The Nation Newspaper

Category: Femi Abbas

  • How Nigeria Joined OIC

    Time flies. It has been 32 years already since the generally known rental criers called Nigerian Press began an unwarranted brouhaha over this country’s membership of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) in January 1986. That incident is another conspicuous goof mischievously exhibited in a press conference recently by a group that calls itself National Christian Elders Forum (NCEF). It is however on record that the baseless press conference turned out to be an exercise of  self ridicule.

    It was in the same press conference that NCEF displayed its ignorance by maliciously quoting a shamelessly fabricated speech credited to Sir Ahmadu Bello, the first and only Premier of Northern Nigeria.

     

    Nigeria’s Membership of OIC

    Although ‘The Message’ column had punctured the anatomy of the fabricated speech upon which NCEF ignorantly relied to dish out blatant lies to Nigerians in its press conference, exposing the real fact about Nigeri’s membership of OIC is also necessary here not only to educate Nigerians who knew little about that episode but also to further expose the hypocrisy of the so-called NCEF.

    What was most amazing in NCEF’s claim of ‘Islamization’ over Nigeria’s membership of OIC is that the highly venerated General Yakubu Gowon who is listed as a member of that self appointed body could not uphold his charisma by cautioning other members of the group against bringing themselves to public ridicule. That shows the hypocrisy of some Nigerians of today who are claiming to be leaders in one capacity or the other.

     

     Gowon’s Role in OIC

    While the Press brouhaha continues to sound loud over Nigeria’s membership of OIC, not many Nigerians know the role of General Yakubu Gowon in the historical episode ushered Nigeria into that Organization. But as a charismatic statesman that he is perceived to be, one would have expected General Gowon to have openly told Nigerians about his role in that controversial venture.

     

    Background Information

    The Organization of Islamic Conference generally known as OIC was established in  1969 when General Yakubu Gowon was Nigeria’s Head of State. Nigeria was then embroiled in a civil war that began in 1967 and ended in 1970 after 30 months. In his desperation to win that war, General Gowon, as Commander-in-Chief of Nigerian Armed Forces, took certain steps that later turned out to be generators of unbridled controversies. One of such steps was to take Nigeria into an Organization of a group of countries called OIC (although in observer status). Another was the ceding of Bakasi area of Nigeria to Cameroon in the same year (1969) in exchange for the latter country’s  support for Nigeria. But we are more concerned about OIC here.

     

    How It Happened

    It was during Nigeria’s civil war years (1967-1970) that  General Yakuba Gowon approached his fellow military Head of State in Egypt, General Gamal Abdul Nasir who transformed himself into a civilian President in that country. General Gowon approached the man for assistance in winning the Nigerian civil war in the spirit of Pan Africanism which President Nasir championed at that time. And in addition to helping General Gowon with some sophisticated military wares, President Nasir also introduced General Gowon to OIC Conference which was established that year in the belief that Gowon could get further help from other member States of the Organization. But seeking such help internationally was not peculiar to Gowon. The leader of the then rebellious Eastern region then called Biafra, Lt. Colonel Odumegwu Ojukwu, also sought and got the assistance of some countries like France, Pottugal and others in his bid to succeed in the region’s secession  from Nigeria.

     

     Nigeria’s Observer Status in OIC

    For 17 years, Nigeria remained an observer member of that Organization until 1986 when she regularized her membership.

    Yours sincerely, as  the then Deputy Foreign Editor of the now defunct Concord newspaper was one of the only two Nigerian journalists that covered that regularization event in Fez, Morocco. The other Nigerian Journalist was Alhaji Liad Tella who was then the Group News Editor of the same Concord newspaper.

    Before then, Nigeria had been severally pressurized by the Organization to regularize her membership. By then, her observer status, after a decade, had embarrassingly become a matter of suspicion to other members of the Organization. And in 1985, she was given an ultimatum of one year (1986) to either regularize her membership of that Organization or get out of the group. If she had failed to regularize her membership of the Organization when she dis in 1986, she would have been expelled and disgraced out of that body and that would have amounted to a public diplomatic ridicule in the comity of nations.

    The summary here is that it was General Yakubu Gowon (a Christian) as Nigeria’s Head of State that took Nigeria into OIC and not the self-styled Evil Genius, General Ibrahim Babangida, as often ignorantly reported by Nigerian press. And if the Organization is really about ‘Islamization’ as often claimed by some ignorant bigots what would countries like Cameroon, Uganda, Mozambique, Gabon Togo, Cote’Divoire and several others be doing in it? Over to NCEF.

     

    Islam in Africa Conference

    One of the allegations of ‘Islamization’ of Nigeria by NCEF was the conference named ‘Islam in Africa’ and hosted by Nigeria in the city of Abuja in 1986. That was the year that the Nigeria’s National Mosque, Abuja, was commissioned. Many African Muslim leaders who attended the commissioning were so impressed that they fortuitously proposed an annual conference that could unite African Muslims in the practice of their religion as a way of checking fanaticism that could breed terrorism. That conference was not exclusive to Muslims. Many African Christian leaders including some members of the so called NCEF were invited and they attended it with the expression of their opinions and advice. If the conference was truly aimed at ‘Islamizing’ Nigeria as mischievously alleged, would Chritian leaders have been invited? And knowing very well that Nigerian media was heavily dominated by Christian journalists at that time, would those journalists have been allowed to cover the event? In its solo or chorus, the song of ‘Islamization’ of Nigeria can be heard only from mischievous brigands who are parading themselves as religious clerics or priests.

     

    The 1953 West African Synod

    Nigerian Muslims are not oblivious of the problem with NCEF, CAN and some other Christian leaders in Nigeria who are constantly and monotonously shouting the sour song of ‘Islamization’ of Nigeria. That problem is about a dangerous spectre which they had clad in the cassock of a masquerade and has now grown up monstrously to be theirs chaser days and nights.

     

    Genesis

    Seven years before Nigeria’s independence, a synod of West African Christians was held in The Gold Coast (now Ghana) with active participation of Nigerian Christian leaders, some of whom are still alive today. Synod is a conference of Bishops and other Christian topmost Priests at which fundamental decisions are taken which would become the basis of Church operations in evangelism. It was at that Synod that a esolution was adopted  to use Western education as an instrument of Christian evangelization. By that resolution, any Muslim child that wanted acquire Western education in a Christian Missionary school must be converted into Christianity in spite of his or her payment of any charged fees. Their fear was that despite all efforts made by the then available Churches, Islam kept spreading spirally to the greatest amazement of the Chritian evangelists in the sub-region. And to curb such a trend, an evangelization policy must be incorporated into the educational system in the Continent. It was therefore decided that to change the trend of religious preaching in Africa, education must be used to convert the Muslim youths whose parents were eager to see their children educated in the Western Western way.  The objective was to indoctrinate all converted school children in a way to sow in their hearts the seed of hatred towards their parents for sticking to the religion of Islam and thereby force those parents psychologically to jettison their religion and embrace Christianity or to renounce those children who would then become the foot soldiers of Christian evangelism. With such a resolution that was backed up with a White Paper which became a permanent policy of the Christian Mission in Africa, Christianity, according to their plan, would become such a strong rival of Islam that within just half a century, Islam would have been surpassed by Christianity and relegated to a second class religion especially in Nigeria. Thus, most of the vocal antagonists of Islam in Nigeria today are men and women with Islamic background  who fell into the dragnet of that tendencious plot of the 1953 Synod.

    It is the fear of that plot that is now pushing the sour song of ‘Islamization’ of Nigeria into their mouths in respect of Islam in Africa Conference of 1989. They think that like their Synod, Muslims too might take a decision which could be devastating to Christian evangelism in Africa.

    As for the random and fraudulent cry by Nigerian Churches for the return of the missionary schools taken over by the government in 1975, look out for the genesis and the implication of that owlish cry in this column soon.

  • Nigeria: Episodes of Islamophobia

    Preamble

    Decency is like gold which gives value and confidence to its custodian.. If it rusts the custodian loses dignity.

     

    NCEF’s Press Conference

    A group of self acclaimed National Christian Elders Forum (NCFF) addresses a press conference last week to draw the attention of Nigerians to certain facts about what the forum called Islamization of Nigeria.

    The first cited evidence in that press conference was a  speech credited to the first and only Premier of Northern NIigeria, Alhaji Ahmadu Bello. While quoting copiously from that speech, without disclosing when and where it was made, the forum  exposed itself to ridicule of blatant lies and insensible fabrication just to curry undeserved dignity.

     

     Proof of assertion

    To prove this assertion, the Message hereby brings the genuine speech made by Premier Ahmadu Bello vis a vis the fabricated one quoted by NCEF. And the places, as well as the dates of both speeches, will be disclosed here with evidence to further confirm that NCEF’s ‘gold’ actually a meer copper.

     

     The genuine Premier’s speech

    At a time before Nigeria’s independence in 1959 when entire Southern Nigeria considered it as an abomination to grant any Muslim festival a public holiday because the then rulers felt the only existing religion, as far as they were concerned, was Christianity, Alhaji Ahmadu Bello, a Muslim did not only declare a public holiday for Christmas, he also made a public radio broadcast to felicitate with the Christian citizens of the Northern Region who were grossly in the minority. That message was not limited to the radio. It was widely published in all major Nigerian newspapers of that time and it is still available in the archives of those newspapers. Here is an excerpt from the 30 minutes broadcast:

    “…Fellow Northern Nigerians, we are people of many different races, tribes and religions, who are knit together by common history, common interests and common ideals. Our diversity may be great but the things that unite us are stronger than the things that divide us. On an occasion like this, I always remind people about our firmly rooted policy on religious tolerance. Families of all creeds and colour can rely on these assurances. We have no intention of favouring one religion at the expense of another. Subject to overriding need to preserve law and order, it is our determination that everyone should have absolute liberty to practice his belief. It is befitting on this momentous day, on behalf of my ministers and myself, to send a special word of gratitude to all Christian missions…”

    “…Let me conclude this with a personal message. I extend my greetings to all our people who are Christians on this great feast day. Let us forget the difference in our religion and remember the common brotherhood before God, by dedicating ourselves afresh to the great tasks which lie before us….”

    The above speech was made on Thursday, December 24, 1959 on the eve of that year’s Christmas which fell on a Friday And this is verifiable in the calendar.

     

     The fabricated version

    Several decades after Ahmadu Bello’s unjustifiable assassination, some evil elements in the media, in active conspiracy with certain mischief makers among  political demagogues went to fabricate another version of the broadcast statement and credited it to the same Premier Ahmadu Bello. The concocted statement was said to have been published by an unknown newspaper called ‘The Parrot’ which cannot be traced in the history of print media in Nigeria. Here is it:

    “…The new nation called Nigeria should be an estate of our great grandfather Othman Dan Fodio. We must ruthlessly prevent a change of power. We use the minorities in the north as willing tools and the south as a conquered territory and never allow them to rule over us and never allow them to have control over their future.”

    Funningly, this fabricated statement joyously quoted by the so-called NCRF was said to have been made by the same Ahmadu Bello on October 12, 1960. The question is this: how can a Christmas message by any sane leader in Nigeria be made in October? Is Christmas a festival for October?

    That further confirms that blatant liars and mischief makers never think of the implications of their devilish lies.

     

    Truth and falsehood

    Now, looking at both statements very carefully, any sensible person without blind religious bias should be able to see clearly, a distinction between truth and falsehood, between gold and copper and between dignity and shame.

