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Writers Articles And Opinions |
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8 August 2009 By Isa Ali Ibrahim (Pantami) We
are really unhappy with the killing of innocent people
in Nigeria in the name of Islam, because of this and
many more I intend to write this flyer in defence of
our universal religion Islam in these days of violence
and crises. The name of Islam is being attacked,
tarnished, subdued and vanquished in the media,
particularly western media because of the action of
some mischievous and extremist Muslims. People find it
difficult to do justice to Islam by differentiating
what Islam teaches and what Mischievous Muslims do in
the name of Islam. Those mischievous Muslims in some
situations are not even Muslims but they perpetrate
and perpetuate violence under the pretext of Islam, in
order to harm our universal religion.
However, most of the media houses (not all), print and
otherwise, are ever ready day-in day-out to attack
Islam through attacking the action of waggish and
so-called Muslims to Islam, the good, the bad and the
ugly. This is a clear injustice to Islam.
Maitashine came for the past three decades in Kano,
Bulunkutu in Maiduguri, Malam-kuri in Gombe, Kaduna
then Yola and killed innocent people in thousands.
Most of the non-Muslims particularly western people
classified the action of these few and insignificant
people as the teaching of Islam by forgetting the
action of the majority of the Muslims in Nigeria which
is contrary to that, and contrary to the verdict of
our contemporary Scholars then, like His Eminence,
Late Shaykh Abubakar Mahmoud Gumi, Late Shaykh
Isma’ila Idris, Shaykh Yakubu Musa Kafanchan (now
Katsina), Shaykh Abba Aji and many more.
The recent crisis which engulfed some cities and towns
in the northern Nigeria like, Maiduguri, Bauchi,
Potiskum, Wudil and Danja local government in Katsina
State, which started on Sunday 26th of July. These
attacks are being launched, perpetrated and
perpetuated by a sect that goes by different names in
different places across the cities, vis-à-vis Taliban,
Boko Haram, Khawaarij, Jamaa’atut-Takfir wal Hijrah,
original ahlus-sunnah and Yusufiyya. The sect is being
led by Muhammad Yusuf whom I had a debate with that
lasted for almost six hours some four years back.
Those that watched and/or listened to the debate said
I was able to defeat him hands down, not because of my
knowledge or wisdom, but because of Allah’s guidance.
The debate is available on CDs and cassettes in many
states in northern Nigeria. They issued out verdict
prohibiting acquiring worldly knowledge (popularly
known as western education), working under government
and recognizing any government that does not judge
with the Shari’ah. Their verdict is contrary to that
of permanent committee of verdict in Saudi Arabia,
volume 12, under the leadership of His Eminence, Late
Shaykh Bn Baz, Kitabul-Ilm of Shaykh Muhammad Saleh
Al-Uthaimeen and a book authored by Shaykh Salman Al-Audah
entitled “Islam and the pursuit of wordly knowledge”.
The verdict of this sect “Boko Haram” is contrary to
the teachings of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him)
and all our pious predecessors, may Allah have mercy
on them. The methodology of Ahlus-Sunnah wal Jama’ah
popularly known as As-Salafiyya never supports the
verdict of “Boko Haram”.
Many people because of their enmity, sentiment and
mischief consider their actions as the true and only
teaching of Islam neglecting all the verdicts of our
Scholars contrary to “Boko Haram”. In those days, in
various newspapers, Scholars came out and attacked
this sect. I read the verdict of Jamaa’atu Nasril-Islam,
Shaykh Sani Yahaya Jingir, Shaykh Nazif Yunus, Imam
Abubakar Ikara, to mention but a few. We kindly
request the enemies of Islam to fear their Lord and
avoid attacking Islam under the pretext of avoiding
this violence. Islam teaches peaceful co-existence
between mankind after fulfilling some conditions, as
it has been vindicated in the Holy Qur’an. See
suratul-Anfal: 61 and suratul- mutahanah: 8-9.
There is need for us to ask ourselves, what are the
reasons of the emergence of this sect and its kinds?
Among the reasons of its emergence there are some
limitations and weaknesses of our leadership and
followership, particularly in Nigeria. On the part of
our leaders they destroy our country with lack of
power, lack of portable water, insecurity, poor
education and immorality. On the other hand our
leaders perpetrate and perpetuate corrupt practices by
looting our resources and indirectly starving our
masses. They destroy our Schools in Nigeria and send
their children abroad. Because of these problems and
many more, youths in Nigeria instead of acquiring
sound education and moral training and change the
country by educating people through spiritual and
moral restraint, they started taking laws into their
hands which is Islamically prohibited. Let our leaders
fear Allah and avoid looting our resources and
eradicate immorality, and they should always recall
that one day one time they will stand before their
Creator and account for their actions. They
circumambulate the world and see how other countries
progress while Nigeria always diminishes.
