Category: Friday

“Who shares his life’s pure pleasure and walks the honest road; who trades with heaping measure and lifts his brother’s load; who turns the wrong down bluntly and lends the right a hand; he dwells in God’s own country and tills the holy land.”
Louis F. Benson.

This is Rabi‘ulAwwal, the third month of the Islamic calendar. It is on the 12th day of this month that Prophet Muhammad {SAW}, the son of Abdullah and Aminah was born into the world. In Islamic history, this month is as important as any other Hijrah month but not more. It is therefore a form of innovation to to it any myth which the Prophet himself who was born in it did not attach to it.

 

Preamble

Contrary to what may be the thought in certain Muslim circles, in Nigeria today, this article is not meant to celebrate the birth of Prophet Muhammad (SAW) for which the 12thof this month is often erroneously declared as a public holiday. As far as ‘The Message’ is concerned, what is to be celebrated about this great Prophet is by far much more than his birthday. It is only those whose achievements in life are short of adequate benefits to mankind that need celebration of birth to augment theiracclaimed achievements.   Thus, there is no need wasting time on the birthday of a great Prophet whose achievements are immeasurable.

 

Who was this man?

Prophet Muhammad {SAW} was a man whose life is a school in which every knowledge-seeker learns.  In fact, no man’s biography has been so much written and read as that of Prophet Muhammad (SAW)This man’s biography has been written from all perspectives, positive and negative, by various men and women of diverse races, tribes, ideologies and religions since he became a Prophet of Allah in 610 CE. And the biography is still being written and re-written authoritatively and un-authoritatively, today, in uncountable languages across the world.

 

 Effects of his Biography

Through the writings of Prophet Muhammad’s biography, some people have zoomed into un-dreamt fame. Others have sunk into the abyss of a permanent oblivion. In a nutshell, no other Prophet’s biography has attracted as many writers from among the believers and non-believers, as well as from friends and foes alike as that of Prophet Muhammad (SAW).

Every aspect of this Prophet’s life including the dresses he wore, the food he ate, the way he spoke, the wives he married, the children he bore, and even the jokes he cast, has formed the basis of 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. And so it will continue to eternity.

 

 A Vital Question

Butwhy is there aglobal focus so much on this unlettered Prophet from Arabia?

The answer to that question is not far-fetched. The world has not produced any human being 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 the traits of what a perfect gentleman should be in all ramifications.

 

 The Ifs of His Life

If Prophet Muhammad had not been an orphan, he would not have been able to guide humanity 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 excellent example for others to emulate and women’s rights would have been permanently ignored. If he had not been a widower the world not have realized the plight of widows and learnt how to provide for them. If he had not been a father, the proper care for children by parents would have been relegated to the background in Islamic doctrine. If he had not been trustworthy, the value of trust would have been totally lost on mankind.

It was his migration from Makkah to Madinahthat paved way for the culture of hospitality universally imbibed today and it was the wars he was forced to fight that engendered the law of war, armistice and peace. Without his conquests in some wars, the word magnanimity would not have found a place in the dictionary of man and without the defeat he suffered in some other wars, the vanquished elements in the contemporary world would not have learnt the act of gallantry.

 

 Further Ifs of His Life

If Prophet Muhammad {SAW} had not been a judge, the virtue of justice would have been globally thrown to the winds and survival in all societies would have been for the fittest.

If he had not been a democratic ruler, the relationship between the ruled and their rulers, all over the world, today, would not have been dissimilar from that of slaves and their masters and dictatorship in governance would have known no bounds. If the Prophet had not been poor despite being a Head of State, the policy of social welfare adopted in civilized societies today in favour of the poor, would not have been possible. If he had not been an illiterate, the world would not have known the difference between literacy and education. And, if, despite all these qualities in him, he had not been humble and affable, arrogance would have been the main character of all privileged people in the world today.

 

 Further Questions

Who else can be compared to this man in history? And, in which any other single person have all the aforementioned qualities ever been found in history? There can be little wonder then why so much attention was and is still being focused on the personality of this extra-ordinary human being. That is Prophet Muhammad (SAW) for you, the like of whom the world has never seen and will never see again. If this man is celebrated anywhere in the world, anytime in this month or after the month, therefore, it is definitely not because he was born. His achievements evidently transcend his birth.