    Conscious Nigerian Muslims should note here that  Premier Ahmadu Bello’s genuine Christmas message quoted above was made on Thursday, December 24, 1959 through a radio broadcast and it was published by all newspapers in the country including the vociferous ‘West African Pilot’ owned by Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe, the boisterous ‘Tribune’ owned by Chief Obafemi Awolowo, the clamorous ‘Daily Times’ jointly owned privately by certain prominent individuals at that time. That speech was equally published by many other smaller newspapers in Nigeria at that time. All those newspapers are identifiable in Nigeria’s media history even though most of them are now defunct. On the other hand, the place and occasion of the fabricated statement credited to Ahmadu Bello ang ingloriously quoted by the so-called NCEF was not indicated and cannot be traced in Nigeria’s newspaper history. The fabricated speech credited to Premier Ahmadu Bello is a confirmation of the hatred for Islam and public Officers in Nigeria who happen to be Muslims.

     

    Evidence of fabrication

    The first time any genuinely existing newspaper ever made reference to that fabricated statement was on November 13, 2002 (42 years and one month after it was purportedly made. And ‘The Tribune’ newspaper that published it only claimed to have culled it from an online column published on October 24 2002 by a purported Yoruba Journalist (name withheld) who entitled it ‘the northern Agenda’. It can therefore be deduced that the statement was actually fabricated not in the 1950s or 1960s but in October 2002, by the so-called columnist who credited it to a newspaper that never existed. The objective was to give it an undeserving credibility. What a country! What a people! What a shame! This is a typical case of an obvious mischief by heartless mischief makers who trade in Islamophobia just to fetch for themselves euphemeral fame and illegal income.

    The belief of the fabricators and those quoting them was that once such a fabricated article appears on the internet and is ignorantly quoted by some inconsequential writers as well as self acclaimed Christian Elders, it would automatically become a document of facts. That is Nigeria for you.

    This is a further articulation of the authenticity of the Qur’an where it was revealed thus:

    “The truth has come and falsehood has vamoosed; surely, falsehood is meant to vamoose (in the presence of the truth)”.  Q. 17: 81

     

     A premier’s charisma

    Of the Premiers in Nigeria’s first republic, only Ahmadu Bello was bold and sincere enough to allay the fear of the minority groups in Northern Nigeria by making a public policy statement about his government’s stand concerning tribalism and religious bigotry. And this man of the blessed memory was the poorest of the premiers despite the enormous public wealth at his disposal.

     

    His flanks

    Among the four Premiers in Nigeria at that time, only Ahmadu Bello could not in any way be evidently linked to corruption. Unlike others who lived opulently, Ahmadu Bello was an ascetic personality who served his people patriotically without any blemish. He left only a small residential bungalow in his hometown of Raba in Sokoto at the time of his death. Who else left such a flank? Sir Ahmadu Bello could also not be singularly accused of tribalism because tribalism was the basis of all the existing political parties of the time. No Premier from 1954 to 1966 could be exonerated from it directly or indirectly. They were all guilty of it.

    It can be recalled that certain tribal groups such as Ibiobio State Union (IBU), Ibo Federal Union (IFU) Egbe Omo Oduduwa (EOO) and ‘Jam’iyyar Al-Ummar Nigeriya to Arewa’ translated as Northern Elements Progressive Association (NEPA) which later transformed into Northern Elements Progressive Union  (NEPU) were all tribal socio-cultural organizations that metamorphosed into political parties. All those parties preceded ‘Jam’iyyar Mutane Arewa’ meaning Northern People’s Congress (NPC) to which Ahmadu Bello belonged. Many other ethnic-based political parties later emerged to broaden tribalism in Nigerian politics. If anything, Ahmadu Bello was the least tribally inclined Premier of his time.

     

    Xenophobia versus Islamophobia

    Nigerians who are mature enough to know how British visa was obtained by Nigerians before 1986 will testify to the fact that as citizens of the British Commonwealth, one didn’t need any visa to enter that country until 1986. As a student in the 1970s and early 1980s, yours sincerely travelled to Britain severally without a visa. It was at the point of entery at Heathrow or Gatwick airport that his or her passport would be stamped with entry visa. And the minimum period of validity for such visa was six month in the first instance.

    However, that situation changed in Summer of 1986 under Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher who deliberately introduced visa as a prerequisite for entering Britain. That policy was a reaction to Nigeria’s championing the third world members of the Commonwealth countries to boycott that year’s Commonwealth Games hosted by the United Kingdom. At that time, General (now Chief Olusegun Obasanjo) was Nigeria’s Military Head of State. It was at the instance of Nigerian government, many British colonial countries from Africa and Asia boycotted that great event that rendered Britain nonplussed.  The reason for boycotting the event was that the British government allowed the Apartheid regime of South Africa to participate in the Games in defiance to the Nigeria’s vehement protest.

    It will be recalled that at that time, Nigeria was the foremost African country that championed the emancipation of black South Africans from the manacles of the white Arpatheid government in that country.

    In that year, yours sincerely was the Deputy Foreign Editor of Concord Newspaper owned by the late Bashorun MKO Abiola who later won the June 12, 1993 Presidential election that was sadistically annulled by General Ibrahim Babangida, the self-acclaimed Evil Genius.

    After calculating the anticipated gain which Britain would have made from the abortive Games, Madam Thatcher decided to punish Nigeria and other African countries that joined her in the boycott by introducing payment for entry visa into Britain which was hitherto not the case.

    Now, the same Nigerians who stood firmly by South Africa in her days of racial persecution are now being subjected to xenophobia to the great resentment of the government and people of Nigeria. Yet the same people who abhor xenophobia are the champions of Islamophobia in their home country. What an irony? What a shame?

     

    Further episodes

    Still on Islamophobia, a catalogue of episodes is being collated by ‘The Message\ column which will soon be published. For instance, who took Nigeria into the Organisation of Islamic Conference? When? Why? The details of this will soon be exposed in this column in sha’Allah. Then, there are many other sensitive episodes of Islamophobia in Nigeria that will soon be exposed in this column. Readers should please look out for them soon.

  • June 12: Nigeria’s own Sphinx

    “…And beware of a calamity that may not spare many innocent people among you, if it descends; and know that Allah’s retribution can be very severe”. Q. 8: 24

    Preamble

    For obvious reason, today’s article in this column is delibrately  given the title seen above. The word sphinx simply means a winged monster in Greek mythology, which had the head of a woman and the body of a lion. This monster was noted for terrorizing people who refused to subject themselves to the scourcge of its spell.

     

    Genesis of Sphinx

    Nigerians who are well familiar with European literature must still remember an historical riddle of a sphinx in the city of Thebes. That city was once the capital of ancient Greece. In a tragic drama entitled ‘Oedipus Rex’ and produced in 411 BC by a Greek dramatist called Sophocles who lived between 496 and 406 BC, we learnt of a curse that once befell the land of Thebes. As a result of the curse, not only were citizens afflicted by mysterious ailments that were killing them in droves, the cattle and the herds too were  gripped by an epidemic of reindeer-pest just as the crops on the citizens’ farms were terribly blighted.

    It was at that precarious time that one young man whose name was Oedipus emerged as the king. He had earned his people’s trust with a reputation of integrity and was determined to solve  the prevailing insuprable problems of the time which he inherited from his predecessor.

    As an adolescent, Oedipus had saved Thebes from a strange calamity wrought by a monstrous sphinx which mysteriously took its permanent seat on a rock by the roadside in the middle of the city. The sphinx had divided the city into two thereby splitting the citizens into separate camps where no side could interact with the other.

    That sphinx had a riddle which it put across to every passerby. And any accosted person that failed to solve the riddle was promptly devoured. Thus, for a long time, the city of Thebes remained under the plague of the monstrous sphinx which was feeding fat on the flesh and blood of the citizens.

    The sadness and hopelessness engendered by that unprecedented calamity turned  Thebes into a permanently  mourning city of passive inhabitants.

     

    Effect of the Calamity

    In such a situation, when the population of the city was decreasing at an increasing rate, how could any thought of mating by spouses for the purpose of procreation ever cross the mind of anybody? At that time in Thebes, citizens could only be sure of the moment in which they were  consciously alive without any hope for the next moment. Many people went on hunger strike without fasting. Many committed suicide to avoid the inevitable agony of that calamity while many more embarked on endless seclusion.

    That was the situation in Thebes until Oedipus found a solution to the problem of his time by getting rid of the sphinx which took  a leap, from its stool in despair and dashed out into permanent oblivion.

    Thus, the veil of the mysterious curse was lifted on the city of Thebes and Oedipus wo later became the king was immortalized as the saviour of the Thebesians.

     

     Nigeria like Thebes

    The similitude of that sphinx is like that of a  government in Nigeria which had a civilian body and a military head. A  self-styed military President who historically put an unprecedented democratic process in place to the admiration of all and sundry ended up destroying the process by his own whim on his own volition.

    With that scenario culminating in the infamous annulment of the freest and fairest election ever in Nigerian political history, the year 1993 became an unforgettable epoch turned into a spell that plagued Nigeria with a rainbow of depair for one quarter of a century.

     

    Politics as a Phenomenon

    The world of humans is predominantly governed by a pervasive phenomenon called politics. No individual or group or even family can escape the web of that phenomenon no matter how little. Overtly or covertly, politics, particularly in Africa, is without doubt, a devastating cankerworm cruising recklessly through the veins of most living men or women and eating gridily and deep into their fabrics. In the continent of the black race, Politics is one phenomenon that permeates all spheres of human life directly or indirectly and showers those spheres with a dew of acid.

    In Nigeria, like in some other countries of the world, there is as much politics in economic, social, cultural and religious aspects as there is in education and even sports.

    The emergence, in 1993, of a political billow  called June 12  which  metamorphosed into an implacable sphinx that plagued Nigeria for 25 ramshakle years  was not by fortuity.

     

    Obasanjo Versus Abiola

    Before analyzing the mentioned billow, it may be interesting to recall an episode here as a   preliminary insight into the real background of the emergence of a sphinx in Nigeria.

    Shortly after wide agitations began in the Sothwest of Nigeria in reaction to the satanically motivated annualment of the June 12 Presidential election  of 1993, an  unwarranted altercation fortuitously came up between two Chieftains of Abeokuta in Ogun State who were once schoolmates. One of them was General (now Chief) Olusegun Obasanjo. The other was Bashorun MKO Abiola. That altercation came in form of venomous salvos at a time when targeting the eye of the bull was almost an abomination especially in the Sothwest of Nigeria. The first of those salvos was fired without provocation,  by General Obasanjo thus:

    “I know Abiola very well. He was my classmate. He is not the messiah we need in Nigeria now…”.

    And in a prompt retortion, Bashorun Abiola fired back as follows:

    “Obasanjo has always been a liar. His love for falsehood is unparalleled. He was never my classmate. He was a year junior to me in school. He didn’t want to join the military but had to reluctantly because his school performance couldn’t carry him far academically and in those days, military was an option for students like him. My campaign slogan is HOPE and people see me as their HOPE. They voted for me to give them HOPE. Those people are the ones I represent, not Obasanjo”.

    The popular June 12 Presidential election of HOPE was devilishly annulled through a hand-written tarse statement of one paragraph allegedly delivered to Radio Nigeria by the then Press Secretary to Admiral Augustus Aikhomu who was then the Vice-President. The cry and hue that greeted the announcement of that annulment was the immediate precipitate of what grew into a gargantuan sphinx in Nigeria.

