Islam

By Ibraheem A. Waziri

Moses E. Ochonu, Boko Haram: The Past of the Present Upheaval, University of California Press, Oakland, 2026.

There are books that inform, books that provoke, and, rarer still, books that compel you to interrogate not merely their subject but the assumptions through which it has long been misread. Moses E. Ochonu’s Boko Haram: The Past of the Present Upheaval belongs, in large measure, to this last category. It is a serious, learned, and often illuminating work. It is also, at a foundational level, a work that mistakes genealogy for inheritance. In a region where the stakes of historical narrative are measured in mass graves rather than academic citations, that error deserves honest reckoning.

Let me be clear from the outset: Ochonu is no lightweight, and no serious reviewer should pretend otherwise. His central argument, that Boko Haram did not emerge in a historical vacuum but must be situated within a long tradition of Islamic reform, dissidence, and theological contestation in Northern Nigeria, is not only defensible but necessary. His four-phase map of postcolonial Muslim dissidence, from Sheikh Abubakar Gumi’s pragmatic shiga a gyara (enter to reform) politics, through the revolutionary “Islam Only” radicalism of the 1980s, to the Salafi fence-sitting of the 1990s, to the full-blown jihadism of Muhammad Yusuf, is genuinely useful. His insistence that Boko Haram be studied as a rational, calculating actor rather than dismissed as inexplicable barbarism reflects an intellectual courage sorely needed in the debate. All of this deserves acknowledgement. 

But respect for a scholar’s craft does not require silence about where it occasionally leads him astray. After sustained engagement with this book, I find that Ochonu’s historical genealogy – meticulous and intellectually compelling as it is – ultimately commits the cardinal error of confusing proximity with equivalence. That the Fodiawa jihad and Boko Haram invoke similar texts, deploy similar vocabulary, and emerge from overlapping cultural landscapes does not make them participants in the same civilisational project. Resemblance is not identity. And a genealogy is emphatically not a pedigree.

The fact that Boko Haram claims Dan Fodio does not mean Dan Fodio claims Boko Haram. Throughout history, movements of radically different character have invoked the same ancestors. Revolutionary France invoked Rome. Such invocation tells us about the claimant; it tells us nothing reliable about the legacy claimed.

The Missing Dimension: What the Genealogy Leaves Out

Ochonu’s framework operates almost entirely along the axis of theological and political dissidence, the reformist impulse, the grievance against corrupt rulers, and the appeal to textual authority. What it leaves almost entirely out of view is the civilisational dimension of Northern Nigerian history: the long, patient, and extraordinarily durable process by which the Hausa-speaking world built not only political orders but also moral architectures, shared systems of meaning, obligation, hierarchy, and dignity that survived dynasties, empires, conquest, and colonial transformation alike.

That moral architecture did not originate with Dan Fodio. It was already ancient when the Fodiawa arrived. The old Hausa city-states and the Kanem-Bornu, which Ochonu himself acknowledges as a sophisticated Islamic civilisation predating Sokoto by centuries, had already created the conditions for a complex society organised around recognisable concepts of hierarchy, obligation, and social responsibility. The Fodiawa did not create this order. They found it, deepened it, gave it sharper Islamic articulation, and codified it in law and administrative structures. This is the real achievement of the nineteenth-century jihad, not that it overthrew the existing order, but that it built upon and consolidated what was already there. The Caliphate succeeded because it was, in the deepest sense, continuous with the civilisation it reformed.

At the centre of that civilisation lies a concept absent from every reformist movement Ochonu analyses, whether in the Fodiawa corpus, the MSSN anthems, or a single Boko Haram sermon. It is the concept that the late Anthony H. M. Kirk-Greene famously described in his landmark essay, “Mutumin Kirki: The Concept of Good Person in Hausa.” Mutumin Kirki, The Good Person, is the civilisational ideal at the heart of Hausa moral order.

The Mutumin Kirki ideal captures something no purely theological analysis can adequately convey: that social legitimacy in Hausa society derives not from ideological purity or reformist credentials, but from kirki, the cluster of virtues encompassing mutunci (dignity), kunya (shame as a moral conscience), responsibility, restraint, and recognition of one’s obligations within the social order. The framework placed duties on Sarakuna and Malamai alike, gave meaning to the roles of Attajirai and ordinary farmers, and even extended its logic to those society defined as marginal. Everyone knew where they stood. Everyone knew what was expected. Dignity required discipline. Power required restraint. And knowledge without wisdom was understood to be incomplete, even dangerous.