 

Attestation

There are many attestations to the above assertion. For instance, after many years of scientific experimentations, a German-born American physicist and Nobel Laureate, Albert Einstein who was the inventor of atomic bomb and is generally known as the 20th century creator of special and general theory of relativity, compared his works with the contents of the Qur’an and concluded as follows: “Science without religion is lame and religion without science is blind”.

He then called on fellow scientists to endeavour to read the Qur’an without bias in order to know the true origin of science in human life.

 

Professor Keith Moore

Yet another Embryologist, Professor Keith Moore of the Department of Anatomy, University of Toronto, Canada, after carefully examining the translation of the Qur’anic verses presented to him admitted thus: “most of the information concerning embryology mentioned in the Qur’an is in perfect conformity with modern discoveries in the field of embryology and does not conflict with them in any way”.

Professor Moore had no prior knowledge of anything leechlike about embryo until he read chapter 96 of the Qur’an where Allah says “Read! In the name of your Lord Who created. He created man out of a leechlike clot…” He then went to verify this fact in an embryo under a powerful microscope and compared his observation with a diagram of a leech. He was astonished at the resemblance of the two. That prompted him to go fully into the study of the Qur’an and Hadith to acquire more knowledge until he was able to answer about 80 hitherto unanswered questions in that field.

It was that discovery hat prompted him to correct the contents of his book ‘The Developing Human’ which he published earlier and he had to re-publish it in 1982. It was with that revised edition that he became the recipient of an award for the best medical book written by a single author in the 20th century. That book has been translated into many major languages of the world and is mostly used as textbook of embryology today in the first year of medical studies in various Universities in the world.

 

 Book of Signs and not of Science

Despite talking about all sciences, the Qur’an is not a book of Sciences but that of ‘Signs’. Those ‘Signs’ invite man to realize the purpose of his existence on earth and live in harmony with nature.Judging the above verses of the Qur’an revealed over 1400 years ago with the wonderful reality of scientific civilization of today what further proof does anybody need of the genuineness of the Qur’an? And who else can give any similar guidance as that of the Supreme Creator Himself? And who else can be better called the ‘PATH FINDER’ other than Prophet Muhammad (SAW) who showed humanity the way to that all time guidance?

 

 Comments by Other Non-Muslims

If all the descriptions given above about Prophet Muhammad (SAW) sound exaggerated because they are quoted by Femi Abbas, a Muslim and an ardent follower of that Prophet, and if Michael Hart is seen as crazy in his scientific judgment, let us read the views and impressions of some other non-Muslims about this great Prophet. One of them (Alphonse de Lamartine of France) had the following to say in his book ‘Histoire de la Torque’:

“Never has a man set for himself, voluntarily or involuntarily, a more sublime aim since this aim was superhuman; to subvert superstitions which had been interposed between man and his Creator; to render God unto man and man unto God; to restore rational and sacred idea of divinity amidst the chaos of the material and disfigured gods of idolatry, then existing.

Never has a man undertaken a work so far beyond human power with so feeble means, for he (Muhammad) had in the conception as well as in the execution of such a great design no other instrument than himself, and no other, except a handful of men living in a corner of a desert…. If greatness of purpose, smallness of means, and astounding results are the three criteria of human genius, who could dare to compare any great man in modern history with Muhammad? The most famous men created arms, laws and empires only. They founded, if anything at all, no more than material powers which often crumbled before their very eyes. This man moved not only armies, legislations, empires, peoples and dynasties, but millions of men in one-third of the then inhabited world; and more than that, he moved the altars, the gods, the religions, the ideas, the beliefs and the souls. On the basis of a book, every letter of which has become law, he created a spiritual nationality which blended together peoples of every tongue and of every race…..As regards all standards by which human greatness may be measured we may well ask, is there any man in human history greater than Muhammad?”

