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Tag: Islam

  • Exploitation of the vulnerable: A reflection on Nigerian leadership through an Islamic lens

    Exploitation of the vulnerable: A reflection on Nigerian leadership through an Islamic lens

    By Mustapha Ridwan

    While traveling from Ibadan to Lagos, our public bus made a stop at the NNPC filling station in Academy, Ibadan, around 3:20 p.m. on October 6, 2024, for refueling. From my seat, I observed a striking scene unfold.

    A car, having just refueled, got stuck in a pothole at the station’s exit. In response, five young hawkers, aged around 7 to 13, who were peddling their goods nearby, quickly organized themselves and pushed the car out of its predicament.

    In appreciation, the driver handed them 1,000 naira. However, before the children could enjoy their well-deserved reward, a man dressed in a white round-neck shirt, face cap, and blue jeans—who had no part in helping—stepped in. Without hesitation, he took the money, handing the children only 500 naira to share amongst themselves.

    What was most unsettling wasn’t just the man’s audacity to cheat the kids, but how casually he walked away as if he had done nothing wrong. The kids, too, didn’t seem upset by the injustice; their focus was solely on dividing the little they had received.

    This incident, small as it may seem, reflects a larger problem that plagues Nigerian society: the exploitation of the vulnerable by those in positions of power.

    This article seeks to draw a parallel between these children being cheated and the relationship between Nigerian leaders and their followers, while examining the issue through the lens of Islamic principles on justice, fairness, and the protection of the weak.

    Public Apathy and Acceptance

    This incident underscores a broader mindset prevalent in Nigeria, where survival mentality, political manipulation, corruption, and a culture of silence dominate. The children’s inability to challenge the man who cheated them highlights a survival instinct—they likely felt powerless to confront him, perhaps due to his age or perceived authority.

    Similarly, many Nigerians remain silent in the face of injustice, complacently accepting the little they receive instead of demanding accountability.

    Thus, the most powerful tool for demanding justice and accountability lies in the electoral process, yet many Nigerians either neglect to vote responsibly or sell their votes to meet immediate needs, just to survive. This transactional approach to voting reflects a short-term survival mentality rather than a commitment to long-term justice and reform. By prioritizing immediate gain over holding leaders accountable, Nigerians inadvertently perpetuate the cycle of exploitation, where corrupt leaders continue to benefit at the expense of the people.

    Furthermore, Islam advocates the importance of ensuring leadership is based on integrity, and choosing a leader is seen as a serious responsibility. When citizens neglect this duty or allow their vote to be bought, they undermine the very justice and fairness they seek.

    Therefore, confronting exploitation requires more than just voting—it demands responsible, principled participation in the electoral process to elect leaders who embody justice, transparency, and accountability. When challenging injustice, it is essential to do so through legal and peaceful means, as Islam advocates resisting oppression without resorting to unrest.

    The culture of silence in Nigeria further entrenches exploitation, as many citizens fear the repercussions of speaking out or have grown numb to it, much like the children who quietly accepted the unfair distribution of their reward.

    Political manipulation and corruption are also evident in this context. Just as the man took the children’s money without contributing to their efforts, Nigerian leaders often manipulated the system for their benefit while demanding sacrifice from the masses during times of economic hardship. The culture of silence supports this injustice, as many Nigerians choose to stay quiet, accepting minimal benefits rather than demanding justice and accountability from their leaders.

    Islamic Perspective on Justice and Leadership

    In Islam, justice is the cornerstone of leadership. The Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and the rightly guided caliphs prioritized protecting the vulnerable and ensuring fairness for all. Leadership is seen as a trust (al-amaanah), a promise by the leader to defend and treat the people justly. In Islam, leadership is an inverted pyramid where the leader shoulders the responsibilities of those under their care.

    A well-known example from the life of the Prophet (PBUH) is when a woman from a noble tribe, Fatimah bint Al-Aswad, committed theft. Although people urged the Prophet to pardon her due to her social status, he firmly responded, “Even if Fatimah, my own daughter, had stolen, I would have her hand chopped off.”

    Similarly, Umar (RA) ordered the demolition of a mosque built on stolen land and returned the property to its rightful owner who was a Jew. These actions demonstrate a commitment to justice, regardless of a person’s wealth or status.

    Islamic leadership requires fairness, accountability, and transparency. The Qur’an emphasizes the importance of standing firm for justice, even against oneself or one’s kin:

    “O you who believe! Stand out firmly for justice, as witnesses to Allah, even though it be against yourselves, or your parents, or your kin, be he rich or poor, Allah is a Better Protector to both (than you). So follow not the lusts (of your hearts), lest you may avoid justice…” (Qur’an 4:135)

    Call for a Shift in Leadership and Accountability

    Islam teaches that no one is above the law. Leaders must embody Islamic values of justice, trust, and accountability. The philosophy of Islam holds that when people are on a journey, they must appoint a leader, who is to be followed as long as he adheres to Allah’s guidance. Disobedience is allowed only when the leader strays from this path.

    In the story of the children, the man who took the money acted as a leader, but instead of coordinating the children to ensure a fair distribution, he exploited them. This mirrors the relationship between corrupt leaders and their followers. Just as the children were cheated, citizens often faced exploitation. However, followers must resist such exploitation and demand fairness.

    During Umar’s caliphate, when a man questioned him about how he obtained a new cloak when everyone received only one piece of fabric from the public treasury, Umar explained that his son had given him his share, allowing him to make a full garment. This incident reflects the transparency expected of leaders and demonstrates that they should always be answerable to their followers.

    Conclusion

    Just as the children at the filling station accepted their fate without challenging the man who cheated them, many Nigerians have grown accustomed to exploitation by their leaders. The children focused on dividing the little they received rather than confronting the injustice, much like how Nigerians often focus on survival rather than demanding accountability and justice from their leaders. However, Islam teaches us to resist exploitation and injustice peacefully, legally, and wisely.

    It is high time for leaders to embody Islamic values of justice, fairness, and accountability, and for followers to demand these qualities from their leaders. By breaking the cycle of exploitation, both leaders and followers can contribute to a society rooted in fairness and equity, following the exemplary leadership of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and his successors.

  • “Ignorance of divine provisions in islam endangers peaceful, inclusive society”

    “Ignorance of divine provisions in islam endangers peaceful, inclusive society”

    The Missioner, Muslim Teachers Association of Nigeria (MUTAN), Lagos State, Sheik Abdulwahab Lawal, has said that widespread ignorance of mankind concerning divine provisions in Islam endangers the world and makes peaceful and inclusive society a mirage.

    He said whenever we appreciate these divine provisions in Islam and decide to live by them, “this world will be the best for us all to live in.”

    He stated this in an address delivered as part of activities marking the 18th Ramadan Lecture organized by Education District 111, Ikoyi which held yesterday at the Dolphin Senior High School Hall, Lagos Island. The theme was: “Promoting Peaceful and Inclusive: Islamic Perspective”.

    Dr Lawal, who is also the Deputy President Hisbullah Movement of Nigeria, said Islam promotes peace and inclusiveness in societies and abhor discrimination.

    Read Also: Why we did not recover $69.4 million electricity debt, by NBET

    Quoting relevant portion of the Holy Quran and Sharia, he argued that Islam is meant to bring about peace and harmony around the world.

    “Islam is a universal religion that includes all nationalities and way of life. Anywhere you go that you find Muslims, we are the same. We are one.

    “We might have identities base on tribes but not that we should discriminate against ourselves. Islam enjoins us that no matter our diversity, we must live in peace and harmony”, he said

    Sheik Olaniyi Shittu, who led the Dhikr, said that prophet Mohammed encourage believers to please Allah during this period of Ramadan.

    He emphasized the importance of making donations and giving out gifts to other people during this period.

    Muslims must visit each other and strengthen relationship and spread the sermon amongst each other even as he called for restraint and self control during this period.

    He advised: “guide your tongues during fasting, avoid speaking ills of other people and control your conduct”.

    The Tutor General/Permanent Secretary, Education District III, Dr. (Mrs.) Idowu Oyetola was invested with the “Peace Award” at the event.

     Lagos Island zone has won this year’s quiz competition organized for schools within Education District 111, Ikoyi.

    The zone was represented by Molade Muhammed  from Dolphin Senior High School and Sulaimon Abdul Rahman from Lafiaji Senior High School .

    The second position was won by Epe Zone represented by  Abdulgafar Kamalideen of Army Senior High school,  Epe and Taiwo Abdul -Rasaq of Odomola Senior secondary School,  Epe while the third position went to  Eti Osa zone which was represented by Musa Muhammad Haruna from Wahab Folawiyo Senior High School, Ikoyi and Giwa Awwal- Government Senior College, maroko.

