Category: Femi Abbas

By Femi Abbas

Preamble

History is naturally all ears. It also has a retinue of reminders in human memory. The Palestinian/Israeli conflict that has been ongoing for 73 years, since 1948, is a typical example of this assertion.

It will be recalled that since Nigeria’s independence in 1960, she has consistently maintained a progressive diplomatic tradition that makes her a reputable African champion of liberation of people in bondage from the shackles of oppression. For instance, the cases of Angola, Namibia, Zimbabwe, South Africa and Southern Sudan, among others, are not yet lost on the track of African history.

That Nigeria’s diplomatic policy remained intact until 2014 when Dr. Goodluck Ebele  Jonathan decided to change that trend by dancing sentimentally to the tune of religious bigotry, in the case of Palestine, did not come as a surprise to well-meaning Nigerians who have flare for international diplomacy. For a long time to come, that unfortunately miscalculated decision may remain a scar on the flesh of Nigeria’s diplomatic history, which will be very difficult to obliterate.

 

Unforgettable Date

The contemporary diplomatic world will not forget Tuesday, December 30, 2014, in a hurry. That was the day that Nigeria ridiculously displayed a landmark diplomatic goof to her own embarrassment. The date will remain an indelible memory of a deadly sore throat for generations of Palestinians whose destiny of existence became tied to the oppressive apron of the iron fist of the Zionists at the instance of Nigeria.

For long, the incident which makes that date an indelible memory will continue to confirm Nigeria’s bloody hand in the saga of Palestinian/Israeli perennial conflict. And, here, in Nigeria, as far as international diplomacy is concerned, the designer of that bloody hand President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan will also not be forgotten.

 

The Incident

On the mentioned date (Tuesday, December 30, 2014), Nigeria openly and ridiculously threw away the garland of dignity which had fetched her an  incomparable reputation as the African leader of international diplomacy. It was an incident that simply amounted to a country’s betrayal of conscience. That incident which occurred at the United Nations’ Security Council meeting, far away in New York, seriously exposed the diplomatic hypocrisy of Nigeria and replaced her garland with a crown of thorn.

Before that meeting, the United Nations’ Security Council had proposed an historic anticlimax solution to the then 66-year-old Palestinian/Israeli conflict with a view to paving way for a two-State UN resolution. If that resolution had scaled through as expected, it would have served as the final solution to the the Middle East rises and, by implication, a lasting catalyst for the entire world in fetching peace.

 

The Voting Pattern

In the ‘YES or NO’ voting rule to be followed by the 15 member-nations of the Security Council, on the mentioned proposed resolution, nine votes were required as the simple majority to determine the liberation of the Palestinian people from Israel’s political and economic strangulation of Palestine. The immediate concern of the Security Council, at that time, was to stop the suffocating siege laid on the West Bank/Gaza Strip by Israel. But out of the 15 member-nations, in the Council, at that meeting, only eight voted in favour of Palestinian liberation while two voted for continuous Israeli oppression on Palestine. The eight nations that voted for  the liberation of Palestine  were Argentina, Chad, Chile, China, France, Jordan, Luxembourg and Russia. Those that voted for continuous oppression by Israel were the United States and Australia.

The five remaining countries that opted for abstention were Lithuania, South Korea, Rwanda, Britain and Nigeria.

 

Antecedent

Meanwhile, two years before the above narrated incident (2012), Nigeria’s permanent representative at the United Nations, Prof Joy Ogwu, had passionately supported the inalienable right of the Palestinian people to self-determination and statehood, based on her understanding of Nigeria’s diplomatic tradition. She also reiterated Nigeria’s recognition of the State of Palestine. That was just about one year after Nigeria confirmed her diplomatic relation with Palestine on October 31, 2011. At that time, Professor Ogwu voted in favour of UN’s admission of Palestine into UNESCO as a full member-state, despite a fierce opposition from the US and Israel.

During her speech on that occasion at the UN General Assembly in 2012, Prof Ogwu, a highly disciplined and conscientious professional diplomat, underscored the right of the Palestinians to live in freedom. She enthusiastically expressed her country’s stand as follows:

“It was quite fitting that the international community had given Palestine a non-member observer state status in the United Nations. This was not only timely but also right and just.”

She then went ahead to pledge Nigeria’s commitment to working towards Palestine’s admission into the United Nations as a full member state.

 

Dramatic U-turn

However, apparently acting on the instruction of her big boss in Abuja, Professor Ogwu, a reputable diplomatic personality of international repute, dramatically made a somersaulting u-turn that made a ricule of Nigeria’s diplomatic status in the comity of nations. Rather than living by her words of two years earlier (2012), as a dignified diplomat representing a dignified nation, she cheapened out with a hallow face and threw the supposed conscience of Nigeria to the winds, apparently in exchange for a surreptitious agenda built on a clandestine foundation, which is generally known as “Nigerian factor”. Thus, to the amazement, and, perhaps, disappointment of most members of the then UN Security Council, including those that voted to block the Palestinian right to a home, Nigerian government destroyed her decades of diplomatic glory with a self-damaging decision to scuttle the UN’s long awaited pivotal resolution that would have brought permanent peace to the Middle East and even the entire world.

 

Implication

The implication of that surreptitious decision, today, is that the Middle East, in which Nigeria has tremendous economic interest, as well as the rest of the world, cannot sincerely sleep with both eyes closed.

