothing and Food as Markers of Avant-Garde Identity 7.1
Language: You Are What You Speak ................................................................................... 161
7.1.1
The gradual ascendancy of English in British TJ ........................................................... 166
7.1.2
TJ as a movement in transition ................................................................................... 169
7.2.3
The turn to Arabic among the Avant-Garde ................................................................ 171
7.2
Clothing: You Are What You Wear ...................................................................................... 175
7.2.1
The centrality of the beard and libaas to TJ identity ................................................... 175
7.2.2
Shifting attitudes among the Avant-Garde .................................................................. 177
7.3
Food: You Are What You Eat .............................................................................................. 182
7.3.1
Delineating a ‘sociology of the palate’ ........................................................................ 182
7.3.2
“The way to a man’s heart is through his stomach” .................................................... 185
7.3.3
From Islamophobia to ‘Islamophilia’… ........................................................................ 186
7.4
Conclusion ......................................................................................................................... 190
7.4.1
The essential fluidity of TJ identity .............................................................................. 190
7.4.2
The changing face of British TJ .................................................................................... 195
SECTION THREE: THEORETICAL CONTRIBUTIONS
Chapters 8-10: Desocialisation and Resocialisation: the Mechanics of Conversion and Commitment to TJ
CHAPTER 8 – The Appeal of TJ in Contemporary Britain 8.1
Intra-religious Conversion and the Tablighi Jama’at ........................................................... 203
8.2
Why Do People Join TJ in 21st Century Britain? ................................................................... 207
8.2.1
‘Push’ and ‘pull’ factors precipitating involvement ..................................................... 207
8.2.2
What is the appeal of TJ to British-born Muslim youth? .............................................. 212
8.3
8.2.2.1
A shift from passive consumers to active purveyors ............................................... 213
8.2.2.2
Collegiality and belonging ...................................................................................... 215
8.2.2.3
Certainty in a world of flux ..................................................................................... 219
Till Death Do Us Apart: TJ and the Process of Desocialisation ............................................. 221
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CHAPTER 9 – Ritual and Phenomenological Approaches to Liminality 9.1
Between Desocialisation and Resocialisation: Khuruj, Liminality and Communitas.............. 225
9.2
“All I wanted to do was start a fight in you”: The Internal Wrangling of TJ Consciousness ... 235
9.2.1
Hanzalah: the mask-wearing deviant ......................................................................... 237
9.2.2
Yahya: the open rebel ................................................................................................ 241
9.2.3
Umar: the reformed drug-dealer ............................................................................... 247
9.2.4
Conclusion: the reformulation of TJ selfhood ............................................................. 250
CHAPTER 10 – Da’wa and Istiqaamah: Strategies of Resocialisation and Commitment 10.1
Adhaan, Da’wa and the Machinery of Plausibility Structure Generation ............................. 253
10.2 “Istiqaamah – Weightier than a Thousand Miracles:” Mechanics of Reality-maintenance in an Uncomprehending World .............................................................................................................. 263 10.2.1 10.3
Issues of retention and attrition ................................................................................. 265
Conclusion ......................................................................................................................... 273
CHAPTER 11 – The Giant’s Nervous Tic: Islamic Revival in Secular Europe 11.1 “My Name is Legion”: The Intertwining of the Sacred and the Secular in Contemporary TJ consciousness................................................................................................................................ 275 11.1.1 “Neither-Mister-Nor-Mawlana” – TJ and the emergence of the English-speaking, seculareducated pious Muslim ............................................................................................................. 276 11.1.2 Different strokes for different folks: the epistemological versatility of Avant-Garde consciousness ............................................................................................................................ 280 11.1.3 11.2
Conclusion: the mélange of cultural and epistemological indigenisation ..................... 285
Islamic Revivalism and Europe’s Secular ‘Sacred Canopy’ .................................................. 287
11.2.1
Islamic Revival and secularisation theory .................................................................... 287
11.2.2
Theodicy and the weaving of a sacred canopy of secularity ........................................ 288
11.2.3
Debunking the debunkers: Islamic Revival in secular Europe ...................................... 293
11.2.3.1
Cognitive deviants and strategies of rehabilitation and nihilation ....................... 293
11.2.3.2
Structure, agency and the conflation of public and private spheres .................... 295
11.2.3.3
‘Precarious Piety’ and Europe’s ‘creaky floorboard’ ............................................ 299
11.2.3.4
Conclusion: clearing a mote in the sociological eye ............................................. 303
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CHAPTER 12 – Conclusion 12.1
Summary of Findings.......................................................................................................... 307
12.1.1
Empirical findings ....................................................................................................... 307
12.1.1.1 12.1.2 12.2
Limitations of this thesis ..................................................................................... 308
Theoretical contributions ........................................................................................... 309
