Religion

By Muhammad Jameel Yusha’u, PhD

On Friday, I spent the early morning hours participating in a boot camp on negotiation. It was part of the effort of Professor Rand Wentworth to build the capacity of his students in negotiation. The boot camp was facilitated by Monica Giannone.

Immediately after the boot camp ended at 12 pm, my friend Alibek Nurbekov and I proceeded to the Friday prayer. As I was about to enter the prayer hall, Dr Khalil Abdur-Rashid was also arriving. Dr Khalil is the Muslim Chaplain at Harvard University and teaches courses at Harvard Kennedy School and Harvard Divinity School.

“Sheikh Khalil, welcome back from Umrah,” I said as he made his way into the prayer hall.

“Good to see you, Jameel. I need to talk to you after the prayer,” he said, and I nodded in agreement.

Dr Khalil led a group of students and other members of the Harvard Community to participate in Umrah, the lesser Muslim pilgrimage, where Muslims visit Makkah and perform the Umrah rites. They also visit Prophet Muhammad’s (PBUH) mosque in Madina and other historical places in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

I came to know about the Harvard Umrah trip during the welcome orientation for students led by Dr Khalil last year at the beginning of the fall semester. He announced that some donors had provided scholarships for Muslim students to attend the pilgrimage, and he played a video for us on the experience in 2019 when they went on a similar voyage. Many students pledged to join the group for the trip in January.

Organising trips to different countries is a common tradition at Harvard University during the January break. Many trips were organised to Brazil, Singapore, Mexico, Saudi Arabia and more. The Harvard chaplaincy also utilised the break to organise the Umrah from 4th-14th January 2023.

Quoting Dr Khalil, The Harvard Crimson reported that “a generous donation from a graduate of Harvard Business School and a parent of two current Harvard undergraduates allowed the University to offer the trip at no cost to first-generation, low-income Muslim students. The donation for this year’s trip reportedly totalled approximately $100,000.”

As the Friday prayer finished, I waited patiently for Dr Khalil. As he came out, he asked me to walk towards his car. He brought a gift from the car and handed it to me. “This is a gift from the Umrah.” His wife Samia, who is also the female Muslim Chaplain, said, “it is a little gift for your girls.”

I thanked them in appreciation and headed home to enjoy the rest of the evening with my family. You can find the full story on the Harvard Umrah trip entitled “Spiritually Stimulating: Harvard Students Embarked on First Umrah Trip in Four Years.” (https://lnkd.in/et_dEBer).

Takeaway: Spiritual well-being is important in helping students to have a balanced educational experience.

Muhammad Jameel Yusha’u, PhD, is a candidate for a Mid-Career Master’s in Public Administration at Harvard University, John F Kennedy School of Government. He can be reached via mjyushau@yahoo.com.

By Umm Khalid

Playing singles means you are playing by yourself with no one else on your team. You face off against another individual opponent. I found playing singles easier because it was simple: I knew that every ball that comes over the net was my responsibility. No one else was there to share the responsibility with. Playing a singles game is straightforward. One on one.

But it is exhausting. Every ball is your responsibility. There’s no one to help you, no partner to get the balls you can’t reach, no one to back you up. You have to run back and forth to cover the length and width of your side of the court by yourself.

Playing doubles tennis, on the other hand, means you have a partner and the two of you are a team facing off against another team of two. You and your teammate work together to hit the ball back over the net, so each of you has fewer balls to hit, less court space to cover.

But I hated it because it’s very easy to lose when you play doubles. Very often, the ball comes sailing right between the two of you as both of you look, startled, at one another and neither person hits the ball.

The first person assumed that the second was going to get it, and the second person assumed that the first person was going to get it. Neither gets it, and the ball bounces off the court and you lose the point.

Continue playing like this, and you lose the game, the set, and the match. You walk off the court, defeated and disappointed.

Marriage is a little like playing doubles tennis. The only way to win is to have well-defined tasks and to communicate CLEARLY with your partner. The two of you must coordinate so that nothing falls through the cracks. Each person knows exactly what he or she is going to cover. You know you’re on the same team and that you’ve got each other’s back–but you still need to talk about who’s going to do what and what your expectations are and ask for help when you need it.