Colonialism, for all its violence and extractive logic, largely preserved the structure within which this framework operated. Indirect rule in Northern Nigeria worked precisely because the existing institutions already possessed legitimacy. The Emirates, the Alkali courts, and the hierarchies of office were incorporated into, and in some respects reinforced within, the colonial administrative framework. The resulting order was imperfect, as every historical product is. But it remained broadly legible to the moral universe the Kirki framework had constructed over centuries. In this sense, each successive political order, from Kanem-Bornu to the Sokoto Caliphate to colonial administration, can be understood as a successive tenant of the same civilisational operating system, adapting it, straining it, but ultimately operating within its logic.

The Verdict: Why Boko Haram Is Different, Categorically

Against this backdrop, the comparison between Boko Haram and the Dan Fodio jihad does not merely strain; it collapses. The Fodiawa jihad, whatever its human costs, was oriented towards institution-building. It produced a legal system, an administrative hierarchy, an educational network, a scholarly tradition, a literary culture, and a deepened moral framework that placed obligations on rulers and ruled alike. It expanded the universe of the Mutumin Kirki ideal; it did not attack it.

Boko Haram has done the exact opposite, systematically. It has attacked schools, murdered scholars, destroyed markets, abducted children, and reduced entire communities to rubble. It has not built a single institution that a future generation will inherit with gratitude. It has not produced a single scholar whose work will outlast the insurgency. It has not deepened the social hierarchies in which dignity and obligation are mutually reinforcing; it has weaponised those on the margins of society and enslaved those it was supposed to protect. Whatever else this represents, it is a direct assault on the civilisational operating system that both Kanem-Bornu and the Sokoto Caliphate spent centuries constructing.

Ochonu acknowledges this divergence; he explicitly notes that Boko Haram’s positions “directly contradict major aspects of the Fodiawa reformist creed and statecraft.” Yet within his framework, these divergences occupy a subordinate position. Structurally and rhetorically, the main assertion is the connection. And it is that connection, Boko Haram as participant in Northern Nigeria’s reformist DNA, that lingers in the mind and provides precisely the legitimacy Boko Haram’s ideologues have always craved. This is not a small risk. It is the central vulnerability of an otherwise admirable intellectual project.

Those of us who have observed Northern Nigerian politics, society, and intellectual life across decades, including pundits and commentators who know this civilisation not only from the archive but from the inside, find this framing, however sophisticated its execution, essentially uninitiated. It reads like the work of someone who has mastered the grammar of Northern Nigerian Islamic history with enormous care but has not quite absorbed its spirit: the civilisational confidence, the deep institutional memory, and the quiet but unmistakable recognition shared by virtually every segment of Northern Nigerian society not affiliated with Boko Haram that this movement does not belong to the tradition it claims. It is not reform. It is rupture, a specifically anti-civilisational rupture that the region’s history has not witnessed in any comparable form.

A movement may quote the same texts as its predecessors and still negate them. The Dan Fodio movement built what endured. Boko Haram destroys what was built. That distinction is not a footnote to the history of Northern Nigeria. It is the history of Northern Nigeria.

Final Reckoning: The Question History Is Actually Asking

Ochonu’s book asks: Where did Boko Haram come from? It is a vital question, and the book answers it with real skill. But the deeper question, the one the civilisational history of this region most insistently raises, is: What does Boko Haram’s existence reveal about the resilience of the moral architecture it attacks?

The long view of Northern Nigerian history suggests this: the Kirki operating system has survived before. It survived the disorder preceding the Fodiawa jihad. It survived the internal rebellions of the post-jihadi Caliphate period. It survived British conquest and the dismantling of the Sokoto political order. It survived the postcolonial state’s repeated failures to honour the obligations the Caliphate tradition placed on rulers. It did so because it is not merely a political arrangement or a theological position. It is a civilisational inheritance, embedded in culture, language, social practice, and moral imagination, that no single insurgency, however violent, has yet to erase.

Moses Ochonu has given us an important, serious, and deeply researched book. He has expanded our understanding of the landscape in which Boko Haram emerged, and he has done so with intellectual integrity. But genealogy, to repeat, is not pedigree. The real story of Northern Nigeria is not the story of rebellion. It is the story of civilisation, the long, patient construction of a moral society anchored in dignity, responsibility, learning, and character. Measured against that standard, Boko Haram appears not as the culmination of Northern Nigerian history but as its most violent recent attempt at self-erasure.

