“Those are our impacts (on the Society); They confirm who we are; look at those impacts again…”
This week, the third week in April, 2019, is not the well-known Scholar’s Week of Nigeria’s citadel emeritus called Markaz. Usually, that famous week comes up in the first week of May, every year, since it first debut in 1998, six years after the demise of Sheikh Adam Abdullah Al-Ilory, the great African revolutionary sage who kindled the light of knowledge for Nigerian madrasah system on the platform of Arabic language.
However, that the great week is coming up in the third week of April this year is a matter of exigency to avoid a clash with the coming great month of Ramadan.
It should be recalled that the great innovation called Scholars’ Week was initiated by Shaykh Habibullah Adam Abdullah Al-Ilory, a foremost son of Shaykh Adam Abdullah Al-Ilory who is currently the Rector of Markaz.
Purpose of scholars’ week
Scholars’ Week is a week in which scholarship is internationally celebrated in full regalia. Great men and women of letters from all walks of life, and from most countries of Africa and the Middle East, assemble on the campus of that great institution for a whole week in May every year to clad knowledge in a befitting wreath of honour.
This ingenuous innovation which began in 1998 was aimed at keeping aglow the illuminating touch of learning that was the hallmark of the late Shaykh Adam Al-Ilory while alive.
Activities
During the week, scholarly papers on various issues of human interest as well as of concern to Islam and the Muslim Ummah are presented. Debates and symposia are also organized to resolve some knotty contemporary and primordial intellectual questions hitherto unanswered even as plenary sessions are held to deliberate and decide on further way forward.
Scholars Week’ is both a meeting point and a reminder of the good old days for the alumni of Markaz who now come from various parts of the world yearly to upgrade their general knowledge and broaden their horizons about life.
The week also serves as an interactive session for professionals, clerics and scholars in other fields of learning outside the umbrella of Markaz to share and exchange ideas as well as experiences. It is like a modern day ‘Ukaz’ intellectual market of yore in Arabia where all valuable elements of scholarship used to compete for global intellectual attention.
Internationalization
Now, with this unique, annual, intellectual conference, the idea of Scholars’ Week has been further internationalized.
The primary language of discussion while the commemorative conference lasts is Arabic. That language is international by all standards. Apart from being one of the languages spoken at the United Nations meetings, it is also the mother tongue of over 400 million Arabs as well as a major language at the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) forum. Besides, over 100 million non-Arabs who speak Arabic as their second language spread across continents and countries of the world.
Conference language
The scholarly event in Markaz does not however limit the exercise to Arabic speakers alone. Presentation of papers in English, French, Yoruba, Hausa and even Ibo is also welcome since no particular language has monopoly of knowledge. Arabic is however made the primary language of communication for two reasons: First is to provide scholars with an avenue to exhibit their Arabic prowess and thereby boost their scholarly horizon in the language of the Qur’an and Sunnah. Secondly, it encourages the current students of Markaz and those of other Arabic and Islamic Institutions of learning who may be interested in imbibing the culture of scholarship par excellence which helped the founder of Markaz to pave way intellectually for others in life.
Despite the unrivalled accomplishment of Shaykh Adam Abdullah Al-Ilory and the ‘Milky Way’ role of Markaz in dispatching a galaxy of stars into the world, some people keep asking questions about the great citadel and its late exemplary Founder.
The answer to that question was modestly proffered in a special publication organized by ‘The NewsMagazine’ of Lagos in 1999. At the grey twilight of the 20th century, the management of that magazine thought of putting together in a chronicled form, the most prominent 100 great Nigerian men and women of the 20th century. The publication was entitled ‘People in The News 1900-1999: A Survey of Nigerians of the 20th Century’.
Hall of fame
To put the documents together about those great Nigerians, some prominent Nigerian newspaper columnists and other versatile (but non-journalists) writers were chosen and commissioned to write about those great Nigerians. Yours sincerely was one of the commissioned journalists. And the two personalities assigned to me were the late Shaykh Adam Abdullah Al-Ilory and Shaykh Abubakar Mahmud Gumi. The 498 page book which was publicly presented with pump and pageantry in Lagos that same year can be called Nigeria’s 20th century’s ‘Hall of Fame.
When I thought of reminding the world of the essence of Scholars’ Week through this column, this year, I was unable to think of anything different from what I had written and published about the great sage called Shaykh Adam Abdullah Al-Ilory in the recent past. Thus, after some time of rumination, I decided to re-present my humble contribution to the book mentioned above. Here it goes:
Distinction
“To Muslim communities of West Africa, two names (Shaykh Adam Abdullah Al-Ilory and Markaz) are synonymous and often used interchangeably. Only a few people know that Markaz is a name of an Institution and Shaykh Adam is the name of its founder. Both names jointly symbolize revolution not only in the method of propagating Islam in the sub-region but also in entrenching the divine language of the Qur’an in the heart and brain of those Muslims. The late Shaykh Adam Abdullah Al-Ilory was both an Islamic scholar of international repute and a revolutionary of historical reference. His famous Centre for Arabic and Islamic Learning (Markaz) in Agege, Lagos State, testifies to both qualities in him.
