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span class="inline inline-center">Seeking blessings: Participants of the Majelis Rasulullah congregation pray during a sermon at the Dalail Khoirot building inside a Defense Ministry housing complex in Kebayoran Lama, South Jakarta, on May 24. In the past several years, Jakarta has seen a rise in sermon groups led by young charismatic clerics of Arab descent who claim to be descendants of Prophet Muhammad. (JP/Ricky Yudhistira) Over the past two years, Jakarta has seen an invasion of sermon groups led by clerics claiming to be the descendants of the Prophet Muhammad, with loyal followers ranging from teenagers to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

Habib sermon groups are their usual name, and they have a distinctive feature that sets them apart: they block roads to accommodate their audiences at the expense of motorists caught in traffic congestion that usually lasts for more than four hours.

The leaders of these groups usually don Yemeni-style clothes and turbans, and attendees invariably come in big groups by motorcycle or bus, carrying flags depicting the name of their sermon group in Arabic.

Munzir Almusawa, Hasan bin Ja’far Assegaf and Usman bin Yahya, are among the few clerics that have skyrocketed to stardom in less than three years, with each having more than 50,000 loyal followers in Greater Jakarta alone.

The clerics, who prefer to stay out of the limelight that mainstream preachers crave, are members of the Allawiyyin clan, or Bani Alawi, a term used to refer to the descendants of the Prophet Muhammad, the messenger of Islamic teachings.

A male member is granted the privilege to use the honorific title Habib, or beloved, in front of his name to signify his direct lineage to the Prophet.

Rabithah Allawiyah is an organization reserved for those claiming to be the descendents of the Prophet. For almost a century, the ethnic Arab community in Indonesia has relied on the this exclusive organization to help them keep track of relatives and preserve their prestigious lineage as descendants of the Prophet.

According to Habib Abdurrahman Assegaf — an influential Allawiyin cleric and the coordinator of the Indonesian Muslim Movement (GUII), an organization that is concerned with eradicating “cult” teachings in Indonesia — only 1 million out of between 6 million and 7 million members of the Allawiyin clan in Indonesia have their family tree registered and verified with Rabithah Alawiyah.

“That has happened because for years or even decades most of them did not report changes in family relationships, especially in marriages and births,” said Abdurrahman.