“You can never change things in a society by fighting the existing reality.
To change something, you can only build a new model that can render the old one obsolete’’. Anonymous

It was a unique gathering of who is who intellectual in Gbongan, Osun State, last Tuesday, June 11, 2019. The venue was Bola Babalakin (Executive) Auditorium. And the purpose was for distinguished stakeholders in the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) to put heads together and jointly determine the Cut-off Pass Mark for 2019/2020 admission into Nigerian tertiary institutions as a matter of policy. The one day session which brought hundreds of Vice-Chancellors, Proprietors, Rectors, Provosts and relevant Professionals of various fields of discipline together was coordinated by the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB).

Cut-off Marks

After serious deliberations by those stakeholders, the following conclusions were unanimously reached and approved:

1. That the Cut-off Mark for candidates who wrote this year’s JAMB examination and are seeking admission into Nigerian public Universities, the Cut-off Mark is 160.
2. For candidates seeking admission in 2019/2020 into private Universities, the Cut-off Mark is 140.
3. For candidates who are seeking admission into public Polytechnics, in 2019/2020, the Cut-off Mark is 120.
4. For candidates seeking admission into private Polytechnics in 2019/2020, the Cut-off Mark is 110.
5. For candidates seeking admission into Colleges of Education, the Cut-off Mark is 100.

Possible Cut-off Marks Increase

However, as jointly agreed, any tertiary institution may raise its Cut-off Mark above the agreed figures. But none should lower the Cut-off Mark below the approved figures. This means the Cut-off marks of some public Universities may rise up to 180 or even 200 depending on the arising situation.

Limit of Admission Time

It was also agreed that admission processes into public tertiary institutions should be concluded by December 19, 2019 while that of the private institutions should end by February 15, 2020. These decisions were taken not by JAMB but by consensus of stakeholders including the representatives of all institutions.

Between Literacy and Education

After the meeting, some participants who read an article entitled ‘JAMB’s New Policy’ written by yours sincerely and published in ‘The Message’ column last year, requested me to republish the article to serve as a further enlightenment for members of the public. And since readers, like customers, in a market, are kings and queens in their own rights, who must be venerated, I decided to publish an excerpt from the article. Here it goes: “If most literate Nigerian city dwellers called elite hear or read about JAMB’s new policy, the tendency is for them to react, if tacitly, with the usual Nigerian    reprobate as follows: This JAMB again! Why   is it toying with different ideas from time to time?

Despite the claim of education-based civilization by those elite, it has virtually become a permanent tradition for them to seek progress without wanting to pass through a process of change. Yet, nothing guarantees progress as much as change through the rule of law”.

 Rule of Law

“Rule of law in any sane society is not a mere expression of wishes. It is rather the real basis of guaranteeing enduring serenity. A society or organization without rule of law is like an episode in George Orwell’s allegorical plot in his famous novella entitled ‘Animal Farm’ in which all animals are said to be equal in theory but some are practically seen to be more equal than others.

JAMB is not an ‘Animal Farm’ that can be given conflicting interpretations according to conflicting perceptions. But when writing about unique Board, making an allusion to George Orwell’s book may serve a light-throwing reference”.

Innovation

“Like any trustable and sustainable Board or Organization that genuinely serves the people, JAMB is not resting on its oars in ensuring firmness of the rule of law for furtherance of serenity in the country.

That is why it (JAMB) created a broad-based  ‘Critical Stakeholders Forum’ in 2017, as a way of carrying along well-meaning concerned members of the public with their various specialized expertise, thereby making the Board a truly service-oriented public institution for the country’s development”.

Critical Stakeholders Forum

“Since its establishment in 2017, JAMB’s ‘Critical Stakeholders Forum’ has tremendously assisted the management of that Board in engendering a positive departure from the hitherto public perception in which the institution was negatively shrouded. The inputs of the ‘Critical Stakeholders Forum’ into the policies of JAMB have come to confirm significantly that it is quite possible to run an institution like JAMB democratically, even in a country like Nigeria, despite all overt and covert odds. Thus, today, the formulation of policies in JAMB is no longer an exclusive burden for which the Registrar or Management staff of that institution can be taken to ransom. Most of those policies are now jointly formulated at an open door annual meeting of virtually all professionals whose diverse expertise are effectively tapped for the advancement of JAMB and the progress of Nigeria. This dynamic action initiated by the Registrar of JAMB, Professor Is-haq Olanrewaju Oloyede, in less than six months after his assumption of office has not just facilitated a thorough understanding of JAMB operations by Nigerian public; it has also become a quiet but constructive revolution that can be globally emulated and possibly equaled but not surpassed”.

Biometric Verification

“One of JAMB’s recent policies that were formulated for effective execution during the 2019 UTME is mandatory biometric verification which all candidates for year 2018 examination were made to pass through for the first time ever.

Thus, the candidates for this year’s Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) and those of the future are now aware that biometric verification is compulsory for them and without it, there will be no admittance into the examination hall”.

No Alternative

“The JAMB’s Biometric Verification policy which has no alternative is an official scrutiny of any candidate’s claim of an identity.  It is an authentication formality with which every candidate will be admitted into the examination hall. Any candidate without certified biometric verification will not be allowed to write the examination.

And no candidate without biometric verification should expect a reschedule of his/her missed examination for any reason. This policy, being emphatically presented here, is already contained in Vol. 1, N0 11 of the official weekly bulletin of JAMB which can be found in JAMB’s website and has equally been disseminated to Nigerian media for publication or broadcasting. Thus, parents of UTME candidates who consider it their duty to follow their teenage children or wards to examination centers, despite those children’s age and exposure, should note this policy very well and be prepared to abide by it scrupulously in the future. The summary is that no biometric verification, no examination. JAMB officials too should note that any candidate who cannot be verified should not be kept waiting to loiter around the examination hall. Such a candidate should immediately be advised to get in touch with JAMB office through the already known means”.

Handicapped Candidates

“As for handicapped candidates, JAMB has made adequate provision for them through the use of certain devices with which they are quite familiar. They are therefore advised to follow the instructions given to them by JAMB officials and simply abide by the rule of law in order not to regret anything after the exam”.

Attendance Register

“All candidates should know as well that there is no attendance registration other than biometric verification. Any available photo album found at an examination center will have no space for marking ‘present or absent’. And all examination officials including security agents are strictly advised in their own interest to comply with these guidelines”.

Prohibited Materials

“Besides the introduction of biometric verification which is now compulsory for all candidates with no exception, JAMB has listed some materials that are prohibited in its Computer Based Test Centers (CBTC). Such prohibited materials include: books, mobile phones, ink pens and biros, pencils and erasers, wrist watches and jewelries as well as calculators, miniature electronic devices, smart eye lenses, ear pieces, blue tooth devices, bitsy microphones, teeny secret recorders and similar cheating devices. In the case of spy reading glasses which some candidates cannot do without, such must be surrendered to JAMB officials for scrutiny”.

Timeliness

“All UTME candidates are strictly advised to arrive at their examination centers well ahead of the time earmarked for the commencement of examination. Lateness of any candidate to the examination center may constitute a hindrance for his/her participation in the examination”.

Effect of Change

“The changes that had caused human progress from time to time in history were never compatible with the existing perennial traditions of those humans because of the revolutionary tendencies of those changes. Whether in the primordial or contemporary time, revolution has effectively proved to be the main determinant of human progress. Therefore, a society without revolution,  will surely be stagnant”.

History of JAMB

“When the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) was established 42 years ago (1977), it came as a revolution which the then existing system of seeking admission into tertiary institutions through concessional examination first tried to resist. At that time, only about six full- fledged Universities were in existence in Nigeria. They were called ‘First Generation’ Universities. The six Universities were the bUniversity of Nigeria, Nsuka, founded in 1960; the University of Lagos, founded in 1962; Ahmadu Bello University founded in 1962; the University of Ife, founded in 1962; the University of Ibadan, upgraded to a full-fledged University in 1963 and the University of Benin, founded in 1970.

Until its upgrade into a full-fledged University in 1963, the University of Ibadan which was established in 1948 as a college of the University of London was the only Higher Institution in Nigeria foreign University”.

Comment

“At no time in the history of JAMB have stakeholders been involved in the process of UTME as now facilitated by the current administration in that Board. This is an indication that the real revolutionary motive of JAMB is becoming more manifest than ever before. JAMB is not only a pace setter for revolution in all sectors of public service in Nigeria, it is also the main template for distinction between education and literacy”.

Monologue

Like in any other week, the competition for attention by emerging issues, for this column this week is extraordinarily intense. The choice of one of those issues by any columnist must thus become a problem capable of causing confusion. The case of yours sincerely cannot be an exception. That is a confirmation that the dilemma of any worthy columnist is not a dearth of ideas but a deluge of them.

For instance, which national or international contemporary issue in today’s world does not deserve attention of ‘The Message’ column now?

Is it the sudden demise of the former Egyptian President Muhammad Morsi in a suspicious circumstance or the implacable tension between Trump’s American government and the Islamic Republic of Iran or the severe persecution of Muslims in China and Myanmar or the seemingly endemic plight of the Kashmiri people who, as Muslims, are being forcefullyd subjected to Hindu rule in India or the callous murder of an American based Saudi journalist, Jamal Khashoggi, in cold blood in Istanbul or  the         frightening menace of banditry and kidnapping across Nigeria or even the incessantly ravaging atrocities of certain voluntary agents of Satan called Boko Haram? Looking at all these issues and many more, not mentioned here, the tendency is to conclude that the modern world is fast approaching its end. Yet, the role of leadership in in making success of most of these issues cannot be underestimated. Without leaders, there are no nations.

Preamble

The title of today’s article in this column is not originally a coinage of ‘THE MESSAGE’. It is rather the theme of a public Ramadan lecture organised by Mstapha Akanbi Foundation (MAF) in Ilorin to which yours sincerely was invited as the guest lecturer on August 29, 2010.

Read Also: Experts meet on Islamic finance

Who is Mustapha Akanbi?

The name Mustapha Akanbi cannot be strange to any educated Nigerian of co cotemporary time. That was a household name in Nigeria and beyond especially for those who are familiar with the Independent Corrupt Practices (and other related offences) Commission (ICPC). The first Chairman of that Commission was Justice Mustapha Akanbi, an erstwhile President of the Federal Court of Appeal of Nigeria. For the entire 35 years of his service in the judiciary, all that can be called his property was just a modest three bedroom bungalow in which he lived in Ilorin till his demise recently.

The MAF Foundation

Established in September 2006 shortly after its founder (Justice Mustapha Akanbi) voluntarily resigned as the Chairman of ICPC despite the overwhelming pressure on him to continue his service, MAF is a non-governmental and non-partisan organisation dedicated to the uplift of mankind and to the enthronement of justice, equity and fair play as well as the promotion of the quintessential virtues of honesty, integrity, transparency and accountability in all human activities.

The Foundation is committed to being in the vanguard of revolutionary changes aimed at reforming and transforming our society from being a body of self-serving individuals to a nation that places high premium on selfless service for the common good of all. MAF Foundation, therefore, has, as its focus, the building and sustenance of a great nation founded on sound ethical values and good governance capable of holding its own in the comity of nations. It is in line with its focus that the Foundation chose the theme of today’s article and invited yours sincerely as the guest lecturer. At the occasion which was held in the month of Ramadan, I alluded briefly to the significance of Ramadan in the life of an average Muslim.

Point of Reverence

This is a period of relevant reference in Nigeria. This is a time when history displays its duty as the teacher of man. The current trend of dirty banters in the country is both a reminder and a point of reference for men and women of decent pedigree and impeccable dignity. This is a time when disciplined parents and patriotic citizens are identifiable. This is the time in Nigeria’s contemporary history when human wheat can be separated from human chaff. This is the time of distinguishing between shame and shamelessness on the one hand and decency and indecency on the other. This is the time when lovers and haters of Nigeria can be known. It is the above mentioned issues that make this article a point of reference. And the reference is the lecture that yours sincerely delivered at the MAF Foundation in 2010.

The lecture

As a preamble, I told my audience that thinking of leadership in terms of those who are privileged to govern the country alone can never solve the problem of bad leadership in Nigeria. Leadership does not start from the top. It is rather a matter of good home management and excellent upbringing of children. Leadership is like a pyramid which has a base and an apex. Whoever wants to assess leadership in a society must start from the base rather than the apex. It will be unreasonable to start sighting major faults at the roof of a house when the foundation of the same house is evidently faulty. Generally, children learn from their parents’ actions much more than from the latter’s preaching.

Any parent who starts the upbringing of his or her children with lavish celebration of birthday without teaching such children the act of legitimate money making early in life has initiated such children into the cult of reckless spending spree. The tendency for such children when they grow up is to look for money to spend from any source including pilfering, stealing, kidnapping and ritual killing for money. What will be virtuous to such children is to get money to spend. It will never matter to them how they come about such money. And that is the root of corruption in a society like Nigeria where parents assist their children to cheat in examinations or to get admitted into higher institutions with fraudulent pre-requisites.

Leadership in Islam

In Islam, leadership is so sacrosanct that Prophet Muhammad (SAW) never relented in warning all leaders and aspirants to leadership

about the delicate nature of ruling the people. In his farewell sermon in 631 CE, he reminded the Muslim Ummah that leadership is a great responsibility entrusted to an individual by the society as ordained by the Almighty Allah. The Prophet also admonished the people on their responsibility to both the state and leadership quoting Qur’an 4, Verse 59 thus: “Oh you, who believe, Obey Allah, obey the Messenger (of Allah) and those charged with authority among you. If you differ in anything amongst yourselves, refer it to Allah and His Messenger if you do believe in Allah and the last day. That is best and most suitable for final determination”. Q…..

However, he did not stop there. He went further to explain that obedience to those charged with authority is conditioned by their (those in authority’s) own obedience to God in their deeds as well as the rule of law that governs them. In one of his statements, he said there is no obedience or loyalty to any human being, ruler or otherwise, who is not himself, obedient to God and the rule of law. He concluded that: “Whoever entrusts a man to a public office, where, in his society, there is a better man than this trustee, has betrayed the trust of God and His Messenger as well as the people of that society”. Hadith.

The Prophet’s Exemplary Leadership

The exemplary leadership of Prophet Muhammad (SAW) and his great teachings were scrupulously followed by the Caliphs who succeeded him in office. When, shortly after the Prophet’s demise, Abubakr was elected as the first Caliph, his primary objective was to continue the pious administration which the Prophet left behind. He took the mantle of leadership with which he was saddled as a responsibility to Allah. In his acceptance speech as new Head of State, he addressed the people as follows: “Oh people behold me charged with the cares of government.

Yet, I am not the best of you. In carrying out this great responsibility, I need your advice and assistance. If you find me doing well, please support me. If I make mistake, counsel me. To tell the truth to a person commissioned to rule is faithful allegiance. So long I obey God and act according to law, obey me. But if I neglect the law of God and His Prophet, I have no more right to your obedience. The strong among you shall have no right over the weak on the basis of his strength. Neither shall there be any room for sycophancy, nepotism or undue favouritism. Authority, power and sovereignty belong to Allah alone in whose hand is dominion over all things….”

Comment

From the foregoing, and contrary to what is happening today, especially in Nigeria, it is clear that leadership is a privilege rather than anybody’s right. It is a public trust which should not be betrayed under any circumstance. It is a responsibility to be carried out, not just with human face but also with human heart. It is a covenant between God and rulers on the one hand and rulers and the ruled on the other. It is a measure of conscience, piety and discipline. No one who is bereft of these traits should be entrusted with leadership.

Other Caliphs after Abubakr followed suit and lived ascetic lives despite their access to unlimited state resources. Ali Bn Abi-Talib, in particular, did not limit those qualities to himself. He extended them to his appointed Governors.

While appointing Malik bn Ashtar as the Governor of Egypt he gave him certain instructions in writing and admonished him to follow those instructions to the letter in his governance in that country. Those instructions were not about the executive arm of governance alone. They also touched legislation and judiciary morally and legally.

Parable of Governance

Governance in Islam is like pregnancy in the womb of an expectant mother. The duration of such pregnancy is naturally defined barring any anomaly or aberration. Its delivery depends on the safety of its carrier and the circumstances of her wellbeing. And, after delivery, the baby is claimed, not by the carrier of the pregnancy but by the impregnator. There is no pregnancy without semen firmly planted in the womb of a woman. And the semen planter is a man who will eventually be called the father of the baby. For this reason, children bear the names of their fathers rather than those of their mothers as surnames. By analogy, one can compare governance to a pregnant woman who could not have become pregnant without an impregnator. The impregnator in this case is the populace that gave those in government the mandate to rule them. And just as the product of the womb (the child) belongs to the impregnator as a matter of legitimacy so should dividend of governance be the property of the governed populace. A child who bears his mother’s name as surname is nothing but a bastard.

After life, security, law and justice, nothing else is held as sacrosanct in Islam as governance which can be compared to a magnificent shade under which people are supposed to take cover during torrential rains or burning sun. In a democratic setting, such a shade is owned by the citizenry. Those who claim to be its custodians are just servants holding it in trust for the people.

Democracy in Islam

In Islam, democracy is not about voting and power alone. It is fundamentally about justice in all its ramifications according to the rule of law. It is about tending the lives of others for the overall good of the nation. It is about providing the needs of the people according to the available resources in the nation. It is about protecting the interest of the weak against the oppression of the strong. It is about managing the wealth of the nation with diligent sense of accountability. It is about securing the lives of the citizenry in terms of jobs, feeding, shelter, health and education. It is about boosting the horizon of the youths and sharpening their hope for the future. It is about guaranteeing adequate income per capital and ensuring a standard life expectancy. Any government that claims democracy without all the aforementioned is oppressive and hypocritical. That was Nigeria’s lot between 1999 and 2015, the continuity of which we fervently prayed Allah to forbid.

Governance, like culture, has a variety of colours, flavours and tastes. What is called democracy in a State may amount to despotism in another State. Governance, whether democratic or monarchical, is fundamentally a function of culture. That is why a country like Britain claims to operate politically on a constitution that is partly written and partly conventional. Borrowing a foreign culture to practice democracy through a constitution written in a foreign language is like borrowing another man’s mouth to eat. Into whose stomach will the food go?

If those entrusted with authority and power with which to care for the masses are the ones stealing public funds with audacity and reliability on ethnic or religious inclination, what moral right do they have to govern? Nigeria has now reached a stage where justice, the last hope of the common man, is for sale even as the citizenry continue to be impoverished. For a country that hopes to progress, to where does this lead?

Justice Mustapha Akanbi was an exemplary judge with an exemplary template in delivery and administration of justice with the fear of Allah. He lived a clean life and groomed some others to follow suit with the expectation that Nigeria would be great.  We pray the Almighty Allah to repose his soul in eternal bliss. As for those who have deviated from the path of decency left behind by Justice Akanbi, we pray Allah to guide them aright and rescue them from the manacle of Stan to which they are sternly tied. However, such people should know that:

“Allah does not change a people’s lot unless they change the evil acts in their hearts. If Allah decides to afflict them with a calamity, no one can ward it off. Besides Allah, there is no protector for them”. Q. 13:11.

This article is an update to of the previous one earlier published in this column on the same subject. The need for the update is due to the diehard nature of the subject in question.

Preamble

Today, if for a tentative relief as a matter of change, ‘The Message’ column is migrating from the chronic insanity of Nigeria’s political tempest to an implacable global imbroglio being vaingloriously engineered by a disastrous American ‘Trump’ through a disastrous American war furnace. Perhaps through such a migration, a way of ventilating a momentarily peaceful atmosphere for peace-loving innocent Nigerians may be paved.

Trump’s Predation

At the instance of an accidental American President, Donald Trump, who seems to be the modern day American Fuhrer, an unexpected global war may soon break out, the consequences of which no contemporary human being may be able to predict with precision. As a matter of fact, this assertion had been on the global front burner for quite some time gathering momentum for a possible cataclysmic shudder and signalling a dangerously swinging pendulum of war. And that signal was coming from nowhere other than the devil’s own country called the United States of America (USA).

When and how that impending war will break out is now a curious matter of guess for genuinely concerned people of the world.

Genesis of the Imbroglio

A few days ago, Al-Jazeera Television throbbed with breaking news of an American military drone that was fortuitously shot down by the Iranian National Guards in Iranian territory. That was the second time a dangerous   accident of that nature would occur in the same territory in less than a decade. It is on record that about years ago, an American war plane strayed into the airspace of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the troops of the latter nation promptly sot it down. The incident occurred when Dr. Barak Obama was the President of the US. And that incident looked like the climax of an American allegation that Iran was stockpiling weapons of mass destruction, especially, nuclear armaments. That disturbing development which dragged Iran to the United Nation’s Security Council for explanation further heightened the already existing tension between the US and Iran which had been mutually antagonistic to each other for decades.

The tension between both countries started in 1979 with the Iranian revolution that uprooted Iran’s imperial despotism that had caged the Iranian people for scores of years under that country’s last despotic monarch, Muhammad Pahlavi.

US’ Reaction

In reaction to the fortuitous incident of the US intrusion, about four years ago, which led to Iran’s prompt military reaction, the US authorities said that the destination of the shot American military aircraft was Afghanistan and not Iran. They explained that the pilot of the   plane only accidentally lost control and strayed into Iranian territory.

A Siege on British Embassy

Shortly before the above narrated incident, Some Iranian students had laid siege on the British Embassy, in Tehran, in protest against what they called an intolerable meddling by the then British Prime Minister, David Cameron’s government, in the internal affairs of Iran. And in retaliation to that siege, Britain quickly evacuated her diplomats in Tehran and sent the Iranian diplomats in London packing despite Iran’s regret and apology over those students’ unauthorized action. And in solidarity with Britain, the French government also followed suit by issuing a 48 hour ultimatum to Iranian quit France.

Reoccurrence

In reaction to the reoccurrence of the above incident last week, the American ‘Fuhrer’, Donald Trump, said “Iran had made a big mistake for which she would pay heavily”. But when the world media pressed him to further explain what he meant by that statement, he simply asked them to wait and see what would happen next. His argument was that Iran had no right to shoot down the American drone because that drone was operating at the international and not Iranian territory. However, a detailed show of the encounter by Al-Jazeera confirmed that the drone actually intruded into Iranian territory without the permission of Iranian authorities.

Genesis of Faceoff

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

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

The Grand Design

The West’s grand design for the Muslim world through the Middle East was first expressed in 1902 by a British Prime Minister, Sir H. Campbell-Bannerman when he observed as follows: “There are people who control spacious territories teeming with manifest and hidden resources.  They dominate the intersections of world routes. Their lands were the cradles of human civilizations and religions. These people have one faith, one language and the same aspiration. No natural barriers can isolate them from one another….If, per chance, these people were to be unified into one state it would then take the fate of the world into its hands and separate Europe from the rest of the world. Taking these considerations seriously, a foreign body should be planted in the heart of this nation to prevent the convergence of its wings in such a way that it could exhaust its powers in never- ending wars. It could also serve as a spring board for the West to gain its coveted objects”.