And on that measure, the verdict of civilisation itself remains, as it has always been, clear: this is not our inheritance. This is our wound.

By Muhammad Abubakar

Anti-Muslim racism is widespread in Germany’s public institutions, with most Muslims reporting discriminatory treatment when dealing with state authorities, according to a recent survey highlighted by anti-racism advocates.

The findings, cited by the alliance against anti-Muslim hatred CLAIM, show that around 80 per cent of Muslims surveyed reported experiencing discrimination in their interactions with public institutions and authorities. The study examined experiences involving government agencies, public services, and other state institutions.

Researchers said the results point to persistent forms of institutional racism that affect Muslims in areas such as employment services, migration offices, law enforcement, and public administration. The study is among the most comprehensive investigations of racism within German federal institutions to date.

The survey comes amid growing concern over anti-Muslim hostility in Germany. A separate civil society report presented by CLAIM this week documented 4,096 anti-Muslim incidents nationwide in 2025, up from 3,080 cases in 2024. The incidents included discrimination, insults, threats, property damage, and violent attacks. Women accounted for nearly two-thirds of recorded cases where gender was identified.

CLAIM and other advocacy groups have called for stronger measures to combat anti-Muslim racism, including improved complaint mechanisms, better monitoring of discrimination, and expanded anti-bias training within public institutions.

Germany is home to more than five million Muslims, making it one of the largest Muslim populations in Europe. Recent studies have warned that discrimination and exclusion continue to pose significant challenges to social cohesion and equal participation in public life.

By Uzair Adam

The Kano State Government has declared Tuesday, June 16, 2026, a public holiday to mark the commencement of the Islamic New Year, 1448AH.

The announcement was contained in a circular issued on Monday by the Office of the Head of Civil Service, stating that Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf approved the holiday in recognition of the significance of the Islamic calendar and the state’s tradition of observing the beginning of the new Hijrah year.

According to the circular, all workers in the state are expected to observe the holiday on Tuesday, which corresponds with the 1st of Muharram, 1448AH.

“His Excellency, the Executive Governor of Kano State, Engr. Abba Kabir Yusuf, has granted approval for Tuesday, 16th June, 2026 (1st Muharram, 1448AH), which marks the commencement of the Islamic New Year, to serve as a public holiday for all workers in the state,” the statement said.

The government called on civil servants and residents to use the occasion to offer prayers for peace, unity, stability and continued development in Kano State and Nigeria.

The circular was signed by Safiyya Ali Suleiman, Director of Administration and General Services, on behalf of the Head of Civil Service.

With the declaration, government offices and public institutions across the state will remain closed on Tuesday to enable residents observe the beginning of the new Islamic year.

By Abdussamad Umar Jibia

On May 15, 2026, 39 school children and seven teachers were abducted from three schools in Oyo State. Since then, the incidence has been the major headline in Nigerian traditional and social media.

This is not the first time criminals have stormed a school and abducted school children and teachers. The first known mass abduction of school children in Nigeria occurred in 2014 at Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok, in Borno state. It was followed by a series of similar abductions in different states of the North. This is the first time such a mass abduction has taken place in Southern Nigeria. Hence, the storm.

One piece of information that has been circulated is that the bandits have demanded the implementation of Shariah in the South West as a condition for the release of the children and their teachers. This is something I have found difficult to believe from my knowledge of bandits and their operations.

First and foremost, we have to distinguish among the different types of criminals who operate in Northern Nigeria. Boko Haram, which originated from the North East and later integrated with ISWAP (Islamic State of West Africa), claims to be fighting for Islam and has religion as part of its agenda, just like similar groups around the globe. Boko Haram/ISWAP mainly operates in the North East.

However, the bandits, as they are popularly called, who originated from the North West and are mainly of Fulani extraction, have nothing to do with religion, do not advocate it, and, in fact, most of them do not pray five times a day like Muslims do and cannot even recite the opening chapter of the Qur’an. This group, sometimes referred to as Fulani herdsmen to avoid ethnic profiling, is the group said to have abducted the Oyo pupils.

The bandits are not a single group. They are different groups, each with its leader, who live in the forest and are believed to have their informants in townships. The informants gather detailed information about their potential victims before striking. This is well known to anyone living in Northern Nigeria.