    For the Koran recitation, Halima Ahmad from Akande Dahunsi Junior School representing Eti Osa zone won the first position while Miss Mayale -Eke Haneesah from Pobuna Junior School representing Epe zone and Giwa Abdulsalam of Eko Akete  Junior Secondary School, Lagos Island Zone won the second and third  positions  respectively.

  • Islam’s Charter with Christianity

    For many Nigerian charlatans who claim to be clerics and preach to their congregations with instigation of hate speeches and unbridled hostility, there are many sources from which to learn a lesson. One of such sources is history which is globally recognized as a great teacher of man. Without history, there can neither be any experience for man nor any template for his future plans. It is on the fertile soil of history that the growth of man and the development of his society are firmly planted.

    Symbiotic Relationship

    Just as history makes man so does man makes history. But the impact of the latter outweighs that of the former by far in the trend of human civilization. However, the symbiotic relationship of both history and man is what keeps the world going.

    Makers of History

    In its characteristic nature as a teacher, history has made many people who continue to depend on its platform for livelihood. On the other hand, there are those who have made history to the benefit of other people even long after their demise.

    The greatest maker of human history, as universally acknowledged, is the greatest human being that ever lived. That human being is Prophet Muhammad (SAW) the son of Abdullah who was an unlettered desert man that paved way for global literacy and education of mankind without blemish. It was he who clearly distinguished education from literacy with his own practical example and opened the eyes of the whole world to the fact that literacy is just an instrument for documenting and preserving knowledge for posterity.  And that is one of the factors that makes him the greatest man that ever lived.

    Through a famous book entitled ‘The 100: A Ranking of the Most influential Persons in History’ and published in 1977, by a Jewish American astrophysicist and scholar, Michael Hart,  the consciousness of the contemporary world was drawn to the uniqueness of an unlettered man who turns out to be the most educated human being ever in history.

    It was in that book that Prophet Muhammad (SAW) was named the greatest man that ever lived.

    And since the publication of that historic book, no other author or scholar of note has come up with an acknowledged research work to counter Michael Hart’s sense of judgment by providing a convincing alternative to the latter’s conclusion.

    Thus, contrary to cynics’ baseless propaganda against Islam and Prophet Muhammad (SAW), out of sheer envy, it was this greatest Prophet of Islam that taught mankind the act of religious tolerance and accommodation.

    Evidence of Greatness

    Greatness is neither by chance nor by sheer proclamation or attribution. Whoever can innovate a venture that becomes a heritage for multitudes of people across nations, centuries and generations is indeed an incontrovertible great person. That is one of the many factors that make Prophet Muhammad (SAW) the greatest man that ever lived.

    Historic Charter

    In recognition of Jesus Christ as his predecessor and fellow Apostle, Prophet Muhammad (SAW) signed a charter with some Christian leaders in 628 CE and the charter remains valid till today. The signing of that charter by the great Prophet was also an evidence that Islam recognizes authentic Christianity as a divine religion.

    In that year (628 CE), a Christian delegation from St. Catherine’s Monastery travelled to Madinah to meet Prophet Muhammad (SAW) and seek from him protection of the Islamic government under his command. The objective was to elicit the support of the Islamic government in ensuring their security against the aggression of the Persian Empire.

    (St. Catherine’s Monastery is the world’s oldest Monastery located at the foot of Mt. Sinai which has a huge collection of Christian manuscripts second only to those of the Vatican City and it is known as a world heritage site).

    The Content of the Charter

    In response to the request of the Christian representatives cited above, Prophet Muhammad (SAW) them granted a written charter of rights as follows:

    “This is a message from Muhammad the son of Abdullah serving as a covenant to those who adopt Christianity, near and far that we (Muslims) are with them. Verily, I and all the servants of God, as well as the helpers of Islam hereby make promise to defend Christians because they are my citizens and by God, I stand out against anything that displeases them. No compulsion is to be on them (concerning their way of worship). Neither are their judges to be removed from their jobs nor their monks from their monasteries. No one should destroy a house of their religion or damage it or loot it. Whoever violates this has breached God’s covenant with mankind and disobeyed His Apostle.

    Verily, Christians are my allies and have my secure charter against all they hate. No one should force them to fight for a course in which they have no belief or compel them to migrate against their wish.

    Neither is the sacredness of their covenant to be violated nor their Monasteries to be disrespected. And if any damage should happen to their Monasteries by chance, they must not be prevented from repairing them. No Muslim should disobey this charter till the Last Day (end of the world)”.

    Before the Charter

    Prior to the charter mentioned above, several verses of the Qur’an had been revealed to Prophet Muhammad (SAW) acknowledging the divine mission of all the Prophets preceding him (Muhammad (SAW) including that of Jesus the son of Mary. And because of those Qur’anic revelations, no Muslim can claim to be a true believer in Islam without accepting Jesus the son of Mary as well as other Prophets ordained as Apostles of Allah. One of those Qur’anic revelations states as follows:

    “The Apostle of Allah (Muhammad SAW) believes in what was revealed to him and so do the entire Muslim faithful. Every one of them believes in Allah, His Angels, His Books and His Apostles. We do not discriminate against any of His Apostles. They say “we hear and obey (the laws brought by those Apostles). Grant us your forgiveness Oh Lord! To you we shall all return….” (Q. 2: 285).

    Brethren in Faith

    The above charter shows that Prophet Muhammad (SAW) recognized a bond of brotherhood in faith between Muslims and Christians and that none of them should fight against the other (physically or psychologically) for the reason of differences in their modes of worship. And by validating the charter till the great Day of Judgment, the Prophet had precluded any future attempt to revoke the privileges contained in that charter by any nation, group or individuals.

    Implications of the Charter

    By implication, the inalienability of the  privileges contained in the above charter are remain irreversible from the primordial time to the contemporary time. Besides, one remarkable aspect of the charter is that it did not stipulate any condition for Christians to enjoy those privileges. It is because of that unprecedented charter that Muslims, all over the world, do not blame Christianity for any misdemeanor of a Christian or attack Christianity as a way of preaching Islam as some Christians do against Islam particularly in Nigeria.

    Reciprocation

    Believing that being followers of Jesus Christ was enough a condition to enjoy the privileges contained in the above charter, Prophet Muhammad (SAW) assumed that the Christians, would be civilized enough to reciprocate that unprecedented gesture whenever and wherever they coexist with Muslims not only by tolerating the latter’s mode of worship and way of life but also by refraining from any naked or avowed act of provocation or disdain against them, which could precipitate a religious rancour. Another noticeable aspect of the charter is the Prophet’s silence on any payment by the protectorate Christians which was the general norm among nations in those days.

    Thus, that ‘Charter of Rights’ was a free gift. And from it the reason becomes clear why the Islamic State under the command of Prophet Muhammad (SAW) or any of his rightly guided companions or disciples who became Caliphs after his demise never crossed swords with any Christian group or nation throughout their regimes. If any wars like those of the crusades ever broke out centuries later between Christians and Muslims such could only be attributed either to a breach of the charter by ignorant adherents of both religions. And that does not have anything to do with the tenets of the two religions.

    Upholding the Charter

    In upholding that charter, the second Caliph in Islam, Umar Bn Khattab, refused to observe Muslim prayer (Salat) inside the Church of Jerusalem when he visited the area following the liberation of that region by the Islamic State from the Persian Empire in which Zoroastrianism (worshiping of fire) was the religion. On that historic occasion, the Church of Jerusalem had been cleared by Muslim soldiers for the observance of Salat which Caliph Umar, as Head of State, was to lead. But when he was invited to lead the Salat, he simply declined and rather ordered the soldiers to find another place for Salat and keep the Church intact for the Christians to worship therein in their own way. He said he would not do what Prophet Muhammad (SAW) had prohibited before his demise. He then warned the Muslims who accompanied him never to convert Churches to Mosques for that would amount to religious aggression which was capable of breaching the Prophet’s charter with Christians.

    One God, One Faith

    A divine religion is like embassies to which Ambassadors are diplomatically assigned. The operations in those embassies are in accordance with the foreign policies of the home country of the mission to which an Ambassador is assigned. And just as the embassy premises are treated as part of the home country of the concerned mission so are the Ambassadors posted to those missions are accorded diplomatic immunity. And, in such cases, what is good for the goose is equally deemed good for the gander.

    Commercialization of Religion

    Ironically, today, in no other country is religion as commercialized as in Nigeria. Even the United States of America from where that obnoxious capitalist orientation was imported has been surpassed by some Nigerian charlatans calling themselves ‘men and women of god’. If such Nigerians claim to be religious at all, their dedication is rather to the money accruing from religion than to God that they claim to be worshipping.