 

 Napoleon Bonaparte’s Comment

On his own, Napoleon Bonaparte, the great 18th century French conqueror of Europe was so much amazed by the traits of Islam which he saw in Egypt during his military expeditions that he made the following historic statement about that divine religion and its great Prophet:

“Muhammad, in reality, was a great leader of mankind. He preached UNITY among Arabs who were, till then, torn asunder due to internecine quarrels, sometimes resulting in bloody war fares. He brought them out of the obscure world in a short time and the discipline which they maintained under his leadership was simply marvelous, and so was their bravery, courage and devotion to the cause which they loved and cherished. This, coupled with the contempt for death, as taught by their leader, made them great soldiers and fighters like of whom history rarely produces. I simply marvel at the achievements of this great ‘Son of the Desert’ within a mere period of less than 15 years; a thing which Moses and Christ could not do in 15 centuries. I salute this great man; I salute his qualities of Head and Heart….”

 

 George Bernard Shaw

And, in corroboration of the above statements, variously made by renowned men of letters and intellect, another foremost Orientalist, playwright and dramatist, George Bernard Shaw, had the following to say about Islam and Prophet Muhammad (SAW) in his book ‘The genuine Islam’ (vol. 1 No 8 of 1936):

“The Christians and their missionaries have presented a horriblepicture of Islam. Not only that, they also carried out an organized and planned propaganda against the personality of Prophet Mohammad and the religion he preached. I have carefully studied Islam and the life of its Prophet. I have done so both as a student of history and as a critic. And I have come to the conclusion that Mohammad was indeed a great man and a deliverer and benefactor of mankind which was till then writhing under a most agonizing pain. I have always held Islam in high estimation because of its wonderful vitality. It is the only religion which appears to me to possess that assimilating capacity to the changing face of existence which can make it appealing to every age. I have studied him, the wonderful man, and in my opinion, far from being an anti-Christ, he must be called the saviour of humanity. I believe that if a man like him were to assume the dictatorship of the modern world, he would succeed in solving its problems in a way that would bring it the much needed peace and happiness.

I have prophesied about the faith of Muhammad that it would be acceptable to the Europe of tomorrow as it is beginning to be acceptable to the Europe of today”.

 

Conclusion

The above quoted comments are just some of the facts that make an orphan and unlettered Prophet, the greatest human being that ever lived on earth. None of the attestations above made any reference to his birth or birthday because they knew that his birth had nothing to do with his achievements.He was not born a Prophet and his greatness was not by accident but by divine will of Allah. If non-Muslims could go as far as expressing the above quoted comments as evidence ofhuman benefit from the greatness of Prophet Muhammad’s mission on earth, what is expected of Muslims for whom that mission is permanently meant?

“No sensible human being ever restricts his itinerary to a particular habitat; to keep moving and migrating from place to place is the secret of human progress”. By an Arab poet

Today, ‘The Message’ column chooses to migrate, if only psychologically, from the insanity of Nigeria’s economic and religious rigmarole to the global political tempest for a change. After all, elasticity has its own limit. And by so migrating, even if temporarily, some relief may come to the readers of this column over the current political suffocation in the country. That is a way of ventilating a momentarily peaceful atmosphere for peace-loving Nigerians.

 

Trump’s planned predation against Iran

At the instance of the United State’s President Donald Trump, an unexpected global war may soon break out, the consequences of which are unpredictable. As a matter of fact, this assertion has started gathering momentum with the swinging of a dangerous pendulum from the the premise of the US. When and how such a war will break out seems to be the only question that may agitate the mind of any enquirer.

 

Genesis of Global Tempest

A few years ago, Al-Jazeera Television throbbed with   breaking news, reporting that a United States military aircraft strayed into the airspace of Iran and the latter promptly responded by shooting it down. The incident occurred when Dr. Barak Obama was the President of the US. And it was the climax of an allegation of stockpiling weapons of mass destruction, especially, nuclear armament by Iran. The allegation was made by the US.

That disturbing development which dragged Iran to the United Nation’s Security Council for explanation further heightened the already existing tension between the US and Iran. The tension between both countries had started in 1979 with the revolution that uprooted Iran’s imperial despotism that had caged the Iranian people for decades under that country’s last monarch, Muhammad Pahlavi.

