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A new version of Islamic religion has been released recently by Sheikh Ahmad Abubakar Mahmud Gumi, more than one thousand and four hundred years after the original revelation to and accomplished propagation by Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him). In an exclusive chat with the Weekly Trust of 15/07/2007, Gumi stated that the two presidential candidates in the last April elections – General Muhammadu Buhari and Alhaji Atiku Abubakar – challenging ‘Yar’adua’s victory in the court must Islamically withdraw their cases or else the are incompetent to lead Nigeria.
He went further to add that even if fresh elections were to be held, he would tell Muslims in the country to deny them their votes and “Anybody who follows them will follow them on the risk of losing his faith in Allah”! Citing a few Hadiths, he pontificated that what he said was the position of Islam on the matter. And ever since, his Tafsir has metamorphosed into a convenient avenue for attacking them and mounting a religious campaign for legitimizing Alhaji Umaru ‘Yar’adua’s government.
However, even if it were not Dr. Gumi who told a mammoth congregation he was ready to lead a street protest to Abuja in the event of rigging the 2007 polls during his previous Tafsir, there are at least three logical and intellectual grounds on which to refute his fatwah.
But before that, let Dr. Gumi and his ardent followers know that I am not a scholar as he calls himself; yet I am not so much condemned to religious illiteracy and political ignorance as to be deceived by his bloody misinterpretation of the Holy Qur’an and the Prophet’s Sunnah. I will return to this later.
First, Imam An-Nawawi, a strong pillar in Ilmul Hadith has said it all on the very narration he is quoting to extort our bay’ah for ‘Yar’adua’s government. But if he still believes the Hadith could pass authenticity test, then we need explanation on the following one by Ibn Majah: “The prophet (S.A.W) maintained:” ‘The worship of three people are never raised a span above their heads -- He who leads others {in prayer or administration} against their wish, a woman that spends her night while her husband is angry with her and two brothers that are excommunicating each other’. In another narration, ‘It is incumbent upon Almighty Allah to condemn him (the self imposed leader) to hell fire’ and ‘Allah keeps on cursing him’ .Did this president even emerge as a consensus party candidate or are these Ahadith unfounded ?
Second, it is a fact that millions of Nigerian voters did register for the elections-- but, at least from their various testimonies, they were not allowed to give bay’ah to whoever was their preferred candidate. Yet, if it is a post inauguration bay’ah that Dr Gumi is talking about, let him help educate us on the day and venue on which Nigerians rallied to register their allegiance with the declared president. It is interesting that even if Gumi lacks the spiritual power to gauge the feelings of the people concerning that election, responses to his arrogant postulations and tactless encroachment would have, by now, given him an idea.
Third, how can we “forget the past and build a strong system that will not allow rigging of elections” with an illegal government since “it amounts to self deceit for some body to expect a house built on wrong foundation and such a house to last long or be strong”? In fact, it is stupendously embarrassing for any Islamic group to have people like Dr Gumi speaking on their behalf, let alone guide them on their religious affairs. When he first attributed this victory to Allah (S.W.T.) shortly after the declaration, I suddenly had a nostalgic memory of late Sheikh Ja’afar Adam (may Allah have mercy on him) and his principled stand on national political issues like these. Indisputably more learned and wiser than Ahmad Gumi, Sheikh Ja’afar always took the pain to speak truth to power so fearlessly that even his staunch critics link his mysterious murder to a passionate sermon he delivered a day earlier on the alleged plot to rig the elections.
So let me correct Malam Adamu Adamu for associating Dr Gumi with Nasiriddeen Albani in his insightful rejoinder. The two are, indeed, polls apart in their controversial notoriety. Deviating from orthodox ideology and creating divisions in the religion are intellectual legacies he is inheriting from Ibn Taimiyyah, an erudite scholar from Syria whose iconoclastic views and habitual transgressions on pious predecessors, sometimes even on the Sahaba, led to his eventual incarcerations in ancient Sham (Syria) and Misra (Egypt) by their contemporary authorities. History has shown that this scholar has contravened about sixty consensus fatwahs (Ijma’i) on issues such as divorce, theology and visiting the Holy Prophet in Islam. [Read Durarul Kaminah Volume one, page 154 -170 by Ibn Hajr Al-Askalani].
It is evident that one of his biggest students, shamsuddeen Az – Zahabi had to write a letter admonishing his attitude (see Al-I’ilan by Sakhawi) and in a book Zaglul Ilm [Adulteration of Knowledge] advised future students of knowledge to eschew some of his intellectual stocks – in – trade. Scholars know this better; and, like Albani, some have spotted --others even compiled multiple contradictions in his books, especially Majmu’atul Fatawah, which spans about thirty – eight volumes. He serves as Dr Gumi’s inspiration; this is why he sparks off fresh controversies every year in his Ramadan preaching.
But if there is any difference between Sheikh Ibn Taimiyyah and our Malam Ahmad Gumi, it is that the former had all it takes to issue a fatwah and was sufficiently dexterous in argumentation while, unfortunately, the reverse is the latter’s case. And whoever thinks I am belittling him should tell me why he has so far proved himself unable to answer a few questions I personally wrote to him at the climax of his provocative intra Islamic trespasses last year. Furthermore, some people might not know but, if Ibn Taimiyya’s Alfurkan is to be admitted, Dr Gumi’s denial of Ilmul Badini in Islam last Ramadan required him to renew his faith altogether! Now that he attacks the judiciary as un-Islamic many people are at sea as to whether or not his late father, Sheikh Abubakar Mahmud Gumi served under an Islamic judicial system in Nigeria. In actual fact, one needs no depth of political or even religious sagacity to understand the hollowness of Dr Gumi’s gimmick; for some of his words only fling, unwittingly though, further indictment on his master’s government.
Finally, it must be stressed that while Islam abhors needless bloodshed it never condones injustice in its totality. And peaceful pursuit of justice by an aggrieved party such as the one in which General Buhari and Atiku Abubakar are currently engaged is an inherent feature of true Islam. But if Dr Ahmad Gumi wants all of us to embrace what he says as an Islamic position, he should waste no time in saying another model of the religion has been revealed to him fourteen centuries after the arrival of the original in Mecca!
Muhammad Bashir of English Department, Bayero University Kano bashirsenior@yahoo.com
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