This is because, the Middle East conflict especially between Israel and Palestine has consistently been the major determinant of global insecurity since 1967 when Israel, aided by the imperialist West, further occupied the Arab lands which she has since refused to relinquish, despite all global efforts. It should be noted that Donald Trump’s unilateral declaration of the entire Jerusalem as the indivisible capital of Israel, in 2020, further compounded the conflict in multiple ways.

 

Focus on Nigeria

Before the time of the above mentioned voting date, the anxiety created by the impending abstention of certain member-states had put a global diplomatic focus on Nigeria, being a legendry African champion of liberation movements in the past. The tenacity for such a diplomatic role, during the cold war years, as a vital part of Nigeria’s foreign policy that aided the independence of countries like South Africa, Angola, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Algeria and others had once pitched Nigeria’s tent against that of the  imperialistic tendencies of some Western countries. And, many serious-minded countries had expected the continuity of that role by Nigeria.

 

Observation

By deviating from her well known respectable foreign policy, and, by pitching tent with the imperialist West, to stifle the lives of the Palestinians, in 2014, Nigerian government, under the Presidency of Goodluck Jonathan, only sacrificed her conscience on a platter of religious sentiment which was a reflection of an unstable conscience and a dangerous diplomatic summersault. This could be linked to a fortuitous diplomatic visit of Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, to Nigeria in June 2014, in preparation for the above mentioned betrayal of conscience by the so-called Giant of Africa. Thereafter, the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, openly thanked and praised President Goodluck Jonathan ‘for carrying out a yeoman’s job’. Despite all these Christi-religious shenanigan,

Nigerians, irrespective of their faiths and political ideologies, are hereby urged to forget about that diplomatic catastrophe and wait for another chance, bearing in mind that diplomatic policy is an arena in which formulators of come and go like weathers. God bless Nigeria!

“No sensible human being ever restricts his itinerary to a particular habitat; to keep moving, by migrating from place to place, is the secret of human progress….”. (By an Arab Poet)

 

By FEMI ABBAS

 

Monologue

Today, ‘The Message’ column is migrating, if psychologically, from the insanity of Nigeria’s political, economic and religious calamities, to the globally escalating tempest of disastrous diseases, including the current Corona Virus pandemic codenamed COVID-19 and its entailed commercial vaccine. Such a migration by ‘The Message column’ may bring a temporary respite to readers of this column especially in respect of the current combination of suffocating economic heat with incessant incidents of terrorism and banditry in the country. Such is a way of ventilating a relative atmosphere of peace for peace-loving Nigerians.

 

Preamble

It is not by accident that today’s world is in a sweeping turmoil. That turmoil is rather by design. But most people do not know its genesis especially as it coincides with the advent of the 21st century.

Perhaps, this is an opportunity to recall the fact that the multifarious calamities currently ravaging the entire world, to the detriment of peace and tranquillity for mankind, is a product of long term plan for which the European colonial mentality is well known. Since the end of the 19th century, when the once lucrative European venture of colonizing certain countries and utilizing their resources to the benefit of the colonizers, began to fade out, due to agitations for freedom and independence of those colonies, the Caucasian race of Europe had started to plan new ventures that could enable them to continue the domination of the world’s economy.

Thus, an ambitious blueprint for the current millennium was theoretically prepared at the beginning of the 20th century. It was then practical effect of that blueprint that precipitated the current ongoing turmoil that began with three fortuitous incidents 41 years ago (1979). Incidentally, the year 1979 happened to be the turn of the Islamic Hijrah century 1400 AH.

The first of the dramatic incidents in that year was the undreamt Iranian revolution that toppled the then Imperial Shah of Iran, Muhammad Reza Pahlavi, after 38 years of reign (1941-1979) on Iran’s imperial throne. The man reigned as the Emperor of Iran from September 16, 1941 to February 11, 1979. The revolution that stripped Pahlavi of despotic throne occurred on February 11, 1979.

 

Reminder

It must be remembered that Shah Pahlavi was the monarchical agent of the West, planted in the midst of the Middle East monarchs who were averse to Western model of democracy. His main duty as an agent was to hobnob with other kings in the region and spy those kings for his Western masters.

The second frightening incident, in 1979, was a failed coup d’état that was staged during the Hajj time, in Makkah, Saudi Arabia, on November 20, 1979.

 

Third Incident

The third incident was the invasion of Afghanistan by the then Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) on December 24, 1979. That invasion, which eventually led to the emergence of an Osama Bn Laden phenomenon, through his founded Al-Qaeda Islamic Group, was part of the struggle for supremacy among the Western powers.

Osama was recruited by the US to assist in getting Islamic mercenaries who could resist USSR’s invasion of Afghanistan.

 

American Hidden Agenda

It was the same US that engineered the establishment of the Taliban government in that country, as a counter force to the Soviet aggression. All these were in a bid to counter socialism/communism in Asia Minor and the Middle East.

But after the USSR had been flushed out of Afghanistan by the Muslim the US proposed a confrontation with certain Muslim countries to which Osama objected. And, that was the beginning of the rift between the US and Osama Bn Laden. A former American Presidential candidate, who was also a onetime American First Lady, (Hilary Clinton), confessed to American plot against Islam recently, in her campaign for American presidential seat.

 

Explanation

Although the above listed incidents occurred separately in different countries and at different times of the year, they were, nevertheless, interconnected through two major factors. One of those factors was the religion of Islam which linked the peoples of the affected countries who were predominantly Muslims.