Follow Up

Sir Bannerman’s observation was in further pursuit of an earlier demand by an Austrian Jewish lawyer and Journalist, Theodor Herzl, the initiator and leader of the Zionist movement founded in 1879. In the euphoria of a chauvinist’s ambition, shortly after the establishment of the Zionist movement, Theodor Herzl, made a demand thus: “Let sovereignty be granted us (the Jews) over a portion of the globe large enough to satisfy the rightful requirements of a nation. The rest, we shall manage by ourselves…”

The Balfour Declaration

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

Since then, the infamous Balfour declaration has put the Middle East in an incessant turmoil to the discomfort of the world’s peace and harmony. The declaration read partly as follows: “His majesty’s Government views with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people and will use its best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this objective…. The rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country shall not be prejudiced by the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people”

Implementation

To facilitate the implementation of that agenda effectively, some other Middle East countries had to be decapitated economically and politically by excision from them, some juicy chunks of their lands.

Thus, Lebanon was excised from Syria and Kuwait from Iraq. The strategy was to cause a dissention among the citizens of those countries with the intention of breaking the yoke of the Muslim unity which Bannerman had targeted in his infamous observation quoted above.

Iran Connection

Now, how does Iran come into this picture when she is not an Arab country? That is the logical question that anybody who is not quite familiar with the Middle East and the intricacies of its political and economic set up may ask. Naturally, Iran is affected by three major factors: Culture, economy and politics. By culture here, we mean ISLAM. Iran is a foremost Muslim country even if her official language is not Arabic.

And, as a Muslim Country, whatever affects other Muslim countries must affect her. Thus, as a major neighbour to the Arabs in the Gulf, she cannot but play a role in the politics of the region. Also, as an economically strong nation in the primordial and contemporary times, Iran occupies a very strategic position in the Middle East especially with her proximity to the Persian Gulf.

The Emergence of Ayatullah Khomeni

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

The Iranian Revolution

No one believed in 1979 that a mass protest which started like a small political billow, engendered by the country’s unarmed Mullahs could eventually grow into such a great magnitude of political ‘earthquake’.

By the time the foggy dust finally settled, a new Iran had emerged from the debris of the old. Against the wish and expectation of the capitalist West, the secular, monarchical Iran became a democratic, Islamic republic. The drama was quite electrical.

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

The Strategy

While a number of US F15 bomber jets deployed were approaching Iran, the then American President Jimmy Carter engaged his country’s press in a chat without giving any hint of the impending military operation in Iran. The tactics was to divert the attention of the press and that of the country from the illegal Pentagon’s military expedition. But no sane person can ever fault the contents of the Qur’an. About 1400 years before that incident, a verse of the Qur’an had been revealed to Prophet Muhammad (SAW) thus: “They (the unbelievers) schemed, and Allah schemed. Allah is the supreme schemer”. Q. 3:54. Jimmy Carter’s thought was that by the time he would be finishing his press address, the news would have reached him that America had successfully invaded Iran to restore imperialism by reinstating the Shah Pahlavi. He had therefore intended to announce the news of his ‘great’ successful scheme to the press as the epilogue of his address. And that would have served as his impetus for wining that year’s election for a second term in office. But, as Allah would have it, instead of the expected news, what he got was a shocker of his life.

The failure of the Strategy

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

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

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

Iran’ Nuclear Project

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

The World’s Greyhound

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

But for the recent Iraqi episode that became regrettable for the self-appointed policeman of the world, and of course, the North Korean case, which has become a cancerous sore on the head of the US, another Gulf war would have either ensued or become advanced in plan by now. The secret of America’s military successes in various parts of the

world is neither in technological advancement, nor military

superiority per se. The failed rescue mission in Iran shortly after

that country’s revolution has confirmed that. It is a historical fact that the secret of America’s military successes in various wars around the world are rather due to her ability to cause dissension among some other nations and races.

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

Sanction as a Weapon

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

Monologue

This article is not new. It was first written and published in this column about one decade ago. Yet, the situation that warranted its writing and publication at that time has not waned a bit. Thus, a repeat of its publication here today is at the request of some readers who still consider it potent.
From all indications, Nigeria is a divinely blessed country that ironically functions like an accursed nation. After 59 years of independence from the British colonialism, this country’s stagnancy remains unprecedented in contemporary time. She is like a beheaded python in the only continent of the black race. And her citizens live like orphans without hope in the midst of hungry predators. In this circumstance, how to reconcile hope with despair in those orphans remains a fundamental question that requires a fundamental answer.

Preamble

This world is a dramatic entity mysteriously coded in parables. Every living thing therein sees it and relates to it according to its own nature of existence. It takes history to decode it only after the actors might have left the stage. Who are we? Where are we coming from? And where are we going from here? Those are some of the questions which all rational human beings should be asking themselves from time to time.

But such questions have been rendered irrelevant in Nigeria because the circumstances of life have changed the priorities of the citizens. The only question now in vogue, which everybody seems to be answering, is this: ‘what am I getting from this?’ It is a material world that paved the way for what now becomes an endemic corruption in the land.

A Dramatic Question

The question above is the real drama that permanently engages the attention of Nigerians of all strata. It is the question that crowns money as the king of the world. It is the question that fosters greed with the milk of callousness and fetters humanity to the stake of Satan. It is the question that presents mirage to Nigerian youths as the only substance worthy of pursuit. Incidentally, however, no genuine attempt to proffer a befitting answer to that all-time question has ever been made by any government in power. And in reality, if proffered, such an answer would have confirmed the ephemerality of this world against the common yearning for illicit prosperity which even most of today’s so-called clergy are preaching to the detriment of societal decency.

The Parable of a Country

What can we say of a man who fixes his eyes on the sun but does not see it? Instead, he sees a chorus of flaming seraphim announcing a paroxysm of despair. That is the parable of the country called Nigeria. Like the Israelites of Moses’ time, Nigerians have become typical gypsies just wandering about aimlessly and wallowing in abject poverty in the midst of abundance. What else do we expect from Allah beyond the invaluable bounties with which He has blessed us?

What is Nigeria not blessed with? We have land in abundance, not in terms of size alone but also in terms of agrarian soil and rich vegetation. At least over 77 million hectares of land is said to be arable in Nigeria. Out of this, less than 34 million hectares is reportedly being cultivated for various agricultural activities including husbandry. This has even dwindled to about 23 million square hectares as insurgency and banditry keep forcing more and more rural youths to troop to cities and towns for survival and imaginary greener pastures.

Nigeria’s Endowments

As a country, we are blessed with rainfalls to water our plants from the sky and to graze our animals to satisfaction. We are endowed with variety of nourishing food crops that are enough to feed us from generation to generation without importing any edible from anywhere.

The Qur’an testifies to this in chapter 80 thus: “Let man reflect on the food he eats; how ‘We’ pour down the rain in torrents and cleave the earth asunder; how ‘We’ bring forth the corn, the grapes, the fresh vegetables, the olive, the palm products, the thickets, the fruit-trees and the green pasture for you and for your cattle to delight in…” Allah’s favour is regular and incessant. We cannot deny it for any reason.

The Country’s Workforce

In addition to the aforementioned, we have energetic and dedicated work force that is married to the farmlands, plants, fishery and animal husbandry in Nigeria. We also have intellectual brains that engage in researches days and nights to ensure agricultural enhancement of our country.

Nigeria is not lacking in forest and savannah. She is rich in rivers and mountains all of which are great resources for people who are seeking reasonable comfort and are not self-deceptive.

What we had consistently lacked as a nation is a responsible leadership that should care to preserve our foremost heritage which is agriculture. That shortage of  foods is becoming a threat to Nigerians’ existence today is purely due to lack of responsible leadership especially since the commencement of the fourth republic in 1999.

First Baton of Misfortune

Nigeria’s misfortune started when the first baton of the Presidency in 1999 was handed over to a parochial ‘prisoner’ who had lost contact with reality of free world of the modern time. On his assumption of office in that year, some die hard Nigerian optimists saw him as a reincarnate of the Yusuf of yore would rescue Nigeria from an impending scourge of famine. But no sooner had he become President than Nigerians realized that the man who was thought to be a Yusuf coming from the prison to transform Nigeria’s dream into reality was actually a parochial Mathew.

As a farmer that he claimed to be, he had been expected to act like Chairman Mao of China who started the revolution of his country with agricultural self-sufficiency. But this Mathew eventually confirmed that a man cannot give what he lacks. He proved that that he was never tutored in any decency that could facilitate good governance. Those who imposed him on Nigeria have since openly confessed their calamitous error expressing a belated regret and liking their bleeding fingers with internal agony. Today, Nigeria is worse than she was two decades ago with successive display of mediocrity by those taking turns to be at the helm of affairs.

Evidence of Parochialism

Not only did the first relay leg of Nigeria’s fourth republic parochially promote cassava alone, of all crops, and pushed many farmers into cultivating it as a cash crop, he also ensured that most small scale farmers made no headway in their efforts. No rural roads were provided to enable those farmers transport their farm products to markets in cities and towns and no iota of incentive for those farmers from his government. And when the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), an active arm of the United Nations, attempted to bail out Nigeria from his devilish antics by granting small scale farmers a substantial financial aid in the name of ‘FADAMA’, the news only ended on radio as a mere announcement.

The money, (N50 billion naira), meant to boost agriculture through peasant farmers became a booty for the hawks among some government officials and their lackeys in the private sector.

Those poor farmers ran helter-skelter for some time seeking loans that were pegged at N250000 naira per head without getting one kobo. All sorts of huddles were erected on their ways until they became frustrated and rested their case with God.

The only farmer who was conspicuously known to have benefited directly from that money was the President himself who arrogantly announced on a television network, during a Presidential media chart in 2006, that he got a whopping N2 billion for his farm as loan from the money meant for the peasants. Can you imagine that callous greed?

The State Governments

Most of the State Governors of that time did not help the matter. Rather than focusing on agriculture which was the natural occupational endowment of their respective States, those gold diggers preferred to depend on oil largesse coming to them from the federal government through the so-called allocation revenue sharing. To them, such a quicker way of making money for themselves rather than for their States was more beneficial than investing in agriculture which could only yield results perhaps years after they might have left office.

The Cost of Democracy

In Nigeria, the cost of a democratic dispensation alone is enough to run the country aground. As a third world developing country, what are we doing with over 40 federal ministers and scores of Presidential Senior Special Advisers as well a retinue of personal Assistants when even America with her huge economic resource, large population and financial wherewithal has only about ten ministers? Why must we have different ministers for agriculture and water resources? Where is the federal government’s farm to justify that?

Besides, what informs the idea of the so-called constituency allowances for Senators and other legislators, at the federal and state levels costing the country billions of naira, especially at a time when innocent women and children are crying for food which is a foremost necessity of life?

No one would have thought that artificial hunger could be added to the abysmal level of poverty in Nigeria despite the unprecedented rise in price of oil in the international market during the wasted years of 2003 to 2014.

Artful Trick

Governance in Nigeria has become an artful trick adopted to bamboozle the populace into blind submission. The propaganda in the 1980s spearheaded by Professor Gerry Gana, the then Chairman of Mass Mobilization for Structural Adjustment (MAMSA) was almost hypnotizing: ‘food and shelter for all in the year 2000!’ That slogan was changed in the 1990s to: ‘Vision 2010!’ And when year 2010 was fast approaching, the slogan changed again to: ‘Vision 2020!

Now, in 2019 without roads, without electricity, without rail transportation system, without jobs for majority of the able-bodied citizens, without security and even without food on our tables, how can we hope to become one of the 20 biggest economies in the world in year 2020 as the propagandists had deceptively projected? Isn’t that a day dream? It takes two to tango. If the deceivers can pretend not to know that a game of deception is in place, the deceived populace surely know even if they also pretend to play along. No country in history is ever known to have achieved economic vibrancy by magic wand. Nigeria cannot be an exception.

FAO Report

In an FAO report some years ago, about 300 Nigerians were said to be dying of hunger daily. Only God knows what that figure has risen to become now. Yet, rather than reacting to that sad news positively to the rescue of the people, our callously deceptive government continued to assure us of becoming one of the biggest economies in the world in year 2020 even as the easy money accruing from our petroleum resources was being audaciously stolen with unbridled impunity to the detriment of the masses.

However, by some actions he took during his tenure, the late President Musa Yar’Adua of the blessed memory remains commendable for showing the example of governance with human face and human heart. At least as a first measure, he earmarked N80 billion for food importation and announced a suspension of all tariffs on imported food items to the immediate relief of all and sundry at that time. He also released grains from the national silos to check inflation and pumped N400 billion into the economy for the purpose of creating about 10 million jobs then. Though, such measures were far from being adequate for a country which was aspiring to become one of the biggest economies in 2020, the move was generally seen as a good beginning of a hopeful future.

However, as soon as Yar’Adua died, all progressive steps were suspended and the national treasury was thrown open for audacious thieves to scoop upon with impunity. Thereafter, open day official theft became a means of winning medals and earning national honour than the shameful act it used to be in the time of Yar’Adua.

Now, the government needs to be told that no miracle can yield any success based on a ramshackle foundation laid down for Nigerian economy by a Mathew (from the prison) who, as President, could hardly reason beyond the siege mentality of the prison yard from where he had emerged.

Memory Lane

Yusuf (Joseph), the son of Ya’qub (Jacob), did not know that he could have any solution to a fundamental problem of a country other than his own. Neither did his brothers who sold him into slavery know that he could be a solution to a major problem in another land. But the accident of history never ceases to play itself out. Without Yusuf, only Allah knows what the history of Egypt would have been today. And without a Pharaoh’s dream of drought, the story of Yusuf would have been totally different from what we now know of it.

If Egypt had any major plight when Yusuf was in prison in that country, it was Pharaoh’s dream. It turned out that Yusuf’s imprisonment in Egypt was a blessing, not only for Egypt but also for Yusuf and his family. What could have been a repeat of that episode here in Nigeria, turned out to be a regrettable bizarre as most national assets were sold and bought by the so-called rulers in the name of privatization. The rest is now left to history.

I was a student in Egypt in the 1970s when the hostility between that country and Israel was fierce. Egypt was then an ally of the (now defunct) Soviet Union while Israel was virtually a satellite of the United States. Not only did Egypt suffer isolation from NATO member countries of Europe and America but the Soviet Union which was supposed to be the main ally of Egypt was not forthcoming with any meaningful assistance beyond the supply of light and medium range weapons. Thus, the Egyptian government had to buckle in firmly in other to fend for its people at that critical time.

Egyptian Template

Realizing the importance of food supply especially in a war situation, Egypt mobilized all her agricultural resources around the River Nile and forgot about any food importation. The result was tremendous. Till today, food supply is not a major problem in that country.

Uganda for Instance

About two decades ago, Uganda, a sub-Sahara African country, found herself in the position of Egypt of yore. A colossal drought broke out in that country killing thousands of people and virtually wiping out the entire cattle in the country. No Pharaoh had any dreamed premonition and no Yusuf was in a prison to translate any dream into a solution.

What the Ugandans did to find a solution was to reset the country’s agricultural focus. Rather than concentrating on tilling the land and rearing the cattle, which drought had eroded, a new focus was brought to bear. Uganda took to commercial ‘bee farming’ as a relieving alternative. The seriousness which the government of that country paid to the new focus was such that Uganda today is a country to reckon with in the production and supply of honey and other bee products. A substantial amount of honey consumed in Europe and America is currently got from Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania and Ethiopia. And those products have become the second biggest foreign exchange earner for Uganda after coffee.

Today, besides the flooding in some States, Nigeria is not afflicted by drought or famine. Neither is she engaged in a major war besides fighting insurgency and banditry. Yet, the general fear in vogue now, is hunger compounded by insecurity. How the country arrived at such a deadly scourge is irrelevant for now. What is relevant is how to get out of it. Like Egypt of yore, Nigeria will need a Yusuf to unravel the mystery surrounding the dream that brought this scourge about.

It is ironic that people who live by the river bank can’t get water to drink when those living in the desert can find a reliable oasis to combat any drought. President Yar’Adua’s short time leadership was a lesson for those who want to learn. Given all the resources with which we are endowed as a country, Nigerians should have no business with poverty let alone food crisis.

Cause of Insecurity

In one of the reactions to this column which I received and published recently, a reader raised alarm over the persisting poverty in Nigeria pointing out that “about 97% of Nigerian wealth is in the hands of 3% of Nigerians who are mainly in government”. This has consistently been the hub of Nigeria’s version of democracy which led to the collapse of the country’s first, second and third republics. The implication of that reader’s observation is that 97% of the populace is being forced to scramble for the remaining 3% of the national wealth. Why won’t there be insecurity in the land? Wherever injustice replaces law, restiveness must serve as a consequence.

Capitalism, which was once an economic ideology propelling mercantilism, has moved a step ahead, especially in Nigeria where official theft has become a profession.

Effect of Capitalism

Capitalism is now a religion through which its adherents worship money. To such adherents, accountability is a mere riddle which only the poor may want to unravel.

It is only in the interest of those in government, especially the legislators who are most active in sharing public funds, to let the national wealth spread across board legitimately if only to avoid the current situation of Nigerian estates where every house has become a prison in which the occupants are voluntarily jailed. To ignore the rule of law and shun justice in a land blessed with milk and honey is to cultivate an encounter with insecurity in all its ramifications.

Where people are well educated and conscious of their rights; where they perceive wealth as a matter of opportunity and not the exclusive right of any group; where they see themselves as qualified but denied their legitimate entitlements; nobody can consign them to ignominy indefinitely. They will react in no uncertain terms. That has started in Nigeria but it must not be allowed to linger. Let Nigeria grow from a country into a nation that we may all be proud to be her citizens.

Monologue

Today’s article in this column was first published in in October 2017 under the same title. Its repetition here is warranted the reappearance of a notorious article published in the Tribune newspaper by a journalist and columnist called Tola Adeniyi. The sudden reappearance of that notorious article went viral on many platforms of the social media last week to the consternation of well-meaning Nigerians who had read Adeniyi’s article and today’s reaction to it two years ago. Republishing the article here is at the instance of many readers of this column who demanded its republication after reading Adeniyi’s mischievous article again online this time.

Preamble

Prophet Muhammad’s divinely guided expressions called Hadith will never cease to be axiomatic. In one of such expressions, he said: “There are three signs by which a hypocrite can be identified: when he talks he lies, when he promises he reneges and when he is trusted he betrays”. Thus, through the conduct of a hypocrite the definition of hypocrisy becomes clear. Ever since Prophet Muhammad (SAW) succinctly gave that impeccable definition of hypocrisy about one and a half millennia ago, no one else has given a better or anything similar to his. And what is true of this Hadith is equally true of all other genuine Hadith from this greatest man that ever lived. That is what makes Hadith an incomparable axiom which confirms the genuineness and impeccability of Prophet Muhammad’s Message to mankind.

 Tola Adeniyi’s Article

When many Nigerian Muslim brothers and sisters called by telephone or sent text messages to yours sincerely with lamentations from different parts of the country to draw my attention to a particular article published in The Tribune newspaper of Tuesday, October 17, 2017, I thought it was a serious matter of concern. But after reading the article entitled ‘Islam and Religious Imperialism’ which appeared on page 15 of that newspaper and was written by a septuagenarian columnist called Tola Adeniyi, I knew that most of those who called or sent text messages to me did not know anything about the author of that article.  If they knew, they would not have been that worried.

Ordinarily, as a journalist and a columnist, I stopped reading Tola Adeniyi’s writings about two decades ago. Although this veteran is a professional colleague, his column is not what I can allow to consume the least of my leisure time. There are columnists that I do not miss on a weekly basis and there are columnists that I do not waste my valuable time to read. He belongs to the latter group.

For decades, this man had been a newspaper columnist under a pen name (Aba Saheed) in ‘The Tribune’ newspaper. There is no doubt that as an endowed journalist he is gifted in language communication through writing, his refusal to address a major question mark on the ethics of the profession has rendered his status as veteran diminutive.

His column

Like any other columnist, this man has his own readers no doubt but I do not belong to that pedestal of readership. As a matter of fact, if he had not ignorantly attacked the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) with a sinister motive, I would not have wasted my time on reacting to such a pedestrian article.  But as the chief spokesman for that Apex Muslim body in Nigeria, I consider it my duty to put the records straight and save some innocent newspaper readers from being misinformed about Islam in Nigeria by someone who is claiming to be a Muslim just by birth.

At least, any good Muslim who thoroughly understands Islam will know that claiming to be a Muslim because of birth or name may cast doubt on the genuineness of his Islam. Such a public announcement is a way of seeking relevance where there is a possible benefit. That is what some parasites in the profession called Journalism use their pens to achieve.

Strange posture

If anything is strange in Tola Adeniyi’s article under review, it is the Age at which he wrote it. Those who have read the article may take time to go through it once again and they will discover that it contains no substance worthy of any serious attention. That was the practice in the 1970s, 80s and even 1990s which the likes of Tola Adeniyi are yet to realize that has become anachronistic in the noble profession today.

Observation

By writing such an article at this time around, what Tola Adeniyi did was not just to exhibit his blatant ignorance about Islam and the NSCIA but also to play a Dragon on a valueless brook under which his drummers are facelessly active. And when a Septuagenarian combines ignorance with confusion he automatically sinks into an abyss of hypocrisy where hiding behind one finger becomes an artful trick of escape. Thus, Prophet Muhammad’s Hadith quoted above is as fitting to such a man as a scepter of thorn in the hand of a despotic Monarch.

Memory lane

It will be recalled that sometime early in 2017, a press statement was issued by a so called Oodua Muslim Coalition (OMC) in some southwest print media to counsel the Southern Muslims on why and how they should disengage completely from any association with the Northern Muslims especially the NSCIA. The similarity in Tola Adeniyi’s article to that of the so called OMC is a glaring evidence of the common enclave of  the devilish drummers who are bent on using proxies among the Southwest Muslims to destroy the strong chord of Muslim unity in Nigeria.

Reaction

In a reaction to the so called OMC press statement mentioned above, yours sincerely, being the official spokesman for The Muslim Ummah of Southwest Nigeria (MUSWEN), promptly issued the following press release to silence the hypocrites and disabuse the minds of the genuine Muslim brothers and sisters in the Southwest Region. The reaction went thus: ‘The attention of the Muslim Ummah of Southwest Nigeria (MUSWEN), has been drawn to the emergence of a fraudulent group calling itself ‘Oodua Muslim Coalition (OMC) in the Southwest of Nigeria.

Using the Southwest media to herald the arrival of its nefarious plot under the cover of Islamic religion, this amorphous group issued an unwarranted hateful press statement recently in which it attacked and blackmailed the entire Southwest Muslims calling them names and labeling them  ‘Agents of Hausa Fulani of the North’.

To the best of its knowledge, as the umbrella body for all State Muslim Councils/Communities as well as Organizations in the six States of the Southwest region, MUSWEN is not aware of the existence of any group called ‘Oodua Muslim Coalition’ (OMC). The only guessable possibility about that fictitious body is that of being an agent for a chameleonic group   that calls itself Afenifere in the region and is seeking to become an imperialistic impostor.

Clarification

For clarification, MUSWEN as the Southern counterpart of Jamatu Nasril Islam (JNI) in the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA), has the record of all legitimate Muslim Organizations in the Southwest region, and the so-called ‘Oodua Muslim Coalition’ is not on that record. Perhaps, Tola Adeniyi’s referred maleficent article was meant to be a megaphone for the region’s town criers against Islam and the Muslims leaders.