With the establishment of Markaz in 1952, Shaykh Adam introduced modernity and standardization into Arabic and Islamic learning in Nigeria and West African sub-region.
Perhaps no 20th century Muslim scholar, dead or alive, has ever had such a profound impact on West African Muslim communities, in terms of Arabic scholarship and Islamic propagation as Shaykh Adam.
Antecedent
Before Shaykh Adam established Markaz, there were scholars and there were Madaris, (Qur’anic schools) no doubt. But such schools operated within a very narrow scope as their teaching methodology was very primitive and anachronistic.
In those Madaris, pupils were merely handed over to Muallims (teachers) by their parents without any agreement on what to teach them and for how long. Thus, a pupil could serve his teacher for as long as 20 years or even more in the name of learning to recite the Qur’an.
Birth of a dream
When Shaykh Adam, who also passed through that pseudo servitude, grew up into a man, he pointed out this anomaly with a resolution to change it. To succeed in doing that however, he realized that he needed to equip himself educationally. Therefore, he put fervour in his burner and moved from scholar to scholar, as a pupil, searching for whatever he could garner intellectually to assist him in fulfilling his dream. Two of the teachers from whom he had a deep sip of knowledge were Alfa Namaji (a Nupe scholar from Niger State) and Alfa Salih alias Esin nio bi wa (an Ilorin scholar who settled down in Ibadan, Oyo State). He also studied under a number of other Islamic teachers.
However, Shaykh Adam was not satisfied with the depth of knowledge he acquired from those teachers especially with his resentment for their teaching methodologies.
His quest for more knowledge
Despite his very limited financial ability, Shaykh Adam, decided to proceed abroad for further studies. He arrived in Cairo, Egypt, in the early 1940s, where he had an academic sojourn at the prestigious Al-Azhar University which is one of the three oldest Universities in the world today. (Al-Azhar University was established in 970 C.E by one Jawhar, a ‘Fatimid’ front liner).
In Cairo, Shaykh Adam saw with admiration how well organized Madaris were run and he started dreaming of establishing one on returning to his father land. He studied the Egyptian curricula of education and methodology of teaching both at the elementary and secondary levels.
On his arrival in Nigeria in 1947, he worked briefly as a missionary under Ansar-ud-Deen Society of Nigeria to enable him settle down financially in preparation for the realization of his long term dream. In a short while, his burning desire to reform Madrasah system in Nigeria spurred him to start planning for the establishment of Markaz.
Thus with meagre financial resources but relentless determination, he established a Madrasah called ‘Markazut Ta’limil Arabiyy wad-Dirasatul Islamiyyah’ (which meant ‘Centre for Arabic and Islamic Learning’ and became popularly known as MARKAZ) in Abeokuta, Ogun State, on April 16, 1952. The Institution which was to become the Centre of Revolution in the teaching of Arabic and Islamic education in Nigeria, started with just 19 pupils and four teachers including Shaykh Adam himself. The founder’s foresight, however, would not allow Markaz to remain in Abeokuta for long. He moved the Institution to Agege, now in Lagos State, in 1955.
Uniqueness of Markaz
The uniqueness of Markaz at that time was not to be seen in the quality of education taught to the students alone. The modern teaching methodology and reformation with which the Institution was characterized also confirmed that uniqueness. It was in Markaz for instance that the use of chalk and blackboard for teaching Arabic and Islamic education was first introduced in Yoruba land. Hitherto, the teaching instruments were wooden slate and local ink. It was in Markaz that a curriculum was first introduced which classified studies into subjects while pupils were distributed into classrooms according to their levels. It was in Markaz that pupils of Arabic and Islamic education first wore uniform and sat on chairs rather than on floor while writing with pencil or pen in notebooks. It was in Markaz that examination was first introduced as a means of assessing and promoting pupils from class to class while certificates were issued to Madrasah graduates as a measure of their level of education. It was in Markaz that such facilities as dormitories, library, printing press and clinic were first provided for Madrasah students.
Antagonism
However, for doing all these and for teaching students such subjects as syntax, morphology, logic, semantics, philosophy, geography, History, mathematics, and Arabic literature, Sheikh Adam was confronted with implacable hostility by some traditional local Alfas. That hostility became aggravated when he added a Central Jum’at Mosque to Markaz where the Friday sermon which he delivered in Arabic language was translated into Yoruba simultaneously. But the courageous scholar remained undaunted.
First graduation ceremony in Markaz
With the first graduation ceremony of Markaz in 1957 however, which many people watched with admiration, Shaykh Adam won an important victory for his revolution. Following that graduation, some ambitious but hostile local Alfas swallowed their envy by shelving their pride and enrolled in Markaz as students to improve their knowledge and undergo tutelage in the modern teaching methodology.
A number of those Alfas came from various parts of Nigeria as well as neighbouring countries like Benin Republic, Togo, Ghana, Cote d’I-Voire, Guinea, Burkina Faso, Cameroon and Sierra Leone. After graduation, some of them went back to establish similar Institutions in their domains under the umbrella of Markaz.
Today, thousands of products of Markaz and those of the affiliate Institutions are University graduates in various fields of discipline. Scores of them are highly placed in their callings and professions.
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