The other factor was the then raging cold war between the the capitalist West and the socialist East which had engendered an unpredictable ideological cold war that engineered global enmity among human races in the 20th century. If these two factors are deeply viewed from divergent angles, Islam will be discovered to be the main target of both blocks.

 

A Grand Design

Long before the above mentioned incidents began to rear their ugly heads, a dangerous graph of desperation had been designed, by the West, in anticipation of perpetual domination of the world.

That grand design was first expressed in 1902 by a British Prime Minister, Sir H. Campbell-Bannerman when he observed as follows:

“There are people who control spacious territories with manifest and hidden resources.  They dominate the intersections of world routes. Their lands were the cradles of human civilizations and religions. These people have one faith, one language and the same aspirations. No natural barriers can isolate them from one another….If, per chance, these people were to be unified into one state it would then take the fate of the world into its hands and separate Europe from the rest of the world. Taking these considerations seriously, a foreign body should be planted in the heart of this nation to prevent the convergence of its wings in such a way that it could exhaust its powers in never-ending wars. It could also serve as a spring board for the West to gain its coveted objects”.

 

Analysis

Although, Prime Minister Bannerman did not mention his targeted race and religion, it was obvious that he was talking about the Arabs of the Middle East and Islam. The subsequent developments in that region later proved that the religion in reference was no other than ISLAM.

 

Follow Up

Sir Bannerman’s observation was in further pursuit of an earlier demand by an Austrian Jewish Lawyer/Journalist, Theodor Herzl, who founded the Zionist movement in 1879 with a cogent demand from the Western powers. In his demand at that time, Theodor Herzl said:

“Let sovereignty be granted us (Jews) over a portion of the globe, large enough to satisfy the rightful requirements of a nation; the rest, we shall manage by ourselves…”

In response to that clandestine demand, some years later, another British Prime Minister, James Arthur Balfour, issued a devastating declaration that now bears his name. The declaration which was issued on November 2, 1917, (one year before the end of the World War I), conceded a major part of Palestine to the Zionists as a home.

 

The Letters of the Declaration

That (Balfour) declaration, which was aimed at enabling the British government to gain direct access to the Suez Canal in Egypt, with Israel as her Policeman in the Gulf, has since put the Middle East in an incessant turmoil till today. The declaration read thus in part: “…His majesty’s Government views with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people and will use its best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this objective….” “The rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country shall not be prejudiced by the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people”.

 

Implementation

To facilitate the implementation of that objective effectively, some other Middle East countries had to be incapacitated economically and politically by excising from them, some juicy chunks of their lands. Thus, Lebanon was excised from Syria just as Kuwait was excised from Iraq. The strategy was to cause an irresolvable dissention among the citizens of those countries with the intention of breaking the yoke of the Muslim unity which Sir Bannerman had targeted in his infamous observation of 1902, quoted above.

 

Iranian Status

Now, how does Iran come into the above painted picture when she is not an Arab country?

That is a logical question that anybody who is not quite familiar with the Middle East and the intricacies of its political and economic set up would ask.

Naturally, Iran is affected by three major factors: Politics, economy and culture. And, by culture here, we mean ISLAM.

Iran is a foremost Islamic country even if her official language is farsi and not Arabic. And, as an Islamic Country, whatever affects her must affect other Muslim countries. Iran is the only non-Arab country in the Gulf area of the Middle East that resists the Western aggression with a radically progressive posture.

 

Turkey’s Role

The role of Turkey in trading off Islam is another good example of a non-Arabic-speaking country that has a direct but clandestine link with the Middle East. It is well known, in history, that Turkey was the seat of the Islamic Caliphate until 1924 when a diabolical agent of the West came on stage as Head of State in that country. His name was Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, a man who wanted to prove to the West that it was possible for a non-Catholic to be “Holier than the Pope” especially when it came to adopting the so-called Western Civilization. On March 3, 1924, just one year after he assumed office as the new ruler of Turkey, Ataturk introduced a Bill to the Turkish Parliament, seeking to secularize his country by abolishing the office of the Caliph without any consideration for the feelings and sensibility of the people he wanted to rule.

Presenting the Bill, Ataturk said: “Ottoman Empire was built and existed on the principle of Islam. Islam is Arabic in character and in concept. It shapes from birth to death, the lives of its adherents; it stifles hope and initiative. The Republic (of Turkey) is threatened by the continued existence of Islam in its midst….”

Thus, with the passage of that Bill, albeit under duress, Turkey was recognized as a secular state. Consequently, politics was separated from religion and Islam was relegated to a personal matter rather than the state religion that it was before then. The Caliphate was abolished and Islamic law was abrogated. Ataturk borrowed the new Turkish civil law from Switzerland, he borrowed the criminal law from Italy and the international law of trade from Germany. The Muslim personal law was harmonized with the European civil law. Religious instruction in public schools was prohibited. Islamic Purdah system was abolished and declared illegal while co-gender education was compelled in schools. The use of Arabic alphabets was prohibited and replaced by the Latin Script. Adhan (the call to prayer) was no longer to be made in Arabic but in Turkish language while the national costume was changed to that of the Europeans even as the wearing of hat was made compulsory. What Ataturk did not do was to abrogate the tenets of Islam completely.

Thus, by one man’s whim, Turkey lost her values and heritage of centuries in a bid to adopt the so called ‘modernity’ brought by ‘Western civilization’. One can imagine what Islam would have become today, if countries like Iran, Indonesia and Pakistan had adopted the same misfortune in the name of civilization.

