In Defence Of Islam In The Days Of Violence And Crises

In Defence Of Islam In The Days Of Violence And Crises.

Isa Ali Ibrahim (Pantami)

We are really unhappy with the killing of innocent people in Nigeria in the name of Islam, because of this and many more I intend to write this flyer in defence of our universal religion Islam in these days of violence and crises. The name of Islam is being attacked, tarnished, subdued and vanquished in the media, particularly western media because of the action of some mischievous and extremist Muslims. People find it difficult to do justice to Islam by differentiating what Islam teaches and what Mischievous Muslims do in the name of Islam. Those mischievous Muslims in some situations are not even Muslims but they perpetrate and perpetuate violence under the pretext of Islam, in order to harm our universal religion.

However, most of the media houses (not all), print and otherwise, are ever ready day-in day-out to attack Islam through attacking the action of waggish and so-called Muslims to Islam, the good, the bad and the ugly. This is a clear injustice to Islam.

Maitashine came for the past three decades in Kano, Bulunkutu in Maiduguri, Malam-kuri in Gombe, Kaduna then Yola and killed innocent people in thousands. Most of the non-Muslims particularly western people classified the action of these few and insignificant people as the teaching of Islam by forgetting the action of the majority of the Muslims in Nigeria which is contrary to that, and contrary to the verdict of our contemporary Scholars then, like His Eminence, Late Shaykh Abubakar Mahmoud Gumi, Late Shaykh Isma’ila Idris, Shaykh Yakubu Musa Kafanchan (now Katsina), Shaykh Abba Aji and many more.

The recent crisis which engulfed some cities and towns in the northern Nigeria like, Maiduguri, Bauchi, Potiskum, Wudil and Danja local government in Katsina State, which started on Sunday 26^th of July. These attacks are being launched, perpetrated and perpetuated by a sect that goes by different names in different places across the cities, vis-à-vis Taliban, Boko Haram, Khawaarij, Jamaa’atut-Takfir wal Hijrah, original ahlus-sunnah and Yusufiyya. The sect is being led by Muhammad Yusuf whom I had a debate with that lasted for almost six hours some four years back. Those that watched and/or listened to the debate said I was able to defeat him hands down, not because of my knowledge or wisdom, but because of Allah’s guidance. The debate is available on CDs and cassettes in many states in northern Nigeria. They issued out verdict prohibiting acquiring worldly knowledge (popularly known as western education), working under government and recognizing any government that does not judge with the Shari’ah. Their verdict is contrary to that of permanent committee of verdict in Saudi Arabia, volume 12, under the leadership of His Eminence, Late Shaykh Bn Baz, Kitabul-Ilm of Shaykh Muhammad Saleh Al-Uthaimeen and a book authored by Shaykh Salman Al-Audah entitled “Islam and the pursuit of wordly knowledge”. The verdict of this sect “Boko Haram” is contrary to the teachings of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) and all our pious predecessors, may Allah have mercy on them. The methodology of Ahlus-Sunnah wal Jama’ah popularly known as As-Salafiyya never supports the verdict of “Boko Haram”.

Many people because of their enmity, sentiment and mischief consider their actions as the true and only teaching of Islam neglecting all the verdicts of our Scholars contrary to “Boko Haram”. In those days, in various newspapers, Scholars came out and attacked this sect. I read the verdict of Jamaa’atu Nasril-Islam, Shaykh Sani Yahaya Jingir, Shaykh Nazif Yunus, Imam Abubakar Ikara, to mention but a few. We kindly request the enemies of Islam to fear their Lord and avoid attacking Islam under the pretext of avoiding this violence. Islam teaches peaceful co-existence between mankind after fulfilling some conditions, as it has been vindicated in the Holy Qur’an. See suratul-Anfal: 61 and suratul- mutahanah: 8-9.

There is need for us to ask ourselves, what are the reasons of the emergence of this sect and its kinds? Among the reasons of its emergence there are some limitations and weaknesses of our leadership and followership, particularly in Nigeria. On the part of our leaders they destroy our country with lack of power, lack of portable water, insecurity, poor education and immorality. On the other hand our leaders perpetrate and perpetuate corrupt practices by looting our resources and indirectly starving our masses. They destroy our Schools in Nigeria and send their children abroad. Because of these problems and many more, youths in Nigeria instead of acquiring sound education and moral training and change the country by educating people through spiritual and moral restraint, they started taking laws into their hands which is Islamically prohibited. Let our leaders fear Allah and avoid looting our resources and eradicate immorality, and they should always recall that one day one time they will stand before their Creator and account for their actions. They circumambulate the world and see how other countries progress while Nigeria always diminishes.