    Evidence of Ignorance

    What most Nigerian leaders of Islamic and Christian religions do not seem to know is that the refusal of the adherents of both religions to study and understand the doctrines which guide those religions is the main cause of religious disharmony in the country today. This is however, not peculiar to Nigeria. It is global. Both Christians and Muslims jointly constitute more than half of the world’s population.

    And, it is from their common brook that the spiritual ripples which continually make the world restive emanate. If the adherents of both religions had endeavoured to mutually study and understand the doctrines that guide their ways in life, the world would not have come under religious spell as we have it today.

    Prophetic Revelation

    Before the Prophet’s migration from Makkah to Madinah, a Qur’anic revelation came to Prophet Muhammad (SAW) in 616 CE to confirm the brotherhood of Islam and Christianity. That revelation which formed a whole chapter in the Qur’an was entitled ‘The Chapter of Rome ’. It reads thus: “Rome, (the nation of the Christian Greeks) has been defeated in a neighbouring land. But after their defeat, they shall (themselves) gain victory within a few years. Allah is the Supreme Commander before and after. On that day (when they become victorious), the believers (Muslims and Christians) will rejoice in Allah’s help.

    Allah gives victory to whoever He wills. He is Mighty and Merciful. That is Allah’s promise; He never reneges on His promise” (Q. 30: 1-5).

    And true to that divine revelation, the Roman Empire surprisingly defeated the Persian Empire to the ecstasy of the Muslims just nine years after it was revealed. Besides, it will be recalled that the name of Jesus Christ is mentioned more than 37 times in the Glorious Qur’an giving more details of his birth and disappearance more vividly than can be found in the Bible. Also a whole chapter of the Qur’an is dedicated to Mary the mother of Jesus confirming her chastity and the miraculous birth of Jesus. It is only in the Qur’an that the report of how Jesus spoke as an infant was revealed. That chapter is called ‘The Chapter of Maryam (Mary). How else can the unity of religious mission from the unity of God be confirmed?

    Orientalists’ Antics

    However, despite all the indisputable facts mentioned above, the Western Orientalists and their blind imitators in Nigeria who seek to foster discord between Christianity and Islam by all means, as a way of  enriching themselves materially in their commercialization of religion refuse to relent in that evil machination. Those are commercial the charlatans who want the world to believe that this same Prophet Muhammad (SAW), at the inception of Islam, held the Qur’an in one hand and the sword in the other while moving around to force people to accept Islam or be ready to die. In the exhibition of their blatant ignorance based on falsehood, they do not even think of the illogicality of such baseless falsehood as the Qur’an had not been compiled into a book before the demise of the Prophet. Logically, if one man had such a power to intimidate and force multitudes of people who opposed his divine mission to accept Islam by force could such a man have been compelled to migrate from Makkah (his home town) to Madinah for asylum? That shows how shallow the thought of liars can be in the process of fabricating falsehood.

    Conclusion

    The doctrine of one God one mission purportedly shared in the world today by three religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam) cannot be from the same perception. Each of these religions has its own revealed Book and their adherents practice their faiths according to the doctrines contained in those Books. It will therefore be wrong of adherents of one particular religion to adjudge those of others as deviants or infidels who must be exterminated.

    Religion is like an examination. Those who sit down to write with blue ink pen must not turn themselves into examiners using red ink pen to mark it. Paradise is Allah’s own domain. He admits whoever He wishes into it. And this is done not necessarily by sheer mortal charlatans’ recommendation. Only the Almighty Allah who chose our parents for us without our knowledge before we came into this world and who knows where each of us would finally be buried has the final say on everybody’s destination. If the truth must be told, the real cause of religious conflicts in Nigeria is not intolerance as often hypocritically claimed by some people but greedy provocation emanating from avarice under the guise of religion. Nigerian press is particularly guilty of this by fueling such provocations. It is wrong to expect tolerance to thrive in a society where provocation and injustice refuse to abate. Propagating a religion by denigrating another religion is an act of Satanic provocation. And those who want peace to prevail in Nigeria must desist from such intolerable act.

    Nigerian Church and Mosque leaders must refrain from negative sentiments and hypocrisy by dissuading their followers from interpreting the misbehaviour of some miscreants to mean the prescription of the religion which those miscreants claim to profess.

    No matter the level of hatred and hostility towards another religion, only the will of Allah will prevail.

  • Islam and science are inseparable twins, says VC

    Muslims all over the world have been challenged to research more into the history of Qur’an with a view to re-ascertaining that the Holy Book is the source of all the sciences.

    This, they said, will correct the erroneous claimed that science is an intellectual property of non-Muslim individuals or groups.

    An Islamic scholar and     Vice Chancellor, Fountain University, Osogbo, (FUO) Prof Amidu Sanni threw the challenge on Saturday while delivering a paper on Islam, Science and Today’s World at the 15th annual Ramadan lecture organised by the University of Lagos Muslim Community (UMC).

    Prof Sanni, who lamented the nonchalant attitude of today’s Muslim towards knowledge, especially the sciences reminded that the knowledge is the foundation on which Islam is built, reminding that, the first verse revealed to Prophet Muhammad, was about ‘reading,’ connoting seeking for knowledge.

    According to him, Prophet Muhammed gingered Muslims severally to seek for knowledge, adding that the vital ingredient for societal growth is education and knowledge.

    The erudite author of several books quoted several verses from the glorious book, where the almighty Allah tasked the Muslims to think deeply and research extensively into it   to discover that it is a divine book that is the compendium of all aspects of sciences people can think of under the sun.

    Chairman on the occasion, Dr. Muiz Banire (SAN), said having listened to the lecturer, what remains is a pragmatic steps towards making the import of the message to have impact on the Muslims.

    Banire, who is the current Chairman, Assets Management Company of Nigeria (AMCON), admitted that, “scientific inventions witnessing today are already captured in the glorious Qur’an,” adding that, “the rapport and symbiotic relationship between the sciences and the Qur’an are not antagonistic, but rather complimentary.

    He urged the Muslims to continue to make excursion into researches since the most compelling obligation in Islam is seeking for knowledge, advising that, “we should not be contented and be satisfied with the little we have acquired in our research into sciences.

    University of Lagos Vice Chancellor, Professor Oluwatoyin Ogundipe thanked the organisers for their contributions towards peace on the campus.

    “We are privileged nowadays to have this type of lecture that contributes to education and peaceful co-existence in the community,” he said.

    He urged the attendees to imbibe the spirit of Ramadan and live up to the standards of its teachings.

    The Vice chancellor appealed to all to pray for the nation for a peaceful transition on May 29.

    UNILAG Muslim Community (UMC) Chairman Prof Lai Olurode said the topic of the lecture was deliberately chosen to wake up the Muslims from their slumber to realise that Qur’an and the sciences are Siamese twins that cannot be separated.

    According to him, if lectures on such a topics are not organised, Muslims would not stop having the erroneous impression that Islam and the early Muslims contributed nothing to the sciences saying, with this type of programmes, the Muslims will wake up to the realisation that they are the custodians of the knowledge that keeps the world going.

    He therefore urged the Muslims to rise up and take over their rightful place in the world as far as knowledge, particularly the sciences is concerned.

  • Islam and Global Warming

    Monologue

    “Verily in the creation of the heavens and the earth; in the alternation of the night and the day, in the change of the winds, and the clouds compelled between heaven and earth, are signs for a people who can reason.” (Quran 2:164).

    Preamble

    Today’s Today’s world is grabbling with two seemingly insuperable calamities. One is terrorism. The other is global warming. From all indications, the latter is a major vause of the former.

    It may not be an exaggeration, therefore, to conclude that a twin-headed pendulum must have ushered the contemporary mankind into the new millennium called 21st century.

    The twin-head of the referred vicious pendulum seems to have become a spectre haunting the continued existence of mankind and threatening to sweep the world of homo-sapient into a permanent oblivion.

     

     Reminiscence

    Sometime in March 2010, a rumour sprang from an unknown source and landed in Nigeria, as usual, flying around through the social media with invisible wings of a sphinx. The main gist of that rumour was a warning to the people against what was called an acid rain that could fall in the last week of March, that year. According to the rumour which sent panic to the spines of most Nigerian urban dwellers, anybody beaten by that rain would automatically become a victim of skin cancer. Although some people linked the rumour to a source in the US, that source eventually turned out to be a hoax as it could not be actually ascertained. The fact, however, was that the whole story around it had to do with global warming now called climate change and its effect on human life.

     

    Global Worry

    Worried by the signal which this spectre is currently sending across nations in the world today, most leaders of those nations have become so restive that besides that of terrorism, the only reverberating noice that rents the air globally today is that of Climate Change. Thus, most friendly as well as mutually antagonistic nations are forced to come together in meetings, conferences and seminars against the common enemy called climate change, to find solution to the threat which the environment poses to the existence of mankind.