The Future of British TJ ...................................................................................................... 310
12.2.1
Issues of leadership .................................................................................................... 310
12.2.2
TJ and British Muslim youth........................................................................................ 313
12.2.2.1 12.2.3 12.3
Secularisation as the handmaiden of indigenisation? .......................................... 315
Circumscribed by the 6 points: the limitations of TJ’s reform agenda.......................... 318
Final Reflections................................................................................................................. 320
BIBLIOGRAPHY .............................................................................................................................. 324
APPENDICES APPENDIX A: Glossary.................................................................................................................... 368 APPENDIX B: Fieldwork Documentation ......................................................................................... 374 B1 – Interview Information Sheet .............................................................................................. 375 B2 – Interview Consent Form ..................................................................................................... 377 B3 – Participant Observation Information Sheet ........................................................................ 378 B4 – Debriefing Sheet ................................................................................................................ 380 B5 – Interview Schedule ............................................................................................................ 381 B6 – List of Quotations............................................................................................................... 383 APPENDIX C: Addendum to Chapter 5 - ‘An Anatomy of British TJ’ ................................................. 385 C1 – A Profile of Masjid Ta-Ha.................................................................................................... 385 C2 – Female TJ Activism: the Masturat ...................................................................................... 387 C3 – 24 hours in ‘the Path of Allah’ ............................................................................................ 390 C4 – A Day of ‘Local Work’ at Masjid Ta-Ha ................................................................................ 398 APPENDIX D: Contemporary TJ Poems ........................................................................................... 402 D1 – Poem 1 .............................................................................................................................. 402 D2 – Poem 2 .............................................................................................................................. 404 APPENDIX E: Respondent Views on Secular Education ................................................................... 408 APPENDIX F: The adhaan in Islam .................................................................................................. 414 xiii
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Men with modern educations are content to sit at home, congratulating themselves on their broadmindedness and lack of fanaticism. As Nietzsche’s Zarathustra says of them, “For thus you speak: ‘Real are we entirely, and without belief or superstition.’ Thus you stick out your chests – but alas, they are hollow!” There are many people in contemporary democratic societies, particularly among the young, who are not content to merely congratulate themselves on their broadmindedness, but who would like to “live within a horizon.” That is, they want to choose a belief and commitment to “values” deeper than mere liberalism itself, such as those offered by traditional religions… Francis Fukuyama (1992), The End of History and the Last Man, p.307
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Chapter 1
Introduction 1.1
An Ethnographic Vignette
On the last weekend in March 2014, I spent two days out “in the path of Allah.” The phrase is a synonym for the time some Muslims spend out on tour with the Tablighi Jama’at (TJ). TJ is today widely regarded as the “largest living Islamic movement in the world” (Reetz 2008, pp.98-99) which, from humble beginnings, is now “said to be active in almost every country with a significant Sunni Muslim presence” (Sikand 2007, p.129).
It originated under colonial rule in 1920s British India
through the activities of a charismatic Sufi teacher called Mawlana Muhammad Ilyas Kandhalawi. After his death, his son Mawlana Muhammad Yusuf assumed leadership of the movement expanding its operations globally. TJ first took root in Britain as part of the post-WWII immigration drive and quickly succeeded in setting up a robust infrastructure predominantly among the South Asian diasporic community. It continues to exercise an influence in the lives of a considerable number of British Muslims today who are the subject of this doctoral thesis. As part of my fieldwork then, I joined a weekend TJ tour at the end of March 2014. This entailed staying in the mosque of a neighbouring town with a group of 10 other male Muslims and participating with them in their programme of activities. Our group was entirely British-born and quite young; the average age was 24 and seven members were students. Umar, a 36 year old builder originally from Bradford,3 joined us on the Saturday night for 24 hours; he had been unable to start out with us on the Friday evening due to work commitments. Soon after he arrived, our amir [group leader] conducted a late-night study circle with us in the main prayer hall situated on the ground floor of the mosque complex. The topic was death and he read aloud from the twelfth-century Muslim scholar Abu Hamid al-Ghazali’s graphic descriptions of the Muslim eschaton.4 After concluding around midnight, he encouraged us to offer our late-night supererogatory prayers [tahajjud] before retiring upstairs to our sleeping bags quickly in order to wake up on time for the dawn prayer [Fajr] at 6.10am. Most group members complied then slipped upstairs quietly, presumably to sleep, leaving me and Umar alone in the prayer hall. 3
Throughout this thesis, biographical details have been modified in non-essential ways to protect respondent anonymity. 4 The book he read from is part of the core TJ curriculum, Fadhail-e Sadaqat [Virtues of Charity], which cites copiously from al-Ghazali’s magnum opus Ihya Ulum al-Din [The Revival of the Religious Sciences]. Ghazali’s original volume has been translated into English by Winter (1989). In 8.3 I refer again to this incident in greater detail as part of my analysis of ‘death’ as a master signifier of TJ discourse. 1