 

The Iranian Revolution

No one believed, in 1979, that a mere mass protest by armless Mullahs could snowball into such a great magnitude of political ‘earthquake’, capable of sweeping an imperial monarchy like that Muhammad Pahlavi into permanent oblivion. By the time the foggy dust finally settled down in February 1979, a new Iran surprisingly emerged from the debris of the old. Thus, against the wish and expectation of the capitalist West, the secular, monarchical Iran became an Islamic Republic. The drama was quite electric.

But, characteristic of the West, all hands still remained on deck, at that time, to ensure that an Islamic Republic did not succeed the despotic monarchy headed by Shah Pahlavi which was heavily backed up by the oppressive West.

In particular, America was most active in that ambitious but vainglorious plot. She would not easily allow the massive material benefit that she had been enjoying for decades in that oil-rich country, under the Shah regime, to slip out of her hands just like that. Thus, under the pretext of wanting to rescue her citizens from the siege laid by Iranian students on American embassy, in Tehran, the US attempted an invasion of Iran.  The espionage activities by the American diplomats, inside that embassy, against the new Islamic government had warranted the siege.

 

The Failure of American Strategy

While a number of American F15 jet fighters were approaching Iran, the then US President, Jimmy Carter, tactically engaged his country’s press men in a media chat without giving any hint of the impending military operation in Iran. The tactics was to divert the attention of the press and, even that of the entire American populace from the illegal Pentagon’s military expedition. But no sane person can ever fault the contents of the Qur’an.

 

Qur’anic Notion

Almost 1400 years before the American plot in Iran, a verse of the Qur’an had been revealed to Prophet Muhammad (SAW) thus: “They (the unbelievers) schemed, and Allah schemes. Allah is the supreme schemer”. Q. 3:54.

Jimmy Carter’s thought was that by the time he would be finishing his media chat, information would have reached him that America had successfully invaded Iran to reinstall Shah Pahlavi as the imperial ruler of that Country. He had therefore intended to announce the news of his ‘great’ successful scheme to the press as the epilogue of his media chat. And that would have served as his impetus for wining that year’s Presidential election for a second term in office. But, as Allah would have it, instead of the expected news, what he got was a shocker of his life.

 

The Failure of American Might

It was like a miracle when two of the F15 fighters deployed for a surreptitious operation, by the US, collided in the air and crashed with their contents, just at the point of entering the territory of Iran. And, the crash consumed the lives of 16 top air force officers inside those jets while the other jet fighters had to turn back after realizing the futility of continuing their mission.

When the news of that devastating occurrence reached Carter, it was too much for him for him to hide, as it quickly went viral through the throbs of the media.

Thus, the mighty America failed woefully, with her technology, in circumstances she has never been able to analyze convincingly till date. Allah Akbar!

 

Jimmy Carter’s Fate

With the   failed plot analysed above, it became obvious that Jimmy Carter of America’s Democrat Party had dug his own political grave. Of course, he lost the election to the cowboy-turned Politician, (Ronald Reagan) of the Republican Party.

Meanwhile, for about 444 days thereafter, the 52 American diplomats that were held hostage in American Embassy, in Tehran, remained under the siege of the Iranian students. It took high-level international diplomacy, through third party countries, to get them released.

Yet, America was not done. She still went ahead to freeze Iran’s foreign reserve of about $80 billion in her custody. In addition, she imposed economic sanctions on that country with the intention of running that country’s economy aground. But trust Iran, she recovered her money from American banks through unimaginable means.

Thus, the relation between both countries further deteriorated recently when Iran started a nuclear project with which to prop up her economy through a boot to her electricity. America responded with a threat to Iran, saying the United States would not tolerate any nuclear project in that Gulf country because she (America) could not trust that Islamic country with nuclear power. Yet, in the same Gulf region, Israel had acquired nuclear power without any opposition from America.

 

The Secret of American Power

The secret of America’s military successes in various parts of the world is neither due to technological advancement nor military superiority per se. The failed American rescue mission, in Iran, in 1979, has historically confirmed this assertion. Rather, those seeming successes were due to her ability to cause schism among some other nations. That is why many American Presidents have won or lost elections at home due to the foreign policy of the reigning President.

Iran has never been a direct prey to any Western military aggression, because she has never played a fool, dancing to the sour music of a predator in an open market.

 

Coup in Saudi Arabia

In the same 1979, some disgruntled elements, in Saudi Arabia,  fortuitously staged a coup against the monarchical reign of King Khalid Bn Abdul Aziz. The aim of the coup was not to change the system of government but to hijack the monarchy in the name of a fictitious ‘promised messiah’ (Al-Mahdi). That incident caused a stoppage of salat and Umrah for almost four months (from November 1979 to March 1980). It took the intervention of the French military strategy to liberate the sacred Mosque of Makkah from the rebellious renegades that invaded it.

 

Invasion of Afghanistan

Also, in 1979, the now defunct Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan with the intention of annexing the latter. It was  that incident that led to an unprecedented jihad which paved way for the emergence of Al-Qaida and that of the Taliban government in that country.

All these incidences of 1979 jointly formed the foundation for today’s global turmoil that is now pervading the world and threatening human existence. The details of the 1979 coup attempt in Saudi Arabia will be discussed in this column at another time soon, in sha’Allah.

By Femi Abbas

Preamble

Dear Ramadan,

In the name of the Almighty Allah and with His mercy and blessings, which you brought to us, recently, we salute you. For 30 days, in the month of Ramadan, you were our special guest. And, with your special visit, you transformed our lives positively and rekindled our hopes spiritually.