     

     Islam’s Position

    From its very inception, Islam has been very explicit on the issue of environment and that was why the early Muslim scientists engineered and championed the study of meteorology and placed a premium on it. This further confirms the fact that the divine religion called Islam is neither a mere dogma nor a religion meant for a particular time, place or people. It is rather a religion of knowledge for all times and all races of homo sapient. At an international conference on global warming some years ago, a Muslim scientist  gave some Qur’anic insight into the causes and effects of global warming in a lecture that has since become an international template for nations that are concerned  about the effect of climate change in their environments agriculturally and healthwise. An excerpt from that lecture is as follows:

    “One of the issues that give the world a concern currently is global warming. Experts around the world have been warning peoples and  governments about this for decades and theyhave been urging governments to act faster in slowing down the rate of global warming. They warn that there is a 75% risk that global temperatures will rise a further two to three degrees in the next 50 years. The consequence of this would be dramatic. In fact a rise of just one degree would melt the Greenland ice sheet and drown the Maldives, but a three degree increase would kill the Amazon rainforest, wipe out nearly half of all species facing extinction and wreak havoc with crop yields due to weather changes”.

     

    Hot and Cold Cycles

    “Whilst the global climate goes through hot and cold cycles, what is worrying about the current phase is the pace of change that could send humanity first into a final spin. Although man has certainly benefited from technological advancements that have given us plastics, air travel and cheap food – what is important is to maintain a balance so that excessive consumerism does not ride roughshod over nature’s harmony”.

     

    Man’s Trusteeship on the Earth

    “In Islam man is given the role of trusteeship over the earth, which is a huge responsibility. In the past, man had to be careful how he treated his local environment since excessive grazing or agricultural activities could bring ruins to his livelihood. His knowledge about environment was though limited, nevertheless, in the event of a disaster either through ignorance or abuse, he knew that he could resort to moving elsewhere and start to live all over again. That was in the primordial time. Now we should have no excuse for ignorance as we must have learnt from our past to avoid misuse. But what is worrying is that the impacts of our behaviours are not just local anymore, they are global. If we fail to act in a responsible manner then we cannot simply relocate because there will be nowhere to go. It is therefore vital that as producers, manufacturers and consumers, we ensure that we give due consideration to the impact of our actions. Such a responsibility is not just that of the East or the West but a responsibility for all of us in the entire world”.

     

    Man’s Attitude to Environment

    “Islam teaches us that God has continued and will continue to provide us with ample resources for all times. But through man’s misuse, this balance may change. It is this personal greed of human beings that makes them squander these resources and deprive others who may need them more usefully”.

     

    Qur’anic Warming

    “The Glorious Qur’an warns mankind in Chapter 7, verse 32 thus: “O children of Adam! Eat and drink but exceed not the bounds; surely He (Allah) does not like those who exceed the bounds”. Islam’s overall message is promotion of harmony through moderation. The message accepts that we need to use resources for our progress but this should be done wisely and in a sustainable manner, so that a satisfactory medium is found. The Glorious Qur’an relates in Chapter 25, verse 68 thus: “Those who, in their spending, are  neither extravagant nor niggardly but moderate between the two…”.

    So, as individuals, we should act on the Qur’anic injunction that promotes balance and prohibits excess even as nations need to be more willing to share knowledge for the sake of the planet rather than for profit against collective action and collective responsibility. It is only by doing so we may be able to win the pleasure of God and honour our trusteeship of the earth for the benefit of the present and the future generations”.

     

     Raising the Stakes

    A few years ago, a top scientists’ conference held in Britain raised the stakes for the dangers of global warming, with concerned scientists outlining a timeframe for the massive horrors awaiting mankind unless swift actions were taken at the right time. The findings in that conference were not in any way different from the position of Islam on the subject over 1438 years ago.

    The three-day conference held in the south western British city of Exeter focused on scientists’ latest assessment of the global warming problem, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).

    The conference frankly concluded that global warming would boost outbreaks of infectious diseases, worsen shortages of water and food in vulnerable countries and create an army of climate refugees fleeing uninhabitable regions.

    The conferees even gave a detailed timetable of the destruction and distress that global warming was likely to cause to the world, according to a British daily (The Independent).

    The scale of these impacts varies from time to time and from region to region depending on the speed and degree with which fossil fuel pollution is tackled as well as the growth rate of the world’s population and how well countries can adapt to climate shift. The whole species of animals from frogs to leopards, living in vulnerable areas and with nowhere else to go, is forcing them to face extinction due to global warming.

     

     Impact on Ecosystem

    The study, according to reports, pulls together, for the first time ever, the projected impacts on ecosystems and wildlife, food production, water resources and economies generally across the earth, for the rise in global temperature expected during the next hundred years”.

    “The resultant picture gives the most wide-ranging impression yet of the bewildering array of destructive effects that climate change is expected to exert on different regions, from the mountains of Europe and the rainforests of the Amazon to the coral reefs of the tropics.”

     

    Environmental refugees

    “Produced through a synthesis of a wide range of recent academic studies, the case of environmental refugees was presented as a paper to the international conference on climate change held at the UK Met Office headquarters in Exeter by the author Bill Hare, of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Germany’s leading global warming research institute. According to a study quoted by Rajendra Pachauri, Chairman of the UN’s top scientific authority on climate change, by 2050 as many as 150 million environmental refugees may have fled coastlines areas vulnerable to rising sea levels, storms or floods, or agricultural land that may become too arid to cultivate.

    In India alone, there could be about 30 million people displaced by persistent flooding, while a sixth of Bangladesh could be permanently lost to sea level rise and land subsidence, according to the study.

    On this, the Independent Newspaper revealed that the conference was called personally by the then British Prime Minister Tony Blair as part of Britain’s attempts to move the climate change issue up the agenda during the UK presidency of the G8 group of rich nations, and the European Union.

    There were already disturbing warnings from the latest climate research, including the revelation from the British Antarctic Survey that the massive West Antarctic ice sheet might be disintegrating – an event which would raise sea levels around the world by 16ft (4.9 metres) per day if it really happened”.

     

    Impact of Climate Change

    “Hare’s timetable shows the impacts of climate change multiplying rapidly as average global temperature goes up, towards 1C above levels before the industrial revolution, then to 2C, and then 3C. It is when the temperature moves up to 2C above the pre-industrial level, expected in the middle of this century – within the lifetime of many people alive today – that serious effects will start to become thick and fast as studies suggest.”

     

    Movement of Temperature

    According to the paper, when the temperature moves up to the 3C level, as expected in the early part of the second half of the century, these effects will become critical. There is likely to be irreversible damage to the Amazon rainforest, leading to its collapse, and the complete destruction of coral reefs is likely to be widespread”.

    The conference, however, ended up on a positive note, with the forum showing how far the argument for carbon sequestration has come, with a series of experts insisting it could be transformed from fiction to fact”.

     

    Epilogue

    Of all the elements in the ecosystem that safeguards the existence of all living organisms, air gets the least attention of man. This is because of its unlimited abundance that makes it to be taken for granted. But, ironically, without the air, the entire ecosystem cannot be sustained for the existence of man and other living beings. “Since the atmosphere performs all biological and social functions of man, its conservation, pure and unpolluted, is an essential aspect of the conservation of life itself which is one of the fundamental objectives of Islamic law.  Again, whatever is indispensable to fulfill this imperative obligation is itself obligatory. Therefore, from Islamic point of view, any activity which pollutes it and ruins or impairs its function is an attempt to thwart and obstruct God’s wisdom toward His creation.  This must likewise be considered an obstruction of some aspects of the human role in the development of this world”.

  • Islam without the Arabs

    Monologue

    The article in this column today was first published in 2010 when an unpredictable pendulum started to swing dahgerously on the Arab world. Its repetition here is due to its relevance at this time following the recent diplomatic ripples leading to the ostracisation of Qatar in the Gulf Region and the criminal murder of a Saudi Journalist Jamal Kashogi in cold blood, in the Saudi Arabian Consulate in Turkey.

    Preamble

    Islam, today, is like a lily by the mossy stone. And that mossy stone is nothing other than the Arabs through whom Allah’s divine religion was revealed to mankind. The more turbulent the Arab world goes, the more fragile the Islamic lily becomes. Now, many questions are begging for answers around the world about Islam, but most of those questions are not answerable.

     

    Islam at Inception

    When, at the inception of Islam, the Qur’an described the “pre-Islamic Arabs as a people with great penchant for recalcitrance and hypocrisy” they (the Arabs) quickly retorted by saying that the reference was to rural and not urban Arabs. Their justification for that reaction at the time was that over 80% of the Arabs were rural dwellers. But today, with more than 80% of the Arabs being urban dwellers, has it not become manifest that Arabs are Arabs whether they are urban or rural dwellers?