Warning

We therefore warn all genuine Muslim Councils, Communities and Organizations in the Southwest region to beware of certain evil elements who are now parading themselves as   Muslim groups with the intent of constituting a spiritual virus in the region with the evil objective of presidential election in 1993 which was annulled by the Ibrahim Babangida military regime that initiated the aborted third republic in Nigeria. But when Bashorun Abiola was arrested and detained by Sani Abacha regime, the man switched over to the Junta’s camp and became a beneficiary therein. It is only those who do not know Tola Adeniyi closely that will attach any seriousness to his writings in any newspaper. Invariably, public writings depict the mannerism of the writers.

Tola Adeniyi’s antics

Now, at about 74 years of age, the subject of Tola Adeniyi’s sadistic article being the NSCIA could come as a surprise. That subject may look real to some people in Nigeria who are also ignorant about Islam and are also claiming to be Muslims. By their acts, hypocrites are invariably known and they invariably end up in a dungeon of oblivion.Those who are still in doubt about this assertion may ask the Tola Adeniyi himself and his likes of the whereabouts of an Indian born Briton, Salmon Rushdie, was carried away by his deceptive literary prowess to write a self-ruining book entitled ‘Satanic Forces’ in 1989 which paved his way to permanent oblivion.

It is hoped that the upcoming writers will learn a lesson from the inglorious end of such men.

Muslim columnist

Sensible people who read columns written by Muslims will notice that such columnists do not deliberately attack any religion outside Islam as some of their non-Muslim counterparts often unwarrantedly do by echoing Islamization in a way of crying Wolf where none exists. If Tola Adeniyi were truly a Muslim and has acquired the knowledge of Qur’an and Hadith as he claimed in his notorious article. Why has he not reflected such knowledge in any of his writings in the past three decades?. Who does not know that agents of clandestine agenda often lay claim to false qualifications as a way of justifying their hypocrisy. It is not strange that a Septuagenarian of Tola Adeniyi’s status can use birth in Islam as evidence of his being a Muslim. After all, we know of an octogenarian in the same Ijebu area of Ogun State who was a top Islamic Chieftain in Ijebu-ode Central Mosque but dropped Islam for another Religion at the point of his Death. What is shameful In Tola Adeniyi’s case is his claim to remain a muslim at 74 without any evidence of an iota aof knowledge about Islam. If anybody would advise the Southwest Muslims about their faith and their social lives it is surely not the like of a confused and ignorant person.

Those who perceive themselves as living in Glass houses should be sensible enough not to throw stones at others. That is part of ethics in journalism as a profession. A word is enough for the wise.

Preamble

This is another season of Hajj. This season comes up in the month of Dhul Hijjah every year to accentuate the divine authority that brought it to mankind. The word Hajj means aspiration towards a higher spiritual pedestal and Dhul Hijjah is the last month of Islamic calendar. Hajj is a divinely ordained pilgrimage based on piety for Muslims who can afford it and not a manmade tourism. Thus, the visa issued to Muslims who perform Hajj annually is that of pilgrimage and not one of tourism. Whilst pilgrimage is an ordained spiritual exercise, tourism is a mere pleasurable journey. A whole chapter (chapter 22) in the Qur’an is divinely dedicated to Hajj and named the Chapter of Hajj. And that is where the Muslims derive their spiritual authority to perform Hajj.

Similitude of Hajj

The similitude of Hajj in the life of a Muslim is like that of pregnancy in the womb of an expectant mother. The experience may vary from woman to woman as the foetus in the womb undergoes various stages of development before it reaches the stage of delivery. By the time the child is finally delivered, the mother feels a relief of her life while the child assumes a ‘tabula rasa’ (clean slate) that makes him absolutely innocent. After Hajj, a pilgrim becomes like a newly born baby spiritually if he strictly adheres to the rules and regulations of Hajj as ordained by Allah. But returning into the world of iniquities after Hajj, automatically makes him/her like a person in a snow-white attire who finds himself in a palm oil market. Unless such a pilgrim spiritually guides his loins, he/she may immediately become a tainted entity both in body and in soul.

Rigours of Hajj

Muslim pilgrims who are going on Hajj must be prepared to go through series of rigour both spiritually and physically. The rigour of getting legitimate money with which to perform Hajj; the rigour of getting the travelling documents including passport, visa and yellow card; the rigour of taking care of the home front before embarking on the Holy journey; the rigour of boarding the plane with a sense of high risk; the rigour of going through the security checks at the embarkation point from home  and disembarkation point in Saudi Arabia;  the rigour of performing the Tawaf and Sa’y; the rigour of moving from Makkah to Muna on the 8th day of Dhul-Hijjah and from Muna to ‘Arafah on the 9th day of Dhul-Hijjah as well as back to Muna via Muzdalifah on the 10th of Dhul-Hijjah; the rigour of throwing the pebbles at the Jamrat in Muna on the three or four days known as Ayamu-t-Tashrik; the rigour of performing Tawaful Ifadah at the Haram in Makkah; the rigour of performing the farewell circumambulation otherwise known as Tawaful Wada‘i,  all in the midst of millions of people can be too much to forget easily after Hajj.

Whoever is not bothered by the money spent on Hajj should at least be bothered by the various stages of the rigour involved including that of visiting Madinah. To lose all these efforts to the forces of Satan after Hajj is like losing one’s travelling passport after obtaining visa. The prayer of every genuine pilgrim is to retain the validity of Hajj and its spiritual value forever.

Prerequisites for Hajj Performance

Performance of pilgrimage is based on certain fundamental conditions. These include genuine intention and high spiritual standard, attainment of puberty, very sound health, regular and sincere practice of the first four pillars of Islam ie: Salat, Zakah, and Sawm, all of which are fervently based on faith (Iman). Hajj without these pre-requisites is like a tree without roots. Money is one of the major pre-requisite for Hajj performance but it is not absolute.

The day of Arafah in Hajj, shows, very vividly, the similitude of what mankind will experience on the Day of Judgment. Looking at the unique dress which pilgrims wear for Hajj and how they assemble at Arafat while leaving their luggage behind in Makkah, one will realize how ephemeral this world is. It must be remembered that some of them may never return from Arafah to the place where their luggage is kept and some may end up in hospitals. Meanwhile, pilgrims on Hajj this year must be weary of the burning scourge of the heat in Saudi Arabia. The must avoid roaming about in that heat. They must constantly drink water to avoid dehydration. The weather experts had predicted in 2015 that the current weather situation in Saudi Arabia during Hajj would remain the same for 15 years.

Purpose of Hajj

The various stages of preparation through which pilgrims must pass before arriving at Arafat are symbolic of our peregrinations on earth as human beings. Like the Day of Judgment after death, Arafat is the climax of Hajj performance. Anybody who misses Arafat misses Hajj. But Arafat is not by physical appearance alone. It takes a combination of factors to participate effectively in the great assembly at Arafah which serves as the climax of Hajj.

Process of Hajj

For Hajj to serve its spiritual purpose in the life of a pilgrim, certain steps must be taken before leaving home. They are as follows:

• Fine-tuning the first four pillars of Islam very sincerely
• Packaging one’s intention to perform Hajj;
• Ascertaining the security of the way;
• Providing adequately for the family and dependents at home;
• Paying all outstanding debts including promises;
• Ascertaining the condition of health;
• Perfecting immigration procedures;
• Undergoing all necessary medical services including inoculation;
• Assuming a mood of humility like that of a servant approaching his Master;
• Readiness to endure hardship and to tolerate fellow pilgrims’ attitudes. All these are the necessary steps to take by any genuine pilgrim while preparing for Hajj.

Admonition

While admonishing Muslims on spiritual journey including Hajj and emigration, Prophet Muhammad (SAW) once said: “Actions shall be judged according to intentions. Whoever embarks on a spiritual journey for the sake of Allah will be adjudged according to intention. And whoever intends to embark on such a journey for the purpose of marriage or material gains should not expect any reward beyond that for which he intends”.

Step by Step of Hajj

The spiritual steps to take in the performance of Hajj are as follows:

• The he Miqats

Miqat is the specified place for the knotting of the intention for Hajj performance and wearing of Ihram dress. Of the six available Miqats, five were appointed by Prophet Muhammad (SAW) while the sixth one was pinpointed many years after the demise of Asian pilgrims. But the one earmarked for pilgrims from Nigeria cannot be reached by those travelling by air. It is over-flown while crossing the Red Sea. But what most Nigerians do according to rule is to wear their Ihram dress in Jeddah which is adjudged right through a Fatwah issued by highest scholarly authority in Saudi Arabia. Thus, Nigerian pilgrims can now wear their Ihram dress on arrival at the pilgrims’ airport in Jeddah if they fly directly to Jeddah. However, pilgrims whose first destination in Saudi Arabia is Madinah have no problem with Miqat.

Such pilgrims should just wear their Ihram dresses at the Miqat in Madinah.

(i)     Tawaful-Qudum

Tawaf means circumambulation of the Ka’bah. The very first Tawaf to be performed by any pilgrim on entering Makkah is called Tawaful Qudum (meaning welcoming circumambulation). It is performed before the pilgrims settle down in their residences. Tawaful Qudum is an obligatory Sunnah from which only pilgrims from Makkah are exempted.

(ii)    Residence in Makkah or Madinah

Most Nigerian pilgrims often seek their accommodations in Makkah or Madinah close to the Haram. This is to enable them to walk to and from the Haram conveniently at the times of any Salat. To minimize pilgrims’ regular occurrence of missing their ways, they are provided with hand bands bearing the addresses of their residences. And this enables official Hajj guides to show them the way. Pilgrims are therefore advised to wear such bands at all times. It is also important for pilgrims to always be with their identity cards provided by Nigeria’s National Hajj Commission (NAHCON).This is to enable them to be identified in case of sickness, accident or even death.

(iii)   Movement to Muna

Pilgrims’ statutory movement to Muna is on the 8th of Dhul Hijjah.

They must spend the night of the 8th of Dhul-Hijjah in Muna where they should observe Salatus-Subhi of the 9th day of Dhul Hijjah, which is Arafah Day, before proceeding to the Plain of Arafah.. Such movement must commence from Makkah after Tawaful Qudum. There is no movement to Muna from Madinah since there is no Tawaf in Madinah.

The Day of Arafah

All pilgrims proceeding to the Plain of Arafat are advised to stay under their tents and concentrate on the spiritual activities that take them to the place. They must reach Arafat before the mid- day when Salatu-d-Dhuhr and ‘Asr should be observed combined and in congregation. Any pilhrim who is not at Arafat by mid-day is considered not to have taken part in the assembly and therefore missed Hajj.

Immediately after observing the combined Salatu-d-Dhuhr and ‘Asr the Imam who led the two Salat is expected to give a sermon. Listening to such sermon is as compulsory as giving it by the Imam. The great assembly of Arafat terminates shortly before the sunset (Magrib) while the pilgrims return to Muna via Muzdalifah.

Muzdalifah Camp

Muzdalifah is a transit camp on the way to Muna from Arafah. At that camp, pilgrims are expected to halt their journey to observe the two Salats of Magrib and ‘Ishai combined. They are also expected to pass the night there and observe the Salat-s-Subh of the following morning before proceeding to Muna where they will sttle down for three or four days as an obligation of Hajj. Muzdalifah is adjacent to Muna and it is thus a walking distance to the Jamrat (the stoning place) for pilgrims who are healthy enough to carry out the exercise.

The Jamrat

Stoning the devils (Rajmu Jimar) begins a day after Arafat and continues for the next three or four days that the pilgrims are supposed to spend at Muna. This exercise is obligatory and without it Hajj is considered incomplete or even invalid except when and where a

pilgrim is hindered by certain inevitable conditions. There are three points at which stones are to be thrown. These are Jamratus-Sugrah, Jamratul-Wustah and Jamratul- Kubrah. On the first day in Muna, only seven stones are to be thrown at the Jamratul Kubrah which is the last and biggest of the three Jamrats. On the remaining two or three days in Muna, seven pebbles are to be thrown at each of of the three Jamrats beginning from Jamratus-Sughrah which is the first and smallest.

Where to pick Stones

It is part of the rules of Hajj that the first seven stones to be thrown at the Jamrats be picked at Muzdalifah. All other stones may be picked in Muna after the first day of stone throwing.

Picking such stones at the point of throwing them is forbidden. All stones must have been picked before leaving the tent for the ‘Jamrat’ or on the way to the ‘Jamrat’. For pilgrims who decide to spend three days in Muna, the total number of pebbles to be thrown is 49 (7 for the first day, 21 for the second day and 21 for the third day). For pilgrims who choose to spend four days, the total number of pebbles to be thrown is 70.

The Majzarah (Abattoir)

Slaughtering of all sacrificial animals is done at the abattoir in Muna. Pilgrims do not need to bother themselves by going to the abattoir for the purpose of carrying out this obligation. They can simply buy the guaranteed ticket sold by designated Saudi banks or agents. The receipt is the evidence that one has performed that duty.

The slaughtering is done on behalves of the pilgrims by some authorized butchery artisans who are paid by the Saudi Hajj authorities from the money paid for those animals. The animals to be slaughtered at Jamrat range from rams to camels. A pilgrim should slaughter one ram or more while seven pilgrims may combine to slaughter one camel or five of them may jointly slaughter one cow.

Tawaful Ifadah

Tawaful Ifadah is compulsory for all pilgrims including those who are not strong enough but can be carried on wheel. Without Tawaful Ifadah, Hajj is invalid.

Any pilgrim who chooses to go for Tawaful Ifadah on the first day of Ayamut-Tashrik must return to Muna before the sunset. Such a pilgrim must not break the camping rule at Muna by going to Makkah without performing Tawaf-ul- Ifadah. With the completion of the camping days in Muna which is climaxed by Tawaful-Ifadah and the arrival of all the pilgrims in Makkah, Hajj has come to an end except for Tawaf Wada‘i otherwise called farewell Tawaf. That Tawaf is also an obligatory Sunnah.

Conclusion

Throughout the Hajj exercise, what should be uppermost in the mind of a pilgrim is the spiritual benefit. Hajj is made compulsory only once in a life time for those who have the wherewithal to undergo it and can satisfy the conditions attached to its performance.

On arriving home finally, pilgrims are not expected to start organizing parties in celebration of a successful Hajj performance as ignorantly done by some Nigerians. Maintaining Hajj is a necessity for those who know the value of doing that. Whoever is privileged to perform Hajj once should be grateful to Allah forever as no one is sure of getting another chance. After a successful Hajj, the general greetings are as follows: Hajjan mbruran! Wa Sa’yan mashkuran! Wa Tijaratan lan taburah!

Preamble

Peace, in any tempestuous circumstance is not by chance. It is rather a well planned sphere of life with pillars of endurance, tolerance and understanding. The usual template of peace is a matter of experience gained from history.

This article is not new. It was first published in 2012. But it is being repeated here today because of demand for its republication by many readers who passionately believe in its relevance to the current Nigerian situation in which religion has become the biggest commercial venture that vigorously constitutes a tug of war on a regular basis at the instance of some so called religious leaders who are provocatively dishing out hate speeches in torrents from their pulpits as a form of advertisement to their ignorant congregations.

Definition of History

History is an invisible object with two invisible wings flying across generations in time and in space. One of the wings is positive, the other is negative. With history, the present becomes the heritage of the past even as the future awaits the baton of continuity or otherwise from the present. No living nation or tribe or even individual can dream of a realizable future without a veritable present based on the experience of the past. The web of life is like a magnet which no iron element can bypass on its way to ornamental glory.

Against what ought to be a valuable heritage, Nigeria is, today, passing through a fabric of uncertainty as she rolls back the fibres of the future into those of the present and weaves both into the vestiges of the past. Such is a sign of a dead nation waiting to be interned. What war is not ravaging Nigeria today in spite of Allah’s abundant bounties? The forces of the present seem to have connived with those of the past to engage in wrestling down the future with a determination to deprive the generations yet unborn of any hope of decent existence. From all indications, Nigerians live in a country that is evidently enslaved to her so-called leaders who are politicians.

For decades, Nigeria had been forced by those so-called leaders to fight wars ranging from political to economic, to social and to ethnic conflicts without winning any. Now, a religious dimension is being desperately added for pecuniary purpose.

Like a billow vigorously storming around at the instance of an invisible tempest, a melee of religious hullabaloo engendered by a vicious political Pandora has virtually turned Nigeria into a land of curses.

Youths for Peace

To avoid the scourge of such a melee or prevent its spread and intensity in Nigeria, some foresighted Nigerian youths (Muslims and Christians) of Yoruba descent bravely took the bull by the horn in 2012. Those youths, led by a versatile Journalist, Adewale Adeoye (a Christian) and a brilliant Lawyer, Shenge Abdur-Rahman (a Muslim) formed an organization named ‘Yoruba Muslim-Christian Dialogue Group’ and organized an interfaith in Lagos on February 23, 2012. The core objective of the group was to foster a stronger peaceful co-existence between the Muslims and the Christians in Nigeria with a view to stem the growth of Boko Haram carnage on the one hand and preclude a possible repetition of Rwandan pogrom saga in Nigeria on the other.

The summit which attracted a number of Muslim and Christian organizations as well as some prominent individuals made the gathering to look expressly meaningful. Yours sincerely was one of the guest speakers invited to address the gathering on that occasion. Below is an excerpt from the speech I delivered:

Purpose of Religion

“….By its design and intent, religion is supposed to be not only a panacea for all human psychological ailments but also a soothing balm for any spiritual ache. Ironically, however, it has been turned into a poison in our society which seemingly has no provision for any antidote. And through our usual  attitude tagged Nigerian factor, we seem to be bent on swallowing the pill of that poison without minding its dangerous repercussion.

The factors that culminated in what we now variously call religious militancy, extremism, fanaticism and terrorism emanated only from the yoke of ignorance which bad governance has come to incubate. And could anything have influenced bad governance as much as ignorance? Yet ignorance would not have had a role to play in our religious or political lives if we had demonstrated the will to genuinely follow the tenets of our religions and learn from the lessons of history without banking on mere assumption and fallacious rumour.

History as a Teacher

History as a teacher always has a lesson to teach those who are ready to learn. But unfortunately, most human beings especially Nigerians refuse to learn any lesson from history and the price is what we are paying today.

In 1962, Nigeria’s Governor General, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe (who later became Nigeria’s first President in 1963), paid a three day official courtesy visit to the Premier of Northern Region, Sir Ahmadu Bello in Kaduna. Dr Azikiwe was accompanied by his wife, Flora. The host

Premier mobilized all the paraphernalia of office in honour of his guests whom he accorded an unprecedentedly flamboyant hospitality. The visit enabled their wives to become so familiar with each other that Flora also invited the Bellos to the East on a similar visit. By the time the visit ended, Dr. Azikiwe had become so much impressed that at the point of departure he held Ahmadu Bello’s hands and gently told him to “Let us forget our differences”.

In response to that emotional but infatuating gesture, Sir Ahmadu Bello said in an equally gentle but emotional baritone voice: “No sir! Rather than forgetting our differences, let us understand them. I am a Muslim and a Northerner. You are a Christian and a Southerner. It is only by identifying and understanding those differences that our friendliness can truly blossom and endure”. There and then, Dr.

Azikiwe nodded in agreement with his host’s logic by accepting the fact that one could not forget what has not been identified. The

lesson to learn from this experience is that of mutual understanding without pretentiously sweeping anything under the carpet. That is the principle upon which the marriage of political strange fellows who find themselves in a joint government is often based in Nigeria. It is also the principle upon which the partnership of many Nigerian businessmen and women is based despite their cultural incompatibility.

But that principle is not applied to Religion in Nigeria because of easy but dubious access to cheap wealth by certain religious charlatans who are ignorantly perceived as religious leaders.

Stages of Ignorance

Religious Ignorance from Primordial Times

For thousands of years, peoples of all races and tribes across the world thrived vaingloriously on cultural ignorance attributing their calamities to mysterious forces and blaming such mysteries on what they called witchcraft. In the past, here in Africa, millions of children were forced to die in infancy by their own parents out of sheer ignorance while the same parents turned round to blame what they called ‘ABIKU’ or ‘OGBANJE’ for the mass infanticide. With time, however, education and knowledge of science brought about the invention of various vaccines with which children are now immunized against different diseases thereby giving those infants the opportunity to survive. And this has enabled us to know today that the mystery once called ‘ABIKU’ or ‘OGBANJE’ is a euphemism for ignorance in African mythology of those days.

Now that the days of cultural ignorance seem to be over, Nigerians have devised another means of restiveness by shifting to religious ignorance which enables them to replace the infanticide of the yore with modern day genocide through terrorism and banditry in the name of religion. It is hoped that one day,  knowledge will also help us to overcome the spectre of religious ignorance by the grace of Allah.

Qur’anic Testimony

If it had pleased the Almighty Allah to make all human beings one single race with one colour, one tongue and one religion, He would have done so without receiving any query from any quarter. But as the Omnipresent and Omnipotent, His decision to diversify His creatures cannot be faulted as it is from that diversity that all creatures have consistently derived benefits. In the world today, there are different races and tribes of human beings with different colours, languages and cultures each functioning as predestined and yet they all interact positively with one another to the benefit of all and sundry.  This is in accordance with the words of Allah in Chapter 49 verse 13 of the Qur’an thus: “Oh mankind! We have created you from a male and a female and classified you into races and tribes that you may interact with one another (and thereby draw from the advantages therein). Verily, the most honourable of you before Allah is the most pious among you.

Allah is All-knower and most acquainted with all things”.

Nature of Creatures

What is true of human beings here is equally true of other creatures.

For instance we can all see that on a single arable plot of land, a variety of plants may grow to form an orchard but each with different foliages and fruits. Some of those fruits may be sweet, some may be bitter and some may be sour. Some may be fruitful and some may be fruitless. Some may be trees of gargantuan posture while others may be ordinary legumes. Yet they are all fed by the same soil, watered by the same rain and photosynthesized by the same sun. Their different foliages, sizes, heights and tastes notwithstanding, they all function effectively and advantageously according to the purpose for which they are created. In the ecosystem, no tree in an orchard will ever accuse another of bearing fruits different from its own and no animal will blame another for carrying a different feature or for wearing a different colour. No whale will ever denigrate even a fingerling in the ocean for sharing the same water with it. Ditto the world of birds, reptiles, and that of insects.  Even as plants, animals, aquatics, birds and insects, they know that for everything Allah does He has a purpose which may not be known to them as creatures. It is only among human beings that discrimination and segregation exist based on ignorance.

Parable of Religion

We can also compare the above analogy to a situation inside a football stadium where there is a variety of sections such as State Box for the upper class, State Box Extension for the Middle Class and popular side for the lower class. At the entrance of the stadium, each person obtains a ticket according to his or her financial ability. And that qualifies him for a seat in any of those sections according to the status of the ticket obtained. Without prejudice to the categories of the tickets they obtain, all the spectators in the stadium are authorised to watch the match for which they have paid. If at the end of the match however, a spectator who was privileged to sit in the State Box turns round to say that another who sat at the popular side of the stadium did not watch the match others around them will sarcastically conclude that something might have gone wrong with the psyche of the accuser. The positions from which those spectators watched the match might be different but the fact remains that they all watched the same match. That is the parable of religion in the lives of individual human beings.

A famous German dramatist and critic Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1729-1781) once made a related axiomatic statement in a stanza thus: “There are good men in every land; The tree of life has many branches and roots; Let not the topmost twig presume to think that it alone has sprung from the mother earth; We did not choose our races by ourselves; Jews, Muslims, Christians, all alike are men. Let me hope I have found in you a man”.