 

U.S.’ reaction

In reaction to the fortuitous incident of the US intrusion that led to Iran’s prompt military reaction, the US authorities said that the destination of the aircraft shot down by Iran was Afghanistan and not Iran. They explained that its pilot accidentally lost control and strayed into Iranian territory.

 

Siege on British Embassy

Shortly before the above narrated incident, Some Iranian students had laid siege on the British Embassy, in Tehran, in protest against what they called an intolerable meddling by the then British Prime Minister, David Cameron’s government, in the internal affairs of Iran. And in retaliation to that siege, Britain quickly evacuated her diplomats in Tehran and sent the Iranian diplomats in London packing despite Iran’s regret and apology over those students’ unauthorized action.

 

Complication

To further complicate the tension over that incident, the French government issued a 48 hour ultimatum to Iranian diplomats to quit France. That was done in solidarity with the British government in the spirit of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) as well as European Union (EU). From thence, things started to move so fast that it became difficult to predict what would happen next. Most diplomatic observers saw a similarity between those developments and the unexpected occurrences of the early 20th century that precipitated both World War I and World War II.

 

Genesis of faceoff

The genesis of the faceoff between the West and Iran actually took roots in the latter’s unexpected revolution of 1979 which caused a diplomatic row between the two geographical blocks. That triangular row actually started in February 1979, when Iran jumped democratically onto the world stage with a fortuitous revolution that held the Arab States of the Gulf region spellbound. The revolution was the climax of the struggle, in Iran, which began in 1963 between the oppressed people who were seeking emancipation from the shackles of imperialism and the implacable internal oppressors who wanted to keep that country’s innocent peasants in perpetual subservience to enable them maintain the ugly status quo of the time.

It was the miraculous success of that revolution that altered the grand design of the Western powers for the Muslim world.

 

The Grand Design

The West’s grand design for the Muslim world through the Middle East was first expressed in 1902 by a British Prime Minister, Sir H. Campbell-Bannerman when he observed as follows:

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

 

Follow Up

Sir Bannerman’s observation was in further pursuit of an earlier demand by an Austrian Jewish lawyer and Journalist, Theodor Herzl, the initiator and leader of the Zionist movement founded in 1879. In the euphoria of a chauvinist’s ambition, shortly after the establishment of the Zionist movement,  Theodor Herzl, made a demand thus:

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

 

The Balfour Declaration

In response to the West’s clandestine agenda many decades after Herzl’s demand, another British Prime Minister, James Arthur Balfour, issued an insensitive, devastating declaration that now bears his name in history. That seemingly conspiratorial declaration, which forcefully conceded a major chunk of Palestinian land to the Zionists as a home, became a thorny point in the serenity of the world.

Since then, the infamous Balfour declaration has put the Middle East in an incessant turmoil to the discomfort of the world’s peace and harmony. The declaration read partly as follows:

“His majesty’s Government views with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people and will use its best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this objective…. The rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country shall not be prejudiced by the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people”

 

Implementation

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

 

Iran connection

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

That is the logical question that anybody who is not quite familiar with the Middle East and the intricacies of its political and economic set up may ask. Naturally, Iran is affected by three major factors: Culture, economy and politics. By culture here, we mean ISLAM. Iran is a foremost Muslim country even if her official language is not Arabic. And, as a Muslim Country, whatever affects other Muslim countries must affect her. Thus, as a major neighbour to the Arabs in the Gulf, she cannot but play a role in the politics of the region. Also, as an economically strong nation in the primordial and contemporary times, Iran occupies a very strategic position in the Middle East especially with her proximity to the Persian Gulf.

 

Turkey for instance

Like Iran’s, the case of Turkey in the Muslim world is a good example. Turkey is, though, not an Arab country, she was nevertheless once the seat of the Islamic Caliphate until 1924 when a diabolical agent of the West came on stage as Head of State. His name was Mustafa Kemal Ataturk; a man who wanted to prove to the West that it was possible for a non-Catholic to be “Holier than the Pope” especially when it came to adopting the so-called Western Civilization. On March 3, 1924, just one year after assuming office as the ruler of Turkey, Ataturk introduced a Bill to the Turkish Parliament seeking to secularize his country by abolishing the caliphate without any consideration for the feelings and sensitivity of the people he ruled as well as the prominent position of Turkey in the Islamic world.