     

    Arabs before Islam

    To those who are not familiar with the Arab history before the advent of Islam, it may look like an irony that the religion of peace called Islam originated from among such people. But those who understand the workings of Allah will know that revealing Islam to mankind through the Arabs was a deliberate divine policy. If that religion had not come into existence through a stubborn race like theirs, the Arabs would have been its bitterest enemies and even the relative peace in the world today would have been a mirage.

     

    Social movement

    Besides the above questions, Allah’s design for Islam as a religion was to make it a social movement springing from the very grassroots and rising gradually to the topmost echelon of human aristocracy. That Islam came to mankind through a people with such Qur’anic description, therefore, could not have been an accident or a mistake.

    If Islam had been revealed to mankind through the institution of monarchy or that of of aristocracy, it would have grown into a religion of masters and servants. And, in that case, the operations of Mosques would have been according to human status while the whims and caprices of the rulers and the lords would have formed the bulk of the laws guiding that religion. Thus, justice would have been according to the wishes of those monarchs and lords in a situation of cash and carry just as it is happening in Nigeria, a non-Islamic State today. In a nutshell, justice would have been a matter of nomenclature carried out in the name of Allah

     

    Stubbornness as a trait

    It is not strange that the Arabs of today are what the Qur’an had called their ancestors about 1500 years ago. A leopard cannot give birth to a lamb.

    Stubbornness as a trait is not peculiar to the Arabs. It is common to all peoples dwelling in desert areas. Even their animals like camels and donkeys share the same trait with them. The divine logic in driving Islam into the world though the desert Arabs is therefore to convince mankind that even stone-hearted people like them could be softened by this non-such religion. Despite the emergence of Islam through them, the Arabs have never been able to part with their natural obduracy which was the premise from which Prophet Muhammad (SAW) began the propagation of his divine mission.

     

    Judo-Arab Relationship

    Arabs and Jews are brothers from the same father (Prophet Ibrahim) but different mothers (Hajarah and Sarah). They share many traits of recalcitrance and obduracy in every aspect of their lives. Just as the Jews rejected Prophet Isa (Jesus) who emerged from amongst them so did the Arabs deny Muhammad even after they had convincingly  accorded him the status of a truthful and trustworthy personality, based on his excemplary character before he became a Prophet. But for the fact that his message eventually brought fame to the Arabs and elevated their status in the comity of nations they would not have rejected the divine  message called Islam theoretically and practically.

     

    The only Prophet from Arabia

    Incidentally, Prophet Muhammad (SAW) was the only Prophet from the Arab line. All other known Prophets after Prophet Ibrahim (Abraham) came from among the Jews. Thus, the Jews can be said to be the world’s most luxurious race in divine prophet-hood. Yet, no Prophet was ever really accepted by them. The fact that a few of them hold on tenaciously to Torah which was revealed to Prophet Musa (Moses) and now called Old Testament, is only due to an historical prophecy which enabled them to hope for survival in the land of Judea.

     

    Jewish population

    Today, the entire population of all the Jews in the world is about 16 million people. Forget about the rhetoric hipe of six million of them being victim of massacre in Germany during the time of Adolf Hitler. It is mere poltical propaganda.

    Now, less than 7% of the Jewish population is religiously Jewish. The rest only answer the name Jews politically. In other words, despite the emergence of hundreds of Prophets from its blood, this race seems to be pathologically apathetic to religion. It can therefore be described as a race in a permanent state of war with God.

     

    Like Jews like Arabs

    In this case, the Arabs are hardly dissimilar from the Jews in their thoughts and in their actions. That the idea of the ongoing suicide bombings in the world originated from among the Jews but became the heritage of the Arabs is not strange.

    Of the four rightly guided Caliphs who succeeded Prophet Muhammad (SAW) as Heads of State and leaders of the Muslim Ummah, only one (Abubakr) was not killed in office and that was probably because he ruled for only two years. The other three, Umar Bn Khattab, Uthman Bn Affan and Ali Bn Abi Talib were all murdered gruesomely in cold blood as Heads of State by no other people than fellow Arabs. The Jews had done same long before the Arabs.

    After the first Caliphate era, polarization started to becloud the Muslim Ummah so much that a seed of indelible enmity inadvertently planted in the Muslim world grew into a tree which fruits were meant for the Sunni and the Shiite’ factions of Islam to harvest to their mutual disadvantage.

     

    Arabs in Spain

    At least, it remains a fact of history that the Arab Muslims ruled Spain for about 500 years from 750 CE to 1258 CE. It was   during that period that countries like France, Italy, Germany and Britain and others had their first contact with intellectual civilisation. If Islam was genuinely the Arabs’ objective of struggling for power, what Islamic achievements did they make during their half of a millennium rule over Spain? And why were they eventually evicted with ignominy from that country?

     

    If the Arab ingenuity had not been encapsulated in greed and self-centeredness, the intellectual hierarchy of the world today would have been different. In their lifestyle, even before the advent of Islam, the Arabs were notoriously known for three obnoxious engagements. These were WAR, WINE and WOMEN and they often engaged in each with relish. But Islam came to condemn each of those primordial  engagements which can be described as the main causes of self-destruction.

     

    Islamic leadership

    It is because Islam originated from the Arab domain where the two foremost Islamic homes (the Ka’abah in Makkah and the Prophet’s Mosque in Madinah) were situated plus the fact that the revelation of the Qur’an was in their language that the leadership of Islam is globally conceded, albeit tacitly, to the Arabs. But rather than rising to the status of Islamic leadership, they placed premium on Arabism and turned Islam into a pun on the chessboard of their racial, greedy politics.

    Today, what matters to the Arabs is Arabism rather than Islamicism. That is why virtually all the Arab countries are more related to Arabic rather than Islamic names officially.

     

    Islamic bodies

    Some topmost Islamic bodies like Muslim World League and the likes which came into existence for the Unity of the Ummah some decades ago are now moribund because the Arab Muslim leadership that is supposed to pilot them is nonexistent. The only global Islamic body known to be functioning today is the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) and that is because the Arabs need the population of that body to checkmate any unpalatable Western policy against the Arabs at the United Nations level. Incidentally, to counter the Arab agenda, the Westerners have infiltrated that body through a surreptitious incursion into it. Many of them are now members of OIC even if in observer status.

     

    Arabs business mentality

    To the great delight of the West, the wealthy Arab Muslims of today are spending their enormous resources in purchasing and acquiring football clubs in Europe even as their brethren in non-Arab parts of the world are wallowing in abject penury, squalor and degradation. What profits are then expected from such inconsequential ventures?

     

    Reference point

    In an article published in this column in 2010, yours sincerely analysed the population strength of the Arabs compared to that of the Jews. In that article, the population of the Arabs was put at 333.3 million while that of the Jews was said to be 13.3 million worldwide. At that time, only 4.7 million of the latter population is resident in Israel. Yet, the achievements of the Jews in terms of intellectualism and material wellbeing were almost 27 times those of the Arabs. In other words, population strength plus strong enormous wealth does not help the Arabs to develop in concrete terms even as those Arabs are virtually indifferent to Islam which brought them into limelight in the first instance.

     

    Enemies of Islam

    The summary of all the assertions here is that the Arabs and no other group of people, are the real enemies of Islam. They are the ones using their wealth to boost the various economic activities of the West including stock exchange, Hotel businesses and tourism as well as sports and games at the expense of the lives of Islamic adherents. Considering all factors militating against Islam, it seems that the greatest puzzle about the Arabs is their mutual enmity in which no Arab country wants to tolerate another. Egypt and Algeria are sworn enemies just because of rivalry in soccer game. Saudi Arabia and Yemen are in perpetual warfare merely on some primordial issues which had pitched the one against the other before the advent of Islam. Iraq and Kuwait are two neighbours that can never sleep with their two eyes closed due to mutual suspicion. Syria and Lebanon seem to have permanently designed an indelible demarcation line between them just for the reason of material gains. Libya and Sudan have had to go into military conflicts a number of times, across their common border, for no reason other than material benefits. Morocco and Algeria will rather choose the gallows than settle a seeming permanent rancour between them over the questionable ownership of Western Sahra. How can there be unity? Yet, some Nigerian Muslims often blame the problems in the Arab world on Western conspiracy. If that is truly the case, what prevents the Arabs from conspiring together to resist Western conspiracy against their unity?

     

    Nigerian factor

    Based on sheer religious sentiment, many Nigerian Muslims think that by pitching tent with the Arabs against the Jews on the Palestinian issue they are pitching tent with Islam. This is far from the truth. The problem of the homeless Palestinians is purely humanitarian rather than religious. And that problem is more fuelled by the Arabs who ply hypocritical role in it than by the Jews who are directly benefitting from it.