The Mission of Religion

In Islam, revealed religions are like an embassy established by a nation in another nation to strengthen her relationship with the host country. The Ambassadors appointed to manage such embassy, can be changed from time to time just like the foreign policy which guides those ambassadors but the embassy remains intact barring any unforeseen circumstances. So is the case with the Prophets of Allah. They might have come at different times and from different lands and tribes. They might have brought different books revealed in different languages but their mission was one and the same. Muslims believe that all the Prophets and Messengers who have come into the world to guide mankind were from one and the same God who created the universe. Thus, Prophets Ibrahim (Abraham), Ismail (Ishmael) Ishaq (Isaac), Musa (Moses), Daud (David), Isa (Jesus) and Muhammad (SAW) as well as others who preceded them or came in-between them brought the same message of monotheism through which mankind was counselled to worship one God and be upright in conduct.

In Qur’an Chapter 2 verse 285, Allah admonishes Muslims against discriminating among His Apostles thus: “The Apostle of Allah, Muhammad, (SAW) believes in what has been revealed to him by his Lord, and so do the (Muslim) faithful. They all believe in Allah and His Angels, His Books as well as His Apostles. We do not discriminate against any of His Apostles. They say ‘We hear and obey. Grant us your forgiveness oh Lord! To you we shall all return”.

Religious Rivalry

As a Muslim, you cannot believe one of those Apostles and disbelieve others. And you cannot believe in one of the revealed Books while disbelieving in others. That is why no true adherent of Islam will ever express foul language against the person of Jesus or blame the misdemeanour of a Christian on Christianity as some Nigerian Christians do against the person of Prophet Muhammad (SAW) and Islam as a religion when they encounter a misbehaving Muslim as if there are no misbehaving Christians in Nigeria.  Were Nigerian Muslims also to bring such a disgruntled rivalry into religion especially in their propagations, the country called Nigeria would have long been

forgotten.

Unity of God

Although the modalities for worshipping God may differ from faith to faith and from sanctuary to sanctuary this does not change the course of their faith in only one God. Thus, the rivalry between Muslims and Christians especially in Nigeria over who is spiritually right or wrong is a product of ignorance.

As taught by Christianity and Islam through their respective revealed Books, the areas of life that need our cooperation are by far more comprehensive than those in which we differ. For instance, both the Bible and the Qur’an counsel humanity to worship one God. They preach good deeds to neighbours and other fellow human beings publicly and privately, irrespective of religious lineage. They advocate good care for our parents, our children, the aged ones amongst us and the handicapped. They urge kindness to our wives and leniency with our adversaries. They admonish us against cheating and any form of corruption. They forbid theft, adultery, fornication, homosexuality, lesbianism and above all the killing of fellow human beings extra-judicially for whatever reason. They also warn us against provocation, aggression, exploitation and transgression even as they emphasize the ephemerality of this world and the eventuality of the hereafter. In all these, we have a common affinity to jointly guard.

The few areas in which we differ are abstract and quite personal. They are not areas in which human beings are given the power to pass judgement. Only the Almighty God can judge on them. Such are the areas which we believe will pave our ways into Paradise. But since paradise is for individuals and not for religious blocks why are we fighting each other on the basis of belief or disbelief? After all, the journey to Paradise or Hell is a matter of choice for every individual. And no one can tell with precision who will go to Paradise or go to Hell.

Such is the prerogative of God which He has not assigned to any human being and which no human being can and should arrogate to himself or herself except one who wants to play God.

As an adherent of a religion, you can only perceive your God according to your faith and that should not cause any rancour between you and adherents of any other religion. As Nigerians, we dwell in the same country, eat the same foods, drink the same water, wear similar dresses, trade in the same markets and spend the same money. Our children attend the same schools, write the same examinations and obtain the same certificates. We intermarry across tribes and ethnicities as well as religions. All these form a stronger bond that ought to unite us much more than the abstract ones which often threaten to tear us apart. In a situation where the factors of life that unite us grossly surpass those that divide us will it not be

stupid to sacrifice unity and cooperation?

Conclusion

With the formation of this interfaith group (Yoruba Muslim-Christian Youth Dialogue Group), one had thought of seeing  a future of harmony in Nigeria not only in the sphere of religion but also in the social and political spheres as well. But unfortunately that noble thought is now rapidly turning into a forlorn as the agents of Satan seem to have become more aggressively combative  against peaceful coexistence in the garb of religion. Realistically, this is the time for changing from the path of Satan to that of God. We cannot wait any longer. Let the Christians amongst you engage in Crusade and the Muslims in Jihad against all vices in the society which the two revealed Books (Bible and Qur’an) abhor. Let all of you jointly cooperate in upholding the values of life as contained in the Bible and the Qur’an. And with this in sacred minds,  we shall all find ourselves in a new world of peace and harmony.

God bless you all!”.

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

No man in history has ever been as fitting to the above poetic description as Prophet Muhammad (SAW) the undisputable greatest man who ever lived. His legacy is the solid foundation upon which the contemporary civilisation is built. But despite the vivid visibility of that legacy it remains invisible to many eyes that are alien to Islam. Thus, the Prophet’s legacy is like the beaming sun which no blind can see and no seeing eyes can perceive in its natural nakedness. Yet, both the blind and the seeing feel the burning effect of the sun ‘Willy-nilly’ even as it photosynthesizes the plants around them.

Attention

This article is not meant to celebrate the birth of Prophet Muhammad (SAW) for which  a public holiday is annually declared in Nigeria.

As far as ‘The Message’ is concerned, what is to be celebrated about this great Prophet is by far beyond his birthday. His achievements clearly transcend his birth. Thus, there is no need wasting time on his birthday here.

From the creation of Adam, the first human being, till date, no man’s biography has been so much written and read as that of Muhammad (SAW) the son of Abdullah and Aminah. This man’s biography has been written from all perspectives, positive and negative, by various men and women of diverse races, tribes, ideologies and religions in the past 1444 years or there about. And the biography is still being written and re-written authoritatively and un-authoritatively, today, in uncountable languages.

Through the writings of the Prophet’s biography, some people have zoomed into un-dream-able fame. Others have sunk into the abyss of a permanent oblivion. But virtually all the writers have benefitted from their writings directly or indirectly in coins and in kind. No other Prophet’s biography has attracted as many writers from believers and non-believers, from friends and foes alike as that of Prophet Muhammad (SAW).

Every aspect of this Prophet’s life including the dresses he wore, the food he ate, the way he spoke, the wives he married, the children he bore, and the wars he fought, has formed the basis of his biography.

In short, next to the Qur’an, no book is as much read daily in the world today as the biography of Prophet Muhammad (SAW) in one form or another. But there is a vital question: why is global focus so much on this unlettered Prophet from Arabia?

The answer to this question is not far-fetched. The world has not produced any other personality like him. And it will not. He is the seal of all Prophets and the epitome of human exemplariness. In him alone are found all the traits of what a perfect gentleman should be in all ramifications.

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

His migration from Makkah to Madinah paved way for the culture of hospitality universally imbibed today and the wars he was forced to fight engendered the law of war, armistice and peace. Without the conquests he achieved, the word magnanimity would not have found a place in the dictionary of man and if he had not suffered defeat in war, the vanquished would not have learnt the act of gallantry. If the Prophet had not been a judge, the virtue of justice would have been globally thrown to the winds and survival in all societies would have been for the fittest.

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

Who else can be compared to this man in history? And, in which any other single person have all the aforementioned qualities ever been

found in history? There can be little wonder then why so much attention was and is still being focused on the personality of this extra-ordinary human being. That is Prophet Muhammad (SAW) for you, the like of whom the world has never seen and will never see again. If

this man is celebrated anywhere in the world, anytime, therefore, it is definitely not because he was born. His achievements transcend his birth.

But for him, the world would have remained in the dungeon of ignorance and primitivism and humanity would have remained at the level of crude beasts. It was he who brought back the manual of life to mankind after it had been lost in the search for sheer vanity. Manual of life is the divine instruction which came gradually from Allah to mankind according to the growth rate of human intellect. But such manual is not peculiar to man alone. All other organisms have their own instructions from Allah which in a way constitute their own manuals of life.

However, due to the intellectual superiority of man, the various divine instructions to other organisms were incorporated into man’s own manual of life. This is to enable man understand the complexity of his environment vis-a-vis the essence of his own existence and thereby act effectively as Allah’s vicegerent on earth. Although because of the differences in times and methods, Allah’s message is perceived differently, the fact remains that the message is only one coming from only one and same God. This message is the ‘RIGHT PATH’ to salvation which came to mankind after several millennia of wondering in the wilderness of ignorance and vainglory. And the man, Muhammad (SAW), through whom that message reached us is the ‘PATH FINDER’. There are many attestations to this. For instance, after many years of scientific experimentations, a German-born American physicist and Nobel Laureate, Albert Einstein, the inventor of atomic bomb who is generally known as the 20th century creator of special and general theory of relativity, compared his works with the contents of the Qur’an and concluded as follows: “Science without religion is lame and religion without science is blind”.

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

And as if responding to Einstein’s call, Professor Tagatat Tajasen, Chairman of the Department of Anatomy at Chiang Mai University in Thailand accepted Islam on the strength of just one scientific sign accurately mentioned in the Qur’an. He had spent a great amount of his time, as a Professor, in search of pain receptor. When his attention was drawn to the Qur’an, he did not believe initially that such a highly sophisticated aspect of science could have been mentioned over 1,400 years ago. But when he confirmed it by himself in the translation of the Qur’an, he became so much impressed that he purposely attended the 8th Saudi Medical Conference held in Riyadh where he publicly embraced Islam.

Another leading scientist, Professor Marshall Johnson, the Head of the Department of Anatomy a Director of Daniel Institute at the Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, USA, was asked to comment on the verses of the Qur’an dealing with embryology. In response, he said it was probable that for Prophet Muhammad (SAW) to have given such vivid description of foetus, he must have had a powerful microscope. But when he was reminded that the Qur’an was revealed over 1400 years ago and that the invention of microscope took place only a couple of centuries ago Professor Johnson laughed and made the following remark: “I see nothing here in conflict with the concept that Divine intervention was involved when Muhammad recited the Qur’an….”.

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

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

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

Yet, despite talking about all sciences, the Qur’an is not a book of Sciences but that of ‘Signs’. Those ‘Signs’ invite man to realise the purpose of his existence on earth and live in harmony with nature.

Judging the above verses of the Qur’an revealed over 1400 years ago with the wonderful reality of scientific civilisation of today what further proof does anybody need of the genuineness of the Qur’an? And who else can give better guidance than the Supreme Creator Himself? And who else can be better called the ‘PATH FINDER’ than Prophet Muhammad (SAW) who showed humanity the way to that all time guidance? Perhaps, this was why Michael Hart, a Jewish American Astrophysicist, named Prophet Muhammad the greatest man that ever lived in his famous book entitled ‘The 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History’.

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

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

Never has a man undertaken a work so far beyond human power with so feeble means, for he (Muhammad) had in the conception as well as in the execution of such a great design no other instrument than himself, and no other, except a handful of men living in a corner of a desert….

If greatness of purpose, smallness of means, and astounding results are the three criteria of human genius, who could dare to compare any great man in modern history with Muhammad? The most famous men created arms, laws and empires only. They founded, if anything at all, no more than material powers which often crumbled before their very eyes. This man moved not only armies, legislations, empires, peoples and dynasties, but millions of men in one-third of the then inhabited world; and more than that, he moved the altars, the gods, the religions, the ideas, the beliefs and the souls. On the basis of a book, every letter of which has become law, he created a spiritual nationality which blended together peoples of every tongue and of every race…..As regards all standards by which human greatness may be measured we may well ask, is there any man in human history greater than Muhammad?”

On his own, Napoleon Bonaparte, the great 18th century French conqueror of Europe was so much amazed by the traits of Islam which he saw in Egypt during his military expeditions that he made the following historic statement about that divine religion and its great Prophet: “Muhammad, in reality, was a great leader of mankind. He preached UNITY among Arabs who were, till then, torn asunder due to internecine quarrels, sometimes resulting in bloody war fares. He brought them out of the obscure world in a short time and the discipline which they maintained under his leadership was simply marvellous, and so was their bravery, courage and devotion to the cause which they loved and cherished. This, coupled with the contempt for death, as taught by their leader, made them great soldiers and fighters like of whom history rarely produces. I simply marvel at the achievements of this great ‘Son of the Desert’ within a mere period of less than 15 years; a thing which Moses and Christ could not do in 15 centuries. I salute this great man; I salute his qualities of Head and Heart….”

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

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

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

For confirmation of Bernard Shaw’s remark quoted above, see ‘The Genuine Islam, vol. 1, No. 8, 1936.

These are just some of the facts that make an orphan and unlettered Prophet, Muhammad (SAW), the greatest human being that ever lived on earth. None of the attestations above made any reference to his birth or birthday because they knew that his birth had nothing to do with his achievements. If non-Muslims could go as far as shown above to benefit from the greatness of Prophet Muhammad’s mission on earth what is expected of Muslims for whom that mission is primarily meant?

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.

Writing an article with a title like ‘Happy New Year’ every year, in a month other than January, may look strange and sound odd to most non-Muslim Nigerian readers.  In Nigeria, like in most other African countries, south of the Sahara, the idea of ‘New Year’ is ignorantly believed to be peculiar to ‘January’ which is the first month of Gregorian calendar. That is the effect of colonial scar on the supposedly smooth body of our continent.

From whichever angle it is viewed, European colonialism has a thick Christian coloration that still portrays African culture in a rainbow of colonial Christian religion and tradition. For instance, it is a well known fact that out of the 104 days of official religious holidays in Nigeria today, Islamic religion enjoys only five  days (two days for Eidul Fitr, two days for Eidul Adha and one day for Mawlidun-Nabiyy). Yet, the Nigerian Christians continue to incessantly allege islamization of the country especially whenever a Muslim becomes the President.

Even at the state level, the sour, monotonous song of ‘islamization’ gets loudest whenever a Muslim is elected as Governor. And the hatchet job is passionately but fanatically done by the Christian dominated media. Incidentally, this irredentism occurs mostly in the Southwest (the main hub of the Christian media), despite the large population of Muslims that put them in obvious majority in the country.

The Colonial Era

Throughout the 99 years of the British colonial era in Nigeria, the Southern Muslims were never granted any public holiday to celebrate their festivals. It took Nigeria’s first and only Prime Minister, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa to address that malicious injustice by granting religious holidays officially to Islamic festivals nationally after independence in 1960. Hitherto, the only recognized festivals and granted public holidays by the British colonialists and their successors in the South were the Christian Easter and Christmas. Prior to 1992, Nigeria’s official working days from Monday to Saturday. It was General Yakubu Gowon, a Christian military Head of State who granted Saturday, with fiat, to the Seventh Day Adventists denomination of Christianity as a weekly public holiday at a time when the total population of that denomination in Nigeria was less than 700,000 in the then Nigerian population of 56 million people.

Following that unilateral action, Nigerian Muslims could have kicked against the dictatorial declaration or made a demand for same. But since public holiday did not necessarily constitute peace, the Muslims decided not to contest it just to give peace a chance. Yet, the Nigerian Christians of today still believe that changing that a declaration of one day public holiday in a year for Hijrah celebration is a religious aberration amounting to islamization of Nigeria. Isn’t that ridiculously laughable?

Islamic Calendar

Islam has its own calendar. And, like in other calendars of the world, there is a beginning and an end for every Islamic year. However, unlike those other calendars, the Islamic calendar, otherwise known as Hijrah calendar, is divinely ordained. This is confirmed in chapter 9, verse 36 of the Qur’an as follows: “Surely, the number of months ordained by Allah when He created the heavens and the earth is twelve. Therefore, do not wrong yourselves in them….”

The Months of Islamic Calendar

The months of Islamic calendar are 12 in number. They are as follows:

Muharram; Safar; Rabiul Awwal; Rabiu-th-Thani; Jumadal Ula; Jumada-th-Thaniyah; Rajab; Shaban; Ramadan; Shawwal; Dhul Qadah; and Dhul Hijjah.

Out of these 12 months, four are specifically designated as sacred. They are the last four months of the Islamic year: Ramadan, Shawwal, Dhul Qa’dah and Dhul Hijjah. Some of these months have 30 days. Others have 29 days. No more, no less.

The first day of this new Hijrah year of 1441 will be the coming Sunday, September 1, 2019. That day follows the last day of Dhul Hijjah which will end tomorrow, Saturday, August 31, 2019.  Dhul Hijjah is the last month of Hijrah calendar. It takes a well educated person to understand this fact and relate it to his/her life. It is such education that prompted the former Governor of the State of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Adesoji Aregbesola to be the first Nigerian Governor to declare a public holiday for   new Islamic year in Osun State in 2013.

That historic declaration by Ogbeni Aregbesola was not only an exhibition of sound education and civility it was also a clear evidence of justice which had hitherto been denied to Nigerian Muslims despite their demographic majority in the country.

However, to demonstrate similar justice, either out of conviction or for political reason, some other Governors, including the former Governor of Oyo State, Alhaji Ishaq Abiola Ajimobi later joined the train of sanity along that line. And that has become an irreversible aspect of Nigerian history.

Genesis of Hijrah Calendar

Hijrah calendar took its name from Prophet Muhammad’s migration, otherwise known as Hijrah, from Makkah to Madinah in 622 CE.

The use of Hijrah calendar began when Umar Bn Khattab who was to become the second Caliph in Islam suggested the idea a distinctive calendar for Islam which should be named after the Prophet’s migration from Makkah to Madinah which was a watershed for the success and survival of Islam. Without that landmark event in Islam it would have been difficult for the sacred religion to survive in Makkah. As a matter of fact, Hijrah is one of the three main factors responsible for the survival of the religion of Islam. The second was the victory of the Muslims in the battle of Badr which was waged against them in Madinah, (about 500 kilometrs away from Makkah), by the pagans of Makah shortly after the Prophet’s migration to Madinah. And the third is Allah’s great promise that became an everlasting fulfilment. That promise is contained in Chapter 15 verse 9 of the Qur’an thus:

“It was ‘We’ (Allah) who revealed the Qur’an and it is ‘We’ who will ensure its preservation…”.

Comment

Now, after about 1500 years of  revelation of that divine religion that was ushered into the world by the sacred Book called the Qur’an, who can doubt the ability of the Almighty Allah to promise and fulfill?. But for these three fundamental factors, perhaps Islam or the Qur’an would have joined the legion of defunct religions in human history. It is only with Allah that all things are possible.

Significance of Hijrah Calendar

The first day of the Hijrah month (1st of Muharram) is one of the most significant days in Islam. Without ‘the great Message of Islam’ Prophet Muhammad (SAW) would have had no cause to migrate from Makkah to Madinah.

It was that Great Message which compelled him to migrate, an event which eventually made him the greatest man that ever lived.

Benefits of Hijrah Calendar

Basically Hijrah institutionalized three important aspects of Muslim lives. These are social, economic and political. When the first revelation was made to the Prophet (SAW), a period of twelve (12) years was devoted by him towards incubating the religion in the minds of individuals at a time when no pattern of  collective life based on true religious concepts could be presented to the world. As a result, the status of the Muslim individuals in Makkah at that time gave rise to the misconception that Islam, or rather, believing in the mission of Prophet Muhammad (SAW) was one’s personal affair. This was believed to concern only to the hereafter which had nothing to do with people’s collective life.

Social Effect

It was only after the Prophet’s migration (Hijrah) that people began to see Islam clearly as a total way of life which paid attention to and reformed every facet of human existence. It then became evident that Islam was the religion that gave mankind directions regarding almost every moment of a believer’s conscious life. Hijrah also enabled the Arabs in particular to see what a Muslim’s matrimonial home should be in a Muslim society. Hence, it was only after the Prophet’s migration that the world could see the aspect of human social decency and decorum prescribed by Islam.

Economic Impact

The second reason for the importance of Hijrah is its economic significance which manifested in the lifestyle of the pioneer Muslims’ who were led by Prophet Muhammad (SAW) himself in migrating to Madinah. The unsurpassable hospitality of the people of Madinah towards the Muslim emigrants at that time did not only provide a new peaceful home for the immigrants, it also showed the hosts’ passionate self-sacrifice in philanthropic gesture. And with Hijrah, those immigrants vividly came in contact with advanced agricultural acumen and ingenuous artisanship which they never experienced in Makkah.

These resulted in an unprecedented economic revolution for the city of Madinah. Since the hosts shared virtually everything they had with the immigrants when the latter first arrived, a lesson was learnt by those immigrants not to continue to be a burden on their brotherly hosts.

Thus, every one of them adopted legitimate ways of earning righteous income as the city’s economy attained an unprecedented boom.

Moral Effect of Hijrah

Initially, the Muslim Immigrants in Madinah worked as labourers in the agricultural fields, and construction sites. But later, they, being traditional traders, started small trading activities which brought them into an economic competition with the Jews of Madinah. One aspect of the Islamic economic revolution was that the Muslim immigrants paid the right price for every product they consumed since the Prophet had forbidden the practice of acquiring products on reduced prices in return for loans given to the artisans or to the land cultivators as was the practice in Madinah before Hijrah. That practice was prohibited because it was considered to be a form of usury.

Thus, it was only after Hijrah that agriculture, industry and trade freely helped the Muslims to bring about an integrated, balanced but unfettered economy to the Ummah.

Judicial Effect

The third reason which made Hijrah a very important event is the enjoyment of political freedom by the Muslims. Before Hijrah, the Muslims in Makkah had no say in any matter, internal or external. They were a minority against whom the hearts of the majority were full of poisonous enmity simply because they were considered to constitute an insignificant fraction in a society overwhelmingly dominated by unbelievers.

It was Hijrah, therefore, that made the Muslims masters of their own internal affairs, external relations as well as other matters relating to war and peace. If there was any disagreement between the Muslims and the non-Muslims in Madinah at that time, the final decision was to be made by the Prophet who was an unbiased mediator. This indicated a kind of autonomy enjoyed by the Muslims for the first time in their Islamic religious lives. And thus, Madinah became the nucleus of a city-state which, within a period of ten years 622-632 CE, in the life time of the Prophet, expanded to the entire Arabian Peninsula. It is therefore evident that the event of Hijrah turned a few hundred Muslims resident in Madinah into a highly successful society in commerce and agriculture.

An Erroneous Act

If the Nigerian Muslim leaders of the colonial era were adequately informed at the time they were negotiating religious holidays for Nigerian Muslim Ummah they would have asked for Hijrah rather than Mawlidun-Nabiyyi holiday. After all, apart from coming into the world through birth like any other human being, the birth of Muhammad as an ordinary child did not add any value to his unprecedentedly divine mission called Islam. At least, it can still be remembered that he was not born a Muslim because there was no religion called Islam at his birth. And, the Prophet himself did not believe in the aristocracy of birth which celebration of birthday is all about. That was why he (the Prophet) never celebrated his own birthday as many Muslims do on his behalf today. What is more, the Prophet’s birthday is never celebrated in Saudi Arabia where he was born because he was not born as a Prophet. What is rather celebrated in Saudi Arabia is the first day of Hijrah calendar every year. Whereas Mawlidun-Nabiyyi is about the personal life of Prophet Muhammad alone, Hijrah is about Islam and the entire Muslim Ummah.

