Category: Femi Abbas

FEMI ABBAS

 

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….”.

Arab Poet

 

Monologue

Today, ‘The Message’ column is migrating, if psychologically, from the insanity of Nigeria’s political/economic/religious rigmarole to the globally escalating tempest of disatrous  diseases, including the current Corona Virus pandemic codenamed COVID 19. Such a migration by ‘The Message’ 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.

That 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 Europeans are 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 economy.

Thus, an ambitious blueprint for the current millennium was theoretically prepared at the beginning of the 20th century. It was

the practical effect of that blueprint that precipitated the current ongoing turmoil that began with three fortuitous incidents 41 years ago (1979). Incidentally, 1979 was the turn of the Islamic century 1400 AH.

The first of the dramatic incidents in that year was the undreamt Iranian revolution that toppled the

then, Imperial Shah, Muhammad Reza Pahlavi, after 38 years reign (1941-1979) on Iran’s imperial throne. The man reigned as the Shah of Iran from September 16, 1941 to February 11, 1979. The revolution that stripped him of despotic throne occurred on February 11, 1979. 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 aversed 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 Hajj time, in Makkah, Saudi Arabia, on November 20, 1979.

And, 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 Usama Bn Laden phenomenon, through his founded Al-Qaeda Islamic Group, was part of the struggle for supremacy among the Western powers.

Usama was recruited by the US to assist in getting Islamic mercinaries who could resist USSR’s invasion of Afghanistan. It was the same US that engineered the establishment of the Taliban government in that country, as a couter 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 forced by the Muslim forces to withdraw her invasion of Afghanistan, the US proposed a confrontation with certain Muslim countries to which Usama objected. And, that was the beginning of the rift between the US and Usama Bn Laden. A former American Presidential candidate, who was also a onetime American First Lady, Hilary Clinton, confessed to that American plot against Islam.

 

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 teeming 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 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 which was their religion. 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 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 any Muslim country must affect her. Iran is the only non-Arab country in the Gulf area of the Middle East.

 

Turkey for Instance

The case of Turkey is another good example of a no-Arabic speaking country that has a direct link with the Middle East. Turkey was the seat of the Islamic Caliphate until 1924 when a diabolical agent of the West came on stage as Head of State. 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. 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 Emergence of  Khomeni

It was the fear of a reoccurence of the unfortunate Turkish experience that prompted the late Iranian spiritual leader, Ayatullah Ruhullah Mousavi Khomeini to lead the commencement of a liberation struggle, in Iran, in 1963, which culminated in a successful revolution of 1979. However, unlike Ataturk, Imam Khomeini knew that the greatest virtue that could be lost in the life of man or that of a nation was culture. He knew that without a clear-cut culture, man couldn’t have been better than a beast. He knew that such values as law, education and religion, which served as the guiding factors for man in his peregrinations on earth, were the main attributes of culture. He knew that a nation, which surrendered its culture and adopted that of another nation, had enslaved herself permanently to the caprice of that other nation. Thus, Khomeini saw Islam, (the culture of over one billion adherents in the world (at that time), as the target of the Western imperialists, which needed defence and protection.

 

The 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 in February 1979, a new Iran had 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 American Strategy

While a number of US F15 jet bombers 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

Two of the F15 fighters deployed for that surreptitious operation miraculously 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 the mission.

When the news of that devastating occurence reached Carter, it was too much to hide and 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

And, with that failed plot, it became obvious that Jimmy Carter of the 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 that succeeded him in office.

And, for about 444 days (well over a year) after that incident, 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 diplomacy, through third party countries, to get them released.

Yet, America was not done. She went ahead to freeze Iran’s foreign reserve of about $80 billion in addition to imposition of economic sanctions with the intention of running that country’s economy aground. The only Iran’s offence in this case was to have decided to chart an independent political course that could liberate her citizens from the manacles of the Western imperialism. Trust Iran, she recovered her money from American banks by an unimaginable means.

Ever since, the diplomatic relation between America and Iran has remained icy. However,

that relation further deteriorated recently when Iran started a nuclear project with which to prop up her economy through 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 when Israel, in the same Gulf, had acquired nuclear power.

 

Secret of American Power

The secret of America’s military successes in various parts of the world is neither in technological advancement, nor military superiority per se. That country’s  failed rescue mission in Iran, in 1979, has confirmed this assertion. America’s secret is rather in her ability to cause schism among some other nations and races. That is why many American Presidents have won or lost elections at home due to the foreign policy of the concerned 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 fortuitously staged a coup against the monarchical government of King Khalid. The aim of the coup was not to change the system of government but to hijack the monarchy in the name of a Mahdi (a promised messiah). That incident caused a stoppage of salat and Umrah for almost four months.