    How many Nigerian Muslims know that the siege on Gaza Strip which began in January 2009 was not by Israel alone? It was a clandestine connivance of Israel and Egypt with the military support of the Western countries and financial backing of Saudi Arabia. Are Egyptians and the Saudis not Arabs? Why should they tighten the noose of death on their fellow Arab brothers? But that is the Arab nature for you. If you see them in any solidarity, it is for the purpose of hatching a treachery against a fellow Arab country or Islamic interest. The recent senseless imbroglio between a mischievous tripod in the Gulf region and Bahrain is a sufficient example of what the Arabs can do to contradict what Islam preaches.

     

    Islamic relevance

    Arabs love power and they will do anything, including suicide bombing and cold blood murder to cling to power directly or indirectly. That is why democracy in the Arab world knows no  voting in a democratic sense. It is a mere matter of nomenclature. Once installed, an Arab Head of State will remain in power till his death. He will even want to be succeeded by his son. Syria is a typical example. And, except for the sudden insurgency that led to the infamous Arab spring, Presidents Hosni Mubarak of Egypt and Muammar Gaddafi of Libya would have been succeeded by their children respectively despite their claim of democracy.

    By this assertion, ‘The Message’ column is not opposed to leadership by succession if that will ventilate a peaceful atmosphere but it should not be by imposition. That will grossly contradict the position of Islam which was why the second Caliph, Umar Bn Khattab, rejected a suggestion that his son be made his successor. He even cursed the man who made the suggestion and accused him of nursing an ulterior motive aimed at causing a dissension withing the Muslim Ummah. The analysis here is just to show the extent to which the Arabs have returned to the love of power, even at the expense of Islam, after the first four Caliphs.

    Today’s Muslim world is like a mighty stream in which everybody drinks water. But those who position themselves at the upper side of that stream are the ones polluting it for the others. And if something drastic is not done to change the cause of pollution in that stream, it may eventually become a poison for all its drinkers.

  • Clerics urged to promote positive image of Islam

    Ansar-ud-deen Society of Nigeria has called on Muslim clerics to apply their knowledge in activities that would sustain the positive image of Islam and shun materialism which is likely to prevent them from adhering to the tenet of Islam.

    The President of Ansar-ud-deen College Isolo Old Students Association, RTD AVM, S.O Smith said the holy month of Ramadan is for spiritual purification and blessings from Allah.

    “This is a period for us to increase our worship, faith, and piety as revealed in the Holy Quran and practiced by Prophet Muhammad (SAW).

    He said the theme of the lecture was carefully chosen to educate Muslims on the moral principles and behaviour of Muslims in the society.

    “The time of Ramadan is to reflect on the past year, repent from our wrong doings and draw closer to Almighty Allah” he said.

    The guest speaker and Chief Imam of Nawar-Ud-Deen Society of Nigeria, Abuja Branch, Dr. Nurain Taiwo Dindi, said the role of Nigerian clerics in sustaining positive image of Islam transcends from spiritual to temporal in the form of economic, political, social and even personal issues.

    “As Muslims, we are bound to fashion our lives in line with teachings of Islam. It is also the fundamental responsibility of Islamic scholars to protect the religion from corruption, defend it from aggression and protect its sanctity and purity,” he said.

    He urged Islamic scholars to also serve as protectors of justice and uphold it; protect and support the weak in the face of aggression.

    Dindi noted that sustaining positive image of Islam should not be seen as the responsibility of the clerics alone but the collective responsibility of all Muslims.

    According to him, the major role of scholars includes updating knowledge of Islam through teaching; reminding the Muslims of their obligation to Allah and humanity through preaching and participating in the government of the day by monitoring and counselling the government, even if not consulted.

    Nothing that majority of scholars are not painting Islam in a positive light through their method of preaching which focuses on wealth, fame and worldly position, he said many scholars can go to any length to get rich quickly; acquire properties by any means; and secure political benefit in a most ignominious manner.

    These categories of the scholars, he said, are described in the Holy Quran as ‘some who wrong their own souls’.

  • ‘Stealing in the name of Islam is insanity’

    ‘Stealing in the name of Islam is insanity’

    Bauchi State Governor Mohammed Abubakar has said those using Islam to loot public funds through Hajj operations are insane.

    According to him, Hajj is one of the five pillars of Islam, and Muslims stealing in the name of Islam, are insane.

    Abubakar spoke when he received report on the 2017 Hajj operations at the Government House in Bauchi.

    He noted with concern that “the looting trend has became worrisome, as the level of desperation for wealth accumulation for personal use is making some people steal using one of the sacred pillars of Islam”.

    The governor recalled that his regime inherited a debt profile from the 2014 Hajj, but through prudent management and creative measures, funds are being returned into government’s purse in the last two years.

    He added that Bauchi has been recording successes in Hajj activities since 2015 and attributed the development to the doggedness of the Hajj teams in complying with government directives.

    “There is a clear departure from the past system, which was a graft that started with the creation of artificial scarcity of forms through its sales.

    “Bauchi State government is committed to improving the exercise as no stone will be left unturned in future exercises,” Abubakar said.

    The governor said an e-portal will be launched for the 2018 Hajj, adding that over 3,000 seats have been allocated to the state.

  • Islam’s charter with Christianity

    ‘In the introduction to his autobiography entitled ‘My Odyssey’, Nigeria’s first democratic President, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe wrote thus: “Man comes into the world and while he lives, he embarks upon a series of activities absorbing experience which enables him to formulate a philosophy of life and to chart his courses of action. But then, he dies. Nevertheless, his biography remains a guide to those of the living who may need guidance either as a warning on the vanity of human wishes or as encouragement or both”.

    The above philosophical quote serves as a reminder of what the divinely appointed Apostles of Allah represented in the lives of their followers. Those Apostles were men who came into the world as Ambassadors of one and the only God. Yes, they came at different times, from different lands and with different tongues, nevertheless, their message was only one and the same. That message is like a nation’s diplomatic mission abroad. Any qualified person could be appointed as an Ambassador to manage the mission. And from time to time the Ambassador could be changed but the mission remains the same as much as the nation which they represent remains a nation. Some of those Ambassadors could though be empowered as plenipotentiary it is unimaginable that any of them would deviate from the diplomatic policy that makes him an Ambassador for his country.

    Thus, from Adam, the great ancestor of man to Prophet Muhammad (SAW), the last of all Apostles of Allah, the message they came to deliver was one and the same because those Apostles were all sent by only one and the same God. If any difference is perceived in their mission, it could only be attributable to human ignorance through interpretations or misinterpretations in time and space.

    Each time I hear of killing, maiming or resorting to terrorism in the name of religion I feel scandalized. This is not just because I belong to a religion and I am involved in its propagation but also because I know the value of life and the vice in terminating it extra-judicially. Personally, I see those who kill people of other religions for the simple reason of difference in faith as brutal vandals waging war not just against humanity but also against God.

    Anybody who kills or maims or indulges in terrorism may claim to be an adherent of a religion but cannot genuinely claim to be acting for that religion. No divine religion prescribes killing or maiming as an act of worship. Religion may be used surreptitiously as a cover for such heinous act but the real motive is far away from religion.

     

    Conversation

    In a fortuitous casual conversation sometime ago over Nigeria’s disturbing political situation, a top Christian cleric enthusiastically told this columnist that Nigerians were the most religious people in the world. Yours sincerely did not agree with his assertion but to avoid any argument relating to religion I decided to keep mute. However, not comfortable with my silence, my interlocutor asked for my reaction to his statement. And when I asked him for the evidence of his alleged religiousness in Nigerians, he cited the ubiquity of Churches and Mosques as well as the length of time people spend worshiping in those sanctuaries as evidence. He added that even Muslims worship on Sundays nowadays citing examples of NASFAT, FATHIU QUAREEB and other ‘Assalatu’ groups. In response, I grinned amusedly and shook my head in disagreement. I then told him that in Islam, worshiping does not necessarily take any lengthy time as the number of times to worship per day is divinely specified and no daily Salat takes more than ten minutes on the maximum. I said as for the ubiquity of Churches and Mosques in Nigeria, it is not only an evidence of disunity among the so-called worshippers but also an indication of deification of ‘MONEY’. And while insisting that religion is the biggest business in Nigeria’s private sector today, I concluded that most Nigerians would rather sweat for the purpose of money than for the love of God citing the shameless preaching of prosperity and atrocious style of accumulating wealth by the so-called religious leaders as examples.