Observation

While celebrating Mawlidun-Nabiyyi, you can only praise the Prophet and nothing more. But when celebrating the Hijrah day, you are celebrating not only the Prophet’s migration but also the triumph of Islam as the everlasting password of the Universe. That is why we exchange pleasantries by congratulating one another and by chanting the slogan HAPPY NEW YEAR!

“Let there become of you a nation that shall call for righteousness, enjoin justice and forbid evil. Such are people that shall surely triumph (in the end)”. Q. 3: 104.

This is not just an article. It is rather a letter of admonition coming from ‘The Message’ column to Nigerian politicians. Similar letters had been written through this column to this same generation of politicians in the recent past. But letters of this type seldom come to an arena of politics where conscience is banished and virtually everything in Nigeria’s political life is based on whim engendered by self aggrandizement which is considered to be the ultimate goal. Coming up at this precarious time of political labyrinth in Nigeria, this letter is necessitated by the current frightening political tension that is fast becoming a bubble that may burst anytime from now unless the Almighty Allah comes to the rescue of our country with His divine mercy.

If, Nigerian politicians think that they can escape any calamitous consequence of their ceaseless political machinations which they are tendentiously weaving around Nigeria without an iota of remorse, they may be day-dreaming. The evil plans of those who engaged in similar machinations before them in the 1960s, 1980s and 1990s had ended up in a forlorn. There is a lesson in that for those amongst them who are wise enough to seek the guidance of Allah.

Functions of Conscience

“Conscience”, according to Uthman Dan Fodio, “is an open wound which only the truth can heal”. But one can talk of healing a wounded conscience only where and when it has not become cancerous.

Prophet Muhammad (SAW) once gave a vivid description of the signs by which hypocrites can be identified.

He said “hypocrites are known by three signs: When they talk they lie; when they promise they renege and when they are trusted they betray”.

In other words, conscience is not a befitting garment for any hypocrite to clad in.

Most of Nigerian politicians so much typify the above Prophetic description of hypocrites that one wonders if the Prophet had Nigerians in mind when he was expressing that axiomatic Hadith.

Deceptive Motive

It will be recalled that when most of those politicians started agitation for a return to democracy for the fourth time in the late 1990s while a despotic military demagogue held sway, their seeming focus was on liberation of the Nigerian citizenry from the crushing claw of military despotism. And you did that in the name of freedom fighters or human rights advocates. But hardly had you succeeded in leading the masses to drive away the military boys than some of you began to agitate for your own negative political enclave through your selfish interest by claiming to want ‘to serve your people’.

Thus, based on that claim, your godfathers or godmothers warmly embraced you not minding your hidden agenda especially when such agenda did not contradict theirs. That claim, which was the bait with which you deceptively lured ordinary Nigerians into the struggle that ended up in raising your own political pedestal to the height upon which you stand today was a covenant. And that covenant was not just between you and the people you claimed to want to serve but also between you and the Almighty Allah who knows every manifest and hidden agenda. Allah will surely hold you accountable for whatever agenda you adopt to exploit the innocent masses of this country.

Fraudulent Constitution

To you, it does not matter whether you were genuinely elected or surreptitiously smuggled into office through the back door by your godfathers thereby  depriving others (who are more qualified than you), of their legitimate rights. Such could not have mattered to you since the constitution under which you operate politically is, itself, fraudulent. Here is a military constitution imposed on the populace without any impute from the same populate who constitute the electorate. In that constitution is the immunity which is exclusively reserved for some political demagogues to fraudulently authorize them to steal public funds unlimitedly and commit any unquestionable crime with impunity in the name of governance. What else is called despotism?

And now, an addendum has been added to that fraud with the promotion of ‘Not Too Young To Rule’ bill into a law which is actually meant to replace yourselves, as   politicians, with your own children. That is a way of empowering those children to utilize your massively stolen wealth to continue your rule over Nigerians.

Whether you knew it or not, you are hereby reminded that your original claim before you were smuggled into whatever position you occupy today will be weighed against your action or inaction in that position after you eventually vacate the stage by displacement or by death. And you will be judged not just by history but by the Almighty Allah whose divine judgment cannot be appealed.

Remember that just as you will call on Allah for justice if you were in the shoes of the deprived ones so will those you deprive take your case to Allah’s court in quest of justice. And the prayer of a cheated person, according to Prophet Muhammad (SAW), never suffers a denial.

Reminder

As some of you once shamelessly graded figure 16 higher than figure 19 sometime ago and audaciously classified unbridled theft as a lesser crime than corruption, all in the name of politics, you must remember that Allah’s justice can neither be manipulated nor subverted. And no matter how long it may take, Allah’s justice will take its course perhaps when you least expect in life.

When some of your colleagues were made to face the music of their criminal acts recently, you were expected to learn a lesson from their plights. But since a dog that will die in perdition will never heed the warning whistle of a hunter, it is not surprising that despite your conspicuous political misdemeanour, you are still arrogating the nation’s leadership to yourselves without thinking of the lessons that the younger ones including your own children can learn from your conduct on their way to the top. In words and in actions, you have evidently demonstrated that you are not in anyway, qualified to bequeath any sensible legacy to the future generations, an indication that once you can satisfy your satanic greed, the future is of no relevance to you.

If anything, your thoughtless public utterances, your shameless public actions and counter actions as well as your devilish body language are more destructive to Nigeria’s future than ever imagined. In fact, you can be called any name other than patriotic gentlemen and women of honour that you deceptively call yourselves. As a result, you are unprecedentedly a disgrace not only to Nigeria as a country but also to the entire civilized mankind. However, since you have permanently enlisted immorality as a vital political instrument without thinking of its consequences, you are free to behave like typical intoxicated horses gallivanting aimlessly around without reins.

Life without Justice

In Islam, three issues are fundamentally sacrosanct, none of which Allah takes lightly. These are non association of anything with the oneness of Allah, sacredness of life and dispensation of justice. It is almost an unforgivable iniquity for any human being, especially Muslims, to associate anything with Allah or engage in murder and injustice under any guise. Thus, anybody who kills fellow human beings extra-judicially in the name of religion, ethnicity, politics or even economy is nothing but an agent of Satan. In Islam, killing a fellow human being deliberately under whatever guise, without passing through a due process of law, is such a grievous sacrilege that cannot andshould not be perpetrated without commensurate penalty. If such a penalty is not applied here on earth, it will definitely be applied in the hereafter. Yet, killing fellow human beings directly or clandestinely is the major political means of gaining power and access to illegal wealth by you Nigerian politicians.

Legislative Duty

In Islam, rule of law is the foundation of justice but legislation is the material with which that foundation is built. Those of you who voluntarily chose to legislate for the rest of us hardly see yourselves as the foundation layers of justice who should not betray the course of justice. As legislators, you are looked upon by most Nigerians as honourable leaders neither because you are more qualified intellectually than those for whom you legislate nor because you are wiser and more experienced than them. What makes most of you legislators in the lower or upper chamber of the legislative arm of government is sheer expediency arising from queer inadequacies sadly fostered by our so-called political system which gives room for open gerrymandering and audacious manipulation. If such opportunity comes your way illegally, let it not be mistaken for good luck. It may rather be a calamity waiting to strike your lives in the near or far future.

And when it strikes, no one except Allah can tell the extent of its effect. At least you can see how the consequences of the heartless annulment of June 12, 1993 Presidential election have become a draconian spectre chasing the ghost of every Nigeria today even more than two decades of licking the political wound inflicted on our country by that satanic annulment.

Executive Duty

As members of the Executive arm, when some of you travel abroad officially, at people’s expense, you are never alarmed by the way the systems work in those countries. You never bother to ask questions about the effective functions of electricity, the smoothness of roads, the flow of portable water and the excellent educational system that promotes probity and decorum in those countries. Rather, your primary concerns are the personal ephemeral gains accruable to you at the expense of the Nigeria’s present and future. For the past 19 years of Nigeria’s fourth republic most of you have been at the saddle of government directly or indirectly without being able to show in concrete terms what value has that length of time added to the lives of ordinary Nigerians. Your emphasis is on power with impunity rather than good governance and you often go about it in such a manner that gives the impression that government is much more about destruction than construction. Your brutish law breaking rather than clement law making is an attestation to this fact.

Nigeria as an OPEC Country

As political leaders that you call yourselves, you do not even feel ashamed that Nigeria has remained the only OPEC country importing refined petroleum products for domestic consumption simply because you are beneficiaries of the corrupt device which you deliberately put in place to ensure the workability of that device.

Even if Nigeria never had electricity before 1999 but decided to start one at the commencement of the fourth republic to boost her economy, is a period of 19 years not enough to provide a functional electricity especially given the enormous amount of wealth with which this country is endowed? In modern time, no technological device provides as much opportunity for jobs and economic growth as electricity. Yet, it is that major device that you deliberately hold down to deprive the populace of the wherewithal to rise mentally and intellectually. And that is to enable you to the citizens of your country into perpetual slaves to be ruled forever. In such a situation, why wouldn’t corruption be unconscientiously legislated into legitimacy? And now, Nigeria is held to a standstill because every one of you must personally have a chip of juicy future now without caring about what may even become of your own children in that future.

As fathers and mothers, most of you will say amen when people are praying for responsible men and women, yet, you have nothing in you that can serve as good examples for your children that can accentuate your cry of amen..

You tell lies with relish. Yet you want your children to be truthful.

From where do you expect them to inherit truthfulness? You steal public funds with unbridled audacity. Yet you do not want your children to be called thieves. What other names should the children of thieves bear other than thieves?

Sermon

From the pulpit of genuine conscience, ‘The Message’ column hereby implores you Nigerian politicians to search your conscience if you have obe at all and fear the Almighty God in your own interest.

Remember that some people had governed this country in the past. Among them were those who tried to combine the roles of the executive, the legislative and the judiciary arms together, in the name of military rule, made possible by coup d’état and the barrels of gun. Where are they today?

Governance has its tenure. At the commencement of a tenure, four years may look endless, but for the wise, it is not more than a flash of lightening  which only a fool will rely upon to walk his way through the darkness of the night. You are in government today. But remember that you will soon become former this or former that just like those before you.

Observation

Some of you, legislators, think or talk of impeachment only when your salaries, allowances or extra budgetary largess suffers a reduction or delay. And some other times, your thoughts along that line are devilishly influenced by blind ambition for power grabbing.

It does not matter to you whether or not the entire workforce in Nigeria remains unpaid for years. Once you are able to amass whatever comes your way legally or illegally the rest of the populace can go on hunger strike forever. It is rather shameful and disappointing that even some of you who claim to be Muslims are participating in such an evil charade despite your proclamation of Islam.

Conscience, though invisible, has a mirror which only a few people know of. That mirror is shame. A person without shame is a person without conscience. And that is the main distinction between a genuine Muslim and a nominal one.

Prophet Muhammad (SAW) once admonished the Muslims thus in respect of shame: “once you are bereft of shame, you can go ahead to do whatever you like”. This means that without shame you are a nonentity who can even strip naked in a market place in readiness for a brawl. We can all see the example of this in a former President of this country who is now menstruating through his mouth at any public place even as an octogenarian.

Admonition

Dear Nigerian politicians, let it be kept permanently in your brain that the only thing which keeps people alive in history even long after their demise is service to humanity. Prophets Isa (Jesus), and Muhammad (SAW), had neither bank accounts nor estates to bequeath to anybody. Their legacy is more than any material wealth inherited by the entire world today. That heritage is service to humanity. What is your own planned legacy if only for posterity? That is a big question which only people with conscience can answer. And, as Muslims or Christians, you should be able to answer it if you truly follow the right guidance of those noble men of impeccable character.

Remember that you are in a ship already cruising actively on the high sea towards the shore. And at that shore are fierce customs officers waiting to check the contents of your luggage and your cargo. Remember that if you cultivate friendship with Satan he will favour your wish.

But if he grants you one favour, he will surely take ten from you in return. Be Muslims by name, conduct and mannerism. Whatever you do as Muslims will affect the image of Islam in one way or the other. I hope you will return home from your political odyssey as Muslims and not as renegades. Remember all these and adjust now that you may be able to raise your head aloft when tomorrow comes.

In their deep-rooted research, scientists decided to coin a formula (H2O) and use it to analyze the natural contents of water. From such analysis, they identified the various types of water and their uses in an environment. They then concluded that water is actually the source of life for all living organisms. That is a way of agreeing with Qur’anic revelation about creation. Water is ubiquitous in the environment. It comes from both the sky and the earth.

According to Encyclopedia Encarta (1993-2008 edition), water is the major constituent of any living matter as it constitutes about 50 to 90 percent of the weight of living organisms. The basic material of living cells called protoplasm consists of a solution in water of fats, carbohydrates, proteins, salts, and similar chemicals.

Water acts as a solvent transporting, combining, and chemically breaking down those substances. Blood in animals and sap in plants consist largely of water as it aids transportation of food and removal of waste materials. It also plays a key role in the metabolic breakdown of such essential molecules as proteins and carbohydrates.

This process called hydrolysis goes on continually in living cells.

Composition

Because of its capacity to dissolve numerous substances in large amounts, pure water rarely occurs in nature. During condensation and precipitation, rain or snow absorbs from the atmosphere varying amounts of carbon dioxide and other gases as well as traces of organic and inorganic materials. In addition, precipitation carries radioactive fallout to the earth’s surface.

In its movement on and through the earth’s crust, water reacts with minerals in the soil and rocks. The principally dissolved constituents of surface and groundwater are sulfates, chlorides, and bicarbonates of sodium as well as potassium and the oxides of calcium and magnesium.

Surface waters may also contain domestic sewage and industrial wastes while ground waters from shallow wells may contain large quantities of nitrogen compounds and chlorides derived from human and animal wastes.

Waters from deep wells generally contain only minerals in solution.

Almost all supplies of natural drinking water contain fluorides in varying amounts. The proper proportion of fluorides in drinking water has been found to be a reducer of tooth decay and similar ailments.

Apart from concentrated amounts of sodium chloride, or salt, seawater contains many other soluble compounds, as the impure waters of rivers and streams are constantly feeding the oceans. At the same time, pure water is continually lost by the process of evaporation, and as a result the proportion of the impurities that give the oceans their saline character is increased.

Rainy season

Now, in Nigeria, like in many other non- Sahel Ian African countries, we are in another season of rains when, as usual, water is found everywhere but mostly unavailable for drinking. This is the season in which the sky opens up its generous bowl to pour down water in abundance. But the earth has only a small room to accommodate the gesture hence there is deluge everywhere.

This is a period when plants and animals feel that their needs for survival have been grossly exceeded. In this season, most countries are flooded with water and humanity becomes restive. Thus, this stands out as the season in which the bounties of Allah seem to be too much for the water need of man. In Europe, Asia, Africa, America and Australia, the story is one and the same. The world is grappling with a deluge.

Blaming nature

When this happens the tendency is for the scientists to lay blame at the door-step of what they call global warming. They thus give many reasons including the depletion of the Ozone Layer as the causes. But many centuries before those scientists began their research the unlettered Prophet Muhammad (SAW) had taught Muslims how to handle environmental dryness as well as deluge. One of the solutions he recommended is to thank Allah and request from Him a moderation of His divine largess. This is the time to realize that moderation rather than excess of anything is the best in man’s life. In Islam, there is no cause or effect of a matter that is not known or cannot be controlled by Allah. Whatever happens in the life of man is by Allah’s permission.

The world is like a queue. You enter it at a point and come out of it at another point. This is one major lesson which every Muslim has come to learn through the observance of daily prayers (Salat). In Salat alone where forming queues is essential, a lot of lessons are learnt by Muslims.

Ritual baths

One basic lesson to learn in Salat is hygiene. As a new convert to Islam, you have to undergo a ritual bath called Ghuslu-s-Shahadah or Ghuslu-d-dukhul fil Islam otherwise known as convert’s ritual bath which is performed with water. When you want to observe any Salat, be it obligatory or supererogatory, you must perform ablution with water.

This is called Wudu’. If there is no water, you resort to dry ablution called Tayammam. As a Muslim, after an intercourse with your spouse, you must perform a ritual bath called Ghuslul Janabah before you can observe any Salat.

When a Muslim woman completes her monthly menstrual period she must perform a ritual bath called Ghuslul Haydah before she can resume observance of Salat. A Muslim woman who has just completed her blood-dripping period following child delivery must perform a ritual bath called Ghuslu-n-Nifas before she can resume observance of Salat.

A newly born baby in Islam must be taken through a mandatory bath called Ghuslul Wiladah which is also done with water.

Muslim pilgrims must commence their Hajj or Umrah activities with a ritual bath called Ghuslul Hajj or Umrah at their respective Miqat before they enter the condition of Ihram. When a Muslim, male or female is dead, a ritual bath is performed on his or her body. This bath is called Ghuslul Janazah. Anybody who carries out a bath on a dead body must also undergo a ritual bath of purification called Ghuslu-t-Taharah mina-n-Najasah (bath for purifying self from filth).

This is because a dead body in Islam is like a filth which must be disposed of as quickly as possible before it starts to decompose and thereby constitute health hazard for the living. Whoever touches such filth has had a share of it and must therefore cleanse up before observing any Salat. Such a person cannot participate even in Salatul-Janazah on the body of the deceased person which he has just cleaned up until he, himself, has taken the purification bath.

Unique hygiene

Muslims are expected to clean up with water through ablution at least five times a day. And, as a prophetic tradition prescribes, they are also expected to perform ritual bath on Fridays in preparation for Salatul Jum’ah though such bath is Sunnah (optional) rather than Fard (obligation). Naturally, women, especially Muslim women, utilize water much more than men. They are the ones who take care of the children and, in the process, they clean up for those children many times a day. Besides, women are the ones who must clean up for menses every month. They are the ones who must clean up ritually after 40 days, following child delivery. They are the ones in charge of matrimonial kitchens where they use water days and nights. Thus, when the demography of women in any society is compared to that of men one can imagine the quantity of water consumed daily or weekly by women.

Given the fact that water plays a central role in the life of a Muslim therefore, two important conclusions can be reached. The first is the fact that Islam is absolutely a religion of purity. And that is why Prophet Muhammad was reported to have said that “Allah is pure and He will not accept anything impure.” The second is that Muslims are the greatest consumers of domestic water in the world. This is because, besides using water socially, commercially or domestically like other human beings, an average Muslim uses additional one third of total water used by non-Muslims on a daily basis.

Muslims’ attitude to dryness

It thus becomes understandable why Muslims feel more worried when there is dryness and water cannot be easily accessed. This is what led to the idea of a special prayer called ‘Salatul Istisqai (rain-seeking prayer). This prayer randomly observed by Muslims when shortage of water becomes acute cannot be observed without water ablution. It is a way of reconfirming to Allah that the main purpose of our existence on earth is to worship Him just as the purpose of keeping domestic animals is to serve man. Salatul Istisqai which is usually followed by heavy rainfalls is a major evidence of an existing covenant between Allah and His faithful servants. The wonderful effect of that Salat contradicts any scientific theory. Non-Muslim meteorologists have always wondered how possible it is for rain to fall at an impossible time, following a congregational prayer by some Muslim faithful in a dry locality or region. But to their amazement, they have regularly seen the potency of such prayer in bringing rain not only for Muslims but for all and sundry. The question is: ‘can any other religious group do same to the advantage of mankind? This one trillion Naira question is still begging for answer even almost one and a half millennia after the introduction of Salatul Istisqai as a bringer of rain.

Seeking rain water

That Salatul Istisqai (special prayer for rain) actually brings rain even in a severely dry season. It however remains a puzzle to unbelievers, especially in the West, who see everything, including God, as a product of science. Yours sincerely first took part in the observance of Salatul Istisqai in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), as a student in that country, in 1976. The two rakat prayer had hardly been concluded when the sky opened its door and rain started falling in torrents. It rained for nine hours continuously in that desert country and flooded the entire Emirates like the historic deluge in Prophet Nuh’s (Noah’s) time.

It took more than a week before normal social and commercial activities could fully resume. I have also participated in the same exercise twice thereafter, once in Nigeria and once in Saudi Arabia.

Most of the time, the effect of Salatul Istisqai is immediate. But there are occasions when it may take as long as one week or more before the rain starts pouring. However, if, after some time, following the observance of Salatul Istisqai, rain does not come, Salatul Istisqai can be repeated. Allah has a design for everything.

He knows when rainfall will best serve the need of man. And in seeking such a favour, Muslims must not try to jump the queue.

Manner of observance

Any participant in Salatul Istisqai’ is expected to be in a sober mood and be absolutely confident that the prayer would be accepted by Allah. The essence of raising one’s hands to Allah in prayer is to further confirm that there is no intermediary between man and Allah in worship and in prayer. Allah Himself emphasizes this in the Qur’an by saying to Prophet Muhammad thus: “When my servants ask you about Me, tell them that I am very close to them. I accept the prayers of those who seek from Me but let such seekers expect the giving from Me alone; let them be confident in My ability to accept prayer so that they may be guided aright”. However, there is need to correct the wrong notion being spread around that dresses must be worn inside out by those who will partake in Salatul Istisqai. There is no such rule in Islamic jurisprudence.

The effect of Salatul Istisqai in bringing rains is just symbolic of all other prayers by Muslims. No genuine Muslim prayer is ever turned down by Allah. Acceptance of prayer may not be exactly in accordance with human expectation, it may not be as promptly as man wants it but eventually, a Muslim will realize that his/her prayer has been accepted by Allah without an intermediary.

The role of water in Hajj

Unknown to the non-Islamic world, performance of Hajj every year is a great blessing to humanity rather than just a mere act of worship by Muslims. Hajj is the biggest congregation of human beings on earth.

Allah loves and respects congregations of pious people who praise Him and pray to Him for the needs of the world. That congregation is essential for the continuity of human existence. There is no country in the world today without Muslim pilgrims joining their brethren from other parts of the world in requesting Allah to save the world from perishing. And each year, as such prayers are accepted, the world is confirmed saved despite the evil moves of Yajuj and Ma’juj (Gog and Magog) as well as their agents who are ignorantly pursuing their own destruction every minute. Thus, like Salatul Istisqai which brings water to everybody and not Muslims alone, Hajj is to the benefit of mankind and not Muslims alone. Thus, its preservation must be ensured by everybody in the interest of continued human existence.

Conclusion

Without water, it will be difficult to observe Salat or to fast in Ramadan or to give Zakah or to perform Hajj. Without water, it will be impossible to bear children and bring them up, or to keep farms and sustain them. Water is life. But this is not for Muslims alone. The difference is that Muslims use part of the water to show gratitude to Allah by worshipping Him. Others use it for mundane life alone which is sheer vanity.

Knowledge is like water which softens the earth for seeds to germinate and for plants to be nourished to fruition. Knowledge in Islam is much more important than worship. No one can validly worship Allah without knowledge. And if for this reason alone, it should behoove the entire Muslim Ummah of the world to join and cooperate in using water to worship Allah. That is the essence of knowledge. It cannot be trivialized.

Monologue

Today’s article was first published in this column in 2010 albeit with a different title. Its publication at that time was warranted by an unpredictable pendulum which started to swing dangerously on the entire Arab world with what came to be known globally as Arab Spring.