Before you first descended on this world about 1442 years ago, what we used to know of hospitality was the entertainment which the host offered his guest. But with your arrival, that tradition was reversed in a revolutionary manner. You became the only known guest in the world, who entertains his host to satisfaction. Yours is hospitality that cannot be measured in quality or quantity. And, that is why the universal preparation for your arrival, every year is unequalled.

 

Premium recompense

With your awful and charismatic nature, you arrive in the world every year with a splendour that re-jigs the souls of mankind and reconditions their daily routine. History is yet to show us a guest like you who engages his hosts days and nights even as he places premium on their recompense. But for your annual visit, who could have dared waking us up from our tactlessly deep sleep for a whole period of 30 or 29 days and nights? Who could have been rescued us back from our stray into the wilderness of materialism, avarice and ostentation? Not even the day of Arafat in Hajj has any means of competing with you in whatever way. Arafat plays host to only a few millions of pilgrims in a single day. You engage the entire humanity for a whole month, days and nights in their domain except those who reject your offer.

Even the unbelievers are forced to recognise your presence with veneration despite your invisibility. For instance, all the manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers, all over the world, prepare for your arrival annually, if only to take advantage of your grandiose presence to do brisk businesses. Today, the greatest persecutors of Islam in Britain and the US are forced to pretend to be friends of that divine religion by hosting Muslims to Iftar in London and Washington. And the rest of the Western world copies them in doing that. Yet, each time you come around, most of us receive you reluctantly. But, when it is time for you to go, we hardly want to part with you again.

And, when we are eventually forced to say bye for now according to the law that established our spiritual relationship with you, we do so only in tears.

 

Timeliness

No other time of the year injects into us, the vivid consciousness of our faith as you do. No other pillar of Islam instills in us the high level of discipline which you take us through for a whole month. We acknowledge the effect of your role in our lives and we pray the Almighty Allah to sustain that effect in us so that the door to AL-JANNAH which you evidently represent may not be locked against us when it is time to take our place in that everlasting home of bliss.

With your coming once every year, we learn that life is neither static nor are the things inside it. No man of reason and letters stays put at a particular spot. Human body system gets strong only by shifting positions and moving around. Meeting and parting with fellow human beings from time to time are what make life interesting.

Interacting and intermingling with other elements of nature are the ingredients that fertilize the soil of harmony on our terrestrial planet.

The sun would have been boring, despite its usefulness to mankind, if it does not rise in the east at dawn and set in the west at twilight.

No water spring would have been drinkable if it had remained stagnant on a permanent basis. Had the arrow refused to part with the bow, it would not have been able to hit its target.  The regular exchange of baton between days and nights is what makes calendar possible for humanity.

We came into the world as travelers in transit. Our travel from father’s port of semen to the confines of mother’s womb in form of foetus is a transit. Our transformation from stage to stage inside that womb as vividly described by Allah in the Qur’an is a transit. And, following our arrival in this world, we naturally embark on a pilgrimage from the unknown to the unknown. Thus, any stage or condition in which we find ourselves in life, at any given time, is a transit. Without such transit, human life would have been monotonously valueless. Ditto other forces of nature, seen or unseen, animate or inanimate.

 

Not by Fortuity

Our world, the earth, did not come into existence by fortuity. Our primogenitors, Adam and his wife, Hawa’u (Eve) were not created to take charge of the earth by fortuity. The divine law by which this world is governed was not coined to guide us by fortuity. And, man’s peregrination on earth, world, towards the world hereafter, is not by fortuity.

All these are a ground design of a great revolution through which the meaning of the universe is to be understood. That design is the handiwork of the Supreme Being known to Muslims as ALLAH.

The divine signature appended to that design is what came to be known as the Qur’an which you (Ramadan) facilitated through a single night inside you, that Allah described as “more beneficial than 1000 months.

That signature (The Qur’an) is inimitable and unsurpassable not only in the grandeur of its diction and the splendour of its contents but also in its connotation, essence and profundity. Its summary is what is known to humanity as ‘REVOLUTION’.

By implication, the Qur’an can be semantically called ‘THE GREAT REVOLUTION’ that transformed the world from the sphere of obscurity into that of unimaginable sophistication. Yet, it is through the great night inside you, called ‘LAYLATUL QADR’ that such a great revolution came to Prophet Muhammad (SAW). If only the Qur’an is what humanity is privileged to access through your motherly belly it would have been enough. But, what is more, your contribution to the guidance of mankind transcends our perception of the Qur’an alone.

A former American President, John F. Kennedy, did not know that he was describing the Qur’an when he once said: “We live in a hemisphere whose own revolution has given birth to the most powerful force of the modern age- the freedom and fulfilment of man”.

 

Other Pillars of Islam

In your absence, the other four pillars of Islam could only presumably be engaged in an imaginary debate even as each claims to be the key to paradise. Faith, for instance, might claim that without her, all other pillars could only exist in vain.

To counter her claim, Salat might describe her five daily appearances in the life of a Muslim as the impetus that gives faith a deserved relevance. Zakah, on its own, may recount to the first two that whoever would be faithful enough to observe Salat ought to be married to Zakah either as a giver or as a receiver. And, at that point, Hajj might come in to contend that only a semblance of the ‘Hereafter’ (Yawmul Qiyamah), which she represents, can authenticate the spiritual visa with which humanity would be ushered into paradise through the wagons of other pillars. She (Hajj) might claim that without her as an emancipator of rightly guided humanity from the shackles of Satan, no one would have had the slightest idea of what that Great Day would be.