    I then challenged the Reverend gentleman to imagine removing money from Churches and Mosques in Nigeria today and see what would remain of them. I also went further to correct his misconception that Muslims now worship on Sundays by pointing out to him that Muslims only resorted to congregating on Sundays for prayers when Thursdays and Fridays which served as their cultural weekend days before Nigeria’s colonisation were forcefully turned into Saturdays and Sundays for them by the colonialists. After a long time of silence the Clergy man nodded in agreement with my analytical observation and confessed that until then he never gave any thought to the atrocious role which money plays in Nigeria’s religious activities.

     

    Evidence of Ignorance

    What most Nigerian leaders of Islamic and Christian religions do not seem to know is that the refusal of the adherents of both religions to study and understand the doctrines which guide those religions is the main cause of religious disharmony in the country today. This is however, not peculiar to Nigeria. It is global. Both Christians and Muslims jointly constitute more than half of the world’s population.

    And, it is from their common pond that the spiritual ripples which consistently make the world restive emanate. If the adherents of both religions had endeavoured to mutually study and understand the doctrines that guide their ways in life, the world would not have come under religious spell as we have today.

    How many Christian or Muslim leaders know, for instance, that in recognition of Jesus Christ as his predecessor and fellow Apostle, Prophet Muhammad (SAW) signed a charter with some Christian leaders in the year 628 CE and the charter remains valid till today? In that year (628 CE), a Christian delegation from St. Catherine’s Monastery went to Prophet Muhammad (SAW) to seek the protection of the Islamic government under his command. The objective was to elicit the support of the Islamic government in ensuring their security against the aggression of the Persian Empire. (St. Catherine’s Monastery is the world’s oldest Monastery located at the foot of Mt. Sinai which has a huge collection of Christian manuscripts second only to those of the Vatican and is known as a world heritage site). Prior to that event, many verses of the Qur’an had been revealed to Prophet Muhammad (SAW) acknowledging the divine mission of all the Prophets preceding him (Muhammad (SAW) including that of Jesus Christ. And because of those revelations, no Muslim can claim to be a true believer in Islam without accepting Jesus the son of Mary as a Prophet of God. One of those revelations states as follows:

    “The Apostle of Allah (Muhammad SAW) believes in what was revealed to him and so do the entire Muslim faithful. Every one of them believes in Allah, His Angels, His Books and His Apostles. We do not discriminate against any of His Apostles. They say “we hear and obey (the laws brought by those Apostles). Grant us your forgiveness Oh Lord! To you we shall all return….” (Q. 2: 285).

    Another verse of the Qur’an states: “There is no compulsion in religion. True guidance has become distinct from stray. Whoever renounces evil and believes fully in God has grasped the most reliable chord that never breaks. God is all-hearing, all knowing” (Q. 2: 256).

     

    The Charter

    In response to the request of the Christian representatives cited above, Prophet Muhammad (SAW) granted them a written charter of rights as follows: “This is a message from Muhammad the son of Abdullah serving as a covenant to those who adopt Christianity, near and far that we (Muslims) are with them. Verily, I and all the servants of God, as well as the helpers of Islam hereby make promise to defend

    Christians because they are my citizens and by God! I hold out against anything that displeases them. No compulsion is to be on them (concerning their way of worship). Neither are their judges to be removed from their jobs nor their monks from their monasteries. No one should destroy a house of their religion or damage it or loot it.

    Whoever violates this has breached God’s charter and disobeyed His Apostle. Verily, Christians are my allies and have my secure charter against all they hate. No one should force them to fight for a course in which they have no belief or compel them to migrate against their wish. Neither is the sacredness of their covenant to be violated nor their Churches to be disrespected. And if any damage should happen to their Churches, they must not be prevented from repairing them. No Muslim should disobey this covenant till the Last Day (end of the world)”. By this charter, Prophet Muhammad (SAW) asserted that Muslims and Christians were brethren in faith and no one of them should fight against the other on the basis of religion. And by validating the charter till the great Day of Judgment, the Prophet had precluded any future attempt to revoke the privileges contained in that charter by any nation, group or individuals. By implication, those privileges are inalienable. Besides, one remarkable aspect of the charter is that it did not stipulate any condition for Christians to enjoy the privileges.

     

    Reciprocation

    Believing that being followers of Jesus Christ was enough a condition to enjoy those privileges, the Prophet assumed that the Christians, would be civilized enough to reciprocate that unprecedented gesture wherever they coexist with Muslims not only by tolerating the latter’s mode of worship and way of life but also by refraining from any naked or avowed act of provocation against them which could precipitate a religious rancour. Another noticeable aspect of the charter is the Prophet’s silence on any payment by the protectorate Christians which was the general practice among nations in those days. Thus, that ‘Charter of Rights’ was a free gift. And from it the reason becomes clear why the Islamic State under the command of Prophet Muhammad (SAW) or any of his rightly guided disciples who became Caliphs never crossed swords with any Christian group or nation throughout their regimes. If any wars like those of the crusades ever broke out subsequently between Christians and Muslims it was centuries after the demise of Prophet Muhammad (SAW) and the Caliphs and that could not be attributed to Islam as a religion. Such could have happened due to a deliberate breach by either or both sides on the basis of human whim.

    And in upholding that charter, the second Caliph, Umar Bn Khattab, refused to observe Salat inside the Church of Jerusalem when he visited the area following the liberation of that region by the Islamic State from the Persian Empire in which Zoroastrianism (worshiping of fire) was the religion. The Church of Jerusalem had been cleared by Muslim soldiers for the observance of Salat which Umar, as Head of State, was to lead. But when he was invited to lead the Salat, he simply ordered the soldiers to find another place for Salat and keep the Church intact for the Christians saying he would not do that which the Prophet prohibited. He then warned the Muslims who accompanied him never to convert Churches into Mosques for that would amount to bad precedent capable of breaching the Prophet’s charter with Christians.

     

    Prophetic Revelation

    Prior to the Prophet’s migration from Makkah to Madinah, a prophetic revelation came into the Qur’an in 616 CE which confirmed the brotherhood of Islam and Christianity. That revelation which formed a whole chapter in the Qur’an was entitled ‘The Chapter of Rome ‘. It started thus: “Rome, (the nation of the Christian Greeks) has been defeated in a neighbouring land. But after their defeat, they shall (themselves) gain victory within a few years. Allah is the Supreme Commander before and after. On that day (when they become victorious), the believers (Muslims and Christians) will rejoice in Allah’s help.

    Allah gives victory to whoever He wills. He is the Mighty One, the Merciful. That is Allah’s promise; He never reneges on His promise” (Q. 30: 1-5).

    And true to that prophecy, the Roman Empire surprisingly defeated the Persian Empire to the ecstasy of the Muslims just nine years after that revelation and thereby paved way for Christianity to be off the manacle of the pagan Persian Empire and to thrive once again side by side with Islam. Besides, the name of Jesus Christ is mentioned about 37 times in the Glorious Qur’an giving more details about his birth and disappearance than can’t be found in the Bible. Also a whole chapter of the Qur’an is dedicated to Mary the mother of Jesus confirming her chastity and the miracle of the birth of Jesus. That chapter is called ‘The Chapter of Maryam (Mary).

     

    Orientalists’ Antics

    However, despite all the indisputable facts mentioned above, the Western Orientalists and others who seek to foster discord between Christianity and Islam continue to focus and disseminate the differences between both religions with the intent of causing permanent conflict among their adherents. Those are the people who want the world to believe that this same Prophet Muhammad (SAW) held the Qur’an in one hand and the sword in another forcing people to accept Islam or be ready to die. The depth of their ignorance does not even reflect the illogicality of such blatant lie as the Qur’an was not compiled into a book when the Prophet was alive. And if one man had such a power to intimidate multitude enemies would he be forced to migrate?

     

    Conclusion

    The doctrine of one God one mission purportedly shared in the world today by three religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam) cannot be from the same perception. Each of these religions has its own revealed Book and the adherents practice their faiths according to the doctrines contained in those Books. It will therefore be wrong of adherents of one particular religion to adjudge those of others as deviants or infidels who must be exterminated.

    Religion is like an examination. Those who sit down to write it using blue ink pen must not turn themselves into examiners using red ink pen to mark it. Paradise is Allah’s own domain. He admits whoever He wishes into it. And this is done not necessarily by sheer mortal’s recommendation. Only the Almighty Allah who chose our parents for us without our knowledge before we came into this world and who knows where each of us would finally be buried has the final say on everybody’s destination.

    If the truth must be told, the real cause of religious conflicts in Nigeria is not intolerance as often hypocritically claimed by some people but provocation under the guise of religion. Nigerian press is particularly guilty of this by fueling such provocation. It is wrong to expect tolerance to thrive in a society where provocation and injustice refuse to abate. Propagating a religion by denigrating another is an act of provocation. And those who want peace to prevail in Nigeria must desist from such intolerable act.

    Nigerian Church and Mosque leaders must refrain from negative sentiments and hypocrisy by dissuading their followers from interpreting the misbehaviour of some miscreants to mean the prescription of the religion they proclaim.