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PhD Thesis: Spiritual Wayfarers in a Secular Age
A spontaneous informal interview ensued over the next two hours, which I frenetically jotted into my notebook.5 Umar, a British-born Pakistani with a chequered past, was evidently glad to have a sympathetic ear and poured out to me his struggles of attempting to live piously amid the exigencies of contemporary life. It became clear to me that he had only recently undergone an ‘intra-religious conversion’ experience; the beard on his face was less than a year old and his long-standing whiteEnglish girlfriend had converted to Islam just prior to that. Umar recounted to me in vivid detail the difficulties he had encountered when first beginning to offer his five daily prayers on time at work. Not only were all his colleagues in the builder’s yard non-Muslim but, during the short winter days, prayer times followed each other in quick succession: ”When I told my boss my Creator has rights over me, he just laughed: ‘What the hell are you on about your Creator has rights over you?! You’re free to do what you like, pal!’ I felt like nutting him. Some of them are OK - they listen and you can have a conversation, but that particular boss was an arsehole.”6 The mosque we were staying in was a small structure, an old converted parish church, situated adjacent to a number of shops, restaurants and bars. As we spoke, a bar close to the mosque began to empty of revellers and the sound of raucous shouts and laughter floated into the mosque. Immediately, the floorboards above the prayer hall began to creak noisily – evidently not everybody was asleep. Looking at the time, Umar suddenly remembered that the clocks had just jumped forward an hour due to British Summer Time: “It’s actually 3am now, not 2am!” Deciding to wind up our conversation we switched off the lights and both proceeded to offer our tahajjud prayers separately in the dark, the low hum of our Qur’anic recitations mixing eerily with the boisterous cries of the partygoers outside. I finished before Umar and visited the toilet before making my way upstairs; he met me on the stairs and we paused together for a moment to look out of the window on the landing. “I know that bar well,” Umar whispered to me so as not to disturb any sleeping members of the jama’at. “From those years I was away from Islam, I know loads of these places like the back of my hand.” Just then a smartly-dressed man from the opposite side of the road left the large group he had animatedly been chatting with and ambled across toward us; we watched with some bemusement as he unzipped his trousers and urinated casually on the mosque wall. I instinctively reached for the window to call out to him but was stopped by Umar’s gentle yet insistent hand: “There’s no point,” he said, “There’s absolutely no point in saying anything when he’s
5
I also conducted, at a later date, a formal, recorded interview with Umar and provide more biographical detail in 9.2.3. 6 Umar’s insistence in offering his prayers in the religiously neutral, functionally differentiated public sphere of his workplace may be cited as an instance of the “deprivatization” of religion noted by José Casanova (1994, p.5): “By deprivatization I mean the fact that religious traditions throughout the world are refusing to accept the marginal and privatized role which theories of modernity as well as theories of secularization had reserved for them.” See 10.1 and 11.2.3.2 for more on the conflation of the public and private spheres thus implicated. 2
Riyaz Timol
PhD Thesis: Spiritual Wayfarers in a Secular Age
drunk. Trust me, I know. I mean, he probably doesn’t even realise it’s a mosque anyway.” He paused for a moment reflectively then continued on in hushed tones: I lived that life, you know. For around 16 years. From say the age of 18 till 34, I was basically living the life of a kafir [disbeliever]. All I did was pray the kalima [Muslim profession of faith] when I woke up in the morning and on those nights when I wasn't drunk before sleeping. That was it - nothing else for Allah. I even left my Jumu’ah [Friday prayer]. But look at His mercy to me where He's now pulled me into His house and out in His path. I always knew deep down that Allah is there and I would have to do something for Him. But many of the people in this society don't have that concept anymore. They just laugh when I tell them…Even my family, they think just some namaz [daily prayers] is enough…I mean, for example, I'm trying to get my wife to wear a headscarf and she’s a convert, but when she sees my sisters she then says, well look at them, they don't cover their hair. Our parents’ religion is more cultural and they don't really get it when I say it's about giving everything for Allah, not just bits and bobs… He trailed off and we climbed the few remaining stairs to the room where the jama’at had laid out its sleeping bags on the carpeted floor. The bright glare of smartphone touchscreens emanated from the top-end of several indicating that some of the youngsters too were still awake, their excited whispers mingling with the snores of the older group members. The large fluorescent display of the digital wall clock informed me it was now 3.32am; I tiredly trundled over to my sleeping bag and within seconds was fast asleep - only to be awakened two hours later by the call of the muezzin, on the internal mosque microphone, summoning the faithful to the dawn prayer.
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A Historical Sketch of TJ’s Origins
I have selected the above ethnographic vignette to commence my thesis because it captures nicely several key themes of my study. Firstly, it gives an insight into my methodology and the deeply immersive quality of my fieldwork. Secondly, it conveys a key motif of my thesis: that of the ‘intrareligious conversion’ experience reported by a great majority of my respondents and hints at the forms of social and familial rupture this can involve. By intra-religious conversion I refer to a marked transition from a nominal form of taken-for-granted Islam to one of passionate devotion; in this it resembles what has been termed the ‘born again’ or ‘neo-orthodox’ phenomena. Lastly, the above vignette provides a rich description of the juxtaposing of the sacred and secular so central to the theoretical architecture of this thesis.
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Riyaz Timol