 

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 that paved way for the emergence of Alqaida and that of the Taliban government in that country.

All these incidences of 1979 jointly formed the foundation for the global turmoil of the 21st century now pervading the world and threatening human existence. The details of the coup attempt in Saudi Arabia will be discussed in this column at another time soon, in sha’Allah.

By Femi Abbas

“Say oh Allah! You are the Lord of all dominions; You give dominion to whoever You  wish and withdraw dominion from whoever You wish; Your power over everything is unquestionable….” Q. 3: 26-27.

Monologue 

This article is a reminder of an article written and published in this column by yours sincerely about four years ago. The precise date was Friday, January 20, 2017. In the article entitled ‘Welcoming a Trump of Sadism’, I predicted what would become of the United States of America (USA) at the instance of that country’s newly elected President, Donald Trump. Two weeks before the publication of that article, an earlier article was written and published, also by yours sincerely, in this same column. It was entitled ‘Waiting for January 20’ (2017). Venerable readers of ‘The Message’ column are hereby given the privilege of reading both articles once again through the excerpts quoted below as follows:

First Excerpt

“Like the hands of a clock, many democratic countries in the world do swear a new President into office every four or five years at the expiration of a previous tenure. Now, it is the turn of the United States of America again to do that. And, the man to take charge as from today, January 20, 2017, for the next four years, all things being equal, is called Donald Trump, a man that most people in the world, including Americans, who voted for him, have seen as a wild bull surging furiously into a china shop.

Second Excerpt

Below is also an excerpt from an earlier article entitled ‘Waiting for January 20’ and published on January 6, 2017, in this same column by yours sincerely. Its contents went thus in part: All eyes, across the world, are on the 20th day of January 2017.  That is the day that the newly elected American President, Donald John Trump, will be formally ushered into the ‘White House’ in Washington, with a swearing in ceremony. He will be the 45thAmerican President. That the entire world is waiting for this event is a confirmation of America’s undisputed leadership of the contemporary world. There is no doubt that this event will be historically electric, positively or negatively. A similar wait had taken place in February 1933, in Germany, when Adolf Hitler was sworn into office as the Chancellor of that country. The speech he delivered on that occasion was what eventually altered the destiny of Germany and reshaped the geography of the world in the 20th century.

Incidentally, Donald Trump’s ancestral origin is Germany. Now, will Trump of the 21st century replay the posture of Hitler of the 20th century by dragging the world into another World War? That is a fundamental question that the unfolding events of the days ahead may have to answer fundamentally”.

The meaning of Trump

“The name Trump is a short form of trumpet, a musical instrument with which the decision of a despotic tyrant is often announced in a local cultural setting. Ever since this man was declared the winner of the American Presidential election of November 2016, he has been trumpeting his tyrannical plans to the world arrogantly. And, the jitters rolled out of that trumpet have started gripping the world with an imaginary icy hand. That an American President-elect has begun to overrule his still serving predecessor even before taking an oath of office is a clear indication of what the world should expect from the china shop in which a wild bull will start  to operate as from today.

History as a Teacher

History is a well known phenomenal teacher. It teaches the old and the young alike. Its students are always drawn from far and near. It examines those students from time to time and gives them examination results periodically. Its lessons are as much generational as they cut across races and cultures. Yet, it has no peculiar language of communication. But then, it faces a fundamental problem. That problem is not in the repetition that has characteristically become the culture of history but, rather, in getting mankind to understand its repeated teachings as well as in heeding its warnings.

In virtually all celestial religions, history plays such a prominent role that gives it the permanent identity of a teacher. And, from its beneficial teachings, human beings build ladders of experiences with which they mount the pyramids of life”.

Christianity and Islam

“Despite the seeming brutal gangsterismbeing vaingloriously displayed by this goon called Donald Trump, however, the Muslim world should not   write him off completely as an agent of the Lucifer.

In the histories of both Christianity and Islam, we are repeatedly told of certain arch antagonists of God’s divine message, who dramatically turned round to become voluntary Ambassadors of the same message to which they had been viciously antagonistic. One of such antagonists was Saul of Tarsus, an avowed anti-Christ who dramatically turned round to accept the message of Jesus after the latter had departed this world. Saul later adopted the name Paul as a symbol of his new apostolic faith. That was from the Christian narration.

Another known antagonist of Allah’s divine Message was Umar Bn Khattab of Makkah who had plotted the murder of Prophet Muhammad (SAW) but dramatically turned round to embrace Islam on the day he was to implement his plot. Eventually, Umar rose to become the second Caliph in Islam and conscientiously spread Allah’s divine religion across continents even more than any other Caliph”.