To have a good marriage, the husband and wife need to work together like a well-oiled machine.

It is, of course, challenging to work so closely with another person, to coordinate tasks, to divide labor evenly based on each person’s strengths.

This is why many modern women prefer to just play singles games, living the single life without the hassle of being on a team or dealing with another person.

But living that single life is exhausting and lonely. Sure, you don’t have to work things out with anyone else and can do things all by yourself…but… you are all by yourself.

Marriage is a joint effort for the sake of Allah, a combined struggle of both the husband and the wife to build and maintain a strong Muslim family. The husband and the wife are a team: they each have clearly-defined assigned roles, but they also don’t hesitate to lovingly step in to help one another if it’s needed.

If you play it right, you can reap all the benefits of playing doubles tennis without the drawbacks.

Make sure that you:

1. Have a clear division of labor, so each person knows which side of the tennis court they’re responsible for. In marriage, we call this gender roles.
2. Communicate clearly, so no points are lost due to each person expecting the other to hit the ball. In marriage, the husband and wife have to communicate effectively with each other to decide which non-obvious tasks fall under whose domain so that all tasks are covered.
3. Ask for help if you need it, so that unlike in a singles game, your doubles partner can bail you out or back you up if you try to hit your ball but miss. In marriage, each spouse has a well-defined role, but one of the beauties of marriage is the ability to ask your spouse for help if you need help. Marriage is a soft, loving relationship between a man and a woman who have love and mercy for one another. You have someone who will willingly step in to carry your load on the days you find it to be too heavy, until you get back on your feet.
4. Be a team player, not selfish, self-centered, or negligent of your role. In our modern age, hyper-individualism has made many people selfish and narcissistic, putting themselves and their own individual whims above the needs of the group or their role in the collective. When you play selfish, whether in tennis or in marriage, you lose.

May Allah bless our marriages, our homes, and our families, ameen.

By Tijjani Muhammad Musa

I left the house without taking breakfast or even a bath in order to meet an 8:00 am appointment with the rest of our SWS.Comms production crew. A client has brought in an advert for emergency production and airing on the radio against an event scheduled to take place the next day, Saturday morning, by 10:00 am after the monthly Sanitation exercise.

The heavy traffic of Adaidaita Sahu, private vehicles, motorcycles, and so on State Road was highly discouraging as I turned into it from Maiduguri Road. Quickly calculating my other options, I thought of taking alternative routes to steer me away from the delay most likely to occur if I should get trapped in the traffic mess.

However, thinking positively and hoping for the best, I still drove into the snailing jam of vehicles. Soon, however, I saw an opening on the side of the road accommodating a trickle of cars and the ever-daring tricycle riders. Now being in a bit of a hurry, I instinctively branched into that flow. 

This gave me and many others the opportunity to cut off almost three-quarters of the “go-slow” that was caused due to road repairs, maintenance and renovation work going on on the roads as a result of adverse effects of heavy rainfall witnessed in the city in recent time. 

So many of the roads in the metropolis have turned into shallow graves and potholes, forcing many drivers to demonstrate their driving skills and dexterity, with pedestrians expressing their anger and annoyance once in a while from getting splashed with dirty potholed rainwater.

As I slowly snake through the engaging challenge, turning my head side to side to check the distance between me and the line up of tricycles to my left, I suddenly saw her in one of the Adaidaita and couldn’t help but stare. While briefly looking at it, I at that same time sensed myself being stared at. So I checked to see who was poring his or her eyes over me.

It was a much younger woman sitting next to the person who had caught my rapt attention. Clearly, she was wondering why my face lightened up and suddenly saddened again upon seeing the old woman sitting calmly by her side. 

To douse her fears, I lowered my car window, pointed at the old woman and loudly said, “She reminds me of my mother, who is now late. May her soul be blessed and rest in peace.” I whispered the supplication to my hearing only.

The younger woman, now relaxed and with a slight smile, said, “Allaah Sarki. Allaah Ya jik’anta da rahama” and I said, “Amin thumma amin” as tears wheeled up my eyes. I quickly got hold of myself as I averted the gaze of both the woman as well as the okada rider, whose attention had now turned to me.