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

 

The Effect

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

 

Ataturk’s Whim

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

 

The emergence of Ayatullah Khomeni

It was the possibility of the same situation under Muhammad Pahalavi that prompted the late Iranian spiritual leader, Ayatullah Ruhullah Mousavi Khomeini to embark on the liberation struggle in 1963 that culminated in a successful revolution of February 1979. Contrary to Ataturk’s thinking, however, Imam Khomeini knew that the greatest virtue that could be lost in the life of man was culture. He knew that without a clear-cut culture man couldn’t be better than a beast. He knew that such values as law, education and religion, which guide man in his peregrinations on earth, are the attributes of culture. He knew that a nation, which surrenders its culture and adopts that of another nation, has enslaved herself permanently to the caprice of the latter nation. Thus, Khomeini saw Islam, (the culture of over one billion Muslims in the world at that time), as the target of the Western imperialists, which needed defence and protection.

 

The Iranian Revolution

No one believed in 1979 that a mass protest which started like a small political billow, engendered by the country’s unarmed Mullahs could eventually grow into such a great magnitude of political ‘earthquake’. By the time the foggy dust finally settled, a new Iran had emerged from the debris of the old. Against the wish and expectation of the capitalist West, the secular, monarchical Iran became a democratic, Islamic republic. The drama was quite electric.

Characteristic of the West, all hands were put on deck, at that time, to ensure that an Islamic republic did not succeed the tyrannical monarchy headed by the Shah Pahlavi and heavily backed up by the oppressive West. America was most active in that ambitious but vain effort. She would not easily allow the massive benefit she had been enjoying for decades in that oil-rich country, under the Shah regime, to slip out of her hands just like that. Thus, under the pretext that she wanted to rescue her citizens from the siege laid by Iranian students on that country’s embassy, in Tehran, the US attempted an invasion of the country.  The espionage activities by the American diplomats, inside that embassy, against the new Islamic government in Iran had warranted the siege.

The Strategy

While a number of US F15 bomber jets were approaching Iran, President Jimmy Carter engaged his country’s press in a chat without giving any hint of the impending military operation in Iran. The tactics was to divert the attention of the press and that of the country from the illegal Pentagon’s military expedition. But no sane person can ever fault the contents of the Qur’an. More than 1400 years before that incident, a verse of the Qur’an had been revealed to Prophet Muhammad (SAW) thus: “They (the unbelievers) schemed, and Allah schemed. Allah is the supreme schemer”. Q. 3:54.

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

 

The failure of the Strategy

Two of the F15 fighters deployed for the operation miraculously collided in the air just at the point of entering Iran crashing with their contents, and consuming the lives of 16 top air force officers while the other jet fighters had to turn back having run into confusion. When this devastating news reached Carter, it was too much to hide and it quickly became a public knowledge.

Thus, the mighty America failed woefully, with her technology, in circumstances she has never been able to analyze and explain convincingly. With that scheme, it became obvious that Jimmy Carter of the Democrat Party had dug his own political grave. Of course, he lost the election to the cowboy turned Politician, (Ronald Reagan) of the Republican Party. For about 444 days (well over a year), the 52 American hostages remained under the siege of the Iranian students. It took high-level diplomacy, through third party countries, to get them released.

Yet, America was not done. She went ahead to freeze Iran’s foreign reserve of $80 billion in addition to imposition of economic sanctions with the intention of running that country’s economy aground. The only Iran’s offence in this case was to chart an independent political course that could liberate her citizens from the manacles of the Western imperialism. Ever since, the relationship between America and Iran has remained icy.

That relationship however, further deteriorated recently when Iran started a nuclear project with which to prop up her economy. America responded with a threat saying the United States would not tolerate any nuclear project in Iran because the latter could not be trusted with such a project.

 

The World’s Greyhound

Only a fool will not know that the UN, as presently constituted, is the greyhound of the US through which the latter barks randomly at the rest of the world.