Jesus’ Wish

“Jesus had wished that Saul, a well- educated person, accept his message while he was around. But that wish did not materialize until after his departure from the prophetic stage.

If Saul had not eventually accepted Christianity when he did, perhaps, the situation of that religion would have been completely different today”.

The case of Umar

“In the case of Umar Bn Khattab, Prophet Muhammad (SAW) had prayed to Allah to enable one of the two famous personalities bearing Umar in Makkah, at that time, to accept Islam. Although the Prophet’s mind was on the other Umar, It however turned out that Umar Bn Khattab was the one favoured by Allah. And, his acceptance of Islam became so remarkable that the Prophet was reported to have once said of him as follows: “Were there to be a Prophet after me, Umar Bn Khattab would have been that Prophet”.

Irony of Life

“Today, another thorny bud seems to be wildly growing under the armpit of an American bitter tree in the 21st century. That proverbial human bud is an avowed racist and morbid hater of Islam that will assume office as President in that country on January 20, 2017. His open disposition and filthy utterances alone, have proved to be a vivid reminder of the unbridled atrocities of the originator of Nazism, Adolf Hitler, who brutally terrorised the entire continent of Europe with his tyrannical ambition.

And, for the first time ever, majority of Americans who voted to choose Trump as President started to express fear of uncertainty about their choice even before his assumption of office. Thus, from the very beginning of his first four year presidential tenure, Trump has been perceived as an unpredictable incubated egg waiting to be hatched without a yoke of democracy. This means that the kind of chicken that would come out of that incubated egg is just a matter of guess. Nevertheless, such a perception at the beginning of  2017 may be be too early in the day for the eagerly agitated Americans. After all, the cited cases of Saul and Umar still remain very validly influential on contemporary history”.

Factors of Influence

“Like Adolf Hitler, Donald Trump must have been satanically influenced by the weird poems by two European racial poets of the 19th/20th century. One of them was  William Butler (WB) Yeats of Ireland, who coined a poem entitled ‘The Second Coming’, which served as the template for Nigeria’s Chinua Achebe’s famous book entitled ‘Things Fall Apart’. Here is the poem: “Turning and turning round in the widening gyre

The falcon cannot hear the falconer;

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold….”

Observation

“If the above quoted stanza is seen as an impetus for Trump to behave like a typical restive dragon dancing on the surface of an ominous brook, another poem by Rudyard Kipling may have equally served as an intoxicant that could help to exacerbate the already dangerous situation of today’s world for which the new American President is ready to be the chief agent. Incidentally, both Yeats and Kipling were contemporary literary men of about the same age. They were both born in 1865 but died differently within a gap of about three years apart. Below is Kipling’s own further divisive poem that strengthened the unwarranted enmity between the West and the East of the world:

“Oh, East is East and West is West, and never the twain shall meet,

Till Earth and Sky stand presently at God’s great Judgment Seat…”

Coded Bile

“Today’s the coded bile of history is ordinarily bitter, but whenever it plays its natural role in the body system of an individual or that of a nation, it automatically becomes clear that survival without it is impossible”.

In Retrospect

“Yes, it sounded odd in the centuries of yore, when speculations began to indicate that Greece and  Rome could adopt Christianity as State religion. It also sounded unbelievable that the whole of Arabia could adopt Islam as official religion. But reality eventually prevailed and, today, the rest remains a property of history.

In the same vein, far from feigning prophesy, like some Nigerian fraudsters who are claiming to be clerics, I foresee a day in the future, when America will become the foremost home of Islam and give that genuine divine religion the Impeccable reality of life that it deserves. In reaction to this millennial prediction, as it happened in the Greek and Roman  Empires of yore, the doubting Thomases of this era may commence their repugnant arguments from here. But those who will engage in any argument on this assertive prediction should remember that the seeds of tomorrow’s gargantuan tree of peace are already being firmly planted in today’s fertile soil as those of today were planted centuries ago.

Personal Comment

Allah’s way of doing things is full of wonders. For Him, nothing is impossible to do. And, if the cause of American transformation is not dramatically realisable with a wild bull like Donald Trump today, it may surprisingly be realisable with a modern day ‘Umar’ of America tomorrow. What matters most is for Islam to fulfill its statutorily ordained mission by wonderfully transforming this wild world into one of serenity and equanimity as promised by Allah.

FEMI ABBAS

 

Monologue 

Today’s article is a follow up to that of last Friday as demanded by many dignified readers of this column   around the world. Yours sincerely could not resist such a demand since it is, only through the readers’ recognition that a writer can become a signpost of meaningful hope for the world of today and that of tomorrow.