I looked at the old woman intently once again and realized that she didn’t actually look like my Hajia in any way except for her height and the frail, wrinkled body characteristic of old women in their octagenarian stage of life. She was looking absent-mindedly into a future that none could tell what it was her mind’s eye was seeing or thinking.

Once again, tears overwhelmed me, for I could remember clearly the same kind of look on the face of my mother. She didn’t want to die due to the uncertainties that lay ahead. But then, none can avert its coming to pass, as it is a promise that must be fulfilled.

This is because Allaah AWJ Says in the Qur’an, “Kullu nafsin za ikatul maut” – Every soul must taste of death (Q3:185). So we all must eventually bow out. When, where, why, by what or how none of us knows. Thus by the 1001 ways and more to die, we all must become deceased.

I felt for her as I did feel for Hajia then whenever I saw that worrisome look registered on her face. I would immediately want to do something to distract her attention so as to change her mood for the lighter from such disturbing thoughts. 

Suddenly without thinking, I reached into the pigeon hole in front of my dashboard and fetched out some money I usually keep there in case of an emergency and asked the Adaidaita rider how much was the cost of the ride. He told me, and I handed much more than the amount to him, telling him to give her the change.

The old woman looked at me and smiled. She was pleased with what I did and waved her two palms at me in thanks, and all of a brief flash, I saw my mother in her. It was a beautiful sight. The younger woman with her was also happy and prayed fervently for me as I drove off.

Then by Allaah SWT, the dam broke, and I started crying, in the wonder of what my mother might be going through, wherever she might be at that moment. There and then, I started praying to Allaah AWJ to please forgive her, whatever wrong she might have done while alive and bail her from anybody’s haqqi if she has done them wrong. 

That my Lord and Maker should please compensate whoever she owes, whatever it might be and set her soul free in Barzakh, pending when she will be admitted into Jannah and His AWJ’s much sought after Grace. Fortunately, I’ve dreamt of her 3 times already. She’s doing alright, bi iznilLaahi.

In one of such dream, we were at an occasion with Prof. Yusuf Adamu, and she came to the place. So I excitedly introduced her to him. As he respectfully greeted her and started thanking her for me, she said to him, smiling, “A’a haba ai mu ne da godiya”. More tears tore into my composure like a small child.

I had to stop myself as passersby were beginning to stare at me, wondering and whispering to each other what they thought was wrong with me. Though I never liked the idea of tinting off my car windows since I have nothing to hide, for a change, I wished I had done so, so I could indulge and enjoy my emotional outburst in full privacy. 

It’s not every day that such grace from Allaah happens to me. Anyway, I pray that all our parents who have died be in better existing conditions, wherever they may be right now than when they were here living on earth. 

May all other mothers and fathers be similarly forgiven for their wrongs, mistakes and shortcomings. Allaahumma amin thumma amin.

By Uzair Adam Imam

There was excitement on the faces of inmates and tears in their eyes when Darus-Sunnah Foundation Wednesday visited the Goron Dutse Correctional Center, Kano, to bail out some of the inmates.

The foundation, under the leadership of Sheikh Muhammad Aminu Ibrahim Daurawa, was able to secure the release of 14 inmates, who, amidst joy, departed to reunite with their families.

The development was contained in a statement issued and signed on Saturday by Malam Aisar Salihu Musa, the committee secretary.

Salihu said the foundation had bailed out the inmates charged with civil offences and debts, where N250,000 was spent in the process.

He added that the foundation also paid for medical treatment for some sick inmates.

Need for authority to intervene

The foundation also called on the authority to intervene in feeding and bailing some of these inmates, whose offences are not criminal.

“There is a need for our rich people and politicians to be taken their annual alms (zakka) to such correctional centres and bail out inmates.

“They need to know that these people suffer because of the little debt or fine they couldn’t afford to pay.

“We need to help them with food, water, clothes, shoes, etc. Some of these inmates will go down on their knees to thank you because of just one Maggi cube.”

Inmates jailed for minor offences

“There is also a need for lawyers and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to visit such places because some inmates are jailed for minor offences.

“They need to interview them, review their warrants, and ensure their constitutional rights are not injured.

The leadership of this foundation also instructed Malam Anas Madabo and Malam Aisar Salihu Musa to preach to the freed inmates before they left.