    Perhaps, if that democratic process that brought about two party system and a unique electoral formula called option A4 had not been obliterated by the fiat of its architect, Nigeria would have beome a political Eldorado lifting the African continent to a distinguished pedestal that would have been the destination of most countries of the  world today.

    Option A4 was an African invented democratic  voting formula that was not only exceptionally transparent but also economically viable. Formula A4 was an open voting system that required neither ballot boxes nor ballot papers. And it gave no room either for political thugery or monetary inducement. All that was required for any citizen to exercise his/her legitimate franchise was to register for voting and then queue up behind the portrait of his or her chosen candidate for counting after verification and clarance. If there was need for the government to spend any money on election at all, at that time, it was just on electoral officers’ allowances and transportation. No electoral process in the history of democracy in any part of the world had ever been as economical as that of June 1993.

    Unfortunately, that ingenuously deviced electoral formula became a victim of annulment in the hands of its principal designer.

    If such a monster with a civilian body and a military head which Bashorun Abiola described as a criminal diachy   was not a satanic sphinx what other name could it have been called? It was the  plague of that monster that gripped Nigeria’s jugular for the past 25 years until an Oedipus in the name of Muhammadu Buhari who emerged three years ago (2015) as President with a determination to rescue the Nigerian cizenry fron the mancles of Nigeria’s military sphinx by solving the riddle of that sphinx. And looking at the situation of Nigeria today, it will not be out of place to conclude that the Greek sphinx of yore had come to  reincarnate in our country at the instance of a military hegemony headed by General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida wh self-styled himself President.

     

    June 12 as Democracy Day

    With the conferment of the highest national honour in the countryie: Grand Commander of the Federal Republic  (GCFR) on the late Bashorun MKO Abiola, the winner of the June 12 1993 presidential election by President Muhammadu Buhari, last week Wednesday, June 6, 2018, the coast of injustice became clare with a glowing light as Nigerians were  greatly relieved of  a seemingly endless  agony.  “…The truth has come and the falsehood has vamoosed. Surely, falsehood, like darkness, is meant to vamoose in the presence of the truth”. Qura’n….Afterall, truth is the main healer of the open wound which conscience constitutes in the life of man.

     

    GCFR Award Before MKO

    The conferment of that honour  on Bashorun MKO Abiola who was not sworn into office as President despite winning election  was not the first in Nigeria. Such honour  had earlier been conferred  on another colosal Nigerian who was not a President. That person was the late  Chief Obafemi Awolowo of the then Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN). And the conferment was done in 1982 by the then President Sheu Shagari of the National Party of Nigeria (NPN). If there was any remarkable difference between  the two conferments it was the historic declaration of June 12 as Nigeria’s democracy day as well as the official national apology that accompanied it. The apology was to pacify over 14 million Nigerians  voters in June 1993 whose great hope was heartlessly turned into a paroxysm of depair. Neither a declaration of public holiday nor a national apology could have accorded Chief Awolowo’s conferment because he never won any election at the national level that could warrant such.

    Although the 1982 conferment gesture was seen by some people as politically motivated to pacify Chief Awolowo who lost to Alhaji Shagari in the Presidential election of 1979, the honour did not generate any controversy as in the case of Abiola’s posthumous one. That further confirms that politics in Africa is a product of envy and mischief and it may remain so for a very long time.

     

    Danger of Military Rule

    Today, Nigeria, like Thebes of yore, is passing through an experience of a similar spell in terms of corruption, insecurity and economic woes . The difference, however, is that Nigeria’s case is taking a triangular dimension with different interpretations. The impression created by this siruation is that there seems to be no obvious presence of an Oedipus here with a real capacity to handle the sphinx in such a way as to bring succour to Nigerians as did Oedipus of Greece and thereby become a hero. That impression is an evidence of corruption.

    Rather than one sphinx encountered by the Thebesians, Nigeria is encountering three at the same time. There is the vivid presence of Boko Haram vandals in the North; there are the economic pirates called militants in the Southsouth and there are the devilish human vampires called kidnappers in the Southeast.  All of these seem to have jointly hijacked the governance of the country albeit tacitly. The only part of the country that is seemingly less restive for now is the Southwest. And, incidentally, that is the region from where the Nigerian stream is being clandestinely polluted for all and sundry through the media.

    Today, Nigeria has become an unsafe haven in which dangerous tribal and sectarian specters are operating with unbridled audacity under various guises thereby making any hope to look like despair.

     

    In Retrospect

    Retrospectively, it was all like a comic drama in October 1986 when a frontline Nigerian journalist (Dele Giwa) was blown up with a letter bomb in the living room of his residence in Ikeja, Lagos. That criminal act was widely followed by public lamentations and condemnations. But the politics of the time under the military government never allowedthe incident to go beyond that level as no reports of the inquiries into the dastardly incident saw the light of the day. With that, wicked incident, an evil precedent was laid in a country where imitation of evil practices has become a fundamental norm. That evil act can never be recalled any day without tracing it to the military government. Since that unfortunate incident, many others of   its like had occurred killing Nigerian men, women and children in scores and dozens. For instance on May 31, 1995, a bomb exploded and killed many innocent Nigerians. Also on January 18, 1996 a bomb detonator died at Durbar Hotel in Kaduna while trying to unleash havoc on innocent people. And about two days later, another bomb exploded at Aminu Kano Airport in Kano.Also on November 14, 1996, a bomb exploded at Murtala Muhammd Airport, Ikeja, killing a Chief Security Officer. Even  The number is unlimited. Even on October 1, 2010, a public bomb blast in Nigeria occurred at the Eagles Square in Abuja while the country’s 50th anniversary of independence was being celebrated under President Goodluck Jonathan. The bomb killed several people and injured many more others. But rather than nipping a reoccurrence of that incident in the bud, it provided the politicians with another opportunity to trade politics as usual at the expense of peace and tranquility in the country.

    Today, Nigeria is grappling with more insuperable problems of insecurity than ever before.

     

    Essence of History

    The real essence of history is for human beings to learn from its lessons. Without such lessons, history would have served no purpose in the life of man. Governance is like driving in which no one can claim to know all or see all. The essence of having people around you as a leader is to seek and utilize their constructive advice so that if any failure occurs you will not bear the brunt all alone. No human being has monopoly of wisdom and nothing in governance destroys as much as an individual’s sheer whim.

     

     Yar’Adua for Instance

    The late President Yar’Adua did not act alone when he declared unconditional amnesty for the Southsouth pirates. He must have surely done it in consultation with some people. And no section of the country raised any objection to it. Perhaps without that singular policy, more than 50,000 former Southsouth pirates who later  enjoyed the Nigerian amnesty programme in various forms would have remained in the jungle killing and maiming innocent people as the Boko Haram terrorists are now doing and vandalizing oil pipelines as well as other economic installations.

    Rather than throwing ridiculous tantrums like that between Chief Obasanjo and General Babangida in which the two were mutually calling themselves ‘fool’, Nigerian leaders should learn from history and act what they learn from it. Thry must always remember that history makes man just as man makes history. God bless Nigeria!

  • Sallah: Companion, MSSN felicitate with Muslims

    The Companion and Muslim Students’ Society of Nigeria (MSSN) Lagos State Area Unit have congratulated Muslims worldwide over their successful completion of the 1439AH Ramadan.

    According to The Companion National Amir, Alhaji Thabit Wale Sonaike, the last one month has been a period of consciousness and closeness to Allah by all Muslims with the hope of earning His pleasure and paradise.

    Sonaike said: “We call on Muslims to celebrate in moderation bearing in mind that several Muslims are in deprivation in one form or another. We remember fellow Nigerians in Internally Displaced (I.D.) Camps and call on the federal government to accelerate restoration to normalcy so that the people can return to their homes to live normal lives.

    “The Companion is also worried that national budget has not been signed into law by the President several weeks after receiving the Appropriation bill from the National Assembly. This is definitely not good for any economy much less an economy that has just recovered from the recession. This avoidable delay and lackadaisical attitude towards the budgetary process can never promote accelerated economic development much less our aspiration to be among the top 20 economies of the world. We call on the government at both executive and legislative arms to jointly and objectively overhaul the current budgetary process in the overall interest of the national economy.”

    MSSN Amir Dr Saheed Ashafa thanked Allah for the relative peace enjoyed in the country in the holy month, adding that Muslims must not relent in engaging in continuous prayer for Nigeria.

    He urged Nigerian leaders to be sincere with their electoral promises as the 2019 general election approaches.

    Ashafa said: “Our leaders should always remember that they will account for their actions before God. Regardless of our diverse nature, they should champion positions that would foster unity, growth and development of our dear country.

    “They should shun politics of violence and hatred in all their conducts. As the 2019 election is near, we appeal to them not to trigger hatred, disaffection and as well breach peace in the society.”

  • If gold rusts

    Preamble

    In contemporary times, no scholar has defined Conscience as succinctly and axiomatically as Sheikh Uthman Dan Fodio did in the 18th century. In a very rare display of an impeccable height of intellectualism, the great sage defined that abstract but invaluable substance in man as follows:

    “Conscience is an open wound, only the truth can heal it”.

    Ever since Uthman Dan Fodio came up with that impeccable definition, no scholar in any part of the world has faulted it in any way or given a comparable alternative to it. Even here in Nigeria, where critical noise of hatred for Islam and the Muslims is loudest, no one has been able to give an alternative definition of Conscience that is comparable to that of Dan Fodio depite the mobid hatred for the sage in some parts of the country. As a matter of fact, the Guardian Newspaper of Nigeria which started publication with scholarship hipe in 1983 had to swallow its pride and adopt Dan Fodio’s definition as its motto when it could not get a better alternative. With that historic definition of conscience, Dan Fodio was able to resolve some knotty issues of his time if tacitltly.

    Today, we have similar knotty issues at hand in Nigeria which have, as usual, been subjected to innumerable interpretations and innuendoes without an iota of regard for conscience. Some of those issues were addressed at a public Ramadan Lecture in Lagos last Monday (May 4, 2018). The lecture which took place at the premises of the Lagos State Television (LTV) was organized by Right Development Limited’, publishers of ‘The Point’ newspaper and the Guest Lecturer was Professor Is-haq Olanrewaju Oloyede, OFR, FNAL, the indefatigable Registrar of the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) and Nigeria’s undisputable Model of Change. He delivered the lecture in his capacity as the Secretary-General of Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA). The title of the lecture, as designed by the organizers, was:

    “Achieving Peace, Stability and Good Governance in a     Multi-Religious and Multi-Ethnic Nation:

    The Islamic Perspective” In the lecture, Professor Oloyede addressed some pressing issues of concern to most Nigerians.

    The issues were about peace in the land, good governance, economy, ethnicity, religion, and security.

     

    Comment

    The intention of this columnist was to publish the entire lecture vabatim. But due to lack of enough space, only an excerpt from each segment will be presented here in summary as follows:

     

    Definition of Peace

    “….Even in a monolithic Nation of one particular faith and ethnic group, attainment of peace, stability and good governance cannot be taken for granted. Indeed, many monogamous families are known to be in inter-personal turmoil which defies internal resolution and even tasks external mediators including courts. It is therefore expected that a Nation like Nigeria distracted by double or multiple divergences requires extra-ordinary efforts to maintain absolute focus on National Development for which peace and good governance are a sine qua non.

    My approach here is to use good governance as the basis of addressing the topic. This is because peace, as you all know, is not the absence of war, but a situation where people are able to resolve their conflicts without violence and can work together to improve the quality of their lives.

