The Spiritual Teachings of Zakariyyā Kāndhlavī (d. 1982) in Fażāʾil-i Durūd Sharīf

Abstract

Abstract Although the influential transnational Deobandi missionary organisation Tablīghī Jamāʿat is scarcely portrayed in contemporary popular media as a “Sufi movement,” the elders of the trend – such as the late Zakariyyā Kāndhlavī (d. 1402/1982) – were staunch Sufi shaykhs. Therefore, it is not surprising to find that one of the core texts of the Tablīghī Jamāʿat – Kāndhlavī’s Fażāʾil-i ʿAmāl – is full of many distinctly Sufi concepts. In the following essay, I look into the spiritual themes found in that particular volume of Kāndhlavī’s aforementioned work which deals specifically with the virtuous act of sending blessings upon the Prophet. In doing so, we will see that the Tablīghī Jamāʿat – deeply rooted in Sufi thought as it is – is very far removed from the Wahhabism with which it is occasionally associated in popular Western imagination.