Split in 94 year old Tablighi Jamaat outfit have helped save many lives

Hyderabad: A split in the Tablighi Jamaat, a couple of years ago, might be the reason that it have saved many lives as more people would have thronged the organization’s Delhi headquarters, which has emerged as the country’s biggest coronavirus vector.

The 94-year-old outfit suffered a vertical split globally, and those opposed to the organization’s current chief Maulana Muhammad Saad Kandhalvi’s policies parted ways. Had there been no split, the number of visitors to Nizamuddin Markaz, the organization’s headquarters, would have been much more, a Tablighi Jamaat member told IANS. “It would have been a packed house. Thousands more would have visited the Markaz and there could have been more fatalities or positive cases,” he said.

Nearly a third of over 5,000 Covid-19 cases in the country are linked to the Tablighi Jamaat congregation at Nizamuddin Markaz on March 13-15. The differences in Tablighi Jamaat had cropped up two years ago when Maulana Saad dissolved ‘Shura’, the highest decision-making council. This body that followed a consultative mechanism had existed since Jamaat’s formation in 1926.

Moulana Saad, great grandson of Jamaat’s founder Moulana Muhammad Ilyas Kandhalvi, scrapped ‘Shura’ whose many members had grown old. “Till then Jamaat took all major decisions with ‘mashvera’ (consultation). As Maulana Saad started taking decisions in an arbitrary manner, it created resentment among seniors and many members formed another faction, which called itself Shura,” he said.

Jamaat members say the majority of the cadres are now with Shura, headed by a group of senior members. Banglewali Masjid in Nizamuddin, also called Markaz, and many existing regional head offices of Tablighi Jamaat remained with Maulana Saad’s group, while the rebel group set up new centres.

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