As a person who hails from the western part of Katsina State, I am one of the earliest victims of banditry. For example, in August 2016, my maternal uncle, who is the Imam of his village, was killed by bandits who shot him 11 times, injured his 10-year-old son and raped two of his daughters. In addition, more than 300 cows were rustled from the village. We reported the matter to the Katsina State Commissioner of Police, but nothing was done. 

Two months later, the government announced amnesty for all the bandits in Katsina State. The suspects were brought to the village with Police escort, and the villagers were told they must forgive them because they were “their brothers”. In all of these, religion was not mentioned. It was never an issue because the bandits were not a religious people.

After the amnesty, banditry continued as usual until 2019, when the Federal Government under Buhari asked all the state Governors to enter into peace agreements with the bandits in their states. The vividly uncomfortable Katsina State Governor held meetings with bandit leaders across the affected local governments of Sabuwa, Dandume, Faskari, Safana, Dan Musa, Kankara, Batsari and Jibia. The meetings took place in the forest under heavy security and before press cameras. The military support in the escort of the Governor was enough to crush all the bandits. Ironically, the Government decided to beg them. Videos of some of the meetings are still available online.

It is noteworthy that all the bandit leaders who attended those meetings were Fulani; they were all Nigerians, and none of them was religious. No one talked about religion, and the only complaint from most of them was that some of their gang members were in police custody and should be released. 

It is also not a Hausa-versus-Fulani affair. Some of the early victims of banditry were Fulani who refused to join banditry and refused to give their support to it. There are still many rural Fulani communities in the North West who are against banditry and do not harbour bandits. 

Now, at what point did banditry begin to be associated with religion? Different possibilities.

The Zionist entity

One of the biggest mistakes made by the General Ibrahim Babangida administration was normalising diplomatic ties with the Zionist occupation called Israel. Zionists are believed to be behind some of the crimes committed in the Northern part of Nigeria. 

The former deputy speaker of the House of Reps, Alhaji Abdullahi Wase, alleged that 300 youths from the Christian majority state of Plateau were given training in Israel and that four containers of arms were brought in by an Israeli security company to a politician’s house in Plateau state.

Alhaji Abdullahi Wase called for an investigation by the government. The investigation was not conducted. It is thus not out of place if Zionists, through some hirelings, introduced religion into the discussion of banditry in order to cause further internal crisis or use their American boys to attack innocent Muslims in Nigeria.

Sheikh Ahmad Gummi

The involvement of Dr Ahmad Gummi with bandits leaves more questions than answers. Gummi is an Islamic scholar who views issues from an Islamic perspective. Did he ever tell the bandits to shift their focus to religion rather than remain common criminals? I have no answer to this question. Only the Government and Sheikh Gummi have.

Elements in the Tinubu administration

A young Islamic scholar, Sheikh Munir Koza, once claimed that he was among the many influential young Islamic scholars invited to a meeting by some defence officials of the Tinubu government not long after the Government took over. With a financial reward, they were asked to emphasise three things in their preaching. 

One. That banditry by Fulani groups is justified because Fulani have been subjected to neglect and injustice over a long period. 

Two. Call on the government to engage in dialogue with bandits and offer them political appointments. 

Three. The Governors of Zamfara and Katsina are wrong to have set up security outfits to confront bandits. 

According to Sheikh Koza, he was the only person who expressed his disagreement at the first meeting and was thus not invited to subsequent meetings.

If Sheikh Koza’s claim is true, it means there are bandits’ sympathisers in the Tinubu Government. One would ask, is Mr President not aware? Did he appoint them because he believes insecurity is a Northern Nigerian affair, and he has thus appointed Northerners to go and eat themselves? Now that it has spread to the South, is he ready to make amendments?

Or, who actually introduced religion into it?

Professor Abdussamad Umar Jibia wrote from the Department of Mechatronics Engineering, Bayero University, Kano. He can be reached via aujibia@gmail.com.

By Khadijat Abdulrasheed

Not every pain is loud. Some are hidden behind smiles, silent prayers, and eyes that have cried when no one was watching.

The book Tears They Never Saw is a deeply emotional and faith-driven story that explores the unseen struggles people endure in silence. It reflects heartbreak, emotional wounds, family trials, and the kind of suffering that the world often ignores but Allah never does.

At the heart of this story is a powerful message: the strength of dua (prayer) and its life-changing power. It shows that even when situations seem impossible and when hope feels lost, sincere prayer can rewrite destinies. Tears that fall in secret are never wasted when they are poured out before Allah.