 

Chain of Events

Perhaps, no platform provides a better opportunity for the explanation demanded by readers, in today’s article, than a historic publication of an edition of ‘The News’ magazine in 1999.

 

The Publication

At the twilight of the 20th century, in 1999, the management of ‘The News’ magazine, , thought of putting together, in a centenary compendium, the most prominent 100 Nigerian men and women of the 20th century. The publication was entitled ‘PEOPLE IN THE NEWS 1900-1999: A Survey of Nigerians of The 20th Century’.

 

Contributors

Like an encyclopedia, that compendium attracted some prominent writers in the country, who were approached by the publishers of ‘The News’ Magazine, to contribute to its publication from different perspectives.

Most of those approached were famous Nigerian newspaper editors, seasoned columnists and versatile (non-journalist) writers. They were selected for the historic assignment, based on their impeccable experiences and professional credibility.

As a columnist and Deputy Chairman of the Editorial Board of Vanguard newspaper at that time, yours sincerely was one of those selected as contributors. And, the two personalities assigned to me to write about, were the late Shaykh Adam Abdullah Al-Ilory and the late Shaykh Abubakar Mahmud Gumi. The latter was the former Grand Qadi of Northern Nigeria. What qualified Shaykh Adam Abdullah Al-Ilory as one of the most prominent 100 Nigerians of the 20th century was his revolutionary reformation of the primordial Arabic schools (Madrasahs) in the South West of Nigeria.

 

The Compendium

The 498 page historic compendium was publicly presented by ‘The News’ publishers with pump and pageantry at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs, in Lagos, in the same year of 1999. That compendium can be called Nigeria’s 20th century ‘Hall of Fame.

 

Who is Shaykh Adam Abdullah Al-Ilory?

To know who this colossal personality was, please, read below, what I wrote about him and his established Institution of learning, as published in the mentioned centenary compendium. The writing went thus: “To Muslim communities of West Africa, two names: (Shaykh Adam Abdullah Al-Ilory and Markaz) have always been synonymous and often used interchangeably. For a long time, only a few people knew that Markaz was a name of an Institution while Shaykh Adam Abdullah Al-Ilory was the name of its founder. Both names jointly symbolized revolution, not only in the method of propagating Islam in West African sub-region but also in entrenching Arabic, as the divine language of the Qur’an, in the hearts and brains of those Muslims.

 

His Profile

Before his demise in 1992, Shaykh Adam Abdullah Al-Ilory was both an Islamic scholar of international repute and a revolutionary teacher of teachers. The quality of over 60 internationally recognized books he authored and published continues to speak of him posthumously today.

 

The Citadel called Markaz

With the famous Centre for Arabic and Islamic Studies, (Markaz) in Agege, Lagos State, still waxing stronger, today, there is a vivid testimony to the indelible legacy which the ingenuously cerebral personality of Shaykh Adam left behind.

 

Reminiscence

The great Institute of learning called Markaz was established in  Abeokuta, the capital city of today’s Ogun State, in 1952, by Shaykh Adam Abdullah A[-Ilory. It was through that Institution that he introduced an unprecedented modernity and standardization into the study of Arabic and Islamic learning in West African sub-region, starting from Nigeria.

 

Scholarship

Perhaps no 20th century Muslim scholar, dead or alive, has had such a profound impact on West African Muslim communities in terms of Arabic scholarship and Islamic propagation as Shaykh Adam. Before he established Markaz, there were clerics and there were Madrasahs, no doubt. But such clerics and their Madrasahs only operated within a very narrow scope as the teaching methodology used for the students under their pupilage was very crude, archaic and anachronistic.

 

His Reformation

Shaykh Adam, who also passed through that pseudo servitude system, under certain Qur’anic teachers, at his early life, noticed with concern, the anomaly in that archaic system and resolved to change it by the grace of Allah when he grew up and possessed the wherewithal. However, to succeed in that seemingly queer venture, he realized that he needed to equip himself adequately with necessary education and not mere literacy. Therefore, after moving from scholar to scholar, in Nigeria, in search of relevant  knowledge that could assist him in fulfilling his dream, he decided to travel abroad for acquisition of deeper knowledge.

 

Academic Sojourn

On his arrival in  Cairo, in the early 1940s, Sheikh Adam saw with admiration, a thorough administration of Madrasahs and he began to dream of establishing one of the like, on his return to Nigeria. He, therefore, studied the Egyptian curricula of education and teaching    methodology at the elementary and secondary school levels in preparation for the realization of his dream.