    It involves everyone living in safety, without fear or threat of violence, and no form of violence is tolerated in law or in practice. There is equality before the law and the justice system is trusted to be fair and to protect the rights of citizens. Peace also means that everyone is able to participate in shaping political decisions and the government is accountable to the people. Everyone has fair and equal access to the basic needs for their wellbeing – such as food, clean water, shelter, education, healthcare and a decent living environment. It also means that veryone has an equal opportunity to work and make a living, regardless of gender, ethnicity or any other aspect of identity.

    Peace is therefore more than the absence of violence. It is the totality of condition of well-being felt by individuals, groups and the society at large”.

     

     Good Governance

    “Whether there is peace or not is a matter of how a society is governed. Governance itself has several definitions. The Mo Ibrahim Foundation which looks at how African countries are governed and tries to assess and rank them on the basis of certain internationally adapted criteria defines it as “the provision of the political, social and economic public goods and services that every citizen has the right to expect from their state, and that a state has the responsibility to deliver to its citizens”.

    “The World Bank defines governance as “the manner in which power is exercised in the management of a country’s economic and social resources for development”. Others have defined it as “the way organisations are directed and controlled to ensure that they are effective in achieving their objectives”.

    “While those definitions are different, what is common to them is the provision of services that citizens or members have the right to expect and which the society or the organization has the responsibility to deliver to citizens or members. In order to distinguish good governance from bad governance, there is a set of principles that have been identified as the main distinguishing features or characteristics of good governance”.

     

     Nigeria and  Ethnicity

    “Overlapping and dynamic identities are at the root of recurrent problems in Nigeria. An identity assumed by a person or group of persons in Nigeria is not static but dynamic depending on what is at stake and for how long. A person who is a religious champion can within a twinkle of an eye become a social-class-champion or an ethnic champion. Current or momentary interest dictates identity and its tenure.

    Nigeria is a federation of geo-political entities presently referred to as “State”, the combination of what used to be “Regions”. In Nigeria, what we now call  States are generally not monolithic in terms of ethnic composition. They appear to be generally arbitrary and circumstantial in origin”.

     

    Demographic Delineation

    “As of today, over 250 ethnic groups with more than 500 languages have been identified in Nigeria. While it will be wrong to regard ethnic group as a unit of the Nigerian Federation, it is also true that ethnic loyalties are very strong in Nigeria.

    At the risk of stirring controversy, let me quote a statistical account of ethno-linguistic groups in Nigeria thus:

    Hausa-Fulani –  29% (Hausa 21%, Fulani 8%)  Yoruba     –         21%  Igbo          –        18%

    Ibiobio     –        5.6% Kanuri      –        4%

    Edo            –        3% Tiv             –        2%

    Ijaw           –        2% Bura          –        2%

    Nupe        –        1% Others      –        10%

     

     Religion in Nigeria

    Another identity that is constantly invoked in Nigeria is religion. Unlike ethnicity, the Constitution of Nigeria pays major attention to religion vis-à-vis the Nation. Sections 10 and 38 of the Constitution are the most prominent of the provisions. The “non-adoption” and the “freedom of Religion” clauses have been extensively dealt with in a recent publication (I.Oloyede et-al: The Operational Complexities of the “free exercise” and “adoption of religion” clauses in the Nigerian Constitution, in Religious Freedom and Religious Pluralism in Africa.

    It is important to note that while the Nigerian media choose to constantly refer to Nigeria as “Secular”, no constitution of Nigeria has ever used the word “Secular” to describe the Nation. That notion was derived from Section 10 which is “non-adoption of religion-clause”.

     

    Tiv-Fulani Conflict in Benue Valley

    The age-long conflict between Tiv and the Fulani, as bad as it is, is being aggravated by political and religious irredentists assisted by irresponsible media. If not for political expediency, the sociology of Tiv-Fulani relations and linguistic dynamics of asking, “where are my cows” by Fulani man and the response of “munchi” (I have eaten it) by a Tiv man would have resonated a long history of such inter-group relations. But where desperate politicians seek relevance, any straw can be held on to gain cheap political points. Nigerians should not fall for the propaganda whether from the politicians or from religious bodies with soiled corrupt hands.

    A deep reflection of what is being presented as a new clash would have shown that it is a conflict that is as old as Nigeria. The Colonial Masters created grazing routes, forest reserves and mediating teams to address the economic and social friction between the Tiv-farmers and the roving herdsmen.

     

    Leah Sharibu’s Case

    The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) recently escalated the state of insecurity with its threat that should Leah Sharibu die in captivity of Boko Haram, there would be religious war!!!

    With that kind of threat I became as astonished as the Sultan of Sokoto and President-General of the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) who recently expressed shock at that destructive and counter-productive statement.

    Boko Haram has never hidden its mission of setting Nigeria ablaze through a religious war. Whose interest was the call by CAN to serve? Definitely, not that of the innocent Nigerian Lady, Leah Sharibu. Is it fair, religious or Godly for the sake of political grandsterism to endanger the life of such a precious, principled and promising girl?

    I am sure the immediate family members of the Lady would not subscribe to such politicisation of the misfortune.

     

    Relocation of Embassy

    The recent call by CAN on Nigeria to relocate her embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and its expression of support for President Trump’s relocation of the United States of America’s embassy to Jerusalem is not only appalling to all men of conscience but a (direct) manifestation of acute bigotry, abject ignorance and lack of understanding not only of the ‘Biblical prophecy’ but indeed of religious demography of the State of Israel today.

    An informed Christian Leader, Pope Francis made an impassionate plea against the decision which he said “would add new elements of tension in a world already shaken and scarred by many cruel conflicts”. He said further: “I cannot remain silent about my deep concern for the situation that has developed in recent days and, at the same time, I wish to make a heartfelt appeal to ensure that everyone is committed to respecting the status quo of the city, in accordance with the relevant resolutions of the United Nations,”. “Jerusalem is a unique city, sacred to Jews, Christians and Muslims. Where the Holy Places for the respective religions are venerated, and it has a special vocation to peace,”.

    “It is therefore strange that a Christian group would substitute “love” for pathological hatred and oppression just to hurt their Muslim brothers.

     

    The Massacre in Tafawa Balewa

    In Tafawa Balewa, Bauchi State, today, the same community that produced the first and only Nigerian Prime Minister, there is no Mosque let alone the call to prayers. Apart from killing them mercilessly, all the Muslims were exiled from the community. Those Muslims still remain in disarray today as they have become internally displaced people in various communities other than theirs.

     

    Nigeria – Unity,

    It must be emphasised that religion, when practised as expected, is a veritable tool for unity in heterogeneous societies. Islam as a religion preaches morality, justice, equity, and service to humanity. These are sublime virtues which are crucial to the unity and peace of any given society. The goal of Islam is to make life pure and beautiful. Islam encourages the stretching of hands to other religions or other people who are sincere and in sympathy with Islamic ideal of a morally safe world. That is to establish a united society, where love is shared, hatred is detested, and cooperation is established.

  • The mirror of life

    “Do you not see how Allah has set forth a parable of a meaningful ‘WORD’ like a fruitful tree which roots are firmly planted in the earth while its branches sprout magnificently into the firmament of the sky, yielding delicious fruits every season by Allah’s grace? Allah gives parables to men (of reason) that they may ponder and be mindful…” (Q. 14: 24).

    It is rather ironic that even in this age of internet , many Africans (including ignorant Muslims) still perceive Islam as a mere dogma in which riddles, rituals and superstitions thrive. This is quite far from the reality. But it takes only people with functional eyes to perceive the light. Ignorance is a disease which knowledge alone can heal.

    Since the creation of Adam, man has continuously enjoyed the guidance of Allah in one form or another. Prophets have been sent to various societies. Books have been revealed through those Prophets. Parables have been used with references drawn from the past. And warnings as well as admonitions have been divinely issued in those Books. Practical lessons such as the great deluge, the cataclysm of Sodom and Gomorrah, the defeat of Jalut (Goliath) by Daud (David), the doom of the tyrannical Pharaoh, and most recently, the waterloo of Adolf Hitler of Germany have come to man as lessons through which he can re-assess himself.

    All these and many other occurrences have been used as allusion by Allah to remind man of human mortality and to see him through a successful life’s odyssey. But unfortunately, man has always been blind to genuine divine guidance. He has been deaf to warnings and resistant to reasoning as much as he is insensitive to thoughts and inflexible to ideas. In his choice to form freemasonry with Satan (the custodian of ruins and deception), man has ignorantly strayed into a quagmire of sorrow through the millennia. Taking Satan for his best friend, man refuses to use the long spoon with which he is provided by Allah to dine with the damned Lucifer. This was the situation until 610 CE when  Allah decided to chronicle the activities of man from the very beginning of human existence and make it an eternally concrete ‘MIRROR’ through which the descendants of Adam can continue to see life in its past, its present and its near and far future. This ‘MIRROR’ is the Qur’an, the anecdote that heals man’s blindness, the manure that fertilizes the brain and the greatest treasure in possession of mankind.

     

    Features of the Qur’an

    For the rightly guided minds, Qur’an is the eyes with which to see, the ears with which to hear and the sense with which to reason. It is the bridge across the valleys of life, the insurance against damnation, the passport for salvation and the only reliable redeemer of man.

    Qur’an leaves no aspect of life untouched. It leaves no privacy unprotected and no secret unexposed. Problems and solutions; history and lessons; crimes and penalties; justice and righteousness; discipline and courage; friendship and trust; governance and methodology; marriage and divorce; widowhood and orphanage; childhood and inheritance; poverty and wealth; politics and economy; opinion and reason; facts and figures; life and death; darkness and light; war and peace; leadership and power; angels and man; heavens and earth; all these and many other matters form subjects of discussion and guidance in the ‘Divine Diary of Life called ‘Al- Qur’an’.

    For people on the right path, therefore, life begins and ends with the Qur’an, Allah’s own tradition and the only authentic fountain from which man can draw wisdom with which to solve any problem. The sense that reasons with the Qur’an makes no mistake. The mind that thinks with it is never bedevilled. The eye that sees with it incurs no sore. The tongue that talks with it never stammers. The power that rules with it never falls. And the Almighty Allah warns in the Qur’an thus: “But whosoever deviates from My tradition, verily for him is life of subjugation and We shall raise him blind on the Day of Judgment” (Q. 20: 124).

     

     Proof of the Qur’anic revelations

    Charlatans who perceive Islam as a dogma continue to ask for the proof of the genuineness of Qur’anic revelation as if other revelations before the Qur’an do not require proof. In reason and logic, asking for the proof of the Qur’an is like asking the sun to prove its rays. Can anybody reasonably ask for the proof of the hair growing on his head? It is the nature and character of unbelievers to deny the truth and refute the manifest. But does it ever bother the sun in any way that a blind man denies its rays? Or can a brook be affected if a herd boycotts its water?

    To Muslims who deeply understand the tenets of Islam, all the genuine Prophets are from Allah and all the revealed ‘BOOKS’ are series of the same ‘MESSAGE’. This fact has been firmly established in the Qur’an and that is why Muslims are not known for maligning any Prophet or revealed ‘BOOK’.

    Right from its very first day of revelation, the Qur’an has come with undeniable proof. But it takes only a divinely cleansed heart to acknowledge such proof. Qur’an itself is the proof of all other celestial messages that preceded it. It is the final divine revelation which has no human interference or human tampering. Neither Prophet Muhammad (SAW) who brought that ‘MESSAGE’ to mankind nor any of his associates and disciples had a say in it. This Book of the greatest divine message contains no chapters or verses according to anybody besides ALLAH.