Through compelling storytelling and relatable characters, this work reveals how faith becomes a lifeline in the darkest moments. It reminds readers that healing, mercy, and change can come in ways that human understanding cannot explain.

Tears They Never Saw is not just a story; it is a reflection of real-life struggles, silent battles, and the unseen strength of those who keep going despite pain. It carries a message of patience, hope, and divine intervention.

This book is for readers interested in a full emotional and spiritual journey that blends reality with faith. Anyone interested in reading the complete work can reach out directly for access.

Because sometimes, the tears no one sees… are the ones Allah answers most.

Khadijat can be reached via abdulrasheedkhadijatkuburah@gmail.com.

By Hadiza Abdulkadir

The Governor of Abba Kabir Yusuf has approved a special Eid-el-Kabir goodwill package of N20,000 for civil servants in the state and across the 44 local government areas.

The gesture, announced in a statement issued on Sunday by the Press Secretary to the Office of the SSG, Musa Tanko Muhammad, is intended to support workers ahead of the Sallah celebration. Beneficiaries include civil servants on Grade Levels 01 to 14 in state ministries and local government councils.

According to the statement, the intervention comes shortly after the payment of May 2026 salaries and reflects the administration’s commitment to workers’ welfare amid current economic challenges. The governor said the package is intended to ease financial pressure during the festive period and enable workers to celebrate with their families in comfort.

Governor Yusuf also reaffirmed his administration’s dedication to improving workers’ welfare and maintaining a productive public service, while extending Eid-el-Kabir greetings to the people of Kano State.

By Nasir Yusuf Jibril, Ibrahim Aliyu Gurin and Bilyaminu Gambo Abubakar

Eid al-Adha, also known as the Eid of Sacrifice, is the second festival celebrated each year by Muslims worldwide after Eid al-Fitr. The festival is being celebrated on the 10th of Zhul Hajj, the last month of the Islamic calendar. Muslims on this day are expected to sacrifice a sheep, a goat, a cow or a camel. The meat of the sacrificial animal is expected to be divided into three portions. The first portion is for the family, the second for friends and relatives, and the last for the needy.

The festival is celebrated to commemorate the spirit of obedience and the sincerity of Prophet Abraham (A.S). It was reported that Prophet Abraham (A.S) had repeatedly dreamt that Allah (SWT) ordered him to slaughter his only beloved son, named Ishmael, as a sacrifice. He informed his wife and, later, his son as well of the development, and they all agreed to obey the order from their Creator.

“And when he reached with him [the age of] exertion, he said, ‘O my son, indeed I have seen in a dream that I must sacrifice you, so see what you think.’ He said, ‘O my father, do as you are commanded. You will find me, if Allah wills, of the steadfast.’” (Qur’an 37:102).

While trying to slaughter his son, Iblis (The Devil) appeared and asked him, how dare he slaughter his son? Abraham (A.S) pelted the devil seven times and then moved to another place to slaughter the son. Here, too, Iblis followed him; he again pelted him with seven stones and moved to the third place. As he was about to put a knife to the neck of his beloved son, Allah (SWT) sent a sheep to replace Ishmael.

“And We ransomed him with a great sacrifice.” (Qur’an 37:107).

What transpired above was one of the numerous tests and challenges Prophet Abraham (A.S) underwent during his lifetime. Recall that Prophet Abraham (A.S) was the son of Aazar, the idol worshipper and seller. At about seven years old, little Abraham started questioning idol worship. He was once reported to have asked his father, “How could you worship what could not help or harm you?”

“O my father, why do you worship that which neither hears nor sees and will not benefit you at all?” (Qur’an 19:42).

He then advised Aazar, in a respectful way, to stop worshipping Iblis and to follow him, and that he would show him guidance.

“O my father, indeed there has come to me of knowledge that which has not come to you, so follow me; I will guide you to an even path.” (Qur’an 19:43).

The father, Aazar, got angry at one point and threatened to stone his little son, Abraham, if he continued asking silly questions.

“He said, ‘If you do not desist, I will surely stone you, so leave me for a long time.’” (Qur’an 19:46)

Furthermore, his community too decided to burn him to ashes as a punishment for destroying their deaf and dumb gods – idols. After setting one of the hottest fires on Earth, the idol-worshippers catapulted Prophet Abraham (A.S) from a far distance into the fire. His prayer was ” HasbunAllahu Wa Ni’imal Wakeel meaning “Allah is enough for me.”