The repetition of the article here is due to its relevance at this time when a political tsunami seems to be foraging the Arab world crushingly at the expense of Islam. That tsunami can be linked to the recent diplomatic ripples in the Arabian Gulf which led to the ostracization of Qatar by the tripod of Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. That fortuitous incident later became complicated by the criminal murder of a US-based Saudi Journalist, Jamal Kashogi, in cold blood, right inside the Saudi Arabian Consulate in Turkey.

Preamble

Today, Islam in the Arab world is like a lily by the mossy stone. And that mossy stone is nothing other than the Arabs themselves through whom Allah’s divine religion was revealed to mankind. The more turbulent the Arab world goes politically, 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 immediately 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 irrespective of whether they are urban or rural dwellers?

Arabs before Islam

To those who are not quite familiar with the Arab history before the advent of Islam, it may look like an irony that the great religion of peace called Islam originated from amongst such people. But those who understand the workings of Allah will readily 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 fraction of the Caucasian race like theirs, the Arabs would have constituted its most impregnable impediment and, thus, the relative peace in the world today would have been a mirage.

Social Movement

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 aristocracy, it would have been turned 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 was in Christianity in the primordial time. In a nutshell, justice would have been a matter of nomenclature proclaimed in the name of Allah but implemented in the style of Satan.

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 can neither change its colour nor give birth to a lamb.

However, stubbornness as a trait is not peculiar to the Arabs. It is a common trait of all dwellers in desert areas. Even animals like camels and donkeys share that 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 the Arabs could be tamed by the non-such sacred message called the Qur’an. Meanwhile, 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 rebuffed Prophet Muhammad (SAW) even after they had convincingly   accorded him the status of a truthful and trustworthy personality, based on his exemplary 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 have totally 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 amongst 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 still hold on tenaciously to Torah (now called Old Testament) which was revealed to Prophet Musa (Moses) is only due to an historical prophecy which enabled them to hope for a possible return to the land of Judea.

Like Jews like Arabs

The Arabs are hardly dissimilar from the Jews in their thoughts and actions. That the idea of the on-going global terrorism originated from among the Jews but became the heritage of the Arabs cannot be 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 Siddiq) 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 to their Prophets long before the Arabs did.

Arabs in Spain

At least, it remains an historical fact 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 as well as Britain and others had their first contact with intellectual civilisation. If propagation of 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 Arabs 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 through which they often engaged one another 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 sanctuaries (the Ka’abah in Makkah and the Prophet’s Mosque in Madinah) were situated. The fact that the revelation of the Qur’an was in their language encouraged Muslims of other tongues and tribes to concede leadership of Islam to them even if   tacitly. But rather than rising to that privileged status, the Arabs placed premium on Arabism and turned Islam into a pun on the chessboard of their racial, greedy politics.

Today, what matters most to the Arabs is Arabism rather than Islamism.

That is why virtually all the Arab countries are more related to Arabic than Islamic names officially.

Islamic Bodies

Some well-known 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 nurture and pilot them is virtually none-existent. The only global Islamic body known to be functional today is the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) and that is because the Arabs need the population of that body to checkmate certain unpalatable Western policies formulated 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, including the United States, are now members of OIC even if in observer status.

Arabs Business Mentality

To the great delight of the West, the wealthy Arab nations and individuals 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 a peculiar conundrum?

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, manufacturing, farming, 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 Sahara. 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 political and humanitarian rather than religious. And that problem is more fuelled by the Arabs who play 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 between Israel and Egypt with the military support of the Western countries and financial backing of some Gulf Arab countries.

Are Egyptians and citizens of those Gulf countries 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 Qatar 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 one of his sons 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. In the interest of their future and that of Islam, the Arabs are strongly advised to do something positive about Islam before Islam does something negative to them.

“Every soul shall taste death. You shall receive your rewards on the Day of Judgement. Whoever is spared Hell and admitted into Paradise shall profit from his end; for the life of this world is nothing but a fleeting vanity”. Q. 3:185.

Death, like life, is a   natural phenomenon divinely programmed by the immortal Creator for the mortal beings. Both (life and death) are like the day and the night exchanging baton at specific hours as divinely scheduled. The contents of today’s article in this column are not quite dissimilar from those written by yours sincerely last June following the demise of a Nigerian iconic journalist, Alhaji Kolawole Adio Animasaun, of Vanguard newspaper fame. Both personalities

Point of Reference

In the introduction to his autobiography entitled ‘My Odyssey’ published in 1970, Nigeria’s first President, the late Dr. Benjamin 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 causes 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”.

Demise of an Icon

It is no longer news that Dr. Sakariyau Olayiwola Babalola (OON), the President of the Muslim Ummah of Southwest Nigeria (MUSWEN) and Deputy President-General, Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) is dead. He died in the early hours of Wednesday October 2, 2019 and he was buried on the same day at Ikoyi cemetery in Lagos according to his wish. Shortly before his demise, Dr. Babalola had altered his Western oriented will to reflect Allah’s prescription on Muslim will writing through Shariah. It was through that alteration that he indicated his wish to be buried wherever he died and hence his burial took place in Lagos.

Comment

To many people in Nigeria and abroad who, out of sheer ignorance, see death as an intruder in the life of man, Dr, Babalola’s death might have come as “a rude shock” even at about the age of 87 years. But to Muslims who understand their religion very well and know that death is an inevitable alternative to life, it couldn’t have been a shock.

The Prophet’s Example

When Prophet Muhammad (SAW) died in 632 CE, some Muslims (including Umar Bn Khattab who later became the second Caliph) refused to hear such news and described it as heresy. It took the courage and maturity of Abubakr to stand on the podium and address the crowd of the Ummah who wanted a confirmation or denial of the news. In a quivering but clear voice he said: …”Those of you who have been worshipping Muhammad be informed that Muhammad is no more. But those who have been worshipping Allah should know that Allah is immortal”.

Abubakr said this in further reiteration of Qur’an 2:255 which has stood out for over 1400 years as a perfect answer to an heretic question of a deeply ignorant unbeliever who wasted his entire life writing a whole book to ask one sentence senseless question: “Who is this Allah?”. Unknown to him, a Qur’anic verse had provided the accurate answer to that blind question   about half a millennium ago in what is called Ayatul Kursiyy thus: “Allah; there is no god but Him, the living, the eternal One. Neither slumber nor sleep overtakes Him. His is what the Heavens and the earth contain. Who can intercede with Him except by His permission? He knows all about the affairs of men at present and in the future. They can grasp only that part of His knowledge which He wills. His throne is as vast as the Heavens and the earth, and the preservation of both does not weary Him. He is the Exalted, the immense One”.

Lesson from History

Like all those who had   passed through this world before him, Dr. S. O. Babalola is dead. All other things about him are now history. But from that history is a lesson for those succeeding him in private and public life to learn. His is now a closed chapter in the history of Nigeria.

The Cornerstone

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

The above poem is the parable of a rejected stone that has turned out to be the ‘Cornerstone of the House’. Those who can still remember the history of Prophet Ismail, (the first son of Prophet Ibrahim) should be able to recall that he was once ejected from his parents’ home and banished to a desert asylum.  Today, see the outcome of that episode in the everlasting uniqueness of Hajj as the fifth pillar of Islam. As it was in the primordial time, so it is in the contemporary time.

A Mark of Philosophy

Before his exit from this world Dr. Babalola had enabled us to know that the purpose of human life is not just to live and be happy.

Beneath many days of happy mood are some nights of tears. That is the secret of human experience which should serve as the first lesson for future leaders. This man, who combined humility with conscience to form an identity by which he was generally known, has exited from this transient world. That is an identity that clearly distinguishes a man of honour from men of wealth. We should all know that humility based on conscience is the most active cursor of piety.

His Rising Profile

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

The Difference He made

What actually made conspicuous difference in Dr. Babalola’s life, which only a few people were able to note, was his ability to identify, early in life, the factors of equanimity in human existence.

Those factors are contained in a poetic axiom succinctly coined by an American statesman and intellectual of renown, Williams Webster, who had the following to say in a stanza:  “If we work marble it will perish; if we work upon brass, time will efface it; if we rear temples, they will crumble into dust; but if we work upon immortal minds, and instill in them just principles, we are then engraving that upon tablets which no time can efface but will brighten into all eternity”.

That was the guiding principle adopted by Dr. S. O. Babalola who rose from the dungeon of obscurity to reach a high pedestal of limelight in his life despite all odds. But he added an addendum of his own to that principle. That addendum was that for a person to be happy in life he must make others happy. And to live in peace, a person must ventilate a peaceful environment for others. Happiness, according to him, is based on peace and peace from man to man must be reciprocal.

His Leadership Qualities

For Dr. S. O. Babalola, rising to become a towering leader was not by fortuity. He had painstakingly studied the qualities of a good leader

and he patiently imbibed those qualities through self-discipline and divinely guided inspiration.

Those qualities of good leadership which together form the ladder that took this great man to the confortable apex of status in his life are as follows: Meaningful focus, interminable patience, relentless confidence, untamable courage, inspired innovation, natural humility, irrepressible endurance, insubordinate assiduity, divinely-guided self-motivation, impeccable resilience, enviable transparency, unequalled generosity, plausible accountability, unfaultable authenticity, intractable decisiveness, absolute contentment and of course, unpolluted conscience.

Inquisition

Now, which of these qualities were not found in this great man? And which of them should not be emulated by young men and women who are aspiring to be leaders tomorrow?

Now, with his exit from our midst, Dr. S. O. Babalola has become a school in history for those who want to study the ladder of life and how to mount it to the peak.

The Cornerstone

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

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

A man has just taken an exit from this ephemeral world whose rising profile while alive enabled us to know that the purpose of human life is not just to live and be happy. Beneath many days of happy mood are some nights of tears. That is the secret of human experience which should serve as the first lesson for future leaders. That man is Alhaji (Dr.) S. O. Babalola, OON, who combined humility with conscience to form an identity by which he was generally known. That is an identity that clearly distinguishes a man of honour from men of wealth. We should all know that humility based on conscience is the most active cursor of piety.

His Rising Profile

Perhaps, if Dr. S. O. Babalola had not experienced rejection at a stage in his life’s odyssey, he would not have emerged as the President of the Muslim Ummah of Southwest Nigeria (MUSWEN) which is the umbrella body for all Muslim organizations in the Southwest region of this country. And if he had not become the President of MUSWEN, he would probably not have risen to the post of Deputy President-General (South) of the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA).

What could have made this possible besides destiny through the guidance of Allah?

Now, if, in the cause of recounting his livelihood, we trace his background to any school or any madrasah he attended at the early age of his life, what lesson are we to learn from that? If we describe him as one of the foremost but quiet philanthropists of his time, and list the chains of his philanthropic gestures, what uniqueness can that attribute to him as a special icon? If we say here that he was married with children and he gave those children highly qualitative education how does that make his life different from the lives of his peers? All those are a common feature of common citations often presented publicly, sometimes, to the boredom of the audience.

The Difference he made

What actually made a conspicuous difference in this man’s life, which only a few people were able to notice, was his ability to identify, early in life, the factors of equanimity in human life. Those factors are contained in a poetic axiom succinctly coined by an American statesman and intellectual of renown, Williams Webster, who had the following to say in a stanza:

“If we work marble it will perish; if we work upon brass, time will efface it; if we rear temples, they will crumble into dust; but if we work upon immortal minds, and instill in them just principles, we are then engraving that upon tablets which no time can efface but will brighten into all eternity”.

That quotation was the guiding principle adopted by Dr. S. O. Babalola who rose from the dungeon of obscurity in life to a high pedestal of limelight despite all odds. But he added an addendum of his own to that principle. That addendum was that to be happy in life one must make others happy. And to live in peace, one must ventilate a peaceful environment for others. By Dr, Babalola’s perception of life, happiness should be based on peace and peace from man to man should be reciprocal.

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

A voyager’s Prayer

In the course of his life’s odyssey, this great man came across a special prayer that was once offered poetically by an American woman (J. Walch) who dedicated her entire life to the service of humanity and died on it. Dr. Babalola promptly adopted the prayer as his daily rhyme and started to live by it in words and in action in his late sixties. The prayer goes thus: “God make my life a little staff, upon which the weak may rest, that what so health and wealth I have may serve my neighbours best”.

MUSWEN’s Way Forward

The idea of forming MUSWEN as the umbrella body for the South West Muslims started in March 2004 at the instance of ‘The Companion’, a Lagos State’s based Organization of Muslim business and professional youth elite. MUSWEN was inaugurated in Ibadan in August 2008 in the presence of virtually all the frontline Muslim Obas, Chieftains and major stakeholders. His Eminence, the Sultan of Sokoto was the Special Guest of Honour on the occasion where all Muslim organisations in the South West were duly represented not as guests but as full members.

Their presence indicated their commitment.

MUSWEN’s vision is of a united and effective voice for Muslims in the region under a strong, veritable and collective leadership. This undreamt step had eluded the region for a very long time but the right time has come to stay. The overall aim of MUSWEN is to project Islam effectively for sanity to prevail and raise the profile of the Muslims in this part of the country. That aim also includes enabling the Muslims and their offspring to live worthy lives fully as staunch believers and practitioners of the faith while at the same time contribute their quota to the development of the country as responsible citizens.

In Retrospect

As individuals and organizations, Muslims of the Southwest of Nigeria had wandered aimlessly for centuries like unguarded flock. They had cried for a guiding umbrella body without getting one. They had identified disunity as the bane of their existence and yet they had failed to find a solution to it. But Allah has a time for everything just as He has a program for every nation or community. This is the time for solving the chronic problem confronting the Southwest Muslims. This is the period to flock together in peace and harmony.

This is the time to fly where we had been crawling.

Who can claim to be happy where most of the children of school age that are out of school happen to be Muslims? Who can feel satisfied with having fewer schools and fewer teachers than we need at all levels of our educational system? Who can claim to be well pleased with a situation where the most skilled and most professionally qualified Muslims have had to cross to the other side of the spiritual bridge in quest for livelihood? Who does not know that the enclave of penury in this part of the country is domiciled in the Muslim community? Should we continue to be complacent with this gloomy situation and be indifferent to a positive change?

It is in order to end this gloomy situation and rekindle the glow of hope that MUSWEN came into existence as a formidable platform for the Muslims of the South West to prove their mettle. But why is MUSWEN so named and why is it restricted to the South West of Nigeria?

The history of Islam and the conditions of the Muslims in Southwest Nigeria are so unique that they require a special and appropriate attention. The arrival of Islam into the midst of Yoruba people who inhabit the Southwest area of Nigeria took place centuries before the advent of Christianity and long preceded the coming of the British colonialists in 1842. Islam had thus made a tremendous impact on the language and culture of the Yoruba people before Nigeria came into existence as a country. Being a religion of literacy and education, Islam brought civilization to the Yoruba land and some other parts of West Africa for the first time.  At that time, Yoruba language was committed to writing in Arabic alphabets. Arabic therefore became the first language of literacy and the medium of communication and scholarly discourses among Yoruba Muslim scholars.

It is rather a matter of concern and even an irony that the same Muslims are now lagging behind their Christian counterparts in Western education.

Relevant Questions

How did this irony come about? How can it be reversed?

What are the aims and objectives of MUSWEN? What is its structure?

What program does that structure have for the South West Muslims? Who are the people behind it? What is MUSWEN’s position vis a vis the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA)? These and many more questions about MUSWEN are what the Muslims leaders of the region, under the presidency of Dr. S. O. Babalola, had been practically addressing before the latter’s demise. But the same questions will be theoretically answered in this column very soon Insha’a Llah. We pray the Almighty Allah to repose Dr. Babalola’s doul in eternal bliss and grant his family the fortitude with which to bear the agony of his exit from their lives. Amin. Inna liLlah wa inna ilayhi raji’un!

Leaders are not those who ascribe leadership to themselves by caprice or by whim. Real leaders are those who are sincerely acknowledged as effective leaders by their followers. Sultan Muhammad Sa’ad Abukakar, CFR, mni, belongs to the latter category. His leadership traits are not, in anyway, hidden. He neither speaks just to be heard nor moves just to be seen. His utterances are always timely and meaningful. And he combines certain qualities the likes of which distinguished Umar Bn Khattab among the first four Caliphs in Islam. Sultan Abubakar is a bold and charismatic soldier like Umar. He is visionary, firm, humble and affable like Umar. And he believes so much in leadership by example just like Umar.

Perhaps that is why he is so close to the ordinary people in his day-to-day running of the Sultanate administration and that of the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) just as Umar was.

His Royal Antecedent

A few years ago, this Nigeria’s 20th Sultan spoke passionately at a public function on three important issues each of which is vividly manifesting today.

First, he advised the three tiers of government to ventilate the economic environment for possible employment of the teeming youths, warning that unemployment is a time bomb which could explode anytime. He attributed the viral poverty in the land to gross unemployment of millions of able hands rendered idle and cautioned those in government against criminal consequences of that ugly situation. At the time he made that speech, the menace of banditry, kidnapping and what later came to be known as Boko Haram had not commenced.

Admonition

On that occasion, His Eminence admonished Muslims not to be bellicose towards non-Muslims in reaction to religious misconduct of some disgruntled people especially those who relished in the pleasure of fomenting religious trouble with obnoxious preaching and offensive media propaganda like a provoking cartoon published in faraway Norway some time ago. He counselled the Ummah to rather educate any non-Muslim who might want to tread the path of religious transgression against Islam than resort to hatred. In that speech, His Eminence concluded that it was only in a peaceful atmosphere that people of diverse spiritual and temporal backgrounds could comfortably co-exist in a multi-religious and multi-tribal society like Nigeria.

On His way to Ekiti

On Sunday, Sultan Abubakar will arrive in Akure enroot Ado-Ekiti for conferment of a Doctoral Degree on him by Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti (ABUA).

That will be one of many of its types in various universities across the world since he assumed the exalted royal office of the Sultan in November, 2006. And since then, his impact both as a royal father and the Commander of Nigerian Muslim Ummah as well as the CUSTODIAN OF NIGERIA’S NATIONAL MOSQUE has been unprecedentedly historic.

In Retrospect

When this great man was five years old on the throne in 2011, yours sincerely wrote an article about him in this column which remains as relevant today as it was then. An excerpt from the article is as follows:

“In every crowd of horizontal men, there is always one vertical man who deserves honour not much because of his vertical position but because of the significant difference which that position makes in a society”.

History and Man

“History and man are like Siamese twins or a pair of scissors. The one cannot do without the other. History makes man just as man makes history. And the reciprocal baton continues to change hands between them as long as they remain in existence”.

“In November 2006, a public announcement of the sighting of a human crescent which had lain hidden in the firmament of the orbit was made. That crescent was the towering personality generally known today as the Sultan Abubakar did not ring any bell in Nigeria before the referred historic announcement.

Thereafter, he was crowned ‘The Sultan of Sokoto’ precisely on November 6, 2006.

Thus, the emergence of Brigadier-General Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar (rtd.) as the successor to the exalted throne of the great Sokoto Empire without any controversy came as a surprise to many Nigerians.

At 50 then, many people thought that he was one of the youngest men to mount that throne in many decades. But he disagreed with such assumption and recalled that his own father, Sultan Abubakar Sadiq III who died in 1988 ascended the throne at the age of 37.

His Pedigree

With a sound military background coupled with intellectual aristocracy and a diplomatic exposure, this Sultan has been perceived, since coming into office, as a millennial royal Commander divinely designated to pilot the affairs of Islam and the Muslim Ummah in Nigeria with unequalled success.

Philosophers’ Assertion

Philosophers who once asserted that every new century has a way of producing a great leader were right after all. Dr Abubakar is a manifest attestation to that assertion. Ever since he assumed the exalted royal office of the Sultan about 13 years ago, this great man has convincingly exemplified all the qualities of genuine leadership. Every statement he has made socially, religiously or politically and every action he has taken officially or personally has proved to be a school from which all well-meaning people have learnt one lesson or another.

ABU Chancellor

Five years after his assumption of office, the symbiotic relationship of history and man was reconfirmed in Zaria, on Wednesday, (November 23, 2011), where a galaxy of well-meaning men and women from all walks of life assembled to say “we are here to bear witness”. That was the day His Eminence was installed as the Chancellor of Ahamadu Bello University, Zaria. The occasion was just one of many laurels accruing to him since he assumed office.

An American President, Harry S. Truman (1884-1972), once described a leader as “a man who has the ability to get other people to do what they don’t want to do and like it”. By his activities and functions so far, Sultan Abubakar has proved Truman right by demonstrating to Nigerian Muslim Ummah that the time has come for the reformation not only of the  NSCIA but also the Sultanate.

Education in Islam

In Islam, education is the first law. It is only through it that man can understand life in all its ramifications. That was why Allah’s very first revelation to Prophet Muhammad (SAW) in the Qur’an ordained education thus: “Read in the name of Allah who created; He created man from clots of congealed blood; Read! Your Lord is the Most Bountiful One, Who taught man by the pen; He taught him what he did not know…”Q. 96:1-4.

To further emphasize the compelling need for education in Islam, Prophet Muhammad (SAW) was reported to have said in one Hadith that “knowledge is a lost treasure. Muslims should search for it and pick it wherever they could find it”.

Without education, there can be no information. And without information there can be no progress. That is why the Sultan started his reformation of the Sultanate from the premise of education. It is only with education that most problems in this world can be solved without much ado. Sultan Abubakar also believes that education without social harmony is like a virtue without value and that there can be no harmony in a society where people are overwhelmed by ignorance and penury as in Nigeria. Thus, he has consistently focused on both.

As ABU Chancellor

At his installation as the Chancellor of Ahmadu Bello University in 2011, Sultan  Abubakar told the crowd that the current socio-economic indices in Nigeria were a clear indication that the country had begun to drift. He lamented that despite the nation’s unprecedented resources, development had failed to match the national wealth.

In his words: “Corruption has emasculated our progress even as poverty and unemployment have pushed citizens to the brinks, fuelling and confounding social conflicts and inter-communal crisis has extracted heavy toll in both human lives and property”. He went further to say that: “Persistent insecurity has generated panic and anxiety; our social and physical infrastructures are far from meeting the needs of the nation; the country appears to be adrift and at the core of all these is moral decay engendered by ignorance and greed.”He also noted that no reformation of the tertiary education sector  could be effective without putting in place, the progressive developments required in the basic and senior secondary education sectors. He  insisted that “our state governments, especially those of the North, must begin to realise the enormity of the challenges facing the education sector and take urgent and necessary steps to address these challenges.” He lauded the founding fathers of the ABU, particularly, the late Sarduana of Sokoto, Sir Ahmadu Bello, and urged the authorities of the school to continue to abide by the cardinal principles on which the institution was founded.

Royal Voice against Corruption

That Nigeria’s renascent Sultan for you, a man who is at the topmost echelon of the tree of comfort but feels so much concerned about the plight of the peasants who are hopelessly consigned to the weeding of the shrubs  by official policies. He has never relented in his advocacy for good governance, denunciation of corruption and religious intolerance.

Muslim Unity and Interfaith Engagements

When His Eminence was invited in January 2010 as a Special Guest of Honour to a religious seminar organised by the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) with the theme: ‘Knowing Your Muslim Neighbour’, he delivered an historic speech that reverberated meaningfully across the entire world. And in May, same year, he also invited the leadership of CAN to a special conference of the NSCIA held in Kaduna. The theme of that conference was: ‘Islam in the Eyes of the Christians’. He is the first Nigerian first class Monarch ever to engage in such an interfaith affair at the national level and his speech on that occasion was also electrifying.

