Muslim Youths on Tablīghī Journeys

Abstract

Approximately 69 percent of the world’s Muslims are to be found in Asia. The vast majority of these people live in South and Southeast Asia. With the “Asian turn” in processes of globalization and the Asian shift of global Islam, South Asian Islam is now more engaged with the wider world than ever before. Repetitive transnational missionary trips by laymen have become an Islamic ritual with an enormous growth rate in recent years. This practice involving spiritual transformation through itinerant preaching has a strong attraction for Muslim youths. In its modern form it was shaped in South Asia by agents of translocal Islamic missionary movements, such as the TabIīghī Jamā'at and more recently its Barelwī counterpart Da‘wat-e Islāmī. This paper describes the two organizations in detail and explains the pull they have on young Pakistanis today.