When you are around, dear Ramadan, all other pillars fall in line conceding leadership to you without any argument. You are not just the undeniable evidence of faith in man; you are also the most reliable witness of Salat, Zakah and Hajj.

Prophet Muhammad (SAW) attested to this through one Hadith-ul-Qudsi when he quoted Allah as saying that “Fasting (in Ramadan) is Mine and I am the one to give reward on it”.

To fast while you are around, faith must not only be present, it must also be a formidable foundation. Salat must also convincingly increase the tempo of her spiritual vitality. Whoever is not dressed in the toga of faith and feather his hat of Salat will only be wasting his time if he claims to be fasting. And when you are about to return home according to your tradition, Zakah must appear before you to pay homage in the name of ‘Sadaqatul Fitr’. Even Hajj which, should not statutorily meet you, must also send an envoy to pay homage to you in the name of Umrah (Lesser Hajj).

By making this observation, one is not trying to crown you as the king of the pillars of Islam but to exhibit your exemplary virtue in the realm of spirituality. And, with the awful role you play every year, the position of a coordinator may be ascribed to you directly or indirectly.

In the light of the aforementioned, we cannot persuade you to stay with us permanently since going and coming once every year adds to the legendary grandiose that makes us crave passionately for your presence. We fervently pray the Almighty Allah to grant us further opportunities to benefit in the years ahead, from the unlimited bounties which you are privileged to bring to us every year. With tears flowing through our eyes, we bid you adieu for now hoping that by the grace of Allah you will come to meet us again alive and in sound health.

 

Nostalgia

Prior to your arrival, dear Ramadan, some people dreamt but never lived to realize their dreams. Some looked but never saw. It is only in the imagination of man that age or illness should be the cause of death. We shall all die at our scheduled time. Therefore, whoever was privileged to have passed through your endearing presence successfully this year should endeavour to add spiritual value to his or her life and not diminish in faith after your departure. We shall all account for that value before Allah.

As you just bade us bye for now, we shall continue to look back with nostalgia to the good things we have done under your influence while you were around.

 

Needs and wants

It is mostly when you, Ramadan, are around that Muslims reconfirm their NEEDS rather than their WANTS as the necessities required for the sustenance of their lives.

Muslims, by their faith and orientation, are not, ordinarily, given to WANTS. They are more concerned about NEEDS than WANTS. The reason for this is not far-fetched. With NEEDS come contentment and satisfaction while WANTS are the cause of greed and avarice.

Allah, the Creator and Sustainer of the universe, had provided the needs of every living creature even before its creation. But then, He knew that of all those creatures man alone would go beyond NEEDS into the realm of WANTS. That was perhaps what informed the negative role which Satan assumed in the life of man shortly after the creation of Adam.

By introducing WANTS to man, what Satan did was to create a permanent job for himself in the life of man. Without WANTS the world would not have been what it is today. Blood would not have been flowing. Money would not have been deified. Hatred would not have been known to man. And, man’s inhumanity to man would have been totally averted.

The effect of WANTS first became known when Qabil (Cain), the first son of Adam preferred his brother’s wife to his. In the tantrum that ensued from that unfortunate saga, Qabil (Cain) killed his brother Habil (Abel) and combined the latter’s wife with his own and became a polygynist. From thence, greed and avarice became ingredients of man’s culture. And, WANTS rather than NEEDS became the domineering factor in the life of man. This is one of the vices which you, Ramadan, often come to correct in man.

 

Summary

At no time in the life of man can the true nature of human existence be more manifest than in Ramadan. It is in that sacred month that Muslims reflect mostly on the purpose of their existence on earth.

Some people fasted actively last year but were no more to witness this year. Some put their feet at the door step   of Ramadan this year but never entered it. Some felt by the way side along the line. Some fasted with absolute faith in Allah and confidence in making use of the lessons of Ramadan. Some joined the spiritual train with no idea of their destination in the month. Some sat on the fence with one leg here and the other there. However, none was hidden from Allah.

Now, all is over. But we shall keep remembering those days with indelible nostalgia. We shall keep recalling our anxiety while looking towards sighting the crescent that ushered you into our world with incomparable glory. We shall not forget the compensating evenings of Tarawih and the marvellous nights of Thajjud and Sahur. We shall look back to the immaculate days of Tafsir and the exclusiveness of ‘Itikaf. Yes our minds will not be off the great expectations embedded in the majestic LAYLATUL QADR as well as the great pleasure in the payment of Zakatul Fitr. All these will surely enable us to take a retrospective look at your grandiose annual presence with nostalgia. Bye for now, dear Ramadan, until we meet again next year, by the grace of Allah.

 

By Femi Abbas

Monologue

At  no time in the life of man can the true nature of human existence more manifest than in the month of Ramadan. It is in that sacred month that Muslims reflect mostly on the purpose of their existence on earth. Some people fasted actively last year but are no more today. Some put their feet at the door step of Ramadan this year but never entered it. Some fell by the way side along the line. Some fasted with absolute faith in Allah and confidence in making use of the lessons of Ramadan. Some joined the spiritual train with no idea of their destination in the month. Yet the month cruises on without minding any un-gored horse.

 

Preamble

At the beginning of this sacred month, an analysis was done in this column classifying the 30 or 29 days of Ramadan into three segments. The first segment was said to contain the first ten days of the month during which the blessings of Allah came to the faithful Muslims freely and in abundance. Except for meeting that segment with faith and good intention, there was no working for it. That segment ended after the fist 10 days, thereby paving way for the second segment that began on the 11th day of Ramadan to take the baton for the spiritual race.