“And whoever relies upon Allah – then He is sufficient for him.” (Qur’an 65:3)

Allah then asked the fire to become cold and peaceful to Abraham (A.S).

“We said, ‘O fire, be coolness and safety upon Abraham.’” (Qur’an 21:69)

The fire had answered the order from its Creator and untied him from the ropes and made him feel comfortable in it. Abraham (A.S) later walked out of the fire majestically without being hurt. The idol-worshippers were shocked and realised that the real Lord was with him, but unfortunately, none of them agreed to follow Abraham (A.S.), only his little nephew, Lot (A.S.). They (Abraham and Lot) decided to migrate (the first migration in the world for freedom of worship) from Iraq, where they were born, to another part of the Middle East.

“Indeed, I will go to my Lord; He will guide me.” (Qur’an 37:99).

When Prophet Abraham (A.S) married his beautiful wife, Sarah and left for Egypt, the King of Egypt, Nimrod, attempted to sleep with Prophet Abraham’s wife, but with supplication and absolute trust in Allah, Sarah was protected, and the arrogant King was paralysed. Allah then gave Prophet Abraham (A.S) Hagar, and then revealed the whole set of laws when Prophet Abraham (A.S) was 80. In the laws, he was ordered by Allah to circumcise himself, which he did without questioning. Prophet Abraham (A.S) prayed to his Lord to grant him a child, and his prayer was answered; he had his first son, Ishmael, through Hagar.

“My Lord, grant me [a child] from among the righteous. So We gave him good tidings of a forbearing boy.” (Qur’an 37:100–101)

They were happy and joyous, but his wife, Sarah, was jealous and wanted Hagar and her child to leave. Allah then ordered Prophet Abraham (A.S) to go and abandon the duo in a desert, the present-day Mecca, when Ishmael was barely a year old.

“Our Lord, indeed I have settled some of my descendants in an uncultivated valley near Your Sacred House, our Lord, that they may establish prayer.” (Qur’an 14:37)

Hagar asked Abraham (A.S) if he was commanded by Allah (SWT) to keep them there? Then Prophet Abraham answered Yes and had his way. Hagar and her son exhausted the bottle of water that Abraham (A.S) gave them. She, therefore, moved back and forth seven times between the mountains of Safa and Marwa to search for help. She later returned to her son, who was starving and dehydrated, to give him shelter. Allah SWT sent angel Gabriel to dig a well known as Zam-Zam at the exact place where little Ishmael was kicking his legs.

The aforementioned were some of the tests and challenges Prophet Abraham (A.S) went through, and he successfully passed them. What are the lessons to be learnt from this Man of Honour? Prophet Abraham (A.S) was a symbol of bravery, as he challenged his father, his community, and the most powerful King of his time – King Nimrod- to abandon their idols and worship Allah, the Creator. Prophet Abraham (A.S) also symbolised sacrifice, patience, perseverance, patriotism, respect, determination, commitment, dedication, trust, truth, justice, sincerity and obedience to Allah at the expense of his happiness.

“Indeed, Abraham was a nation [in himself], devoutly obedient to Allah, inclining toward truth, and he was not of those who associated others with Allah.” (Qur’an 16:120)

The question is: what, then, did he get in return for demonstrating these unique qualities? Allah has declared in the Holy Qur’an, the book in which Prophet Abraham’s name was mentioned 73 times in 25 different chapters, one of which was named after him, that “I shall make you the leader amongst men.”

“Indeed, I will make you a leader for the people.” (Qur’an 2:124)

Thereafter, all the prophets who came after him were from his two sons, Isaac and Ishmael. All the children of Israel, the Jews, Christians and Muslims look up to their father, Prophet Abraham (A.S). He was the only Prophet that Allah (SWT) asked Prophet Muhammad (SAW) to emulate his exemplary lifestyle.

“Then We revealed to you, [O Muhammad], to follow the religion of Abraham, inclining toward truth.” (Qur’an 16:123).

Moreover, the desert Abraham (A.S) abandoned his beloved wife, and his son became the city in which the last and final messenger, Muhammad (SAW), was born. The Masjid built by Abraham (A.S.) and his son, Ishmael, continues to be the direction that millions of Muslims face when performing their prayers. The well of Zam-Zam, dug for his abandoned family, still pumps water which is being drunk by millions of people. The seven-times movement between the mountains of Safa and Marwa, performed by Hagar, is part of the Hajj rites. 