 

Back in Nigeria

On returning home at about the age of 30 years, in 1947, Shaykh Adam worked briefly as a missionary under Ansar-ud-Deen Society of Nigeria to enable him settle down financially in preparation for the realization of his long term dream. In a short while, his burning desire to reform Madrasah system in Nigeria spurred him to start planning for the establishment of a model Madrasah that would serve as a model for other. That Madrasah was named Markaz.

Thus, with just meager financial resources but relentless determination, the great scholar started his dreamt Madarasah in Abeokuta, now Ogun State, on April 16, 1952, with just 19 pupils and four teachers including Shaykh Adam himself. However, the founder’s foresight would not allow Markaz to remain in Abeokuta for long. He moved the Institution to Agege in 1955.

 

The Uniqueness of Markaz

The uniqueness of Markaz is not to be seen only in the quality of education taught to the   students therein. The modern teaching methodology and reformation with which the Institution is characterized confirm that uniqueness. For instance, the use of chalk and blackboard for teaching Arabic and Islamic education; the use of standard education curriculum; classification of studies into subjects; distribution of pupils into classrooms according to their levels; introduction of school uniform to Madrasah students; enabling Madrasah pupils to sit on chairs rather than bare floor; writing with pencils and pens in  notebooks of class lessons and other innovations were first introduced in Markaz.

Not only those, it was also in Markaz that written examination was first conducted as a means of assessing and promoting pupils from class to class while certificates were issued to successful Madrasah graduates as a measure of their level of education. Besides, Markaz was also the first Madrasah to provide social facilities like dormitories, library, printing press and clinic.

The intended effect of all these was to  wipe off, from the foreheads of those students, any sweat of inferiority complex that could discourage them from attending the Madrasah. It was also meant to serve as an impetus of hope for them in respect of the future. Given the circumstance of that time, how else could the Madrasah system have been reformed in Nigeria?

 

Antagonism

Incidentally, as characteristic of black Africans, Shaykh Adam was confronted with implacable hostility by some parochially envious local clerics, who thought that teaching students such ‘strange’ subjects like syntax, morphology, logic, semantics, philosophy, geography, History, mathematics, and literature, with which they (local clerics) were not familiar, could put them at a disadvantage. And, since they saw that  revolution as a cultural affront, they resolved to resist it, by all means. Their adopted instruments of resistance were intimidation and frustration. That hostility became aggravated when Shaykh Adam added a Jum’at Mosque to Markaz and started delivering weekly sermons in Arabic and translating them into Yoruba language for thorough understanding by his congregation. But then, relying on a formidable protection of Allah, the courageous scholar remained undaunted even as he was indifferent to the unwarranted hostility of those clerics.

 

First Graduation Ceremony

With the first graduation ceremony of the primary section of Markaz in 1957, however, which many people watched with admiration and encomiums, Sheikh Adam won a landmark victory for his extraordinary revolution that eventually turned Markaz into a Citadel of knowledge. Following that graduation, some hitherto malicious local Alfas had to swallow their pride by shelving their envy and by enrolling in Markaz, as students, to also improve their knowledge by undergoing a new, modern tutelage in a scientific teaching methodology that could qualify them to become as famous as Shaykh Adam.

Some of those local Alfas came from various parts of Nigeria as well as neighbouring countries like Benin Republic, Togo, Ghana, Cote de Voire, Guinea, Mali, Burkina Faso, Cameroon as well as Sierra Leone, Liberia and Senegal.

After graduation, all of them went back to their home countries to establish similar Institutions in their domains under the supervisory umbrella of Markaz. That may explain the reason why Almajiri menace is not as rampant in the South West of Nigeria as it is in the North.

 

Products of Markaz

Today, thousands of products of Markaz and those of the affiliate Institutes are University graduates in various fields of discipline. Scores of them are highly placed in their professional callings.

Today, Markaz can proudly regale in the galaxy of its alumni who are holding sway in virtually all fields of human endeavour. Among those who graduated from Markaz with exemplary laurels are  Professors like Ishaq Olanrewaju Oloyede, a former Vice Chancellor of the University of Ilorin and now the Registrar of JAMB; Professor Abdur-Razak Deremi Abubakr, a former Vice Chancellor of Al-Hikmah University, Ilorin, Kwara State; the late Professor Shuaib Uthman, a former Deputy Vice Chancellor of Usman Dan Fodio University, Sokoto; Professor Murtada Aderemi Bidmus, a former Dean of the Faculty of Education, University of Lagos, to mention, just a few. There are many other Markaz alumni with tertiary degrees in various academic and non-academic lines, who are playing leadership roles in various sectors of Nigeria today. Also among them are professionals like Medical Doctors; Lawyers; Engineers; Ambassadors;  Journalists (including yours sincerely), Architects; Accountants; Bankers; Pharmacists; Surveyors; Civil Servants; Business men and women as well as Secondary School Principals and teachers of high repute. Today, they are all proud of Markaz as much as Markaz is proud of them. Alhamdu Lillah!