 

The Second 10 Days

During the second 10 days, most fasting Muslims intensified worship (Ibadah) by spending their days and nights seeking Allah’s forgiveness and by chanting Istighfar. But such forgiveness was neither automatic nor free. Usually, conditions were attached to it. One of such conditions was for every fasting Muslims to admit his/her misdeeds and repent of them. The second was to voluntarily and genuinely seek forgiveness. And the third condition was to resolve never to return to such misdeeds again. To seek Allah’s forgiveness during the month of Ramadan, Prophet Muhammad (SAW) was reported to have said that “if you want to speak with Allah, make your request on prostration. And if you want Allah to speak to you recite the Qur’an”. No one who abided by the above conditions and followed it scrupulously would ever be disappointed. Allah is both promising and fulfilling. He never reneges on His promise. In Qur’an 2:186 He promises thus: “…when my servants ask you (Prophet Muhammad) about me, tell them that I am very close to them. I answer the prayers of whoever seeks My favour if he seeks from Me (without any intermediary). So, let them expect My favourable response and trust in Me so that they may be rightly guided”

 

Midway Ramadan

Those second ten days were not just to consolidate on the blessings of the first ten days, they were also to prepare the fasting Muslims for the last ten days when they would be fully liberated from the evil machinations of any Satanic forces.

 

The Weight of Death

Reward of human life is not spiritually measured by the time or manner of his/her death. In Islam, death is neither the consequence of iniquities nor the repercussion of ignorance. There are instances when the sinless dies and the sinful lives. There are also instances when the learned dies while the ignorant lives. The schedule of life and death is not in the custody of any human being and no man can judge the volume of its reward. Death is a debt which every living being owes and must pay regardless of time or manner.

Not even Prophet Muhammad (SAW) was spared of death or given a foreknowledge of its time or manner. Allah ordered him (Prophet Muhammad) to say as follows: Q. 10:49 thus: “Say I have not the power to benefit or to harm myself except what Allah pleases. Unto every nation is a fixed term. When their terms expire, it can neither be delayed by an hour nor quickened by one minute”. Q. 10:49.

This is a verse of the Qur’an which some ignorant non-Muslims have severally quoted and interpreted according to their satanic whim as if Jesus did not express a similar fact in the Bible thus: “I can do nothing on my own, I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just because I do not seek my own will but the will of him who sent me…” John 5:30.  In the wild imagination of those ignorant people, the Prophet should claim infallibility to enable them call him a liar and an impostor.

 

Nostalgia

Before the commencement of 1442 AH Ramadan fasting, some people dreamt but never lived to realize their dreams. Some looked but never saw. It is only in the imagination of man that age should be a factor of death. We shall all die at our scheduled time. Therefore, whoever is privileged to pass through this year’s Ramadan successfully should endeavour to add spiritual value to his or her life and not diminish in faith after the sacred month. We shall all account for that value before Allah.

 

End of Ramadan

In a few days time this year’s Ramadan will come to an end by the grace of Allah. And, we shall continue to look back, with nostalgia, to the good things we have done in the sacred month. For instance, we shall remember that in no other month of Hijrah calendar is the role of Muslim women more pronounced than in Ramadan. Like in other months, they (women), display the roles of wives, mothers, daughters and sisters. But more than in other months, they exhibit their religious dedication in Ramadan.

Even as they (wives) assist their husbands financially in maintaining the homes, they still take care of those husbands as well as the children and relatives domestically. At the time of the day when the husbands are knocked out by fatigue arising from fasting, in Ramadan, the wives are still busy in the kitchen preparing Iftar for the household. At the time, in the night, when some husbands are engaged in Tahajjud, or are snoring in bed, the wives are already up in the kitchen preparing the Sahur for the family.

Some of these women are pregnant. Some are suckling their children. Some of them are knowledgeable enough to do the Tilawah (recitation of the Qur’an) like their husbands. Some are even financially buoyant enough to finance their homes fully or partially.

And, in all these activities, they never feel tired. Where and when they feel tired, they never show it. If any month has ever depicted the virtues of women, it is Ramadan and the women activities in it. If for the reason of their activities in Ramadan alone, they deserve tolerance and dignified treatment in the hands of their husbands.

 

Role of Children

We shall also remember the role of our children in the month and then endeavour to ensure the continuity of those rewarding activities.

Children are Allah’s greatest gift to man. Their presence in a house is blessing. Their contribution to security and joy is immense. Those are children for you. They can play the role of teachers just as they do that of students. They learn fast, they teach fast. They are a major security for parents in any given environment.

Children play both temporal and spiritual roles in a matrimonial life. And with such roles, they sometimes create hope for humanity and sometimes, they signal despair. They are the greatest asset in the possession of parents in time of peace. They are also the greatest weapon for those parents against the forces of Satan.

Because of their innocence, they pave way for God’s forgiveness and quick acceptance of prayers. And, most importantly, children guarantee the continuity of man’s existence on earth. It is only with them that the fulfillment of today’s promise is possible tomorrow.

In the Qur’an, children are mentioned many times and most often with reverence. They are treated in that glorious book as a major issue in the life of man. As orphans, they do not only have a role to play, they also compel some adults to play a role relating to them.