Electoral Reform

According to the Sultan, the National Assembly, and indeed all tiers of Government, should not relent in their efforts at Electoral Reform and in ensuring that Nigerians have a genuine electoral process that guarantees free and fair elections. Unless and until we do that, our nation will continue to be haunted by the unholy alliance between fraudulent elections and illegitimate electoral outcomes, the consequences of which we all know too well. We must break away from this vicious circle and confer on Nigerians the power and indeed the ability to decide, freely and willingly, who leads them at all levels  of governance”.

“….There is also the urgent need for us to re-evaluate our conception of leadership as a nation…. needless to add, that there is no way we can make genuine progress as a nation when a significant number of our populace wallows in abject poverty unable to secure the requisite means for their sustenance and to cater for the health and educational needs of their families. Democracy must build a humane society capable of looking after the legitimate needs of its citizenry. For it to be truly successful, it must be able to bring real progress to all sectors of our diverse society.

“Finally we must all work hard to limit the influence of wealth in our society and to support those values that promote social responsibility, excellence and hard work”.

Grassroots Interaction

That is Sultan Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar, a leader who knows the problems of his followers and associates with them in solving those problems. Through his humble interaction with all Muslims in Nigeria irrespective of tribal or geographical boundaries, he has become the first Sultan to create a strong feeling of a united Ummah under a competent and kind leadership. And by speaking out incessantly against policies which seem to deliberately impoverish ordinary Nigerians across board, this Sultan has brought a rare hope to Nigeria and the Muslims are the luckiest for it. Such a leadership deserves allegiance, loyalty and regular prayer from the Ummah. We pray for the elongation of his life with very sound health and regular Allah’s guidance.

IN response to a particular question coming incessantly to this column from every conceivable angle in Nigeria, yours sincerely decided to recall an article published in this column in 2007 which answers the recurring question.

The enquirers wanted to know why Muslims and their activities are not as vivid in Nigerian media as those of their Christian counterparts.

The article that served as an answer to that question goes thus: “Information is power. It can make or mar. An informer must be informed. He must know what information to disseminate. He must know, not only when and where to disseminate such information but also how to do it. These are the attributes that can qualify journalists as professionals in their calling.

Journalism as a profession is not about news gathering and news reporting alone. It is also about dissemination of genuine information, transmission of valuable education and even presentation of meaningful entertainment. That is why a journalist is perceived as a professional who knows or should know something about everything in existence.  To be a thorough professional, a journalist must be knowledgeable in various fields of discipline no matter how little.

For instance, a journalist cannot report space exploration without some scientific knowledge of astronomy. He cannot report war without some knowledge of weaponry and the geography of war areas as well as the social history of the involved warring groups or nations. Also, no journalist can report a religious festival without knowing some jargons of the religion in question.

And, of course, in the process of filing his reports, a journalist must be conscious of the technical reportorial sequence to be followed. This is generally known in the profession as ‘five W’s and H’. The coded cliché here is interpreted as follows: “Who (does) What? Where? When? Why? And How?” Without practical knowledge of that

sequence, a journalist cannot claim to be a professional in the practice of that noble profession.

Thus, from whatever angle journalism is viewed, knowledge remains the main axis around which journalists’ activities rotate. In a nutshell, no charlatan can claim an enclave in that noble profession without the required knowledge.

Prophetic Foresight

Prophet Muhammad (SAW) had foreseen the effect and implications of positive or negative information dissemination before he implored Muslims to seek knowledge in what became one of his divinely guided prophetic saying (Hadith). This is how he put it: “Seek knowledge even if you will have to travel to as far a place as China”. He made that divinely guided statement at a time when China was known to be the farthest place from Arabia.

Essence of Knowledge

Nothing in the life of man is comparable to knowledge. As a matter of fact, life is worthwhile only if it is based on knowledge.

That was why the revelation of the Qur’an started on the premise of knowledge in 610 CE. The very first chapter of that Sacred Book commenced thus: “Read in the name of your Lord who created; He created man from clots of congealed blood. Read! Your Lord is the Most Bountiful One, who taught by the pen, He taught man what he (man) did not know…”.  And, to further emphasize this, the Prophet said that “knowledge is a missing substance and advised Muslims to search for it wherever they can find it”. He did not restrict such knowledge to religion. Without knowledge, there can be no right information.

Origin of Journalism

Contrary to the falsehood documented and disseminated by the Western world that journalism started in Germany in the 15th century, it was the Muslims who actually started journalism in Arabia about 1400 years ago. Though they did not call it journalism, it was they who started what we now call journalism through the process they followed in documenting Hadith (the prophetic tradition and rightly guided statements of Prophet Muhammad).

In order to prevent false documentation of any fabricated statements in the name of the Prophet, some Muslim researchers took up the task of ascertaining what the Prophet actually said or did as against what some prominence-seekers were trying to attribute to him after his demise. It was a thorough investigative job voluntarily done by certain individuals to retain the authenticity of Islam. Foremost among such great researchers were   Ibn Abbas, Ibn Mas’ud, Malik Bn Anas, Al-Bukhari, Muslim, Abu Daud, At-Tirmidhi, An-Nisai, Ibn Majah and a host of others.

For the purpose of authenticity, these great scholars introduced what they called ‘Chain of Narration’ (Isnad). Through that Chain, they endeavoured to trace the source of every Hadith quoted and credited to Prophet Muhammad (SAW). Such narrations were graded as: Sahih (indisputably genuine); Hasanun Sahihun (perfectly authentic); Hasanun (genuine); Dai’f; Munqatiu’ (broken); Gharib (strange) Mawdu’ (fabricated) and so forth. Thus, from the final documentation through this process, Hadith was transmitted from generation to generation just as we transmit news stories today in professional journalism.

Without the great efforts of the above mentioned researchers, the world would have been flooded today with all sorts of fabricated expressions falsely credited to the Prophet. And such fabrications would have thrown the Muslim Ummah into total confusion even as Islam itself would have been shrouded in doubt.

Prophetic Recognition of Information

The very first Minister appointed by Prophet Muhammad (SAW) as Head of State was that of information.

The black man called Bilal, who was charged with informing Muslims of the time of Salat by making ‘Adhan’, was the appointed Minister of Information. That shows how important information is to Islam.

However, when journalism as we know it today was introduced to Nigeria in the 19th century, it was through the perception and mentality of the Christian colonial masters. Although the earliest Nigerian journalists were quick to realize the power of the Press which they used to fight for Nigerian independence, they nevertheless inherited the Christian colonial traditions which are still causing disharmony in our society today. One of such traditions is religious perception.

For instance, an average Nigerian journalist does not see anything positive in Islam as a religion because he/she is blatantly ignorant of its tenets. This is not to say that journalists cannot understand Islam if given the opportunity, but the colonial orientation they inherited is such that they must not see anything good in the religion called Islam. And to ensure the effectiveness of that obnoxious indoctrination, most of Nigerian journalists who are based in the Southern part of the country were enlisted on the pay roll of various Churches. And for this reason they had to follow the dictates of those Churches by imitating the Western reportorial orientation which must paint Islam and its adherents in black colour and portray that divine religion as a hub of trouble.

Facts in Retrospect

For well over a century after the introduction of journalism to Nigeria, the word ISLAM and MUSLIMS were reported in Nigerian media, like in European media, as Mohammedanism and Mohammedans respectively.

It took the few Muslim scholars and journalists in Europe at that time to counter that obnoxiousness which was deliberately hung on the neck of Islam before it was changed. Even as of today, and against the ethics of their profession, most Nigerian journalists take pleasure in writing or pronouncing word ‘MOSLEM’ rather than ‘MUSLIM’ knowing fully well that the earlier is derogatory to Islam and abhorrent to Muslims.

Editorialisation

In news reporting and even editorials of many newspapers, some journalists have ridiculously embarrassed themselves, their media outfits as well as their Muslim readers by confusing Eid-ul-Adha with Eid-ul-Fitr during Muslim festivals out of deliberate refusal to want to know anything about Islam. On the other hand, no Muslim journalist will ever confuse Christmas with Easter or make reference to Jesus

Christ or even Christianity in a derogatory manner. It is rather shameful and ridiculous that most Southern Nigerian journalists behave as if they enjoy special immunity in freedom of expression even as they arrogantly bask in the euphoria of a non-existing monopoly of religious hysteria.

Another instance is the seeming malicious manner in which some Southern Nigerian journalists do report the outbreak of events and occurrences in the country particularly at very sensitive times thereby compounding any problem at hand. It has virtually become a tradition particularly in the Southern axis of   Nigerian media to describe youths who engage in any disturbing activities in the north as ‘FANATICS’ or ‘FUNDAMENTALISTS’ or ‘ZEALOTS’ even before the details of whatever happened become known. And in other parts of the country, such restive youths are merely reported as militants or bandits. The implication here is that any disturbance in the Muslim dominated areas of the north must automatically cloaked in garb of Islamic religion which is criminally perceived as the breeder of fanaticism. And when the trend of such restiveness is seen as tortuous to Islamic and Muslim images, the Christo-journalists of Southern Nigeria turn their back by refusing to report the incident. These and other religiously insensitive reporting can be potentially dangerous for the corporate existence of this volatile country. We had

witnessed crises precipitated by such insensitivity in the remote and recent past. But the big question is: why are Nigerian Muslims apathetic to media engagements?

Muslims in Nigerian Media

Muslims in the media generally must have good knowledge of Christianity and the culture of its adherents just as Christian journalist must know the dos and don’ts of Islam and the Muslims. Arabic is not a language meant for the Muslims alone. There are Christian Arabs who speak no language other than Arabic. And, there is no record anywhere to show that Prophet Isa (Jesus) ever spoke English which is the main language of the Bible in Nigeria today. Both Islam and Christianity came to meet us here in Nigeria. Why must we use them to destroy ourselves on the pages of newspapers or on radio and television stations?

One of the responsibilities of the media is to ventilate a peaceful atmosphere for harmonious co-existence of the people. Thus, any educated and civilized professional journalist in Nigeria must not shirk such a fundamental responsibility at this age of internet. For the sake of our collective survival, no combative or provocative journalism should be extended to religious sphere.

Jihad against Corruption

From time immemorial, man has learned through experience that it is better to prevent a disease than to cure it. One old disease which still remains young in contemporary time, despite its age, and keeps growing on the palm of man is corruption. This monstrous human ailment is like an implacable virus constantly threatening to metamorphose into full blown cancer as it eats deeply into the fabrics of its victims. Once it is allowed to so grow, its cure becomes impossible. And, coping with it in that circumstance, is like chasing a mirage.

Corruption is a much more deadly disease than what can be fought with hand in glove. As the mother of all crimes, corruption will be better prevented from growing than to be fought after growing. Incidentally, the societal disease called corruption is not limited to embezzlement and theft of public funds. No abuse or betrayal of public privilege bears any name other than corruption. And the subjective practice of journalism in Nigeria is one of such diseases. That is why the tentacle of the corruption-fighting organs like EFCC and ICPC should be expanded and strengthened. So far, EFCC and ICPC can be called offices without authority. And this is casting a shadow on the acclaimed genuine intention of the government to fight corruption in Nigeria. The first boss of EFCC, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu was able to put up some bravado while in office because of unlimited financial resources made available to him by the then President Obasanjo for whatever agenda. When Mallam Ribadu left office, the bravado left with him and the scorching EFCC became a subject of unwarranted scrutiny.

On the other hand, the first Chairman of ICPC, Justice Mustapha Akanbi, had to quit office when he observed that the intention of the initiators of that institution was at variance with the mode of operation put in place. And in that situation it would take a miracle to function as effectively as expected by the well-meaning section of the public. His successor, Justice Emanuel Ayoola, had to ensure that some amendment was made to the act that established ICPC before he could make up his mind to accept the job of its Chairman. The summary here is that if we must seriously fight corruption, we must seriously fund the agencies set up to face the task. Corruption is not about money alone. Neither is it limited to public office holders. Fighting the monster should therefore be a matter of national orientation which should be taught in schools. Corruption is as incurable as cancer.

Concentrating on merely arresting public office holders who stole public funds alone is like scratching the skin of the monster on the surface.

The seriousness of the government in fighting corruption will be better acknowledged in the area of prevention than that of cure. And that requires not only adequate funding but also sincere mobilisation which must be done with all hands on deck now and not later. And the role of Nigerian journalists in this is unlimitedly vital.

This is Rabi‘ul Awwal, the third month of the Islamic lunar calendar.

It is on the 12th day of this month that Muhammad, the son of Abdullah and Aminah who later became a Prophet of Allah, at the age of 40 in 610 CE, was born into the world in Makkah. In Islamic history, this month is only as important as any other Hijrah month but surely not more important. It is therefore a form of imitation to attach to it

any myth which   Prophet Muhammad (SAW) himself who was born in it did not attach to it.

Mawlidun-Nabiyyi

Contrary to what may be the thought by some readers in certain Muslim circles, in Nigeria, this article is not meant to celebrate the birth of Prophet Muhammad (SAW) for which the 12th of Rabi’ul Awwal is often erroneously declared as a public holiday by Nigerian government. What is to be celebrated about this great Prophet is by far beyond his birthday. He was not born a Prophet. Therefore, any celebration of his birthday as a Prophet is not only erroneous islamically but also an imitation of erroneous norm in some other religions.

It is only those whose achievements in life are short of memorable benefits to mankind that need celebration of birthday to augment their claimed achievements. There is nothing special about birthday celebration especially for a divinely unique personality   like Prophet Muhammad (SAW).

Who was Prophet Muhammad?

Prophet Muhammad (SAW) was an unpronounced school in which every knowledge-seeker learns consciously or unconsciously even more than a millennium after his demise and to eternity.  In fact, no man’s biography has been so much written and read as that of Prophet Muhammad (SAW) in human history. This man’s biography has been written from all conceivable angles, positive and negative, by various men and women of diverse races, tribes, ideologies and religions since he became a Prophet of Allah in 610 CE. And the biography is still being written and re-written authoritatively and un-authoritatively, today, in uncountable languages across the world.

Effects of his Biography

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

Every aspect of this Prophet’s life including the dresses he wore, the food he ate, the way he spoke, the wives he married, the children he bore, and even the jokes he cast, has formed the basis of his biography. In short, next to the Qur’an, no book is as much read daily in the world today as the biography of Prophet Muhammad (SAW) in one form or another. And so it will continue to eternity.

A Vital Question

Why is there so much global focus   on this unlettered Prophet from Arabia?

The answer to this question is not far-fetched. The world has not produced any human being like him. And it will not. He is the seal of all Prophets and the epitome of human exemplariness. It is in him alone that all the traits of what a perfect gentleman should be are found in all ramifications.

The ‘Ifs’ of his Life

Every human being has certain ‘ifs’ in his or her life which may sometimes require analysis. For some people, such ‘ifs’ may be positive. And for others, they may be negative or mixed. In the case of Prophet Muhammad (SAW) all the ‘ifs’ that are attributable to him are components of the factors that constitute the school in which humanity is supposed to learn how to link the life of this world to that of the hereafter.

For instance if the Prophet had not been an orphan, he would not have been able to guide humanity on how orphans should be treated especially with regards to upbringing and   inheritance. If he had not been a husband, his marital life would not have been an excellent example for others to emulate and women’s rights would have been permanently ignored. If he had not been a widower   and married widows   the world would not have realized the plight of widowhood and learnt how to provide for widows. If he had not been a father, the proper care for children by parents would have been relegated to the background in Islamic doctrine. If he had not been trustworthy, the value of trust would have been totally lost on mankind.

If he had not migrated from Makkah to Madinah the culture of hospitality universally imbibed today would not have come into existence. That Prophet Muhammad (SAW) was forced to face certain wars was a blessing in disguise. If he had not been forced to fight those wars, the laws of war, armistice and peace would not have become a universal rule. And without his conquests in some of those wars, the word magnanimity would not have found a place in the dictionary of man. Also, it was due to the defeats he suffered in some of those wars that created a sense of gallantry for any vanquished person or group in the contemporary world.

Further ‘Ifs’ of his Life

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

If he had not been a democratic ruler, the relationship between the ruled and their rulers, all over the world, today, would not have been dissimilar from that of slaves and their masters and dictatorship in governance would have known no bounds. If the Prophet had not been poor despite being a Head of State, the policies of probity and social welfare being adopted in civilized societies today in favour of the poor, would not have been possible. If he had not been an illiterate, the world would not have known the difference between literacy and education as he became the most educated human being ever despite his illiterate status. And, if, despite all these qualities in him, he had not been humble and affable, arrogance would have been the main trait of all privileged people who occupy important positions in the world today.

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

Attestations

There are many attestations to the above assertion about Prophet Muhammad (SAW). One of those attestations was made by a German- born American physicist and Nobel Laureate Albert Einstein.  After many centuries of who   invented atomic bomb and is generally known as the 20th century initiator of special and general theory of relativity, compared his works with the contents of the Qur’an and concluded as follows: “Science without religion is lame and religion without science is blind”.

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

Professor Keith Moore

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

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

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

Napoleon Bonaparte

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

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

George Bernard Shaw

And, in corroboration of the above attestations variously made by renowned men of letters and intellect, another foremost Orientalist, playwright and dramatist from Ireland, George Bernard Shaw, had the following to say about Islam and Prophet Muhammad (SAW) in his book ‘The genuine Islam’ (vol. 1 No 8 of 1936): “The Christians and their missionaries have presented a horrible picture of Islam. Not only that, they also carried out an organized and planned propaganda against the personality of Prophet Mohammad and the religion he preached. I have carefully studied Islam and the life of its Prophet. I have done so both as a student of history and as a critic. And I have come to the conclusion that Mohammad was indeed a great man and a deliverer and benefactor of mankind which was till then writhing under a most agonizing pain. I have always held Islam in high estimation because of its wonderful vitality. It is the only religion which appears to me to possess that assimilating capacity to the changing face of existence which can make it appealing to every age. I have studied him (Prophet Muhammad), 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”. Please, remember that the above quoted comment by George Bernard Shaw was made in 1936 and take another look at the growth of Islam in Europe today as compared to any other religion.

Conclusion

The above quoted attestations are just some of the documented facts that confirm unlettered Prophet Muhammad (SAW) as the greatest human being that ever lived on earth. It should be noted that none of those attestations made any reference to his birth or birthday because the attesters knew that Muhammad’s birth had nothing to do with his achievements as a Prophet. He was not born a Prophet and his greatness was not by accident of birth but by divine will of Allah. Thus, in reality, celebrating Prophet Muhammad’s birthday is a way of trivializing his unparalleled greatness as the seal of all Prophets. Now, can any other human being be ever compared to him?

No sensible human being ever restricts his itinerary to aparticular habitat; to keep moving and migrating from place to place is the secret of human progress.     –    Arab poet

Preamble

Today’s article is a change of focus through which ‘The Message’, chooses to migrate psychologically from the insanity of Nigeria’s political, economic and religious rigmarole to the arena of an on-going global tempest if only for a change. After all, elasticity has its own limit. And by so migrating, though temporarily, a breeze of relief may blow on readers of this column over the current suffocating economic heat in the country devilishly being devilishly fuelled by religious bigotry. For now, that is a way of ventilating a peaceful atmosphere for peace-loving Nigerians.

Iran’s Nuclear Deal

In what looks like a prelude to a practical military faceoff between Iran and the NATO West, Iran has announced further enrichment of her nuclear programme with gas. This is contrary to the contents of the agreement signed by both sides with a condition of nuclear enrichment with economic ‘sanction’. But with the expiration of the time limit of that agreement a few months ago, Iran had warned of a post agreement action and gave an ultimatum of two months to the West to lift the economic sanctions imposed on her. However, the West ignored the warning even when it expected Iran to comply with the tenets of the agreement. Now, with a seeming stalemate in place, the world is paying a rapt attention on what the next level will be.

Fortuitous Military Encounter

A couple of years ago, Al-Jazeera Television throbbed with breaking news, saying that a United States military aircraft strayed into the airspace of Iran and the latter promptly responded by shooting it down. Iran announced another incident of the like a few days later.

That disturbing development further aggravated the tension between both countries, which started with the Iranian revolution in 1979.

That revolution had uprooted Iran’s imperial despotism which had caged the citizens of that country for decades.

S.’ Reaction

In reaction to the fortuitous military encounter, the US authorities explained that the destination of the shot aircraft was Afghanistan and not Iran. They explained that its pilots accidentally lost control and strayed into Iranian territory.

Threat to British Embassy

Shortly before that incident, Some Iranian students had besieged the British Embassy in Tehran protesting the meddling of David Cameron’s government in the internal affairs of Iran. And in a prompt retaliation, Britain immediately evacuated her diplomats in Tehran and sent the latter’s diplomats in London packing despite Iran’s regret over those students’ action.

Genesis of Faceoff

The genesis of the faceoff between the West and Iran took roots in the latter’s unexpected revolution of 1979. The faceoff actually started in February 1979 when Iran jumped onto the world stage with a surprising but successful revolution. February 11, 1979 was the precise climax day of a struggle, in that country, which began in 1963 between the oppressed people who were seeking emancipation from the shackles of imperialism and the implacable oppressors who wanted to keep that country’s innocent peasants in perpetual subservience. The success of that revolution has since changed the grand design of the Western powers for the Muslim world.

The Grand Design

That grand design for usurping the Arab wealth as a means paralysing Islam was first expressed in 1902 by a British Prime Minister, Sir H. Campbell-Bannerman when he observed as follows: “There are people who control spacious territories teeming with manifest and hidden resources. They dominate the intersections of world routes. Their lands were the cradles of human civilizations and religions. These people have one faith, one language and the same aspirations. No natural barriers can isolate them from one another….If, per chance, these people were to be unified into one state it would then take the fate of the world into its hands and separate Europe from the rest of the world. Taking these considerations seriously, a foreign body should be planted in the heart of this nation to prevent the convergence of its wings in such a way that it could exhaust its powers in never- ending wars. It could also serve as a spring board for the West to gain its coveted objects”.

Follow Up

Sir Bannerman’s observation was in further pursuit of an earlier1979 in Contemporary History emand by one Theodor Herzl, a leader of the Zionist movement founded in 1879. Herzl, an Austrian Jewish lawyer and journalist demanded thus:“Let sovereignty be granted us (Jews) over a portion of the globe large enough to satisfy the rightful requirements of a nation; the rest, we shall manage by ourselves…”

In response to that clandestine demand, another British Prime Minister, James Arthur Balfour issued a devastating declaration that now bears his name, which conceded a major part of Palestine to the Zionists as a home. That (Balfour) declaration has since put the Middle East in incessant turmoil. The declaration read thus in part:“His majesty’s Government views with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people and will use its best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this objective…. The rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country shall not be prejudiced by the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people”.

Implementation

To facilitate that objective effectively, some other Middle East countries had to be decapitated economically and politically by excising from them, a juicy chunk of their lands. Thus, Lebanon was excised from Syria and Kuwait from Iraq. The strategy was to cause a dissention among the citizens of those countries with the intention of breaking the yoke of the Muslim unity which Bannerman had targeted in his infamous observation of 1902 quoted above.

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

That is a logical question that anybody who is not quite familiar with the Middle East and the intricacies of its political and economic set up would ask. Naturally, Iran is affected by three major factors:Politics, economy and culture. And by culture here, we mean ISLAM.