 

League of Imams and Alfas

As a way of advancing the course of Muslim unity and elevating the status of the Muslim clerics in the South West of Nigeria, Shaykh Adam initiated the formation of the League of Imams and Alfas to serve as a common forum of unification for the Imams and Alfas in the South West of Nigeria. Following the establishment of that League, in 1963, he was unanimously nominated by consensus to be the President-General, but he turned it down and rather preferred to serve as Seretary-General, the position he held in that League, till his demise in 1992.

 

Translation of the Qur’an

Shaykh Adam was the initiator and leader of the ten man team that translated the Qur’an from Arabic into Yoruba language. Some of the graduates of Markaz were part of that team. And, the circulation of the copies of that translated Qur’an was personally supervised by him.

 

Publications

As an author of scores of scholarly books and booklets, Shaykh Adam was internationally acknowledged as a towering Islamic scholar whose contribution to Islamic scholarship and propagation in West Africa was unequalled in the 20th century. Some of his books were used in some Universities in the Arab world. And in writing all those books, he used no language other than Arabic.

 

Awards

Shaykh Adam was the first black African to win the coveted Egyptian intellectual Gold Medal Award in Arabic Literature, which was presented to him by President  Hosni Mubarak of Egypt in 1989. He had earlier, in 1975, won the Mauritanian International Award for Islamic Scholarship, which was presented to him by the then President Moukhtar Ould Dada of that country.

 

Conclusion

Now, given the above historical analysis, which parent will not be proud to see his children passing through a Madrasah like Markaz? God bless the readers of this column!

FEMI ABBAS

 

Monologue 

It should not be strange to readers of ‘The Message’ that this column is coming up, today, with such a memorable title as presented here. A newspaper columnist, who is also a veteran Journalist, is like a human octopus that deals with issues and occurrences from different conceivable angles just as he relates to those issues according to his perception. Thus, sharing any experience garnered from such perception, with the readers of this column, is, essentially, one of the fundamental indices of the profession called journalism. It is also a major ingredient of the beauty of that profession.

Chief Richard Osuolale Abimbola Akinjide, who died early this year, was a Nigerian frontline lawyer and a politician of prominence. He was also one of the most ardent readers of ‘The Message’ column when alive.

 

The Encounter

On a particular Saturday in 2010, the iconic political juggernaut and Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) called me by telephone and requested me to please see him at his Idi Isin residence, near NIHORT in Ibadan. On entering his living room, a ‘hill’ of newspaper cuttings sitting on one of the stools by his side, caught my attention. The sight of that ‘hill’ was a confirmation of the fact that the man was truly an ardent newspaper reader. After exchange of pleasantries with me and offer of drink, Chief Akinjide asked me to formally introduce myself to him, which I promptly did. He then decided to play the role of a journalist by interrogating me in a cross-examination manner with which lawyers are typically renowned in a law court. And, when he started quoting copiously from the various articles in my  column, and picking out copies of those articles from the ‘hill’ of newspaper cuttings by his side, It became clear to me that the ‘hill’ was deliberately placed on that stool in readiness for my coming.

 

Impression

By Chief Akinjide’s disposition in the course of our conversation, I noted a double edged impression which he created. One of those impressions was for me while the other was for him. On my side, I noticed a very sharp, juvenile brain with a uniquely active memory in him despite his octogenarian age.

This man, who had become a Federal Minister when I was in the elementary school, so much dazed me with his analysis of my writings that I felt he would have been one of the best newspaper columnists in Nigerian history if he had chosen journalism as a profession. He vividly reminded me of the quality of Western education which his generation acquired during the colonial rule in Nigeria. In fact, Chief Richard Akinjide was Allah’s special gift to Nigeria even if Nigeria did not appreciate that gift as much as expected. One of the pungent questions he threw to me, which warranted the writing of this article, was about my educational background. He said: “which secondary school did you attend?” And, in answering that question, I simply told him that it was MARKAZ. He asked me to repeat the answer and I proudly told him once again that it was MARKAZ. And, from his inquisitively agitated visage, I could see that he never heard that name before. There and then, he asked me to tell him the language by which that name was coined, its meaning as well as the location of the school.

It was during my explanation that he discovered that I could speak, write and comprehend Arabic language very well.

