Psychology of a Tablighi

The tableeghis preach cleanliness but do we often see them cleaning their own dirty streets. They preach acquisition of knowledge, yet do we often witness tableeghis coaching science and mathematics to underprivileged children from their area

Mohammad Siddiq, 45, has a small vegetable shop in Gawalmandi. He has a son and four daughters. His son, the youngest in his family works at an auto repair shop. Two of his daughters left school before completing high school. His wife Sughra suffers from hypertension and is a chronic diabetic. She also has migraine and an enlarged heart. She spends most of her time on bed and two of her older daughters look after the household. Two of Siddiq’s younger daughters study at a nearby school. Siddiq and his son are the two earning members of the family and are barely able to meet the daily expenses of the family.

Imran Rasheed, 22, is a post graduate student of geology at the Punjab University. He belongs to a middle class family of Samanabad. He used to be a very lively and happy-go-lucky fellow until he met Hafiz Alam through a common acquaintance. A couple of encounters with Hafiz Saab completely transformed him. Now he has a beard, goes to the mosque five times a day, and has almost no social life. Ever since, he has adopted a serious demeanor and has completely lost interest in music and literature; the two things which greatly appealed to him.

Mohammad Afzal Khan is a senior bureaucrat and heads a Customs Collectorate. Although he enjoys the reputation of being an honest officer, however he is least interested in the official business. He has delegated all his powers to his subordinates and spends most of his time in the company of a few like-minded officials, on telephone, and in reading various books on Islam. He has already been superseded and lives with his wife and two sons.

Despite all their differences, all three of the aforementioned characters regularly meet each other at a weekly get-together called shab-e-juma on Thursday evening at Zikria mosque. A variety of activities like talqeen, tashkeel, zikr etc, continue till Friday morning. A sehroza takes place once a month; wherein for three days and three nights they go out in a group of 10-12 for tableegh. They have also been on a prescribed 120 day tableeghi visit all over the country. Twice have they been to a 40-day chilla where they visited some other areas of the country.

On completion of inland assignments, they now fully qualify to go for an international tour for tableegh. Once a year, a 3-day ijtamah takes place at Raiwind, where reportedly, more than two million adherents of the Tableeghi Jamaat congregate.

All those participating in the ijtamah also share one common factor; a subjective reality. Is this the same which corresponds with the objective reality?

To simplify, seeing the world as it is refers to objective reality whereas seeing the world as we are is attributed to subjective reality. We generally perceive the external world through a combination of both, however, the higher the correspondence between our subjective and the objective reality the better we are in a position to cope up and deal with the challenges and experiences of life.

We perceive reality, both objective and subjective through consciousness; the supreme achievement of human evolution and the basic tool for survival. It is through consciousness that we get awareness about and adjust to our surrounding environment. As our consciousness has the ability to manage itself, we can seek consciousness, ignore or actively avoid it.

Life is hard and causes some degree of pain, discomfort or boredom. And as humans it is not always possible to look at the objective reality in the face. So every day, for a few minutes to a few hours we do escape into a subjective world of our own. We often find it comforting to listen to music, read a book, reminisce about our childhood, or even take a holiday away from routine life and its related problems.

However, as we handle only one reality at a time by escaping to a subjective world of our own, we conveniently forget about the objective one which we are trying to avoid. This respite is a temporary illusion and sooner or later we have to return to it, as it is only by accepting the objective reality whether good or bad and without ignoring or denying it, that we lead a more conscious and successful life.

Nonetheless when the subjective reality comes to dominate and affects every aspect of human life, the consequence is not normal but abnormal behavior.

Abnormal behavior is being away from the statistical norms, it is a deviation from the social norms, it is maladaptive, and may also cause personal distress to the individual as it takes over the person’s whole life.

Not all but a majority of tableeghis exhibit behavior which does not fall in the normal category.

When a person leaves his ailing wife and dependent family members behind, to preach others to look after their families, or loses interest in all other social and creative activities in life and preaches that deen and duniya are inseparable or overindulges in an activity at the cost of his professional obligations and preaches halal ki kamai; and his lifestyle is completely overshadowed by one obsession, as in the case of the three examples quoted earlier, we are in no way referring to normal human behavior.

As these individuals slip deeper into an inner circle, they begin to feel more and more inadequate while being in outer social contexts. Hence, the feelings of inadequacy further increase their desire to stay away from a normal social setting. Consequently, these people escape to a degree where escapism becomes highly addictive and has serious repercussions for their real life.

The majority of tableeghis live in an alternate reality which becomes preferable and replaces the objective reality. They lose contact with friends, neglect their children and their professional working suffers.

When a person has awareness that his behavior is negatively affecting his normal life, he can be treated. However, when there is no consciousness and any attempt to suggest that a problem exists is perceived as mala-fide, the prognosis remains extremely poor.

The tableeghis preach cleanliness but do we often see them cleaning their own dirty streets. They preach acquisition of knowledge, yet do we often witness tableeghis coaching science and mathematics to underprivileged children from their area. Or is it all about sermons and following rituals which assume the form of an addiction through which the objective reality can be avoided.

And finally as long as there is no consonance between our attitudes and our behavior or what we say and what we do, we cannot influence anybody.

A Bangla folk tale:

A boatman kept paddling his boat all night yet forgot to untie the rope.