Iran is a foremost Islamic country even if her official language is farisi (Persian) and not Arabic. And, as an Islamic Country, whatever affects other Muslim countries must affect her.

Turkey for Instance

The case of Turkey is a good example of a Muslim country without Arabic as language. Thus, Turkey was, though, not an Arab country, she was nevertheless the seat of the Islamic Caliphate for about 562 years from 1362 until 1924 when a diabolical agent of the West came on stage as Head of State. His name was Mustafa Kemal Ataturk; a man who wanted to prove to the West that it was possible for a non-Catholic to be “Holier than the Pope” especially when it came to adopting the so-called Western Civilisation. On March 3, 1924, just one year after assuming office as the ruler of Turkey, Ataturk introduced a Bill to   the Turkish Parliament seeking to secularize his country by abolishing the office of the Caliph without any consideration for the feelings and sensibility of the people he ruled.

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

With the passage of that Bill, Turkey was recognised as a secular state. Politics was separated from religion and Islam was relegated to a personal matter rather than the state religion that it was before then. The caliphate was abolished and Islamic law was abrogated.

Ataturk borrowed the new Turkish civil law from Switzerland, the criminal law from Italy and the international law of trade from Germany. The Muslim personal law was harmonized with the European civil law. Religious instruction in public schools was prohibited.

Purdah system was abolished and declared illegal. Co-education was introduced to schools. The use of Arabic alphabets was prohibited and replaced by the Latin Script. Adhan (the call to prayer) was no longer to be made in Arabic but in Turkish language while the national costume was changed to that of the Europeans even as the wearing of hat by men was made compulsory. What Ataturk did not do was to abrogate the tenets of Islam completely.

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

Emergence of Ayatullah Khomeni

It was a similar situation under the Iran’s last Emperor, Shah Muhammad Reza Pahlavi that prompted the late Iranian spiritual leader, Ayatullah Ruhullah Mousavi Khomeini to embark on a liberation struggle in 1963 that culminated in a successful revolution in 1979.

Unlike Ataturk, however, Imam Khomeini knew that the greatest virtue that could be lost in the life of man was culture. He knew that without a clear-cut culture man couldn’t be better than a beast. He knew that such values as law, education and religion, which guide man in his peregrinations on earth, are the attributes of culture. He knew that a nation, which surrenders its culture and adopts that of another nation, has enslaved herself permanently to the caprice of the latter nation. Thus, Khomeini saw Islam, (the culture of over one billion Muslims in the world at that time), as the target of the Western imperialists, which needed defence and protection.

The Revolution

No one believed in 1979 that a mass protest which started like a small political billow, engendered by the country’s unarmed Mullahs could eventually grow into such a great magnitude of political ‘earthquake’.

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

The American Strategy

While a number of US F15 bomber jets were approaching Iran, President Jimmy Carter engaged his country’s media executives in a media chat without giving any hint of the impending military operation in Iran.

The tactics was to divert the attention of the press and that of his entire country from the illegal Pentagon’s military expedition. But no sane person can ever fault the contents of the Qur’an. Exactly about 1400 years before that incident, a verse of the Qur’an had been revealed to Prophet Muhammad (SAW) thus: “They (the unbelievers) schemed, and Allah schemed. Allah is the supreme schemer”. Q. 3:54.

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

Failure of the American Strategy

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

to hide and it quickly became a public knowledge.

Thus, the mighty America failed woefully, with her technology, in circumstances she has never been able to analyse and explain convincingly till date. With that scheme, it became obvious that Jimmy Carter of the Democrat Party had dug his own political grave. Of course, he lost the election to the cowboy turned Politician, (Ronald

Reagan) of the Republican Party. For about 444 days (well over a year), the 52 Americans held   hostages by Iranian students remained under the siege of those students. It took high-level diplomacy, through third party countries, to eventually get them released.

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

That relationship however, further deteriorated recently when Iran started a nuclear project with which to prop up her economy. America responded with a threat saying the United States would not tolerate any nuclear project in Iran because she could not trust that Islamic nation with the use of nuclear power. And of course, America’s voice was re-echoed by the United Nations, through the mouth of the latter’s then Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon.

Greyhound

Only a fool will not know that the UN, as presently constituted, is merely the greyhound of the US through which the latter barks randomly at the rest of the world when opinions contradict America’s position.

But for the recent Iraqi episode that became regrettable for the self-appointed policeman of the world, and of course, the North Korean case, which has become a cancerous sore on the head of the US, anothern Gulf war would have either ensued or about to ensue by now. The secret of America’s military successes in various parts of the world is neither in technological advancement, nor military superiority per se.

The failed rescue mission in Iran can confirm this. That secret is rather in her ability to cause schism among some other nations and races as the case in the Arab world.

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

Sanction as Weapon

Now, with the threat of invasion of Iran by Israel on the one hand and economic and political sanctions against her by the Western NATO

allies on the other, will history repeat itself? One fact has become clear about the US political trend ever since that country withdrew from her self-isolationism in 1945. Her internal politics has been regularly dictated by her foreign policy. Thus, many American Presidents have won or lost elections at home due to the foreign policy of the concerned President. Will this also repeat itself in Donald Trump’s regime? One fact that must be well noted however is that Iran is neither Iraq nor Afghanistan. The world cannot afford another World War now. No one should attempt to plunge it into one. A word is enough for those who are wise in America.

Coup in Saudi Arabia

In the same 1979, some disgruntled elements fortuitously staged a coup against the monarchical government of King Khalid. The aim of the coup was not to change the system of government but to hijack the monarchy in the name of a Mahdi (a promised messiah). That incident caused a stoppage of salat and Umrah for almost four months.

Invasion of Afghanistan

Also in 1979, the now defunct Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan with the intention of annexing her and that incident led to an unprecedented jihad that paved way for the emergence of the Taliban government of that country.

All these incidences of 1979 jointly formed the foundation for the global turmoil of the 21st century now pervading the world and threatening human existence. The details of the coup attempt in Saudi Arabia will be discussed in this column at another time soon. Watchout for it.

TODAY’s article is not new. It is only being recalled here due to popular demand. When it was first published in this column some years ago, many Muslim couples in Nigeria saw it as a true mirror of their matrimonial homes. Many others took it for a matrimonial handbook capable of serving as a guide for the conduct of their homes. Yet, many who missed the article at that time but only heard of it from those who read it have severally called for its repetition in this column. Thus, because of the value it may add to Muslim homes and the role it may play in resolving conflicts in those homes, ‘The Message’ decided to re-publish it here today for the benefit of all and sundry. Here it goes:

“A radical 20th century India-born British journalist and novelist, George Orwell, wrote a famous allegorical novel entitled ‘ANIMAL FARM’ in 1945. His focus in that novel was mainly on the Russian revolution of 1917 which he satirized venomously. While writing the novel, that social critic never thought that any possible ripples could arise from it which might have a backlash effect on the entire human social life in the 21st century. But, ironically, with the collapse of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republic (USSR), in 1991, the application of that book became manifest on the entire social life of today’s mankind. This will be explained shortly.

Institution of Marriage

Perhaps no institution in human life is as temporally or spiritually valuable as marriage. This is an indisputable fact across nations, races, cultures and religions. Marriage is the main axis around which the continuity of human existence on earth rotates. It is either a pivotal source of decency or a clear cause of malfeasance in any given society. Without marriage, human societies would have been like Orwell’s Animal Farm. And were Orwell alive today he would have probably redirected the setting of the play in his novel towards the matrimonial homes globally.

Rate of Marriage Dissolutions

Nowadays, the rate of dissolution of marriages is by far higher than the rate at which marriages are consummated. At least, going by the local customs of the various tribes in Nigeria, one can conclude that marriages are conducted weekly throughout the country as against the daily occurrences of their dissolution. This means that marriage, especially, in contemporary time, is the chimney through which the smoke of divorce oozes out to pollute matrimonial environments.

Definition of Marriage

Some people define marriage as legalization of intercourse and procreation of children without any reference to its divine sanctity. Others call it a social contract culturally or legally consummated between two consenting adults opposite genders. The latter definition is also silent on the obligation and responsibilities of such a union. In Islam, marriage is much more than the two definitions quoted above. It is on the one hand, a promise made by the male gender who is soon to become the husband and on the other, a trust personified by the female gender who is soon to become the wife in the custody of a husband. Thus, marriage is an agreement between two families aimed at creating an avenue for continuity of social life through a common social venture jointly managed by the two representatives of both families in their bid to set up a home of their own. The key word in marriage is COMPATIBILITY via effective communication.

Marriage as a Balloon

In the life of any serious human being, three events are fundamentally essential. These are birth, marriage and death. The three jointly form the axis around which the entire human life rotates. All other events in human life are merely peripheral.

Throughout the world today (Nigeria inclusive), marriage has virtually become a balloon which can be casually inflated in one minute and deflated in the next minute. It has been taken for a mere chess game played for the fun of the players as well as that of the onlookers. To most Nigerian city dwellers of today, marriage is not more important than dining, wining, singing and dancing. It has been reduced to mere fun and entertainment which many young couples see as a legitimate means of actualizing sexual urge that would have been perceived as a social aberration without passing through a formal matrimonial communion.

The Parable of Marriage

While conducting a society marriage in Lagos sometime in 2012, yours sincerely compared a marital couple to a pair of scissors which has two blades. Each of those blades faces a different direction. The one faces right while the other faces left. These positions are not naturally interchangeable. Yet, with the nuptial knot tying them together in the middle to seal their common destiny, the two blades jointly work assiduously in their move to certify the essence of that togetherness.

Looking at a pair of scissors very carefully, one will discover that the two blades therein sometimes stick closely together and sometimes stand out separately. Their meeting and parting randomly accentuate the essence of their togetherness. Through those meeting and parting moments, the two blades of the pair of scissors communicate effectively and mutually function dutifully. When they stay apart, the tendency is for some intruders to assume that they cannot jointly function again and therefore attempt to penetrate the gap between them. But as soon as that intruder comes in, the two blades of the scissors quickly come together to crush it. There is a marital lesson for human beings to learn from this.

Division of Labour

No husband can play the role of his wife and no wife can play the role of her husband without experiencing a hitch. The division of labour in the matrimonial home as naturally ordained is the main determinant of the separation of powers in that home.

Just as the two blades of a pair of scissors face different directions but work intimately together, so should any marital couple do in the interest of matrimonial sustenance. If the two blades of a pair of scissors stick together permanently without opening and closing, the tendency is for the scissors to rust away and become useless to users. And, if on the other hand, those blades stay apart consistently thereby giving room for a permanent gap the scissors may never be able to jointly carry out the assignment for which it is manufactured. Thus, it is through random meeting and parting of those blades, that the pair of scissors is able to perform its duty without any hindrance. And as the blades grow older, they become weaker and less active. That is the situation with all marital couples irrespective of race, tribe, religion, ideology or culture.

Implications of Marriage

Today, marriage has become like the country called Nigeria where projects are hurriedly executed to satisfy the secret (under the table) terms of contract without any consideration for the quality and maintenance of such projects. When two young people of different genders and backgrounds are coming together to become a marital couple, they hardly think of the implications of such a union in terms of individual differences and the possible challenges that may emanate from those differences. Young couples of today mostly perceive love either from beauty point of view of the pleasure of sexual intercourse. And that is a way of misconceiving infatuation or enjoyment of sexual intercourse for love which is usually the cause of marital collapse.

Marital Love

In marriage, love develops only gradually with mutual understanding especially when it becomes evident that one spouse accommodates the weaknesses of the other through tolerance and compromise. The attraction which beauty or intercourse engenders can only at best generate tentative LIKENESS and not LOVE in the real sense. This is where the foundation of divorce is often laid even before the consummation of marriage. There is nothing called love in a matrimonial home in the absence of thorough understanding of each other through effective and sincere communication as well as tolerance. The Prophet’s recommendation

In his recommendation to Muslim men searching for wives, Prophet Muhammad (SAW) was reported have said: “Wives should be married on the basis of four factors: beauty, wealth, family background and faith”. He however emphasized (Islamic) FAITH as the strongest factor for Muslim couples. He did not recommend such factors to women knowing the difficulties that women might face in making choices of men but he strongly recommended that a woman’s consent in her marriage is germane. The Prophet then concluded that any marriage without such consent is invalid. This means that forcing a girl into marriage without her consent is illegal in Islam.

Marriages are globally collapsing at an alarming rate today because families have closed their eyes to two key factors in maintaining the matrimonial homes of their wards. These factors are COMMUNICATION and MUTUAL RESPECT. No marriage can ever survive or succeed without a thorough pre-marital counseling by parents, guardians or religious clerics who must not only tutor potential couples but also demonstrate practically to them how marriages are sustained using their own marriages as examples. Newly married couples often dream of building their homes on the models of certain older couples in the society. The consummators of new marriages in the Muslim community must be part of those models.

Effective Communication

There can be no matrimonial peace in the absence of adequate communication between husband and wife based on mutual respect. Nothing signals the collapse of a marriage more than communication breakdown in the home. A marriage without effective communication is like a house without doors. Of course, the children from such homes are mostly the victims of any ensued divorce. If a marriage is initiated and consummated without effective communication, how can anybody think that such a marriage can be sustained with mere wishes and assumptions?

Spiritual Togetherness

In Islam, one of the most potent ways of ventilating communication in the home is to worship and pray together at least twice in a day (morning and evening) especially if the Mosque is far from residence.  A Muslim husband must, at least, be knowledgeable enough to lead his family in Salat and to preach and pray for the family daily. It is through such worship and prayer that many knotty matrimonial issues can be untied. And, besides, the children will be able to learn to be good-mannered and to resolve any disagreements among themselves. That is one of the reasons why Muslims are urged to acquire knowledge about their religion.

The Role of Mosques in Marriages

By remaining indifferent to the rate of divorce among Nigerian Muslims, the Mosques are surely shirking one of their foremost responsibilities. It has been said repeatedly in this column that Mosques are not meant for Salat alone. As a matter of fact, Salat can be observed congregationally or individually anywhere that is clean and not necessarily in a building called Mosque. A Mosque in Islam does not have to be a building if its purpose is just to observe Salat. That is why Prophet Muhammad (SAW) was quoted as saying that: “the entire earth has been made the Mosque for Muslims once it is purified”.

One of the fundamental duties of a Mosque is to sanitize the society by finding resolutions to conflicts. And since no conflict can be more devastating to any society than that of matrimonial home, it becomes incumbent on every Mosque to have a Conflict Resolution Committee constituted by learned scholars and headed by an Islamic jurist.

As a duty, an Imam of a Mosque must also be well educated enough to guide the congregation in his Mosque on the need to take their matrimonial conflicts to the Mosques or Shari‘ah courts where such conflicts can be solemnly resolved rather than to local customary courts where marriages are dissolved with fiat. Matrimonial conflicts are not new to any modern society. What seems to be new and worrisome about them is the geometric leap they are taking these days.

Conclusion

Today, Nigerian society is prone to danger of insecurity mostly because of matrimonial instability. And the more marriages are consummated, the more matrimonial homes crumble. Who, then, will save the society by saving our matrimonial homes? That is the biggest question of this time which is begging for a very positive answer. The security of Nigeria as a country depends very much on the stability of matrimonial homes. That is why emphasis should rather be laid on stability of homes than on distribution of contraceptives for the purpose of reducing procreation. There can be no peaceful nation without peaceful homes. This is a panacea for national insecurity. The battle for peace in Nigeria’s future is rather in the matrimonial homes than in the Sambisa forests of this world (which is the enclave of the vandals called Boko Hram). God bless our homes.

In what became another golden feather of honour to the glorious cap a hardworking, honest Nigerian citizen popularly known as ‘Model of Change’, President Muhammadu Buhari displayed a show of Presidential appreciation to whom honour was due yesterday, November 28, 2019, by giving National Merit Award to the JAMB Registrar, Professor Ishaq Olanrewaju Oloyede, OFN, FNAL for hard work and excellence.

Long before now, Oloyede had been a household name not only in Nigeria or Africa but also in the entire world just like the University he was privileged to head as Vice-Chancellor over a decade ago. What qualified a onetime madrasah boy for such a vertical position is an interesting question for which most inquisitive minds may earnestly seek an answer. And the answer is not far-fetched.

Binocular Focus

Unlike most Nigerian men of letters in the Ivory Tower, Professor Oloyede wears a binocular with which he sees life from two opposing worldly sides of the West and the East. And this became evident not just in his management of the University of Ilorin within just one tenure of five years but also in the humility, selflessness and patriotism with which he demonstrated civility and exhibited  knowledge par excellence in that office. Through him, Nigerians came to know that the difference between a man of letters and that of knowledge is indisputably clear. While the one sees life through the common eye, the other sees it with an uncommon vision.

In the days of Socrates, Aristotle and Herodotus, when education was an adorned virtue used as a yardstick for measuring civility and value, no one cared about the material gains accruing from it. However, bastardization of education set in when certificate became a means of valuing its material worth. Thus, with acquisition of certificates by all means, mere literacy began to be misconceived as education. And today, Nigerian Universities have been reduced to mere centers of advanced literacy rather than citadel of knowledge that they used to be.

Literacy and Education

Whereas literacy is just an added value to education the modern day man has ignorantly but arrogantly interpolated the one for the other. This is what Professor Oloyede resented in his academic odyssey when he chose to combine Eastern education with that of the West with a determination to take advantage of both in fertilizing the academic soil of Nigeria’s future. For those who didn’t know, that was why he specialized in Islamic Studies even at the professorial level.

Professor Oloyede’s philosophy of life seems to tally ascetically with that of Daniel Webster an American Statesman and intellectual who in a memorable poem stated as follows:

”If we work marble it will perish; if we work upon brass time will efface it; if we rear temples they will crumble into dust; but if we work upon immortal minds and instil in them just principles; we are then engraving that upon tablets which no time can efface but will brighten to all eternity”.

Philosophy of Life

The above poem symbolizes the philosophy that propelled Professor Oloyede to adopt contentment as a principle right from his adolescent years. Why relating his reason for contesting for the office of the Vice-Chancellor, he once told some medical students of his University who went to congratulate him on assumption of office as Vice-Chancellor that he never intended to contest for that office. But when an academic charlatan with an ulterior motive in the same University threatened to expose him if he dared contest for the post, he (Oloyede) saw it as a challenge to put his privacy on a public table. His intention was actually not to contest but to see what would be exposed in his privacy. And, contrary to the expectations of sceptics, he emerged as the Vice-Chancellor without an iota of blemish.

Before contesting for that post he had served as Deputy Vice-Chancellor twice. First, he was the Deputy Vice-Chancellor Academic and later Deputy Vice Chancellor Administration in the same University of Ilorin where he had spent his entire academic life as a student, as an alumnus, as a lecturer, as a Director in several areas and as a Professor. Thus, he had seen that University inside-out and that was enough to propel an ambition in him to target the highest office in the Citadel for which he was eminently qualified but there was no such level of ambition in him.

Professor Oloyede relayed to his students the above story of his unintended contest for the highest office not as mere bravado but as an encouragement towards service to humanity with humility and patriotism.

Evidence of Contentment

As the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ilorin, Professor Oloyede was nominated and elected as the President of the African Vice-Chancellors.

But when he noticed that the position of the Executive Secretary of the Association of African Universities was more meaningful and more beneficial to Nigeria than that of the President which he then held, Professor Oloyede encouraged some of his Nigerian colleagues to apply for that post promising to resign his Presidential position in that Association to enable a fellow Nigerian occupy the office. Incidentally, most of his colleagues did not believe him. But when the time came and one of them indicated interest, Oloyede surprisingly resigned as President of African Vice-Chancellors just after two years in an office where he had opportunity to spend two terms of renewable five years.

However, the Professor who benefited from Oloyede’s large-heartedness by assuming the office of the Executive Secretary of African Universities eventually ventured into Nigerian local politics and relinquished the covetous post in favour of that of the Secretary to a State Government (SSG) thereby depriving Nigeria the benefit for which Oloyede had resigned as President. The comparison of personalities in this circumstance is better left to the readers of this article.

Academic Administration

Only a few Nigerians in the academic arena can surpass Oloyede’s record when it comes to the ‘nitty gritty’ of academic administration. Yet, you can hardly notice it in his demeanour. This ascetic Professor is not only the first alumnus of the Faculty of Arts in the University of Ilorin to graduate with a ‘FIRST CLASS’ he is also the first alumnus of that University to obtain a PhD from the same University. Not only that, Professor Oloyede scored many other ‘FIRSTS’ in that University to the admiration of the upcoming students as encouragement for those with same aspiration among those students. He was the ‘FIRST’ Director of Academic Planning and first alumni President to be a member of the Governing Council of the University of Ilorin. Professor Oloyede is also the first Unilorin alumnus to become a Deputy Vice-Chancellor and subsequently the first alumnus to become the Vice-Chancellor of the University.

And at the national level, he was the first Vice-Chancellor in Nigeria to introduce Computer-Based Testing (CBT) method of screening applicants in the country just as he was the first Vice-Chancellor to lead a second generation University to the number one position in Nigeria based on external ranking. He also became the first Nigerian Vice-Chancellor to emerge as President of the Association of African Universities (AAU) and at the same time the Chairman of Association of Nigerian Universities (AVCNU). Still not done, he is the first Nigerian Vice-Chancellor to combine the Board membership of International Association of Universities (IAU) with those of the Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU) and Association of African Universities (AAU) at the same time.

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University Calendar

With the above listed ‘FIRSTS’ he was (as Vice-Chancellor) able to make Unilorin the first Federal University in Nigeria to run a decade of uninterrupted academic calendar and prompted that University to be internationally ranked as one of the very best 20 Universities in Africa. Also, through his astute academic administration, the University of Ilorin was able to maintain the first position in national ranking for three consecutive years (2009, 2010 and 2011). Another major plus in this man’s life but which most people hardly notice is arbitrating factor.

Conflict Resolution

Professor Oloyede does not only resent conflicts in whatever form he also regards arbitration as a duty. Thus, whenever he notices any sign of conflict in his vicinity, be it interpersonal, intertribal or interreligious, he immediately initiates arbitration and reconciliation process to ensure resolution without minding the cost. And his impartiality in doing this is generally acknowledged and revered across all borders. Now with his post as the Registrar of the Joint Matriculation and Admission Board (JAMB), he has added a rare feather to his exemplary cap in a way that fetches him a tacit title of ‘A Model of Change’.

A Guiding Life

In Professor Oloyede is a great example for those who aspire to be great in a world where greatness is a slippery land. His life has become a guide for the younger professionals and artisans who need guidance “either as a warning on the vanity of human wishes or as encouragement or both”.

With His Eminence, Dr. Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar CFR, mni, at the helm of affairs of the NSCIA and Professor Oloyede as the Secretary-General of that apex body of the Muslim Ummah in Nigeria, who does not see that a right step is now on course on the right path?

Epilogue

With vertical men of this stature on Islamic stage in Nigeria at this point in time who says Muslims are non-existent in the scheme of modern life? Today, there is no aspect of human endeavour where Muslim men and women do not stand out as signposts of life like summer crescents quietly moving towards zooming into full moon. And now with this latest unique award confirming Oloyede as a unique historic signpost for African men and women of today who may be aspiring to be great in life tomorrow what else is left for sceptics to say about this man vis a vis greatness?