 

Akinjide’s Surprise

I told him that MARKAZ was the name of an Arabic school (madrasah) established by the late Sheikh Adam Abdullah Al-Ilory, in Agege, Lagos State. And when I also told him that I was not privileged to attend a conventional secondary school because my father could not afford it, he was highly surprised. His next question was: “then, how did you come about the high standard English language with which you are writing your column?”. My explanation on how I learnt English language privately, after I left the Arabic school, sounded so much unbelievable to him that he confessed that he had thought that I attended either Oxford or Cambridge University in UK, for my degree course, perhaps after completing my secondary school education at King’s College, or St. Gregory’s College in Lagos. However, in response to that guess, I told him that I attended King’s University, Jeddah, for my degree and I read English. But he was still surprised that I obtained my first degree in English Language and Literature in the Arab World. He did not know that virtually all my lecturers at King’s University were Britons and Americans. There and then, he tactically left that angle and asked me to tell him something about Arabic language and its usefulness. But to my amazement, Chief Akinjide’s surprise became heightened when I told him that all science subjects that brought about technology and the modern civilization originated from Arabic language. For instance, I told him that such subjects like Chemistry (Kaymiyau), Physics (Fisiyau), Algebra (Aljibrau), mathematics (Ar-Riyadiyat) and several others in sciences were originally Arabic. I also told him that the very first University ever established in human history was University of Cordoba which was established by the Muslim Arabs of the second Umayyad dynasty in Spain, in the 9th century. I did not stop there. I added that it was the Muslim Arabs that invented figure zero (0) which paved way for digital system in mathematics made technology possible. That conversation lasted about three hours but from his body language, Chief Akinjide needed more information about Islam’s contribution to human civilization. He then told me that he would continue to invite me for further discussions on that subject whenever the need arose for it.

 

Another Meeting

About four weeks after that first encounter, Chief Akinjide called me again, by telephone, to his residence. I then thought of getting a witness to that intellectual conversation because of the future. I asked my brother, Dr. Wole Abbas (now a Professor and Head of the Department of Arabic and Islamic Studies, University of Ibadan, to accompany me to Chief Akinjide’s residence. I narrated to him what had transpired between us in our previous meeting. And, being an intellectual rendezvous, my brother was ready to be a witness.

On reaching the place, the conversation began again. And for another period of over three hours, the conversation continued with the active participation of Professor Wole Abbas. At the end of that second conversation, the man asked a puzzling question thus: “where were people like you when we were rigmarolling in search of religious right path? Or don’t you know that I was born a Muslim and I was given the name Rasheed at birth? It was because I did not understand the meanings of the Arabic recitations to which I was subjected that I later decided to become a Christian”. “And, now, is it possible to combine? And, is it not too late to change? That last question clearly showed the confused situation of Chief Akinjide’s mind on religious matter. But the opportunity of another meeting with him, thereafter, did not come. From that conversation, I discovered that, unlike molst Nigerian politicians, Chief Akinjide was a serious-minded realist whose lifestyle was a template of emulation by today’s Nigerian politicians.

 

Reminiscence

The above related episode came to throw a challenge to Nigerian Muslim clerics over two conspicuous issues that jointly put a question mark on the practice of Islam in Nigeria today.  One is about the Qur’anic schools in Nigeria. The other is the Mosque affair. The two are closely interrelated.

Informed Muslims will recall that Islam first reached some parts of what is now called Nigeria in the 11th century CE. That was over 1000 years ago when no one could have dreamt of a country to be called Nigeria. Even the colonialists who caused the emergence of Nigeria as a country were, at that time, still wallowing in total ignorance as they foraged wildly and aimlessly in the darkness of life. It took about 500 years after the arrival of Islam before Christianity came to Nigeria in the 16th century. Today, if the two religions are compared in terms of education and material progress in this country, one will be found obviously ahead of the other by far. As a matter of fact, it will seem as if Christianity preceded Islam in Nigeria by 500 years. There is a fundamental question here not yet asked let alone answered. Where did things begin to go wrong for the Muslims?

It is only logical that a question like this is asked at this stage before any answer can be provided. From a Yoruba adage we learn that “when a kid suddenly slips and falls down he looks forward to someone who can lift him up. But when an adult slips and falls down, he looks backwards to see the cause of his fall”. After over 1000 years in Nigeria, Islam is eminently qualified to be called an adult. Thus we can jointly look back to see where things started going wrong for Islam to remain a crawling adult?

If the past generations of Nigerian Muslims did not ask the above question, it wasn’t because they lacked intellect or foresight that could ginger them into asking such a question. Even if they asked a similar question, their political and economic hindrances would have posed as lack of wherewithal to answer it effectively. They could therefore be pardoned. The circumstances in which they embraced Islam and practiced it were quite different from those of today. That they even stood firmly by Islam in those days at all, despite the implacable persecutions they faced, was an impeccable testimony to their steadfastness in faith.