     

    Doubting ‘Thomases’

    During the revelation of this Book, Allah had foreseen the reaction of doubting ‘Thomases’ across generations of races whose hymns of denial would come from the abyss of falsehood even as they would cling pathologically to the chord of ignorance. To such ‘Thomases’, the Qur’an owes neither explanation nor apology.

    Qur’an is like gold which everybody seeks directly or indirectly because of its immeasurable value but which only a few can recognize in its raw form. It takes geologists to identify the soil in which gold is buried. It takes miners to mine it out just as it takes smelters to smelt it before the goldsmith can transform it into a beautiful ornament. In the same manner, it takes categories of pious intellectuals to pursue the reading, understanding and interpretation of the Qur’an to a loftily appreciable level.

     

     Islam’s contribution to civilisation

    That the Qur’an is the only revealed ‘BOOK’ in the world today which retains the originality of its language and contents for over 1445 years is enough a testimony to the proof of its divine origin. That also confirms Arabic as one of the oldest languages in the world today.

    If the proof of the Qur’an is not seen in the social, economic and political context of its exegeses, it must be seen in its scientific hypotheses through which Europe came in contact with civilization. It is from those hypotheses that the modern world zoomed into technological advancement through the adoption of ‘Al-Jibrau (called Algebra), Al-Kaymiyau (called Chemistry), Al-Fisiyau (called Physics) as well as the introduction of ‘ZERO’ into numerals which led to the replacement of Roman figures in the 13th century, with Arabic numerals that brought about decimal system and paved way for scientific breakthrough in Human life. It should be recalled that the numerals used in schools today are called Arabic numerals as a mark of their origin.

    Before adopting the Arabic numerals, Europe had relied upon the clumsy system of Roman numerals which called for enormous expenditure of time and labour. For instance, while the Arabic numerals makes it easy for the world to write such date as 1948 in only four figures within a second, it requires eleven figures to write the same number in Roman numerals thus: MDCCCXLVIII. Even if  Islam has contributed nothing more than the decimal system to the modern civilization it has done much more than any other religion. And what is more, the idea of what is called UNIVERSITY today originated from that divine religion. The very first University in the world (University of Cordoba) was established by the Muslims in Spain in the late 9th century based on their Qur’anic guidance. And the three oldest existing Universities in the world today were established by Muslims in the 10th century. They are Al-Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt; Qarawiyyin University in Fes, Morocco and Zaytuniyyah University in Tunis, Tunisia. Yet, Prophet Muhammad (SAW) who brought that wonderful ‘MESSAGE’ to humanity was unlettered. However, despite his unlettered status he remains the greatest human being that ever lived throughout the history of man.

     

     Attestation

    It was in reference to this non-such Islamic contribution to human civilization that the renowned French historian of the 20th century, Gustav Le Bon wrote in his book: ‘The Civilization of the Arabs’ thus:

    “At an epoch when the rest of Europe was plunged in the darkest barbarism, Baghdad and Cordoba, the two great cities where Islam held sway, were centres of civilization which illumined the whole world with the light of their brilliance”.

     

     The Prophet’s biography

    Perhaps from the creation of Adam, the first human being till today, no man’s biography has been as much written and read as that of Muhammad (SAW) the Prophet of Islam. This man’s biography has been globally written from all perspectives by various men and women of diverse backgrounds in the past 1445 years or thereabout. And the biography is still being written and re-written authoritatively and un-authoritatively today in uncountable languages.

     

    The message and the messenger

    Through the writing of his biography, some people have zoomed into undreamed fame. Others have sunk into permanent oblivion. No other Prophet’s biography has attracted as many writers from believers and non-believers, from friends and foes alike as that of Prophet Muhammad (SAW). Every aspect of his life including the dresses he wore, the food he ate, the way he spoke and the wives he married has come to form chapters in his biography. In short, next to the Qur’an, no book is as much read daily in the world today as the biography of Prophet Muhammad (SAW) in one form or another.

    Why is the concentration so much on this unlettered Prophet from Arabia? The answer to this Question is not far-fetched. The world has never produced another personality like him and it will not. He is the seal of all Prophets and the epitome of human exemplariness. In him alone are found all traces of what a decent man should be. From him alone can the obedience to genuine law be learned from all conceivable angles.

     

    Evidence of greatness

    If  Prophet Muhammad had not been an orphan, he would not have been able to guide mankind on how orphans should be treated especially with regards to inheritance.  If   he had not been a husband, his marital life would not have been an example for sensible people to emulate and women’s rights would have been permanently over-sighted. If   he had not been trustworthy, the value of trust would have been lost totally on humanity. If   he had not been a father, the care for children by parents would have been totally relegated to the background.

    If this great man had not been an emigrant , the culture of hospitality universally imbibed today would not have been championed by Islam. If he had not been a warrior, the law of war, armistice and peaceful resolution would not have come into existence. If he had not been a conqueror, the word magnanimity would not have found a place in the dictionary of man. If he had not been a negotiator, perhaps there would never have been anything called diplomacy. If he had not been an arbiter, the virtue of justice would have probably been thrown to the winds and survival in all societies would have been for the fittest alone.

    If Prophet Muhammad (SAW) had not been a ruler, the relationship between the ruled and the rulers all over the world today would not have been different from that of slaves and their masters. If he had not been a democrat , dictatorship in governance would have known no bounds. If he had not been poor, the policy of social welfare adopted in civilized societies in the world today in favour of the poor would not have been possible. And, if, despite all these great qualities in him, he had not been humble and affable, arrogance would have dominated the characters of all privileged people.

     

     Challenge

    Who else can be compared to this man in history? In which other single person have all these qualities ever been combined in history? There can be little wonder then why the concentration is so much on the person of this extraordinary man especially by ordinary foes. Prophet Muhammad (SAW) alive and in death is like a living elephant surrounded by blind men. If every one of those blind men is to give a description of the elephant he would only be able to do so from the perspective of the part he is able to touch on the mammoth animal and not the whole of it. That is Prophet Muhammad (SAW) the like of whom the world had never seen before his arrival and can never see again after his departure. This writing contained a Ramadan lecture that yours sincerely once delivered in a foremost University in Nigeria sometime ago.  Judging by the contents of this article, what else could have served as The Mirror of Life for the wise?. RAMADAN KARIM!

  • The mirror of life

    “Do you not see how Allah has set forth a parable of a meaningful ‘WORD’ like a fruitful tree which roots are firmly planted in the earth while its branches sprout magnificently into the firmament of the sky, yielding delicious fruits every season by Allah’s grace? Allah gives parables to men (of reason) that they may ponder and be mindful…” (Q. 14: 24).

    Preamble

    It is rather ironic that even in this age of internet , many Africans (including ignorant Muslims) still perceive Islam as a mere dogma in which riddles, rituals and superstitions thrive. This is quite far from the reality. But it takes only people with functional eyes to perceive the light. Ignorance is a disease which knowledge alone can heal.

    Since the creation of Adam, man has continuously enjoyed the guidance of Allah in one form or another. Prophets have been sent to various societies. Books have been revealed through those Prophets. Parables have been used with references drawn from the past. And warnings as well as admonitions have been divinely issued in those Books. Practical lessons such as the great deluge, the cataclysm of Sodom and Gomorrah, the defeat of Jalut (Goliath) by Daud (David), the doom of the tyrannical Pharaoh, and most recently, the waterloo of Adolf Hitler of Germany have come to man as lessons through which he can re-assess himself.

    All these and many other occurrences have been used as allusion by Allah to remind man of human mortality and to see him through a successful life’s odyssey. But unfortunately, man has always been blind to genuine divine guidance. He has been deaf to warnings and resistant to reasoning as much as he is insensitive to thoughts and inflexible to ideas. In his choice to form freemasonry with Satan (the custodian of ruins and deception), man has ignorantly strayed into a quagmire of sorrow through the millennia. Taking Satan for his best friend, man refuses to use the long spoon with which he is provided by Allah to dine with the damned Lucifer. This was the situation until 610 CE when  Allah decided to chronicle the activities of man from the very beginning of human existence and make it an eternally concrete ‘MIRROR’ through which the descendants of Adam can continue to see life in its past, its present and its near and far future. This ‘MIRROR’ is the Qur’an, the anecdote that heals man’s blindness, the manure that fertilizes the brain and the greatest treasure in possession of mankind.

     

    Features of the Qur’an

    For the rightly guided minds, Qur’an is the eyes with which to see, the ears with which to hear and the sense with which to reason. It is the bridge across the valleys of life, the insurance against damnation, the passport for salvation and the only reliable redeemer of man.

    Qur’an leaves no aspect of life untouched. It leaves no privacy unprotected and no secret unexposed. Problems and solutions; history and lessons; crimes and penalties; justice and righteousness; discipline and courage; friendship and trust; governance and methodology; marriage and divorce; widowhood and orphanage; childhood and inheritance; poverty and wealth; politics and economy; opinion and reason; facts and figures; life and death; darkness and light; war and peace; leadership and power; angels and man; heavens and earth; all these and many other matters form subjects of discussion and guidance in the ‘Divine Diary of Life called ‘Al- Qur’an’.

    For people on the right path, therefore, life begins and ends with the Qur’an, Allah’s own tradition and the only authentic fountain from which man can draw wisdom with which to solve any problem. The sense that reasons with the Qur’an makes no mistake. The mind that thinks with it is never bedevilled. The eye that sees with it incurs no sore. The tongue that talks with it never stammers. The power that rules with it never falls. And the Almighty Allah warns in the Qur’an thus: “But whosoever deviates from My tradition, verily for him is life of subjugation and We shall raise him blind on the Day of Judgment” (Q. 20: 124).

     

     Proof of the Qur’anic revelations

    Charlatans who perceive Islam as a dogma continue to ask for the proof of the genuineness of Qur’anic revelation as if other revelations before the Qur’an do not require proof. In reason and logic, asking for the proof of the Qur’an is like asking the sun to prove its rays. Can anybody reasonably ask for the proof of the hair growing on his head? It is the nature and character of unbelievers to deny the truth and refute the manifest. But does it ever bother the sun in any way that a blind man denies its rays? Or can a brook be affected if a herd boycotts its water?

    To Muslims who deeply understand the tenets of Islam, all the genuine Prophets are from Allah and all the revealed ‘BOOKS’ are series of the same ‘MESSAGE’. This fact has been firmly established in the Qur’an and that is why Muslims are not known for maligning any Prophet or revealed ‘BOOK’.

    Right from its very first day of revelation, the Qur’an has come with undeniable proof. But it takes only a divinely cleansed heart to acknowledge such proof. Qur’an itself is the proof of all other celestial messages that preceded it. It is the final divine revelation which has no human interference or human tampering. Neither Prophet Muhammad (SAW) who brought that ‘MESSAGE’ to mankind nor any of his associates and disciples had a say in it. This Book of the greatest divine message contains no chapters or verses according to anybody besides ALLAH.

     

    Doubting ‘Thomases’

    During the revelation of this Book, Allah had foreseen the reaction of doubting ‘Thomases’ across generations of races whose hymns of denial would come from the abyss of falsehood even as they would cling pathologically to the chord of ignorance. To such ‘Thomases’, the Qur’an owes neither explanation nor apology.

    Qur’an is like gold which everybody seeks directly or indirectly because of its immeasurable value but which only a few can recognize in its raw form. It takes geologists to identify the soil in which gold is buried. It takes miners to mine it out just as it takes smelters to smelt it before the goldsmith can transform it into a beautiful ornament. In the same manner, it takes categories of pious intellectuals to pursue the reading, understanding and interpretation of the Qur’an to a loftily appreciable level.