As heirs to their parents, they have substantial shares in inheritance. Muslim children are like cubs of lions. They follow the footstep of their parents or guardians very closely. They are often with their parents during the five daily prayers. They watch their parents as the latter give charity to the poor. They accompany them to public lectures and Islamic social gatherings.

And, in Ramadan, children are part of the Muslims’ total spiritual package. They wake up with them at night. They fast with them in the day. They break the fast with them at sunset. They join their parents at Tafsir and night lectures. They participate in Laylatul Qadr and in giving Zakatul Fitr to the poor. Who can substitute the role of children in a matrimonial home?

In all the above mentioned activities, children are supposed to be encouraged. At the tender age of seven, they should be guided to fast even if for half a day. And when they reach the age of 10 they should be strengthened in faith and in religious deeds. They should be provided with necessities of life both in the temporal and spiritual realms. With these, they will grow up to become the fulfillment of their parents’ dreams. Most children grow up as good or bad citizens by emulating their parents. A child is therefore what his parents make him/her. If advantage of Ramadan is not taken by Muslim parents to mould their children into good Muslims what other platform will be used? Your child is your sun. Make hay with it while it shines.

 

Neighbours

We shall also recall how we relate with our neighbours, especially the non-Muslims among them, in that month of Ramadan. In Islam, neighbours are as important as the next of kin. And, Islam attaches so much respect to them.

 

New Toga

In the month of Ramadan a good Muslim is expected to wear a new toga of sobriety and repentance. He doubles his good deeds to his neighbours, extending generosity to them and cultivating a new atmosphere of friendliness and trust with them. He genuinely gives them as much impression of love and brotherhood as he does with his consanguine relatives.

It does not matter whether those neighbours are Muslims or non-Muslims. Neither does it matter whether they are tribesmen or non-natives. In Islam, good neighbourliness should be an inalienable posture of a Muslim. Therefore, whoever, had quarreled with his neighbours before Ramadan, should go and settle the quarrel.

Besides abstaining from foods, drinks and intercourse, in the days of Ramadan, a good Muslim must mind his relationship with people around him, including neighbours. Fasting in the month of Ramadan cannot be taken in half measure. It is not made a pillar of Islam by accident. Its purpose is to return man to the original state of purity in which he was created. That Allah entrusts the world to man is also not by accident. Allah consulted widely before entrusting this great responsibility to man when the latter volunteered to bear that responsibility. See  Qur’an 33:71 for details.

 

Needs and wants

It is in during Ramadan that Muslims reconfirm NEEDS rather than WANTS as the necessities required for the sustenance of their lives.

Muslims, by their faith and orientation, are not supposed to be given to material wants. Rather, they should be more concerned about temporal and spiritual needs than temporal wants alone. The reason for this is not far-fetched. With needs come contentment and satisfaction while wants are the causes of greed and avarice. And those are the factors of disharmony in the world today.

If you are a participant or a witness to it this year’s Ramadan, utilize your experience maximally. You do not know whether or not you will have that opportunity again.  RAMADAN KARIM!

 

 

By Femi Abbas

Islam and Muslims are like Siamese twins or even like the snail and its shell. None of them can survive without the being in the company of other. There is nothing in the life of a Muslim that this divine religion called Islam does not touch effectively in the lives of Muslims. For instance, in Islam, travelling is not just a part of education. It is rather a form of education. Prophet Muhammad (SAW) realized this early in his prophet-hood years and emphasized it. He said: “Seek knowledge even if you will have to travel to China”.

In retrospect

At the time the world map, as it is today, had not been crafted, China was considered the farthest place from Arabia.

In accentuation of the Prophet’s instruction that Muslims should seek knowledge, even as far away as China, a renowned Arab poet came up with a stanza which translates thus:

“There is no permanent, resting place for a sensible, learned person; therefore, move from city to city and adapt to any new environment in which you may find yourself;

Travel out from your immediate environment and meet new contemporaries similar to those you may have left behind at your embarkation;

Interact with diverse people because human comfort and prosperity are mostly attainable through interactions…”

Islam regards for travellers

The respect which Islam has for travellers is such that they (travellers) are described as wayfarers in the Qur’an. And by virtue of their journey, Muslim travellers are not only permitted to reduce their four rakats of (Dhur, ‘Asr and ‘Ishai) to two rakats each, they are also excused from fasting while on journey (although they will make up for the missed fasts later). Not only that, they are also listed among the groups qualified to receive Zakat; the proviso, however is that such a journey must be justifiable and legitimate.

Journey by necessity

Judging by the laid down proviso, as presented above, it becomes understandable that a Muslim journey in Ramadan must be one of necessity and not of mere pleasure.

The rule is that the journey must not be less than 48 miles or 80 kilometres. On such a journey, a travelling Muslim may break his fast and shorten his Salat. But that rule was formulated at the time when donkeys and camels were the means of travelling.

Today, when it is possible to travel from Lagos to Kano within one hour in a comfortable aircraft or from Ibadan to Lagos in a fully air -conditioned car, within the same period of one hour, it may rather be unnecessary to break the fast and reduce Salat especially when the traveller must make up for the fast broken after Ramadan.

Exception

There is hardly any rule without exception. The modern exceptions to the rule of travelling in Ramadan have transcended those of the donkey age.

However, this does not mean that any Muslim traveller in Ramadan who wishes to follow the primordial rule of the donkey years cannot shorten Raka’ats of his salat and break his fast. Nevertheless, if that rule is followed, the conditions surrounding it must equally be followed.

Ramadan Karim!