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07 July 2012
By Abdulwarees Solanke
In some two weeks from now, the Muslim ummah globally
will be ushered into the glorious Ramadan, which
according to the Criterion, is the month the Quran was
revealed as a guide to mankind. For the Muslims
therefore, the month is so important to the extent
that a particular night is said to be more blessed
than a thousand months. The scripture declared fasting
in Ramadan compulsory and compelling so that all will
be morally, mentally and spiritually reformed and
elevated.
Concerning this month of Muslim fasting, there are
authentic sayings from the literatures of Islam that
the devil is chained, the gates of hell are locked and
that of mercy flung open for the benefit of all who
wish to take advantage of this month of mercy. I have
also read in certain books of Islam that Ramadan is a
training school for all the days in the life of
Muslims. By implication therefore, the holiness, the
sanctity and the reverence with which Ramadan is held
by Muslims ought to be applicable to everyday Muslim
life beyond the one-month fast period.
For the Nigerian Muslims in particular, Ramadan is
taken as the month to show presence and relevance; it
is the month to show how buoyant we are; how devoted
we can be; how merciful; how worshipful; how
benevolent; a month to demonstrate media panache with
the avalanche of sponsored programmes on radio and
television day and night; a month that reflects our
warped intellectual fervour with the barrage of
pre-Ramadan, Ramadan and post Ramadan lectures and
tafsirs with mind boggling and sometimes meaningless
or worthless themes that have nothing to do with the
everyday problems of the ummah or the ordinary Muslim
and the common Nigerian; it is a month of bizarre
launchings to rake in money for causes that have
become repetitive without results except to line the
pockets of fake sheikhs and missioners who have been
in the coolers in the preceding months; it is a month
to open wounds of controversies among ignorant
scholars masquerading as guardians of the Islamic
faith and authorities in fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence).
This nonsense has to stop and the real meaning of
Ramadan made known that is for the reform of the human
person and strengthening his capacity in all
ramifications.
It is disturbing that that an average adult Nigerian
Muslim does not even know that there are twelve months
in the Hijrah calendar and that Ramadan is the ninth.
That is the extent of our ignorance. It is really
absurd that an adult Muslim in our country is
oblivious of the fact that the moon is sighted every
month of the Islamic calendar or that science has made
it possible for us to observe the moon phases and
guide us to knowing the probable days of the first
moon, plus or minus one. That shows how uninformed a
Muslim can be in Nigeria. We are truly an ummah of
incapable scholars and ignorant followers as we make
deafening fuss only when the moon is to be sighted to
start or end Ramadan or on whether the moon is sighted
in Kafanchan or Calabar or if it is or not the Sultan
that should validate the commencement of Ramadan. This
is shadow chasing and begging the question on all the
serious issues of development and nation building that
confronts all of us as Nigerians, muslims and non-muslims
alike. This is very unfortunate.
At a time Islam is not correctly appreciated as a
civilizing faith in our country, many of the so called
scholars sit down as marabouts in the conveniences of
their Zaawis exploiting the ignorance and poverty of
the ordinary Muslim. When they should feed the
followership with gems from the Quran, they prevent
them from knowing the true faith of Ibrahim and other
prophets of Allah, perfected with the advent Prophet
Muhammad as the faith of liberation from human slavery
and the shackles of ignorance, jahiliyyah, and
disease. Here is another concern: the true vanguards
of reform from the Islamic point of view are prevented
from reaching the mimbers and the souls of those in
need of deliverance and salvation, with the pristine
or undiluted message. This has given rise to the
emergence of fringe elements parading themselves as
defenders of the faith and causing fitnah, or tumult
and crisis in the body of the ummah. To such fringe
elements, the best practices of Islam and the
spiritually rewarding and socially bonding activities
are bid'ah or innovations which must be fought at all
cost. They present islam, a faith that enriches and
ennobles, as crude and absurd.
This Ramadan, can we muslims in Nigeria sit back a bit
and have a rethink that this nation will not be
reformed until we reform ourselves? From my study and
appreciation of the message of our noble Prophet
Muhammad as encapsulated in the Quran, it is the
negligence of the muslims, in whatever clime or epoch,
that easily brings down or corrupts the nation. This
is because, the message in the Quran to muslims is
clear: being witnesses unto mankind; engaging in amr
bil maroof and naahi anil munkar (enjoining what is
good and forbidding corruption). The history of islam
has always shown that whenever the ummah abandons the
substance of its mission and follows shadows like
others without vision and guidance, they become worse
than ignorant. In our complacence therefore, the
nation stinks.
We boast of multi-billionaires, yet we parade millions
of al-majiris as well. We celebrate producing the
highest number of governors and big politicians and
past presidents, prime ministers and military heads of
state, yet muslims in names are the cannon fodders of
political corruption and brigandage; we proudly
declare that western civilization is built on the body
of knowledge from the Islamic past and, sorry to say,
we are not advancing learning and science now to
benefit humanity but slipping back into the Dark Age.
What is the problem with us? Allah will not change the
grace he has bestowed on a people until they change
that which is n themselves.
Islam is not a faith of unserious people interested in
only what to eat or wear. It is a call to action,
reforming the person, building character and building
the nation. So far, we have not brought the beauty of
Islam to bear on reforming Nigeria, retrieving the
nation from this precipice and clearing the Aegean
Stable that our nation is. We must collectively make a
resolve this Ramadan that the Ummah will make a
positive impact on the governance of our nation,
rather than the confused spectators we have been in
the past, ensure that we build her peace as we pray
for her, with the instrumentality of al qunut in our
nightly tarawih and tahajuds, that Allah in His
infinite mercy makes Nigeria the New Jerusalem, a
Darussalam, an abode of peace, our banner without
stain, our sovereign motherland.
In this Ramadan, we Muslims must reflect on the future
of Nigeria and work for her unity. For, it is in a
peaceful, united and progressive Nigeria that we can
live as contented Muslims and practise our diin,
hoping for the bounties of Allah, the most
compassionate, the most merciful.
Abdul-Warees Solanke, Head, Voice of Nigeria Training
Centre, Broadcasting House, Ikoyi Lagos studied Mass
Communication and Public Policy and writes via
korewarith@yahoo.com
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