     

     Islam’s contribution to civilisation

    That the Qur’an is the only revealed ‘BOOK’ in the world today which retains the originality of its language and contents for over 1445 years is enough a testimony to the proof of its divine origin. That also confirms Arabic as one of the oldest languages in the world today.

    If the proof of the Qur’an is not seen in the social, economic and political context of its exegeses, it must be seen in its scientific hypotheses through which Europe came in contact with civilization. It is from those hypotheses that the modern world zoomed into technological advancement through the adoption of ‘Al-Jibrau (called Algebra), Al-Kaymiyau (called Chemistry), Al-Fisiyau (called Physics) as well as the introduction of ‘ZERO’ into numerals which led to the replacement of Roman figures in the 13th century, with Arabic numerals that brought about decimal system and paved way for scientific breakthrough in Human life. It should be recalled that the numerals used in schools today are called Arabic numerals as a mark of their origin.

    Before adopting the Arabic numerals, Europe had relied upon the clumsy system of Roman numerals which called for enormous expenditure of time and labour. For instance, while the Arabic numerals makes it easy for the world to write such date as 1948 in only four figures within a second, it requires eleven figures to write the same number in Roman numerals thus: MDCCCXLVIII. Even if  Islam has contributed nothing more than the decimal system to the modern civilization it has done much more than any other religion. And what is more, the idea of what is called UNIVERSITY today originated from that divine religion. The very first University in the world (University of Cordoba) was established by the Muslims in Spain in the late 9th century based on their Qur’anic guidance. And the three oldest existing Universities in the world today were established by Muslims in the 10th century. They are Al-Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt; Qarawiyyin University in Fes, Morocco and Zaytuniyyah University in Tunis, Tunisia. Yet, Prophet Muhammad (SAW) who brought that wonderful ‘MESSAGE’ to humanity was unlettered. However, despite his unlettered status he remains the greatest human being that ever lived throughout the history of man.

     

     Attestation

    It was in reference to this non-such Islamic contribution to human civilization that the renowned French historian of the 20th century, Gustav Le Bon wrote in his book: ‘The Civilization of the Arabs’ thus:

    “At an epoch when the rest of Europe was plunged in the darkest barbarism, Baghdad and Cordoba, the two great cities where Islam held sway, were centres of civilization which illumined the whole world with the light of their brilliance”.

     

     The Prophet’s biography

    Perhaps from the creation of Adam, the first human being till today, no man’s biography has been as much written and read as that of Muhammad (SAW) the Prophet of Islam. This man’s biography has been globally written from all perspectives by various men and women of diverse backgrounds in the past 1445 years or thereabout. And the biography is still being written and re-written authoritatively and un-authoritatively today in uncountable languages.

     

    The message and the messenger

    Through the writing of his biography, some people have zoomed into undreamed fame. Others have sunk into permanent oblivion. No other Prophet’s biography has attracted as many writers from believers and non-believers, from friends and foes alike as that of Prophet Muhammad (SAW). Every aspect of his life including the dresses he wore, the food he ate, the way he spoke and the wives he married has come to form chapters in his biography. In short, next to the Qur’an, no book is as much read daily in the world today as the biography of Prophet Muhammad (SAW) in one form or another.

    Why is the concentration so much on this unlettered Prophet from Arabia? The answer to this Question is not far-fetched. The world has never produced another personality like him and it will not. He is the seal of all Prophets and the epitome of human exemplariness. In him alone are found all traces of what a decent man should be. From him alone can the obedience to genuine law be learned from all conceivable angles.

     

    Evidence of greatness

    If  Prophet Muhammad had not been an orphan, he would not have been able to guide mankind on how orphans should be treated especially with regards to inheritance.  If   he had not been a husband, his marital life would not have been an example for sensible people to emulate and women’s rights would have been permanently over-sighted. If   he had not been trustworthy, the value of trust would have been lost totally on humanity. If   he had not been a father, the care for children by parents would have been totally relegated to the background.

    If this great man had not been an emigrant , the culture of hospitality universally imbibed today would not have been championed by Islam. If he had not been a warrior, the law of war, armistice and peaceful resolution would not have come into existence. If he had not been a conqueror, the word magnanimity would not have found a place in the dictionary of man. If he had not been a negotiator, perhaps there would never have been anything called diplomacy. If he had not been an arbiter, the virtue of justice would have probably been thrown to the winds and survival in all societies would have been for the fittest alone.

    If Prophet Muhammad (SAW) had not been a ruler, the relationship between the ruled and the rulers all over the world today would not have been different from that of slaves and their masters. If he had not been a democrat , dictatorship in governance would have known no bounds. If he had not been poor, the policy of social welfare adopted in civilized societies in the world today in favour of the poor would not have been possible. And, if, despite all these great qualities in him, he had not been humble and affable, arrogance would have dominated the characters of all privileged people.

     

     Challenge

    Who else can be compared to this man in history? In which other single person have all these qualities ever been combined in history? There can be little wonder then why the concentration is so much on the person of this extraordinary man especially by ordinary foes. Prophet Muhammad (SAW) alive and in death is like a living elephant surrounded by blind men. If every one of those blind men is to give a description of the elephant he would only be able to do so from the perspective of the part he is able to touch on the mammoth animal and not the whole of it. That is Prophet Muhammad (SAW) the like of whom the world had never seen before his arrival and can never see again after his departure. This writing contained a Ramadan lecture that yours sincerely once delivered in a foremost University in Nigeria sometime ago.  Judging by the contents of this article, what else could have served as The Mirror of Life for the wise?. RAMADAN KARIM!

  • The Guest of all Swansons

    Preamble

    Seasons are like the tides of an ocean. They roll out spirally in quick succession and reshape the world’s environment from time to time. They invariably come with a multiple of months. No one measures a season in the absence of months. And there can be no season without months.

    Europeans have so much respect for seasons that when they have an important guest they call him/her an ‘August visitor’. The Gregorian month called August is the peak of summer season and the most comfortable month of the year for the Caucasian race of Europe, hence the term.

     

     Guest in Islam

    In Islam, no guest is more venerable than Ramadan. Perhaps, it is more to it rather than to man that Prophet Muhammad referred when he said: “whoever believes in Allah and the ‘Last Day should venerate his guest”. Ramadan’s visiting time is not restricted to any particular season of the year or Gregorian month. Its arrival in the world may be in any season. It is therefore a guest of all seasons.

     

    Effect on Mankind

    With Ramadan as a guest, not only the Muslims but the entire mankind is consciously or unconsciously engaged in hospitable activities. Those who cannot fast in it do take advantage of its presence to  buy or sell some relevant needs and wants. There can be no indifference to the awful presence of Ramadan in any part of the world.

     

    The Coming of Ramadan

    Once every year, something creeps into the world like the early morning light. It moves kaleidoscopically into an arena where the centre becomes its stool. It lifts its veil at dawn and beams its focus on the world with an arresting attention during the days. It then envelops the nights in a shroud of covenant and links the dream of man with its fulfillment.

     

    Its Voyage

    No one except Allah knows Ra,madan’s port of embarkation. No one knows its destination. All we know of it is that of a guest that is so vividly present in human world and yet so invisible. That is RAMADAN for you, the month of forgiveness, liberation and blessings. Its coming every year is often heralded by a retinue of envoys. The months of ‘Rajab’ and ‘Sha’ban’ are the immediate escorts that alert humanity of its imminent arrival. Like the sun in the midst of stars, when Ramadan ascends the throne in full regalia all other months, lunar and solar, quickly take their bow in its honour.

    Call it the king where other months are chiefs and you will be quite right. Call it the doctor in a world of sick people and you will not be wrong. Call it the compass in the wilderness of straying humanity and you would have been precise in truth. Call it the reformer of human soul or  the sterilizer of human spirit or even the purifier of human body and you will not be wrong. In its entourage are equally invisible divine ministers such as piety, knowledge, truth, justice and peace, all of which usher it into the world with splendour.

     

    Meaning of Ramadan

    Having taken its name from a natural healing phenomenon, this ninth lunar month is truly baking in effect. The word:  Ramadan is derived from the Arabic word ramd (meaning to bake). The name emanated from the time before the Islamic calendar, when the month of Ramadan often came in summer. The month thus personifies a baking summer that immediately follows a clement spring. Its mission is to firm up all loose ends in the life of man. And it does that with a touch of perfection.

    For pious men and women, the entire month is spent in fasting from dawn to dusk. Such fasting is not about abstinence from foods and drinks alone. It is also about self restraint from all sinful acts that constitute grave iniquities. As a matter of fact, Ramadan is about repackaging of human  destinies through new and sincere resolutions.

    Figuratively, fasting during this sacred month is believed to be a burner of all sins.

     

    The Month of Revelation

    It was in this glorious month that the revelation of the Qur’an to Prophet Muhammad (SAW) first began.

    In this month, all gates of paradise, according to the Prophet, are open while those of hell are closed. The first ten days in it are pregnant with blessings galore for those of the Muslim Ummah who need blessings and seek them. The next ten days personify forgiveness for those who realize the gravity of their sinful acts, repent on them and resolve never to return to such acts again. The last ten days are meant for the liberation of mankind from the manacles of Satan. Whoever is so liberated automatically becomes like a new born baby arriving in a new world with a tabularasa (clean slate).

     

     The Month of Destiny

    In the last ten days is a particular night called Laylatul Qadr (the night of Power) in which the secret of human destiny is encapsulated. Meeting that night consciously and spiritually is like securing the master key to one’s own apartment in Paradise. But secure such key, one needs to remain awake throughout those nights to be fortunate to meet the great night of Power. Incidentally, Allah did not disclose even to Prophet Muhammad (SAW), which particular night it is. But by asking the Muslims to look for it in the odd nights of the last ten days, the Prophet has helped the global Muslim Ummah tremendously.

     

    Umrah and I‘tikaf

    During the last ten days of Ramadan, some willing Muslims, in accordance with the tradition of Prophet Muhammad (SAW), do go for Umrah (Lesser Hajj) in Makkah or take to I’tikaf (spiritual seclusion) locally, to reaffirm their total submission to Allah. Following this is a special session of charity made compulsory for all Muslims irrespective of age, gender and status. During that session, to give to the poor and the needy is not a matter of choice for those who have enough. This type of charity is called Zakatul Fitr or Sadaqatul Fitr. It is traditionally given in the very early morning of Ramadan Festival Day or the night before it to enable the poor and the needy celebrate the festival with the Ummah in a festive mood.

    The first day of the month after Ramadan (Shawwal) is spent in great celebrations and joy and it is observed as the ‘Festival of Breaking the Fast (Eidul Fitr).

    Where else can one find a guest like Ramadan? Where else can one meet a guest like Ramadan that hosts his host and heals him of ignorance and ailments? That is why Muslims often say in this unique month especially when the crescent is sighted: ‘RAMADAN KARIM’ which means ‘Venerable Ramadan’.

     

     Sighting the Crescent

    To start or end fasting in the month of Ramadan, sighting the crescent is just symbolic. Without sighting the crescent, the indices of recognizing the time to start or end the month are naturally vivid to those who care.

    It is not for fun that Ramadan is preceded by two glorious lunar months of Rajab and Sha’ban. The number of days in those two months is to enable any serious Muslim to know the time of arrival of Ramadan and prepare for it. In Hijrah calendar, no lunar month exceeds 30 days and none is less than 29 days.