Most of our Scholars (not all) are not safe, because they fail to train our youths, on sound moral and spiritual guidance, they abandon the methodology of our pious predecessors in preaching, they attack and curse our leaders on pulpit during their sermons without praying for Allah’s guidance for them, they fail to remind those leaders on the dangers of corruption and fraud, they sometimes teach extremism indirectly by attacking anybody directly, and they adopt double standard by legalizing extremism in other countries and denying it in our country. Let our Scholars fear Allah and invite people to Islam with wisdom and fantastic preaching with sincerity. May Allah guide our scholars to the right path and have mercy on them.

Most of our community leaders (not all) are not safe, because they neglect their main responsibility of adopting their position of elders in our various communities by dancing to the tune of mischievous people, abandoning the teaching of their fore-fathers like Shaykh Usman Bn Fodio, abandoning acquiring knowledge which is the back bone of leadership and adopting arrogance in the name of power while the power is not there in most cases.

Most of our parents are not safe, because they neglect and dismiss their responsibilities of sound upbringing, filtering their kids from bad friends and companions, teaching them sincerity and morality, correcting their mistakes and limitations and allowing them to join any Islamic and worldly school without investigating and confirming their legitimacy Islamically or otherwise, allowing their kids to watch any international satellite station or tape without screening, allowing them to listen to the preaching of any preacher without knowing his creed and methodology and giving them unlimited excess money without genuine reason. Over to you now parents.

most of our Youths and Muslim students have their own portion of mistake, they feel they are intellectually matured-enough while not, they consider themselves as Scholars while they are not, they adopt fire brigade approach by following short-cut to make Islam supreme and superb over night, they adopt bad friends, they like extremism while genuine Islam teaches moderation and balanced position, they fail to understand the true meaning of Jihad and its borders of how, where and when, they never respect the knowledge of their Scholars and they feel dogmatically whoever is killed genuinely or otherwise under the pretext of Jihad is a martyr, they take law into their hands which is prohibited instead of reporting whatever happens to their religious and/or community leaders or constituted authority. Islam teaches moderation and balance stand, it neither teaches extremism nor laxity. See Qur’an, Suratul Baqara: 143.

Most of our Security personnel (not all) are not safe, they take side during crisis, they brutally kill innocent people, they womanize, they smoke and drink alcohol, they take bribe, particularly in their various collection centres along high ways known as road blocks, they allow the importation of dangerous weapons into our country without following due process, they restricted the use of terrorism to one religion forgetting all the incidences of Niger Delta and the episode of Lagos.

Most of our professionals and technocrats (not all) are not safe, they abandon the ethics of their professionalism, and universities are being destroyed by immorality, terrorism with the name of cultism, raping, taking bribe from their students, university-politics migration and neglecting the character of their students which is an integral part of their certificates. Let our universities be rehabilitated with morality and spiritual restraint. Over to you now…

Some Men of God in other religions are not safe, they enjoy attaching any genocide and holocaust to Islam, the bad and the ugly. They always run to conclusion in trial situation by exonerating their religion and confirming the instigation of any violence to Islam and its leaders, they attack any Muslim community/political leader of taking sides. The men of God appropriate all Islamic legacies to their religion. Men of God, over to you now.

Most of our journalists (not all) are not safe, they never write a balanced and fair report, their personal interest usually reflects, some criticize constituted authority in order to be recognized and pocketed materially, some criticize because their personal demands and material request are not achieved, some desire only to report a unique and ugly story or event against Islam or any religion in focus. The ethics of journalism have been abandoned by some journalists. Over to you now.

In Nigeria, nobody cares, we are yet watching another decade of self-appointed Scholars, people come out and teach the message of God without going through sound, legitimate and legal metamorphosis of producing Scholars or clergymen, the reason is one, in Nigeria we have unlimited and infinite borders of freedom. And the leaders are not better than the populace, on the basis of this; they can hardly correct it without sentiment.

In the final analysis, the problem of Nigeria is not restricted to only one religion, state or person, we all contributed to it, but our leaders take the lion share of it. May Allah rehabilitate our religious, community and political leaders, may He as well rehabilitate our youths, security agencies and masses. If we change, definitely Allah will intervene by inducing peace, tranquility and stability. Now over to you Nigerians! Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) says: Fear Allah whenever and wherever you are.

Contributed by Isa Ali Ibrahim (Pantami)

Lecturer, Department of Information Technology, ATBU.

Chief Imam of Abubakar Tafawa-Balewa University Central Masjid.