But for the recent Iraqi episode that became regrettable for the self-appointed policeman of the world, and of course, the North Korean case, which has become a cancerous sore on the head of the US, another Gulf war would have either ensued or become advanced in plan by now. The secret of America’s military successes in various parts of the world is neither in technological advancement, nor military superiority per se. The failed rescue mission in Iran shortly after that country’s revolution has confirmed that.

Rather, the secret of America’s military successes in various wars around the world are rather in her ability to cause schism among some other nations and races.

Iran has never been a prey to America’s direct military aggression, even when the Shah Pahlavi was in power, because that Gulf country has never played a fool dancing to the sour music of the predatory country called America in a seeming military market.

 

Sanction as a Weapon

Now, with the threat of invasion of Iran by Israel on the one hand and economic and political sanctions against her by the US on the other, will history repeat itself? One fact has become clear about the US political trend ever since her withdrawal from her self-isolationism in 1945. The success of her internal politics has been regularly dictated by her foreign policy. Thus, many American Presidents have won or lost elections at home due to the foreign policy of the concerned President. Will this also repeat itself? The days ahead will answer this fundamental question as events continue to unfold. But with the objection by China and Russia to using suffocating economic sanctions against the people of Iran, the US may need to watch steps carefully especially with respect with the aloofness of most European countries to her unilaterally planned invasion of Iran. Iran is neither Iraq nor Afghanistan. The world cannot afford another World War now. No one should attempt to plunge it into one by taking a country’s military capability for granted. A word is enough for the wise.

Parents have been urged to pay attention to the upbringing of their children and teach them the Islamic way of life.

Amir of Mujahidun Club of Nigeria, Ustaz AbdulRasak Idris stated this at a Quran competition organsied by the club in Lagos.

Idris said parents need to take seriously the training of their children in the Islamic way especially making them to learn the Quran at tender age.

“The primary responsibility of the parent is that they give their children quality education, not only western education, Islamic education also should be included, as  it is necessary because if you don’t give your children Islamic education, you are going to regret it in future because the children won’t give you rest of mind as a parent. The Quran would teach a child everything in life including the moral and the spiritual aspects; they won’t go astray and you, parents would have rest of mind,” he said.

He said that kids who have knowledge of the Quran from tender age would not constitute social menace in the society.

Idris said: “There is no moral upbringing in the children again even the adults, whereas the Quran teaches us how we should live our lives. That is why we come back to the Quran, to train the young ones, if initially our children know the Quran and its concept and behave in the way it teaches us, definitely this country would be better and that is our mission.”

Winners of the ninth edition of the Annual Quran Competition went home with a flat screen television set, home theatre and electrical cooking pot, while each participant were rewarded with copies of the Quran and exercise books.

Chairman Organising Committee Moshood Adeosun said the only antidote to the nation’s problems is the Quran.

Adeosun said the nation will finds tranquillity when people return to the Quran and imbibe its teachings.

“Nigerians should teach their children Quran when they are young, they should memorise it, read it and follow its teachings. In doing this, we can only find peace of mind and high moral standard in the society, because when they are young and you teach them in the way of Allah, they would not misbehave; if our leaders or our pass leaders have fear of Allah, Nigeria will not be where it is today because if people know the teaching of Quran, we would not have issue of Boko Haram,” he said.

Apology

This article was meant for publication last in this column Friday, but due to a circumstance beyond yours sincerely, it did not come out. I am sorry for any inconvenience that the readers might have encountered as a result.

Monologue

IT has been asserted severally in this column that the similitude of column writing in a national newspaper on a weekly basis is like pregnancy in the womb of an expectant mother. When the pregnancy reaches advanced stage, its carrier can hardly have a moment of respite until she has been delivered of a bouncing baby whose cry will ginger her into consciousness.

 

The problem of a columnist

The problem of a quality columnist is not a dearth of ideas but a deluge of them. No columnist of worth will ever be in want of vocabulary to use in   presenting his thoughts and ideas to his readers. A strong linguistic background and many years of experience in reading and writing would have taken proper care of that. Thus, a worthy columnist faces problem only when it comes to choosing the subject of his writing. Such is the weekly intellectual agony which any newspaper or magazine columnist, anywhere in the world, is compelled to pass through from time to time.