    Crescent or no crescent, therefore, it is very possible and easy to know when to start Ramadan or end it every year. The confusion often engineered by some people through the sighting of the crescent is therefore unnecessary and avoidable. If Rajab is 30 or 29 days, no noise is made in looking for the crescent before starting Sha’ban. As soon as Rajab ends, Sha’ban starts.

     

    Dynamism of Islam

    Islam is such a dynamic religion in which things like sighting the crescent are not made rigid. Sighting the crescent is not the only condition for starting the great month. After all, the new crescent is not necessarily visible to all eyes at any given time in any locality. That is why a few people who may be privileged to sight it are implored to invite some others to witness it and then inform the recognized authorities who, in turn, announce the arrival of Ramadan to the Muslim community in the locality or region.

     

    Globalization of Ramadan

    Besides faith (Iman) and pilgrimage (Hajj) which are the first and last pillars of Islam, nothing else is really globally uniform in practical terms with regards to timing in Islam. The variation in geography has legitimized the variation of time in the observance of Salat, Sawm and Zakat. Iman is global because it resides permanently in the minds of the Muslims irrespective of their localities. Hajj is equally global in uniformity because it is performed in only one place at a particular time. In a world where a gap of about nine to eleven hours exists between one part of the world and another, talking of global uniformity in starting or ending Ramadan can only border on sheer ignorance. For instance, it is impossible for the Korean Muslims living in Korea and their English brethren residing in England to start Ramadan on the same day. Even within Nigeria, all Muslims can only start Ramadan on the same day, if they have equal opportunity to meteorological information and geographical atmospheres. And even with that, it is not possible for them all to start or end daily fasting at the same time. That is why the announcement or publication of Ramadan timing can only be according to the various localities.

     

     Geographical Variations

    That Ramadan fasting is prescribed as a universal obligation for all Muslims in a particular month is deliberate. Allah who did the prescription is not oblivious of the geographical variations in the world. Neither is He unaware of the possible invisibility of a new crescent to most eyes at particular times. The design is to allow for the reverberation of the effect of Ramadan across the world. And time variation in worship or celebration of festivals is not peculiar to Islam. Even in Christianity, neither Easter nor Christmas is globally celebrated in one day. And, there is no media noise about it in Nigeria. It is only when there is variation in starting of fast in Ramadan that Nigerian media becomes negatively active in its reportage. As a matter of fact, what is effectively global about Ramadan fasting is the month and not the time of starting or ending the fasting. The time of dawn and that of dusk vary from locality to locality. It is therefore possible for the Muslims in one part of the world to be breaking their daily fast at a time when their brethren in another part of the world are commencing theirs. The genuineness or otherwise of Ramadan fasting is not to be judged by man. That is why Allah is reported by Prophet Muhammad (SAW) as saying in a sacred Hadith (Hadith ul Qudsi) thus: “Fasting is mine and I am the One to grant rewards on it.”

     RAMADAN KARIM!

  • Abuse of Ramadan

    IT is rather ironic that today’s world takes Muslims for the mirror through which Islam is perceived when the opposite is actually the case. Just as it is wrong to measure knowledge in an institution of learning by the quantity or quality of structures available therein so it is wrong to use Muslims as the mirror through which to see Islam in its naked and avowed nature. On the contrary, Islam is the mirror through which Muslims are supposed to be seen. Not the other way round. No reasonable person will blame Nigerian constitution for the gross misconduct of some maleficent Nigerians abroad. Nigerian constitution is one thing the misconduct of Nigerians is another. The one is not and cannot be a corollary of the other.

    When this sacred religion was revealed to mankind through Prophet Muhammad (SAW) almost 1,500 years ago, it was with certain fundamental norms meant to guide humanity towards all that is virtuous. One of the most valuable embodiments of Islam is the month of Ramadan. With it, all genuine Muslims rein themselves against satanic recklessness.

     

    Qur’anic revelations

    Here is the sacred month in which the revelation of the Qur’an began in 610 C.E. It was in this divine month that the last divine constitution with which to liberate humanity from the shackles of Satan was revealed. The real spiritual essence of Ramadan is to show mankind the right path to Paradise by guiding them through the transit called the world.

    This symbolic month is like a school in which Prophet Muhammad (SAW) was both the pioneer student and the pioneer teacher. All other students who went through this school or are still going through it are heirs to the forerunners.

    The duty of those heirs is to serve as shepherds for the wandering flock of the universe. This duty confirms man as Allah’s vicegerent on earth. Anyone who is in a position to serve as a shepherd but does otherwise has surely kicked against the rules of his creator.

    Ironically, most of those we perceive as shepherd in our society are worse than the lost sheep they are supposed to guide. For those who know and appreciate it the opportunity of rebirth provided by this sacred month has no duplicate. It is like a ‘once in a while’ train which everyone should endeavour not to miss. Missing it is like missing a lifelong destiny. But will the recalcitrant ones heed the warning?

     

    Season of jamboree

    With the arrival of Ramadan this year a scene of jamboree took over most radio and television stations as usual especially in the Southwest of Nigeria. Many pseudo Alfas who had become redundant will soon start dusting their gowns and turbans for the purpose of sharing from the annual largess which the sacred month comes with. Such pseudo Alfas who might have taken advantage of some ignorant Muslim money bags in the society by asking them to sponsor Ramadan preaching will begin to swarm on the airwaves like bees on a hive. With little or no knowledge at all, those pretenders will pose as learned scholars and start dishing out rubbish by arrogating to themselves the knowledge they do not possess.

    Clerics or charlatans

    One of the characteristics of such ‘Alfas’ is to spend the first 10 minutes or thereabout singing the praises of their sponsors and chanting some irrelevant slogans even as they tell primordial stories which have neither roots nor bearing with Islam. Their trade in stock is to seek relevance by showing their faces on television or by airing their voices on radio stations just to be recognised as Alfas. Such are people who have no knowledge and do not seek it. Rather than guiding ignorant Muslims, which is the primary duty of genuine Muslim clerics, they further mislead them.

    With this category of Alfas, all that matters is the money they want to make through deception as well as the cheap fame they want to gain.

    Thus, year in and out, this is their deed in the month of Ramadan. The impression they give is that Ramadan is an annual religion celebrated with fanfare only in the sacred month.

    The most embarrassing aspect of their action is the faulty recitation of the Qur’an and the shameless misinterpretation they give it. This on its own is not just an abuse of Ramadan but also a flagrant abuse of the Qur’an. Thus, they turn the sacred month into one of gross abuse of Islamic religion. What they do not understand is that the Qur’an in its original form is not just any book which any charlatan can dust up once in a year in order to fetch money for self.

    For the learned, reading any book at all has a purpose and a method. No good reader will ever read a book without taking note of its author, its publisher and its date of publication. And to read any new book, the very first point of call is its contents which tell you the topics and the subjects you will read about in it. Then, to have an idea of the entire book in its summary form, before reading it, a good reader goes straight not only to the introduction or preface to such a book but also to the foreword written on it. The combination of both will surely give the reader a pretty idea of what the book is all about. This is the shortest means of familiarising oneself with a new book before going through its chapters.

     

    Language of the Qur’an

    Most Muslim clerics read the Qur’an in its original language (Arabic) without understanding what they are reading because they do not speak that language.  Some read it as a means of solving their imaginary problems thus taking the Qur’an for a charm which must yield result if manipulated towards their whims. The Qur’an is not meant for that purpose. It is rather the manual of life for man by which he lives his daily life and conducts his daily affairs.

    The word Qur’an means continuous recitation and understanding. It is so called because of its inimitable origin which makes it a compelling daily reading throughout the world, across nations and ages. It is the unsurpassed word of Allah not only in the grandeur of its diction and splendour of its rendition but also in the depth of its meaning, substance and profundity.

     

    Profile of the Qur’an

    The revelation of this Book to mankind through an unlettered desert Arab, Muhammad son of Abdullah and Aminah, began in the month of Ramadan in year 610 CE. It lasted about 22 years (10 years in Makkah and12 years plus a few months in Madinah). The book contains 114 chapters and 6,246 verses (not 6,666 verses often announced by most Imams and Alfas). Any individual can verify this by checking the number of verses in each chapter and adding them together. It does not take more than one hour to do this.

    Of the 114 chapters contained in the Qur’an, 86 were revealed in Makkah and 28 in Madinah. But the 28 chapters revealed in Madinah constitute two thirds of the entire Book. And this is because the Makkah chapters are short and rhythmic while those of Madinah’s  are long and prose-like.

    Although the Qur’an was revealed orally, its writing began almost immediately the revelations started. The writing was however done on primitive materials like wood, animal hides, back of trees and other materials of the like which were then readily available. It was only much later, after the demise of Prophet Muhammad (SAW), that those writings were brought together and compiled into a book . And one of the wonders of recording the Qur’an in writing is the classification of those revelations into chapters and verses by the Prophet himself despite his illiteracy.

    The manner of presenting the Qur’anic revelations is simple and direct. It employs neither artifice nor conventional poses. Its main appeal is to man’s intellect, feelings and imagination. It does not only touch the anecdotes of the past Prophets in different ages and nations as well as the accounts of earlier revelations, it also covers the period from the beginning of creation to the very last Day of Judgment and beyond.

    Not only that, Al-Qur’an also gives insight into some natural phenomena like sphericity and revolution of the earth (Q. 39:5) the formation of rain (Q. 30:48); the fertilisation of the wind (Q. 15:22); the revolution of the sun, the moon and the planets in their fixed orbits (Q. 36:29-38); the aquatic origin of all creatures (Q. 21:30); the duality of the sex of plants and other creatures (Q. 36:35); the collective life of animals (Q.6:38); the mode of life of the bees (Q. 16:69) and the successive phases of the child in the mother’s womb (Q. 22:5 & 23:14). Yet, the purpose of this Book is not to teach history, astronomy, philosophy or sciences. The details of these will be spelt out fully after Ramadan under a theme to be called ‘ANATOMY OF THE QUR’AN’ in sha’Allah.

     

    Controversy

    Meanwhile, there is a raging controversy among Muslim scholars over the first and last revelations in the Qur’an. Much as this controversy is unwarranted, it may be necessary to clear the coast here (without laying any claim to authority) if only for the purpose of authenticating history.

    It is almost a consensus that the first revealed chapter in the Qur’an is Suratul ‘Alaq (Chapter of the Clot). But the very first revelation reaching   Prophet Muhammad (SAW) through Angel Jibril is ‘BASMALAH’

    (In the name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful) which precedes every chapter in the Qur’an except one (Suratut-Tawbah).

    As a Messenger of Allah to another Messenger of Allah, Angel Jubril couldn’t have commanded Prophet Muhammad (SAW) to read anything without doing so in the name of Allah who sent him with the message.

    Thus, Suratul ‘Alaq, as preceded by ‘BASMALAH’, could only have been the first revealed chapter but not the first revelation. And that is logical.

    As for the last revelation in the Qur’an majority of Nigerian Muslim scholars believe that it is chapter 5, verse 3 of the Qur’an which says: ‘’Today, I have perfected your religion for you and completed my favour on you. And, I am pleased with Islam for you as religion’’.

    That verse of the Qur’an that was revealed to Prophet Muhammad (SAW) at ‘Arafah while performing his farewell Hajj couldn’t have been the last revelation. It came 81 days before the demise of the Prophet (SAW). And there was another revelation, thereafter, which came about nine days before the Prophet fell sick and died. This can be found in Qur’an 2: 281 which says: “And fear the day when you shall all return to Allah; the day when every soul shall be requited according to its desert and none shall be wronged”.