  • Islam’s future in America

    Looking at Islam globally today vis-a-vis the multifarious problems being faced by its adherents, there is tendency that some ignorant and parochial people will think vaingloriously that the end has come the religion. This tendency is particularly manifest in Nigeria where religion is a big business and, like a vulture waiting to descend on the carcass of a prey, its merchants will do anything, no matter how devilish, to profit from it.

    Because of their untame-able avarice based on ignorance and parochialism, such merchants cannot understand that when a gargantuan  institution like Islam is about to take an unprecedented leap to further a progressive civilization, it must undergo a trying moment. Such a moment is an indication that an arrogant power somewhere is about to fall.

    Those who are lettered enough to be familiar with world history will recall that a similar scenario occurred to the old Roman Empire as it occurred to the ancient Greek Empire. At least, if the once so-called Great British Empire was not eclipsed at a stage, America would not have emerged as a foremost modern day world power. More will said about this, in this column, in the near future.

     

     Preamble

    Instinct is the main cursor of vision. It is the indicator of where today’s ship will anchor tomorrow. A man without instinct can be likened to a blind bull struggling to pass through the hole of a needle. An example is now being exhibited in the United States. Without instinct there can be neither projection nor premonition. All visionary prophecies are based on instinct.

    It was only by divine instinct that Prophet Muhammad (SAW) was able to prophesy the signs of the last days when he said: “One of the signs of the last days is for the sun to rise in the West and set in the East….” This prophecy is pregnant with meanings. Which sun was the Prophet talking about? Was it the physical or the hypothetical? Only a few people of other religions in history were able to comprehend that prophecy as much as the celebrated (Christian) Irish playwright, George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950).

     

    George Bernard Shaw’s prediction

    Based on his understanding of the contents of that Prophecy, Bernard Shaw decided to study Islam through deep researches. And consequently, he concluded as follows:

    “The Medieval Ecclesiastics, either through ignorance or bigotry, painted Mohammedanism (Islam) in the darkest colours. In fact, they were trained both to hate the man (Muhammad) and his religion. To them he was anti-Christ… I have always held the religion of Muhammad 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 itself appeal 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…”

     

    Analysis

    America was just emerging as a champion of the modern world when Bernard Shaw made his famous prediction quoted above. Western civilization was then restricted to Europe and Shaw had taken any emerging civilization from America as an extension of that of Europe. He had thought that whatever would be acceptable to Europe ought to be automatically acceptable to the emerging power of the New World, the former being an offshoot of the latter. He was right.

    Although, Islam had reached America long before Christopher Columbus arrived in what was then perceived as a New World, very little was known about the Muslims in that country until 1886 when one Moorish immigrant, Noble Drew Ali, of North Carolina started to propagate Islamic faith to the black masses in the New World. However, that Noble D. Ali’s jihad became prominent with the growth of media influence in the United States did not necessarily make him the first American Muslim preacher.

     

    A valid question

    Today, with a Muslim population of almost 10 million and over 3186 Mosques, who says Bernard Shaw’s prediction of the early 20th century has not become a reality? If there is still any country in the world where Islam is not growing that country must be very backward.  Today, the geometric growth of Muslim population in the US has confirmed Islam as an official religion in America. Today, there are about 2000 Muslim associations and over 400,000 businesses as well as about 310 regular publications under the firm control of American Muslims. These are not only providing jobs for the residents, they are also enhancing America’s social security.

     

    The real root of Islam in America

    However, the real practical root of Islam in the US is actually traceable to 1790 when the South Carolina legislative body granted special social status to a community of Moroccans, which gave that community the freedom to practise its religion. And in 1797, President John Adams signed a policy declaring that United States had no “character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquillity of Musulmen (Muslims)”.

     

    President Benjamin Franklin’s position

    Then, in his autobiography, published in 1791, President Benjamin Franklin stated that he “did not disapprove” of a meeting place in Pennsylvania designed to accommodate preachers of all religions and concluded that: “even if the Mufti of Constantinople were to send a missionary to preach ‘Mohammedanism’ (Islam) to us, he would find a pulpit at his service”.

     

    President Thomas Jefferson’s stand

    Thomas Jefferson on his own defended religious freedom in America including those of Muslims and he explicitly mentioned Muslims when writing about the movement for religious freedom in Virginia. And in his autobiography also, Jefferson wrote: “When the Virginia bill for establishing religious freedom which was finally passed,… a singular proposition proved that its protection of opinion was meant to be universal. Where the preamble declares that coercion is a departure from the plan of the holy author of our religion, an amendment was proposed, by inserting the word ‘Jesus Christ,’ so that it should read ‘a departure from the plan of Jesus Christ, the holy author of our religion.’ The insertion was rejected by a great majority, in proof that they meant to comprehend within the mantle of its protection the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and Mahometans (Muhammadans), the Hindus and the infidels of every denomination.” Thus, as a confirmation of that policy, President Jefferson also joined the Tunisian Ambassador for an Iftar (Ramadan fast breaking) in 1809.

     

    Despite propaganda

    Despite over 60,000 publications by the Western Orientalists between 1800 and 1950 disparaging that divine religion and denigrating the personality of prophet Muhammad (SAW), Islam continued to wax stronger even as it displays dynamic tendencies on a regular basis. Today, with a global population of about 1.7 billion adherents in the world and with certain mundane ideologies and philosophies crumbling like a pack of cards, Islam has remained an unstoppable religion, the implacable hostility of the West to it notwithstanding.

     

    African American Islam

    The African American involvement in the propagation of a religion of immigrants though began in 1960s/70s in the American society, Islam had actually made its way into America in the sixteenth century when Muslims were brought as slaves from Africa but were forced to convert to Christianity. These Muslims were followed by a new wave of immigrants who came in the late nineteenth century as labourers from the Middle Eastern countries such as Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria.

    In the second half of the twentieth century, a large number of Muslims came from virtually every country of the Middle East, South Asia, and Southeast Asia who were more sophisticated than their predecessors in Islamic understanding. As those immigrants settled in large cities and small towns, they built mosques, Islamic cultural centres, and schools. Today, indigenous American Muslims, who have grown in number to well over a million, have succeeded in transforming Islam into an American religion.

     

    A Track Master

    In 1888, the American Ambassador in Philippines, Alexander Russell Webb, surprisingly became a track master by embracing Islam and becoming the first prominent Anglo-American Muslim in history. Thus, given his stats, he became the only person that represented Islam from the US at the first Parliament for the World’s Religions in 1893.

     

    New York Times

    In an article once published in the New York Times and entitled: ‘Muslim Schools in the U.S.: A Voice for Identity’, one Susan Sachs wrote on the rising demands for Islamic schools in the U.S. saying that “across the country, Islamic schools…that offer religion and Arabic classes…are expanding and flourishing, with many becoming oversubscribed so quickly that principals are scrambling for money to build more. Thus, the surge in the number of Islamic schools may be attributed to the success and determination of a Muslim community that strives “to define itself as a cohesive religious minority in the secular American society”.

     

    The World Street Journal

    Before then, an article had appeared in ‘The World Street Journal’ on August 7, 1987, which reported thus: “At a time when Marxism is so debilitated and is being shored up by capitalism; when Christianity lacks much of the missionary fire that once drove it; when Maoism is all but entombed with its founder and when democracy sounds only a muted appeal to much of the world, Islamic fundamentalism stands out as the movement on the march”.

    By and large today, not only is Islam formally recognized as the second religion after Christianity in the US, it has also become a tradition for the President and his cabinet to host Muslim leaders in that country to Iftar during the month of Ramadan.

    Today, with technology virtually reaching its climax, and backed up by over 60% of the world’s oil reserve in the Islamic world, the rising of the sun from the West as prophesied by Prophet Muhammad (SAW) is becoming undeniably vivid.

    Were George Bernard Shaw alive today he would have nodded delightedly to that fact.

     

    Conclusion

    Given the above historical account, it is unimaginable that a 21st century American President like Donald Trump, who also has personal businesses in many other countries of the world, will want to rubbish his ancestors by destroying the solid foundation which those ancestors had laid for America’s greatness. But, if, on the other hand, if he goes ahead to play a bull in the china shop it will still not be strange. Not every child who bears a father’s name can be truly legitimate.

    Through an erratic policy signed into law or a sadistic ‘Executive Order’, anything can be done to the lives of the Muslims in America but nothing can be negatively done to Islam as a religion. For the benefit of doubt, Islam is like the sun in its full regalia, any blind person who claims not to recognise its presence is only playing a fool. With or without recognition, the sun will always dwell majestically in the orbit. Today is today. Tomorrow is tomorrow. None can take the place of the other. That is a food for thought.