 

The Difference

Unlike Christianity which was escorted down to Nigeria by its European propagators and was strengthened by the colonialists after assuming power, Islam only migrated to Nigeria unaccompanied. That it emerged as a force to be reckoned with was only due to the grace of Allah. Nothing beyond education encouraged certain great scholars like Usman Dan Fodio and his brother, Abdullah Dan Fodio and Sultan Bello to rise up and embark on vigorous propagation of Islam which enabled that divine religion to retain its vitality till today. It should be remembered that both Usman Dan Fodio and his son (Muhammad Bello) made such complex linguistic, theological, scientific and legal studies that the one wrote 93 books while the other wrote 97 books.

 

Clapperton’s Encounter with Sultan Bello

It is on record that Hugh Clapperton, a British colonial agent, once had an interesting intellectual encounter with Sultan Muhammad Bello in 1824. After the historic intellectual encounter that took both of them through a compex web of knowledge display, Clapperton had to admit thus: “He (Muhammad Bello) continued to ask me several other theological questions, until I was obliged to confess myself not sufficiently versed in religious subtleties to resolve those knotty points”.

And when Clapperton returned to Sokoto two years later (1826) and presented Sultan Bello with a complete copy of Arabic Euclid he (Clapperton) was shocked to learn that his host already possessed one. (Euclid is an ancient geometry book of 13 volumes named after its Greek originator).

 

Literacy in Northern Nigeria

When the Europeans first came to the territory now called Nigeria in the 16th century, the north was the only part that was literate. And, that was because Islam had reached that part of the country since the 11th century, with its Arabic literacy. The English colonialists confirmed this on their arrival in Nigeria for colonization in the 19th century. And that was why they were much more cautious in their dealings with the northerners than they were with the southerners.

That the colonialists did not retain Arabic literacy in the north was due to the fact that they could not communicate in that sophisticated language. If they (the Europeans) had not ignored Arabic literacy, the north would not have been perceived as backward literarily today by the southerners. At least by 1919 when the South was just beginning to embrace literacy, in the Western way, the North already had about 25000 schools where students were taught various subjects through Arabic language.

Today, however, over 80% of Nigerian Christians are conveniently lettered either in English which is the official language of Christianity in this country or in their vernacular languages through the Roman alphabets.  That has enabled them to translate the Bible into about 21 Nigerian languages.

But on the contrary, less than 5% of Nigerian Muslims can be said to be realistically familiar with Islam through literacy in Arabic. And, without adequate literacy in Arabic language, there can be no thorough understanding of Islam which is the total way of life for any serious Muslim.

Today, despite the age of Islam in Nigeria and the population of the Muslims, the Qur’an has just been translated into about than five Nigerian languages. Even that was only possible because the two initiators of those translations (the late Sheikh Abubakar Mahmud Gumi and Sheikh Adam Abdullah Al-Ilory) were well educated in the language of the Qur’an. They were later emulated by some scholars from tribes other than  Hausa and Yoruba.

 

Problems of Qura’anic Schools

Many Nigerian Muslims who passed through the Qur’anic schools in Nigeria and care now claiming to have graduated (through celebration of Walimah) have ended up being serious embarrassments to Islam because of the shallow depth of knowledge they possess.

The problem of Qur’anic schools in Nigeria is not just about faulty curriculum but also about anachronistic teaching methodology still being used.

 

Arabic Language

Language is the prima facie of any culture. A culture that is not entrenched in a language is only bidding its time of oblivion. Islam is a foremost culture with a foremost language. But with due apology, the attitude of some of Nigerian clerics who are teaching in Qur’anic schools has virtually changed the colour and the taste of Islam, as a culture, in Nigeria for the worse. Rather than being an attractive place of learning, most Qur’anic schools have been turned into scaring centres for our children. And, only a very few of those children are now willing to attend Qur’anic schools. The result is that no seriousness is attached to those schools in our society any longer.

Qur’an is the encyclopedia of Islam. It is not meant for recitation alone. It is the final source of all researches in all fields of learning for those who know its value. Anybody who wants to claim authority in Islamic knowledge must, of necessity, be able to read, write and comprehend Arabic language very well.

In Islam, Qur’an is the house in which the Muslims’ minds reside. The foundation of that house is Arabic language. Without understanding Arabic language, it is impossible to comprehend any literature written in Arabic, be it the Qur’an or Hadith. Only modernization of Arabic schools can change the situation of Al-majirai in Nigeria.