As the city readies itself to host tens of lakhs of participants for the annual Bhopal Ijtema, it is important to understand what this religious conclave is all about.
Functioning in proximity of Hanafi-Deobandi school of Islam, Tablighi Jamaat, the Ijtema organiser, is a large band of volunteers who have dedicated their lives to bringing the faltering back to the fold of Islam.
Founded by Maulana Ilyas Kandhalvi in 1926, the Tablighi Jamaat has experienced exponential growth in the last four decades. Today, the Tabligh functioning is divided into Halqas or circles, which exhort fellow Muslims to choose the path described in Islamic texts to reform their lives, and the lives of those they come into contact with.
Community contact is the cornerstone of Jamaat work. Congregants visit homes in the neighbourhood and motivate people to be mindful of the five basic tenets of their religion, as well as their responsibility to carry the message forward.
The prominence of a Halqa depends on the number of Jamaats—groups of individuals—it sends out to neighbouring Halqas to strengthen Jamaat work over there. These weekly three day expeditions are referred to as Teen Din.
Devout followers undertake at least one such journey every month and follow it up with a Chilla, a 40-day journey each year. They also vow to undertake at least one Char Mahine—a four-month journey—in their lifetime.
These journeys are exclusively funded by the individual, and no external funding is ever provided to anyone to undertake these expeditions, which attempt to replicate this model at their destinations.
A weekly Ijtema of the various Halqas in Bhopal is held at the historical Jama Masjid every Thursday, where Jamaat elders, referred to as Akabireen, exhort them to follow the path of righteousness. The Bhopal Ijtema is a global-level congregation working on the same model. Several Jamaats hosted at the Intkhedi Ijtema venue will comprise those concluding their Chilla and Char Mahine visits with the Dua on December 2.
People come from all over the world to listen to sermons that they believe will help them carry their work forward and serve their neighbourhoods and communities by establishing dialogue with those who may be stepping across lines of propriety described in religious texts.