 

The dilemma of a columnist

While a columnist is busy ruminating on an issue to write about, several other issues will spring up and start throwing themselves to him torrentially in such a way that he may easily falls into  a dilemma or even confusion.

That was the case with yours sincerely this week. Today’s topic was not at all, in the cluster of subjects competing for consideration in this column. But usually, in the melee of searching the brain for a subject that will attract the attention of readers and quench their intellectual thirst, an experienced columnist should be able to push his God-given skill to the front burner to meet the momentary taste of his readers.

 

Skill as a hobby

Ability to speak or write intellectually is a gift from Allah which grows into a skill over   time. And it becomes much easier when such a skill becomes a hobby. Speaking, no matter how eloquently done, cannot be as important as getting audience. So is writing. A speaker can be classified as an orator only by the audience that listens to him always and benefit from the richness of his speech. Experienced radio and television broadcasters can attest to this. In the same vein, an author or a columnist can be celebrated or denigrated only by his readers. Any writer who takes his readers for granted, therefore, does so at his own risk. Such a writer may not be qualified for an author or a columnist. Today’s topic in this column was chosen extemporaneously out of the miscellany of others that were earnestly putting themselves forward for prompt attention.

The topic is more about the modern virtue which gives the modern man a worthy life to live. That virtue is education that serves as the master key to the door of knowledge. Without knowledge, human life would have been worthless. Today, the main symbol of knowledge is the citadel called University. The master key to that citadel is not certificate as mostly misconceived, especially in Nigeria, but the use to which it is humbly put.

 

Home of knowledge

Abeokuta, the traditional home of knowledge and culture in Nigeria, was agog last, Saturday, October 20, 2018. That was probably another day on which a famous Yoruba adage: “every day is like a festival”,  was further ascertained with its deep-rooted meaning. And that was the destination of last Friday’s cruising yacht of writing called ‘The Message’ Column. And the anchorage was Crescent University, Abeokuta (CUAB) where morality is the permanent rule. That is the place where a miscellany of citations was read, as some great Nigerians were conferred with doctoral degrees  (Honoris Causa) in some notable areas of human endeavour. Dr. S. O. Babalola was one of those so conferred and the citations read at that occasion, in respect of this great man was of particular interest to this columnist as an alternative citation was prepared by ‘The Message’ column in adviance of the occasion. It went thus:

 

An alternative citation

Life is a school in which many apartments are available. If you are lucky to study in one department, do not assume that you have acquired all the needed education with which to survive the oddities of life. It is one thing to pass through a school. It is another to allow the same school to pass through you. That is the real essence of any education that will culminate in useful knowledge.

The unassuming Octogenarian gentleman popularly known as Dr. S. O. Babalola has been on stage in Nigeria’s amphitheatre of positive actions for more than 50 years. Yet, he still surges ahead to the satisfactory comfort of those around him, home and abroad. If I were in a position to present this exemplary man’s citation at any public event, below is what I would have liked to present:

“This is a citation and not a summary of a biography. It is the citation of one of Nigeria’s iconic leaders who is eminently qualified to be cited vertically from the pack of his horizontal peers. This citation is unconventional. Unlike many other citations, the emphasis here is neither on the date and place of birth nor on the schools attended and the certificates obtained. The emphasis here is rather on a citation from which most people, present here or absent, will learn how to keep the track of life without falling by the way side.

If, on any occasion, every citation is about date of birth, schools attended or wives married the day will be tastelessly dotted with sheer rhetoric and heavily clouded by a boring monotony. The world is fast changing with dynamism and anybody who refuses to join the train of change before it leaves the station will be left behind to do so on another day.

 

The Cornerstone

“While man’s desires and aspirations stir, he cannot choose but err; yet, in his erring journey through the night, instinctively, he travels towards the light”. By Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

The above poem is the parable of a rejected stone that has turned out to be the cornerstone of the house. Those who can still remember the history of Prophet Ismail, (the first son of Prophet Ibrahim) should be able to recall that the son was once ejected with his mother, from their family home and banished to a desert asylum at a place now called Makkah.  Today, we can all see the outcome of that episode in the everlasting uniqueness of Hajj as the fifth pillar of Islam. As it was in the primordial time, so it is in the contemporary time”.

