Hassan
Mamman And Sanusi Lamido: Birds Of The Same Feather?
By
Muhammad Sabon Sarki
ambabazaria@yahoo.co.uk
One Hassan Mamman aroused my curiosity
after reading an article he wrote in the opinion page of the Daily
Trust of Friday 20th May 2005 entitled; "ADVICE FOR
SANUSI LAMIDO'S CRITIC, FATIMAH SULEMAN". The article
was mainly concerned with questioning the competence
of one Fatimah Hassan who posted an article on Gamji
Web Site admonishing Sanusi Lamido. I observed that
the article was culled from another publication
(Amana) and this motivated me to read it believing
that for an article to deserve being culled,
especially by a highly rated paper like the Daily
Trust, it must be top class. However, I was so
disappointed by the contents at the end that I can’t
understand why certain individuals do not appreciate
the superiority of truth and objectivity over
emotional outbursts and slander in their writings. Why
is it difficult for us to be articulate and civil in
our public writings?. Anyone who instictively picks up
pen and paper to write all kinds of rubbish could
surely could go to war defending wrong causes. I
wonder why, despite all the good articles posted in
Gamji web site joining issues with Sanusi on Jaafar,
especially the excellent and well researched one
written by Az-Zubair MK, Daily Trust should find the
one be Hassan Mamman more appropriate as to take
precedence.
Now to Hassan’s article. I would like to start with
his conclusion where he states in Hausa as
follows;“Shirun Malamai hasara ne ga al-umma amma
maganan jahili alhairi ne gareta”, which means; the
silence of its learned ones is a disaster for the
society while the voice of its less illiterate members
is a blessing to it. He holds this view and yet the
entirety of his article was centered on intimidating
the lady to shut off, questioning her competence in
challenging intellectual giants and “world-class”
writers like Sanusi because, as he points out to her
“you definitely are not qualified to do that”!
adding.....”you will only injure yourself and your
little knowledge” he went on. On this ground alone
this article should have gone to the trash basket
instead of finding its way into the pages of Daily
Trust. He also accused the lady of hero-worshipping
Jaafar by insinuating that she “cannot afford to see
or hear any body saying anything contrary to what he
says or holds in believe”(sic) when all the lady did
was only to draw Sanusi’s attention to the Qur’an and
Sunnah which is a recommended practice in Islam
especially when you see your brother straying. We can
see no evidence of the blind defence or glorification
which Hassan so lavishly employs in his defence of his
idol, Sanusi. He points a finger at her and three,
from the same hand, were pointing back at him!
His (Hassan's) entire article was wasted vilifying and slandering the
lady just like his idol Sanusi did on Jaafar (birds of the same feather?)
without any concrete evidence or proof (please refer to ...Philosourpuss
by Az-Zubair MK at Gamji.com). For example after prowling about without
much to hold on to, he lashed out; “... I felt pity for your ignorance of
the topic” without specifying where she displayed the ignorance. It
appears to me and indeed to any discerning reader that the lady drew
Hassan’s wrath because SHE, amongst a number of others, exposed Sanusi’s
poor understanding of Islam (He lied, he distorted facts and he slandered
Jaafar, all of which are great offences in Islam). He wants us to believe
that his idol, Sanusi Lamido is an intellectual giant but no where in his
entire article did he either demonstrate that fact nor could he convince
readers why Fatimah should not admonish him.
Hassan refered to a fabricated hadith (it is actually
a saying by one of the fuqaha) that commands the
search for knowledge even to China. Can we then take
it that his idol, Sanusi went to China to acquire the
knowledge of philosophy and big grammar in order to
show it off against his fellow Muslim brothers?.
Someone can be said to be a great writer if his
writings had propound effect at uplifting the society
in the area of his scholarship. Islam is a beneficial
religion, sent down as a mercy to mankind. However
instead of benefit Sanusi’s writings are increasingly
becoming controversial, stirring up unnecessary
divisions within the ranks of Muslims and causing
rancor between them and their non-Muslim brothers.
This is contrary to the teachings of the holy prophet
(S.A.W) which in effect advices that when you open
your mouth to talk, or by extension, your pen to
write, say something beneficial otherwise you stay
quite.
Both Hassan and Sanusi wasted precious space in the
cherished newspaper on frivolous matters that left
readers more doubtful about their state of eeman than
anything else. My candid view is that they are either
not sufficiently grounded in Islam and its guiding
principles, or they are playing out the scripts of sub-terranean forces
presently very active in seeing to the destruction of Islam in order that
their new world order, a world without religion, a world whose one and
only God, Allah, is replaced this time not by Hubal, Lat, Manat, Uzza,
Wudd, Yaguth, Ya’uq and Nasra, but by the George Bush, Tony Blair, Dollar,
the Euro, Free Market Economy, G-8, EU and the Security Council.
Muhammad Sabon Sarki
185 Minna Road Suleja
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