Additionally, the three different places he relocated while trying to slaughter his only son, then, Ismael became a place of Ibada known as Jamrats, where every Pilgrim goes and stones the devil seven times as Prophet Abraham (A.S) did thousands of years ago.

Indeed, Prophet Abraham (A.S) was a true leader who, despite the tests, challenges, and calamities that befell him, never turned away from his Lord but rather became more committed and dedicated to his religion, leading by example for us to follow. 

The writers can be reached via Ibrahim Aliyu Gurin (ibrahimaliyu5023@gmail.com), Nasir Yusuf Jibril (nasirjibril2018@gmail.com), and Bilyaminu Gambo Abubakar bilyaminugambokonkol01@gmail.com).

By Anwar Usman

Nigerian cleric Sheikh Ahmad Gumi has dissociated himself from alleged statements and materials circulating online linking him with support for banditry in Nigeria.

This was disclosed in a press statement issued in Kaduna on Saturday, where the cleric described the reports as fake, manipulated and doctored by individuals and groups pursuing ethnic and sectional interests.

He stated that some of his media interviews, public lectures and comments on insecurity had been deliberately misrepresented by certain internet content creators seeking sensational headlines and online traffic.

The statement in part reads, “I hereby state unequivocally that any video clip, written statement, or message attributed to me, whether directly or by innuendo suggesting support for, justification of, protection of, or advocacy for banditry in Nigeria or anywhere else, does not emanate from me,” he said.

The Islamic cleric reaffirmed his loyalty to Nigeria, describing the country as a nation with unmatched potential.

Gumi urged the public, media organisations and government authorities to disregard any misleading materials being circulated in his name.

Gumi further warned that individuals or groups perpetuating the spread of falsehoods against him from the date of the statement would face legal action.

The cleric expressed hope that Nigeria would overcome its security challenges and that victims of violence across the country would find comfort in the collective resolve of Nigerians and the international community to end insecurity.

He attributed the persistence of insecurity to factors such as ignorance, poverty and widespread social injustice, while calling for lasting solutions to the crisis.

By Hadiza Abdulkadir

Alhaji Shehu Yahaya Jalam, a senior Nigerian civil servant and permanent secretary for special services in northern Bauchi State, has died in Saudi Arabia while performing the annual Hajj pilgrimage, state officials said on Sunday.

Jalam died at Al-Noor Hospital in Makkah early on Sunday morning following a brief illness, according to a statement from the Bauchi State Muslim Pilgrims Welfare Board.

He served as head of information and publicity and secretary of the feeding committee for the state’s 2026 Hajj delegation, managing welfare and logistics for hundreds of Nigerian pilgrims.

“His death is a monumental loss to our state and the nation,” Imam Abdurrahman Ibrahim Idris, the executive secretary of the state’s pilgrims board, said in a statement from Makkah.

Bauchi State Governor Bala Mohammed expressed his condolences, describing Jalam as a dedicated and exceptionally loyal public servant. Jalam also held the traditional title of Turakin Dawakin Misau in his home state.

Funeral prayers are scheduled to be held at the Grand Mosque in Makkah following the afternoon Zuhur prayers, with burial to take place in the holy city in accordance with Islamic rites.

Millions of Muslims arrive in Saudi Arabia annually for the Hajj, a key pillar of Islam. Managing the logistics and health requirements of large international delegations remains a critical task for foreign governments and Saudi authorities.

By Muhammad Abubakar

The Coalition of Ulama and Islamic Organisations in Kano State has expressed concern over rising political tension in Kano State, warning that the increasing use of inflammatory language and politically motivated violence could threaten peace and stability in the state.

In a statement issued on Wednesday, the coalition condemned recent incidents linked to political activities and urged politicians and their supporters to avoid actions capable of inciting unrest.

The group said the growing trend of insults, intimidation, and provocation in the political space was disturbing and inconsistent with the values of peace and mutual respect long associated with Kano.

The coalition also cautioned youths against allowing themselves to be used as tools for violence by desperate politicians, urging them instead to uphold law and order. It called on political leaders to embrace issue-based engagement and conduct their activities responsibly in the interest of public peace.

The statement, signed by the coalition’s secretary, Saidu Ahmad Dukawa, prayed for continued peace and unity in Kano State and urged residents to remain calm and law-abiding.