By Umm Khalid

When I was in college and still single, I was considering a proposal from a certain brother (named Daniel).

I had a conversation with one of my closest friends about what qualities are important to look for in a husband. Alhamdulillah, this Saudi friend was 5 years older than me and had seen many of her peers get married, and she gave me some wise advice.

She told me, “After checking on the basics, his deen and his خلق (character), you know what the most critical qualities are? He needs to be هَيِّن لَيِّن.”

These two Arabic words refer to basically the same general characteristic: one of ease, leniency. A man who is laidback, relaxed, easygoing. Basically, he should be a chill dude.

Of course, he can’t be chill about everything. We all have to stand for something, to care deeply about SOME issues, to be strict in SOME matters. But he should be strict when it matters, when it’s warranted; like when it comes to the commands and limits set by Allah, for example. Then he should absolutely not be chill or lenient, as that amounts to negligence and abandonment of the laws of Allah, and that leads to destruction.

But when it comes to other matters, smaller issues of inconsequential everyday things, you want your husband to be laidback. Not uptight, nitpicky, rigid, inflexible, exacting, OCD about the littlest things, overly sensitive to every small detail. Some people, just by their nature or personality, would be classified by most as “difficult people.”

You don’t want this type of rigidity in a husband. It makes everyday life unnecessarily stressful. Life is already hard enough by itself, that the last thing we need is a spouse who nitpicks and needs everything to be just so. Then married life would be a nightmare.

A good husband is a man who is tough or strict when he needs to be, but with his wife in their home life, he is relaxed and easy. He has a fun side and a sense of humor about life’s ups and downs, and is understanding when things go south. He is lenient with her and indulgent and forgiving (up to a point, of course! Within reason!). He doesn’t, for example, ask her why she moved this small object from this side table to the coffee table, or castigate her for accidentally putting in the wrong address into the GPS, or flip out if dinner is 15 minutes late or on the verge of being under-salted, or interrogate her about small and inconsequential details that are innocuous. Someone who acts this way is usually not easy to be around or live with.

You want your husband to be easy to live with. Because… you will live with him.

Alhamdulillah, now looking back more than a decade later, I completely confirm that advice. An easygoing, chill husband is an enormous blessing.

Of course, the thing is: as a wife, don’t forget to return the favor! If you are blessed with a chill husband, extend the same courtesy back to him and let the little things go. Don’t nitpick or nag him when he annoys you. No person is perfect.

By Aisar Fagge

The AMG Foundation has commiserated with the Kano State Police Command and Commissioner of Police, Mamman Dauda over the fire incident that gutted many offices at the command on Saturday.

In a statement the AMG Foundation Chair, Dr Aminu Magashi Garba, expressed sadness over the occurrence of the incident, calling on the police to take it as an act of Allah.

“We were shocked when we received the sad news of the fire disaster, therefore we are commiserating with you on behalf of the staff and management of the AMG Foundation over this unfortunate incident.

“While praying that such an incident will never occur, we assure you of our support and also urges for preventive measures to be put in place to prevent occurrence of similar incidents in the future,” Dr Magashi said.

It would be recalled that on Saturday, fire engulfed the first floor of Kano State Police Command’s Headquarters Administrative Block in Bompai area of Kano metropolis.

Although, no life was lost and no injury was recorded, the inferno raized Provost Office, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), Finance and Administration Office, Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP), Administration Office, Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP), Operations Office, Finance Offices and Police Public Relations Officers (PPRO’s) Office among others.

According to the police, the fire was brought under control by firefighters and all the Command’s records are intact.

Earlier, CP Mamman Dauda, told the Assistant Inspector General of Police (AIG) Zone One, who visited the scene, that he was in his office when the fire outbreaks started.

He said the command is investigating the cause of the fire incident, adding that no life was lost during the incident.

By Rabi’u Muhammad Gama

Introduction

The Kano State Hisbah Board (hereinafter referred to as “the Board”) has been an object of controversy, particularly on social media, for quite some years – probably right from the inception of the Board. The controversy usually surrounds the way and manner by which the Board, or more properly, the foot soldiers of the Board (the Hisbah Corps), carry out its, supposedly, statutory responsibilities (functions), ranging from matchmaking, reconciling civil disputes between persons and/or organisations, seizing and destroying bottles of alcohol, imposing a certain mode of dressing on people to waylaying young people, especially males, when they seem to have a certain objectionable hairstyle considered to violate Islamic morals.