     

    Clarification

    The earlier verse was an accentuation of Hajj as the last pillar of Islam. And that was why it came on Arafah Day. The latter is a reminder of man’s final destination and the account of his worldly activities. These and many more are what readers of the Qur’an should know inside out. But the big question is this: who will teach them when the supposed teachers have sold out to money and ignorance? To Muslims who are conscious of their spiritual affinity and retain their conscience for the day they will meet their Creator and account for their deeds on earth ‘The Message’ says RAMADAN KARIM!

     

     

  • While waiting for Ramadan

    AT a time like this when the sacred month of Ramadan is fast approaching as a special guest for mankind, all Nigerian Muslims have a way of preparing for it. But the preparation of most of them is invariably concentrated on mundane rather than spiritual aspects of life. While some Muslims are preparing by gathering food stuffs and house utensils, others only think of what they can benefit from it commercially.  In other words, the month of Ramadan, to many Nigerian Muslims, is a month of commerce in which they can materially become richer.

     

    Ramadan activities

    Of the many spiritual activities that make up the sacred month of Ramadan, only a few are meaningful to most Nigerian Muslims. Many of them have become so much addicted to ephemeral life that the real value of Ramadan is of little concern to them.

    One of the prominent activities in the month of Ramadan is Tafsir. From the beginning of that sacred month, every year, Muslims congregate in various Mosques or learning centres where Tafsir (exposition of the Qur’an) is rendered by scholars. This is in accordance with the Prophetic tradition which encourages better understanding of the Qur’an.

     

    The meaning of Tafsir

    Linguistically, Tafsir means exposition. But technically, it means the comprehensive interpretation and analysis of the Qur’an through elucidation of facts and figures. In other words, Tafsir is the exposition of the contents of the Qur’an, as usually done comprehensively by Islamic scholars during the month of Ramadan throughout the Muslim world.

     

     Qur’an’s coded language

    Because of the coded language of the Qur’anic revelation, it became necessary for the verses of that sacred Book to be decoded for the purpose of thorough understanding by the Muslim Ummah. This confirms that the revelations of the Qur’an were the immediate cause of intellectual research in Islam. For instance, Arabic, the original language of the Qur’an, had no grammar prior to the revelations of the divine message. The grammar of that language evolved only from the contents of the Qur’an.

     

    Challenge

    At the incption of Islam, the challenge which the Qur’an threw to humanity in all spheres of life led to serious intellectual competition among Muslim scholars of the time. Thus, each time a revelation came, the companions of Prophet Muhammad (SAW) wanted to know why and how of every what. And this led to their closer interaction with the Prophet who paved their way towards intellectual research.

     

    Formal study

    Although a formal study of Tafsir as an independent discipline did not begin until some years after the demise of Prophet Muhammad (SAW), he (the Prophet) nevertheless started its process. He did not only givethe exoteric and esoteric meanings of the revealed verses of the Qur’an, he also explained their applications to the daily life of an average Muslim.  For instance, it was the Prophet who decoded most of the coded areas of the Qur’an for proper understanding of the Muslims. Through his utterances and actions which came to be known as Hadith and Sunnah respectively, the contents of the Qur’an became more and more comprehensible to the Muslims.

    Thus, with time, after the prophet’s demise, Hadith and Sunnah jointly became an independent subject of research. And these helped, in no small measure, in expanding the scope of Tafsir. From that, all new discoveries and new frontiers in knowledge were adapted to the study of Tafsir until Tafsir became an estuary through which every stream of knowledge was passed to mankind.

    Ever since, Tafsir has become a unique field of study in which research into all spheres of knowledge has increasingly advanced with resultant development of man. It is through such research that man zoomed into the firmament of science which brought about the current gargantuan civilization wrought by technology.

     

    Impact

    If there are such famous institutions like Al-Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt; Qarawiyyin University in Fez, Morocco and Zaytuniyyah University in Tunis, Tunisia, which are the oldest Universities in the world today it is as a result of the research developed to advance the course of Tafsir.

     

    Philosophical implications

    However, it is understandable that most of the Tafsir books available in the world today are written in Arabic language and the language of the Qur’anic revelation is Arabic. Most of the companions of Prophet Muhammad (PBOH) who interacted closely with him and werprivileged to knowing through him, the interpretation of the Qur’an were Arabs.

    Arabic itself is exceptionally rich linguistically and literarily. And for centuries after the revelation of the Qur’an it was mostly the Arabs who assumed authority on its interpretation. Others like the Persians (Iranians), Indians and Turks who tried to compete with the Arabs in that field, could only do so in Arabic language which they first had to learn.

    Thus, from the beginning, Arabic had been the authoritative language of Tafsir. Whoever wanted to attain scholarship in the field of Tafsir ought to first master Arabic. But the anomaly in that becomes very conspicuous when one remembers that over three quarters of the world’s Muslim population today are non-Arabic speakers. This anomaly seems to be creating some hurdles for humanity in understanding the practical meaning of the Qur’an and in appreciating its real essence.

    There is nothing like being literate in one’s own mother tongue. The Arabs have demonstrated this abundantly through Tafsir. But since Tafsir of the Qur’an is not meant for the Arabs alone, shouldn’t there be a means of making it available to majority of Muslims in the languages understandable to them?

    That is one major question which the global Muslim leadership has not been able to answer for over 1,300 years. The Qur’an is begging for understanding. Overwhelming majority of Muslims is looking for a means of understanding it. There must be a meeting point.

     

    Tafsir in Nigeria today

    The situation of Tafsir in Nigeria today is the same as it is in virtually all the Muslim countries outside the Arab world. That situation does not help the spread of Islam as it does not assist Islamic scholarship.

    Worshiping in the original language of the Qur’an is unique in sustaining the unity of the Ummah and the uniformity of their faith. It also encourages the spirit of brotherhood by almost 1.7 billion Muslims around the world, who are faithful to it. And since the only means of understanding it is Tafsir, language should not be allowed to constitute  barrier.

     

    Valuable gold

    Qur’an is like gold. Making a variety of ornaments from it does not debase it in any form. Neither does such alter its quality in any form. On the contrary, it enhances its appreciation and value. In this computer age, the world needs the Qur’an more than ever before. And it is only Tafsir that can justify that need. Muslims and non-Muslims alike should be able to read the interpretations of the Qur’an in languages they understand. That is a challenge to Islamic scholars of this age. It is also a challenge to Muslim philanthropists around the world who want to give a little back to Allah from the bounties they have received from Him.

     

     Literacy Implications

    Besides the aforesaid, one of the aiding instruments of Tafsir is literacy. The more literate the Muslims are in the relevant language, the more they are likely to understand the Qur’an through Tafsir. That is why the people of the West are embracing Islam in droved due to their understanding of the contents of the Qur’an. And no one who thoroughly understands Tafsir will be ignorant about Islam.

    Muslims who are deeply schooled through the Western system of education will discover that virtually all the sciences, social sciences and arts, originated from the study of Tafsir. Even some scientific terminologies like ‘Al-jibrau’ (Algebra), ‘Al-kaimiyau’ (Chemistry), ‘Al-fisiyau’ (Physics) confirm this. It therefore takes real scholars, not just reciters of the Qur’an or speakers of Arabic language, to be exponents of Tafsir. This is a rare factor in Nigeria.

     

    Translation and interpretation

    There is a sharp difference between translating the contents of the Qur’an and interpreting them expositorily. The one is shallow. The other is deep. Tafsir, during the life time of Prophet Muhammad (SAW) was not an annual Ramadan affair. It was a daily practice for scholars who were ardent in it. And that is what it should be to eternity.

    Although Tafsir gains more popularity in the month of Ramadan because every true Muslim wants to get closer to Allah through familiarization with the Qur’an, it is not limited to that sacred month and it should not be seen as such.

     

     Tafsir tutors

    Going by the limit of their knowledge and the extent of their unwillingness to seek more knowledge, only a few Islamic scholars in Nigeria are qualified to tutor the populace in Tafsir. Most of the so-called Nigerian Alfas have turned Tafsir into an annual commercial jamboree which fetches them what they regard as Ramadan booty. Their motive of engaging in Tafsir is more pecuniary than religious. What such Alfas dish out in the name of knowledge is mere of unsubstantiated hearsay than anything else. And that is why most of Nigerian Muslim audiences at Tafsir centres can hardly benefit meaninfully from what they hear in those centres.

     

    Scholars of Tafsir

    Tafsir as a special field of discipline is meant only for research-oriented scholars. But unfortunately, it is one area of study which has very few institutions of learning in Nigeria. Because of this problem, the Qur’an has been translated into only two Nigerian languages so far. These are Hausa and Yoruba. The former was championed by the late Sheikh Muhammad Mahmud Gumi, a leader of Izalah Muslim Organization. The latter was led by the late Sheikh Adam Abdullah Al-Ilory, the founder of the Arabic and Islamic Centre (Markaz), Agege. Both scholars are now demised.

    Today, copies of the vernacular Qur’an so translated can hardly be found on book shelves and they are virtually out of reprint. With this situation, how can Nigerian Muslim populace understand the Qur’an? This is a great challenge to truthful Muslims who are blessed by Allah. They can pull resources together and jointly finance the reprinting of reviewed copies of these Tafsir Books in appreciation of Allah’s special favour on them.

     

    Muslims’ View of Ramadan

    Meanwhile, Muslims in most parts of the world always view Ramadan from economic, social, moral and spiritual perspectives. What they don’t know is that the practical lessons of this divine month are far beyond this scope. Science is in a state of continuous evolution and new discoveries follow one another’s heels. There is a large flow of information coming like a spring from symposia, encyclopaedias and science journals which always put us on our toes for further knowledge.

     

    Biological Implication

    Biologically, human beings grow old and eventually die. Very few people ponder over this occurrence even when they witness it on a daily basis. We have all accepted it as a natural phenomenon which we must willingly or unwillingly abide by. Apart from old age, most people die not because they are naturally ripe for death but because the blood flowing through their coronary arteries clots sometimes prematurely. These arteries must have become hard and rusty as a result of improper diet and other defective factors in our biological set-ups.

    In medical terms, this process is called Atheroma, and many theories have been advanced to explain its mechanism as that of the rustiness of the blood vessels. This is one major area in which Ramadan is quite relevant. Fasting increases the power of the blood to dissolve blood clots whether the clots are in the coronary arteries of the heart that cause heart attack or in the cerebral arteries that cause stroke.

    Fasting, therefore, does not only lower blood pressure and alleviate angina pectoris; it also prevents arteriosclerosis (an arterial disease occurring especially in the elderly, characterized by elasticity and thickening of the blood flow). Not only that. Fasting also reduces the mortality rate of myocardial infarction.

     

    Blood Sugar

    The blood sugar is maintained at a steady level during fasting, the glucose being formed from glycogen and natural fat which have been mobilized to dispose tissue. If, however, there is any tendency of hypoglycaemia (a decreased sugar level in the blood), the adrenal medulla immediately secrets increased amount of catecholamine: adrenaline and non-adrenaline which prepare the body for either or both.

    Ramadan brings about an increase in secretion of growth hormone by the pituitary and which causes an increase in human weight and acceleration of linear growth with widening epiphysis in young animals. Thus, with Ramadan, many human health problems are easily solved. Those who have experienced it can testify to this assertion.

    In a nutshell, Ramadan is a healing month as much as it is an ailment preventive phenomenon. Who wants to live in sickness?