 

Profile of an Icon

“We have a man in our midst here today, whose rising profile has enabled us to know that the purpose of human life is not just to live comfortably and be happy. Beneath many days of happy mood are some quiet nights of sleeplessness and tears of sorrow. That is the secret of human experience which should serve as the first lesson to be learnt in a citation. The man in reference here is Dr. S. O. Babalola, OON, a man who combines humility with conscience to form an identity by which he is generally known. That is an identity that clearly distinguishes a man of honour from men of wealth. We should all know that humility based on conscience is the most active cursor of piety.

 

His rising profile

Perhaps, if Dr. S. O. Babalola had not exprienced rejection in certain quarters, at a stage in his life’s odyssey, he would not have emerged as the President of the Muslim Ummah of the South West Nigeria (MUSWEN) which is the umbrella body for all Muslim organizations in the region. And if he had not become the President of MUSWEN, he would probably not have risen to the post of Deputy President-General (South) of the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA). With the latter post, he is the paramount leader of all the Muslims in the entire Southern Nigeria by the grace of Allah. What could have made this possible besides destiny through the guidance of Allah?

Now, if, in the course of reading his citation, we trace the background of this unique icon to any school or madrasah he attended at the early age of his life, what lesson are we to learn from that? If we describe him as one of the foremost but quiet philanthropists currently in Nigeria, and list the chain of his philanthropic gestures, what uniqueness can we derive from that for him? If we say here that he is married with children and he gave those children qualitative education how does that make his life different from the lives of his peers? All those are a common feature of common citations often presented publicly, sometimes, to the boredom of the audience.

 

The difference He makes

What actually makes conspicuous difference in this man’s life, which only a few people are able to perceive and focus, is his ability to identify, early in life, the factors of equanimity in human life.

That is the guiding principle adopted by Dr. S. O. Babalola who rose from the dungeon of obscurity to a very high pedestal of limelight in integrity despite all odds. But he added an addendum of his own to that principle. That addendum which has become a template for those who are willing to learn is as follows:

“To be happy in life you must make others happy. And to live in peace, you must ventilate a peaceful environment for others. Happiness is based on peace and peace from man to man is reciprocal”.

Thus, for Dr. S. O. Babalola, rising to become a towering leader was not by fortuitous. He had painstakingly studied the qualities of a good leader and he has patiently imbibed those qualities through self-discipline and divinely guided inspiration.

Attributes of Good Leadership

Anybody who cares to know the attributes of good leadership which form the ladder that took this great man to this stage of his life will discover those qualities to be as follows:

Meaningful focus; interminable patience; relentless confidence; untamable courage; inspired innovations; natural humility; irrepressible endurance; insubordinate assiduity; divinely-guided self-motivation; impeccable resilience; enviable transparency; unequalled generosity; plausible accountability; unfaultable authenticity; intractable decisiveness; absolute contentment and, of course, unpolluted conscience.

 

Question

Now, which of these qualities cannot be found in this man? And which of them should not be emulated by young men and women who are aspiring to be leaders tomorrow? This reminds one of a stanza in the poem of an Arab poet thus:

“He is not a man whoever relies on the achievements of his parents to exhibit pride; a man indeed is he who can stand out of the pack with his head raised, and say: here I am today, despite all odds of life”.

Today, at the peak of his ladder of excellence, Dr. S. O. Babalola has become a school for those who want to study the ladder of life and how to mount it to the top. You can now see why a citation like this is said to be unconventional.  In modern time, this is what a citation should be to enable future leaders to learn from it in preparation for the mantle of leadership.

 

Conclusion

This alternative citation is hereby concluded with a prayer that was once offered poetically by an American woman (J. Walch) who dedicated her entire life to the service mankind upon which she died. That prayer has since become a daily rhyme for Dr. S. O. Babalola in words and in action. It goes thus:

“God make my life a little staff, upon which the weak may rest, that what so health and wealth I have may serve my neighbours best”.

We pray the Almighty Allah to preserve his life and imbue him with continued sound health, guidance and protection, that he may serve humanity for long in good spirit. Amen.