Even though some historical accounts of the philosophical underpinnings behind the evolution of Hisbah will be very rewarding for a better appreciation of the topic, this article restricts its scope to the constitutional status and the functions of Hisbah as provided for in the Kano State Hisbah Board Law No. 4 of 2003.

The Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria

The Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999, (hereinafter referred to as “the Constitution”) is the Supreme Law of the Land. It is the Law over and above which there is no other law. As such, if any other law, either deliberately or by necessary implication, happens to be inconsistent with the provision of the Constitution, the Constitution shall always prevail, and that other law shall, to the extent of its inconsistency, be void and of no effect whatsoever. See Section 1(1)(2)(3) of the Constitution.

The Constitution is not only the Biggest Law of the Land, but it is also the  Fountain Law of the Land from which all other laws flow. It (the Constitution) distributes legislative powers between the federal and state legislatures. Section 4(1) confers on the National Assembly(which comprises the Senate and the House of Representatives) the power to make laws for the whole country or any part thereof. Section 4(6) likewise empowers the State House of Assembly to make laws for the state or any part thereof. However, these powers are to be exercised within some certain constitutional limits: the National Assembly cannot legislate outside the Exclusive Legislative List and the Concurrent Legislative List, while the State House of Assembly cannot, and shall not, trespass upon the Exclusive List. This clear distribution of powers forms the foundation of the debate as to the legality of the Hisbah Board Law, but that should be a topic for another day.

In response to the then prevailing circumstances and mounting agitation for the reintroduction of Shari’ah in the State, which was sparked by the reintroduction of Shari’ah in Zamfara State, the Kano State House of Assembly exercised the powers given to it by Section 4(6) of the Constitution by enacting a law known and cited as “The Kano State Hisbah Board Law No.4 of 2003, which brought the Hisbah Board into existence.

The Hisbah Board Law

The Kano State Hisbah Board Law, 2003 (hereinafter referred to as “the Law”) came into force precisely on the 7^th  day of November 2003. The law is relatively short: it has 17 Sections only. Section 3(1) of the Law establishes for the State “…a Board to be known as the Kano State Hisbah Board”. “This Board”, says Section 5 of the Law, “shall be responsible for general policy-making as well as coordination of activities between State and…Local Government Hisbah Committees”.

Section 7(1) of the Law empowers the Board to establish the State “Hisbah Corps”, who, according to the Section, may be eligible for appointment as Justices of Peace. By virtue of Section 7(2), the Corps so established shall be under a Commander who shall be appointed by the State Governor. And the duty of the Commander of the Corps, by virtue of Section 7(3), shall be the general administration of the Corps.

According to Section 11(1) of the Law, the Board shall have a Secretary who shall be appointed by the State Governor. The Secretary to be appointed shall be a legal practitioner with not less than 6 years of post-call experience. That Secretary shall be both the legal adviser and the head of the legal department of the Board.

It is important to assert, at this juncture, that the Kano State Hisbah Board, in spite of the raging debate going on in the legal cycle, is a legal and lawful organisation/institution which is duly and validly created by the Kano State House of Assembly pursuant to Kano State Hisbah Board Law No.4 of 2003. See also the case of Yahaya Farouq Cheɗi v. A.G Federation (2006) 13 NWLR (Pt.997) 308  (CA).

Duties of the Hisbah Corps

The Hisbah Corps, created by Section 7(1) of the Law, is the most active arm/department of the organisation. The Corps is the foot soldiers and the chief executor of the responsibilities of the organisation. For the sake of clarity and precision, below are the functions, or rather, responsibilities of the Hisbah Corps, as provided for under Section 7(4) of the Law. According to the said Section, the Hisbah Corps shall have responsibilities to:

Render necessary assistance to the Police and other Security agencies; encourage Muslims to unite in their pursuit of justice; encourage kindness to one another; advise against acquiring of interest, usury, hoarding and speculation; encourage charitable deeds, particularly the payment of Zakkah; give advice on moral counselling; encourage orderliness at religious gatherings; encourage general cleanliness and environmental sanitation; reconciling of civil disputes between persons and/or organisations where parties are willing; assisting in traffic control; emergency relief operations; assisting in any other situations that will require the involvement of Hisbah.

