The fifth chapter examines how “Deobandi” tradition is mediated through scholarly and pedagogical networks in theory and practice. The first part of the chapter focuses on Qari Muhammad Tayyib, rector of the Dar al-`Ulum Deoband for half a century and the foremost theorist of Deobandi identity, arguing that mid-twentieth century Deobandis like Tayyib developed the concept of the maslak (“path” or “way”) as a means of lending ideological and affective coherence to a rapidly expanding global network. Tayyib theorized the maslak as a “middle path” between ideological extremes—as, for instance, between those who indulge in “excessive” Sufi devotions and those who dispense with Sufism altogether—and as an embodied discourse one learns to inhabit through the companionship of those who already do. The second part of the chapter, shifting from theory to practice, traces the rise of the Tablighi Jama`at, a Deobandi revivalist movement that sought to make individual Muslims mobile “embodiments” of the seminary and the Sufi lodge, effectively translating Thanvi’s project of public reform into an actual program, one explicitly based on internalizing the teachings of Ashraf `Ali Thanvi’s Urdu primers for lay Muslims, on shunning public debate of controversial legal issues, and on the replication of a set of reformed affects in others—hence the Tablighi Jama`at’s role, by mid-century, in propelling Deobandi tradition across the globe.
Theory and Practice