Most of our Scholars (not all) are not safe, because
they fail to train our youths, on sound moral and
spiritual guidance, they abandon the methodology of
our pious predecessors in preaching, they attack and
curse our leaders on pulpit during their sermons
without praying for Allah’s guidance for them, they
fail to remind those leaders on the dangers of
corruption and fraud, they sometimes teach extremism
indirectly by attacking anybody directly, and they
adopt double standard by legalizing extremism in other
countries and denying it in our country. Let our
Scholars fear Allah and invite people to Islam with
wisdom and fantastic preaching with sincerity. May
Allah guide our scholars to the right path and have
mercy on them.
Most of our community leaders (not all) are not safe,
because they neglect their main responsibility of
adopting their position of elders in our various
communities by dancing to the tune of mischievous
people, abandoning the teaching of their fore-fathers
like Shaykh Usman Bn Fodio, abandoning acquiring
knowledge which is the back bone of leadership and
adopting arrogance in the name of power while the
power is not there in most cases.
Most of our parents are not safe, because they neglect
and dismiss their responsibilities of sound
upbringing, filtering their kids from bad friends and
companions, teaching them sincerity and morality,
correcting their mistakes and limitations and allowing
them to join any Islamic and worldly school without
investigating and confirming their legitimacy
Islamically or otherwise, allowing their kids to watch
any international satellite station or tape without
screening, allowing them to listen to the preaching of
any preacher without knowing his creed and methodology
and giving them unlimited excess money without genuine
reason. Over to you now parents.
most of our Youths and Muslim students have their own
portion of mistake, they feel they are intellectually
matured-enough while not, they consider themselves as
Scholars while they are not, they adopt fire brigade
approach by following short-cut to make Islam supreme
and superb over night, they adopt bad friends, they
like extremism while genuine Islam teaches moderation
and balanced position, they fail to understand the
true meaning of Jihad and its borders of how, where
and when, they never respect the knowledge of their
Scholars and they feel dogmatically whoever is killed
genuinely or otherwise under the pretext of Jihad is a
martyr, they take law into their hands which is
prohibited instead of reporting whatever happens to
their religious and/or community leaders or
constituted authority. Islam teaches moderation and
balance stand, it neither teaches extremism nor
laxity. See Qur’an, Suratul Baqara: 143.
Most of our Security personnel (not all) are not safe,
they take side during crisis, they brutally kill
innocent people, they womanize, they smoke and drink
alcohol, they take bribe, particularly in their
various collection centres along high ways known as
road blocks, they allow the importation of dangerous
weapons into our country without following due
process, they restricted the use of terrorism to one
religion forgetting all the incidences of Niger Delta
and the episode of Lagos.
Most of our professionals and technocrats (not all)
are not safe, they abandon the ethics of their
professionalism, and universities are being destroyed
by immorality, terrorism with the name of cultism,
raping, taking bribe from their students,
university-politics migration and neglecting the
character of their students which is an integral part
of their certificates. Let our universities be
rehabilitated with morality and spiritual restraint.
Over to you now…
Some Men of God in other religions are not safe, they
enjoy attaching any genocide and holocaust to Islam,
the bad and the ugly. They always run to conclusion in
trial situation by exonerating their religion and
confirming the instigation of any violence to Islam
and its leaders, they attack any Muslim
community/political leader of taking sides. The men of
God appropriate all Islamic legacies to their
religion. Men of God, over to you now.
Most of our journalists (not all) are not safe, they
never write a balanced and fair report, their personal
interest usually reflects, some criticize constituted
authority in order to be recognized and pocketed
materially, some criticize because their personal
demands and material request are not achieved, some
desire only to report a unique and ugly story or event
against Islam or any religion in focus. The ethics of
journalism have been abandoned by some journalists.
Over to you now.
In Nigeria, nobody cares, we are yet watching another
decade of self-appointed Scholars, people come out and
teach the message of God without going through sound,
legitimate and legal metamorphosis of producing
Scholars or clergymen, the reason is one, in Nigeria
we have unlimited and infinite borders of freedom. And
the leaders are not better than the populace, on the
basis of this; they can hardly correct it without
sentiment.
In the final analysis, the problem of Nigeria is not
restricted to only one religion, state or person, we
all contributed to it, but our leaders take the lion
share of it. May Allah rehabilitate our religious,
community and political leaders, may He as well
rehabilitate our youths, security agencies and masses.
If we change, definitely Allah will intervene by
inducing peace, tranquility and stability. Now over to
you Nigerians! Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him)
says: Fear Allah whenever and wherever you are.
Contributed by Isa Ali Ibrahim (Pantami), Lecturer,
Department of Information Technology, ATBU. Chief Imam
of Abubakar Tafawa-Balewa University Central Masjid.
EsinIslam.Com
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