Anything other than the above is beyond the statutory functions of the Hisbah Corps. This begs the question: can the Hisbah Corps give itself powers or functions that are not given to it by its enabling law? The answer is “No”! And one fundamental thing that can be deduced from the above functions is that the Corps seems not to have any “actual power” to execute anything. The Law seems only to empower the Corps to “advise”, “encourage,” and “assist”, nothing concrete and definite! The Hisbah Corps clearly has no power to arrest, detain, waylay or force anybody to do anything against his or her will. The Law could not be clearer, and it is there for all to see.

Conclusion

The Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999, is the first and the ultimate law of the country, the Grundnorm of the Land, so to speak. It creates and empowers the Kano State House of Assembly to make law for the peace, order and good government of the State or any part thereof. It is in the exercise of these powers that the Kano State House of Assembly made the Kano State Hisbah Board Law No. 4 of 2003, which brought into existence the Kano State Hisbah Board. The Kano State Hisbah Board Law, 2003, also creates the Hisbah Corps and empowers it with some specific functions and/or responsibilities.

It is the view of this writer that any act, no matter how noble or well-intentioned, done by the Board or the Corps must be in accordance with the provisions of the Kano State Hisbah Board Law, 2003; otherwise, the act is illegal, unlawful and ultra vires. And where an act of the Hisbah Board, or the Hisbah Corps,  happens to be in conformity with the Kano State Hisbah Board Law, 2003, but not in conformity with the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria,1999, or any other law validly made by the National Assembly, then the Constitution, or the law of the National Assembly, shall prevail and that act stands unlawful and illegal, no matter how religiously rewarding or well-intentioned the act is. See the case of Musa v. INEC (2002) LPELR-11119 (CA).

Rabi’u Muhammad Gama is a Law student; he writes from the Faculty of Law, Bayero University, Kano, BUK. He can be reached via rabiuminuwa327@gmail.com.

According to a BBC report, the formed old Pope died in the early hours of today. “He led the Catholic Church for fewer than eight years until, in 2013, he became the first Pope to resign since Gregory XII in 1415.

Benedict spent his final years at the Mater Ecclesiae monastery within the walls of the Vatican where he passed away at 09:34 (08:34 GMT) on Saturday.

His successor Pope Francis will lead the funeral on 5 January.”

By Ahmad Deedat Zakari

Zazzau Emirate Council has debunked the rumours that a title holder of the Emirate was arrested on the ground of sodomy.

Spokeperson of the Emirate, Malam Abdullahi Aliyu Kwarbai, in a statement issued on Thursday, said the suspect is not a title holder of the Zazzau Emirate but one of the Emir’s servant.

According to him, Shehu Umar Ciroman Baraya, who was accused and arrested is one of the Emir’s servant (Bawan Sarki) and not a title holder of the Emirate as claimed.

He added that the media should always verify claims concerning the Emirate Before rushing to the press and that the misleading reports be corrected immediately.

He said: “The attention of Zazzau Emirate Council has been drawn to the News in the Media that a “TITLE HOLDER” of the Emirate has been arrested for Sodomy.

For the record, the Emirate Council would like the General Public to note that the arrested suspect (SHEHU UMAR CIROMAN BARAYA) is one of the Emir’s Servant (BAWAN SARKI) and NOT a TITLE HOLDER of the Emirate as claimed.”

By Ibrahim Mukhtar 

A Nigeria-based Chinese woman accepted the religion of Islam at the palace of the Emir of Machina in Yobe State. 

The woman who was at the palace with her fiancé explained that no one forced her to accept the religion—she wanted Islam on her own conviction. 

After she took the Kalimatu al-Shahada from His Highness, the Emir of Machina, she was asked to choose the name she wanted.

The Daily Reality learned that she chose “Fatima” based on the advice given to her by her fiancé. 

Fatima was observed to have been happy and relaxed alongside all those with her in the Emir’s palace.