Islam

By Ahmad Deedat Zakari

A Nigerian lady, Aisha Abubakar Hassan, has emerged as the second-position winner in the just concluded sixth edition of the Sheikha Fatima Bint Mubarak Holy Qur’an Competition for women in Dubai. 

Fifty countries participated in the competition that was held from the 1st to the 7th of October at the Dubai Culture and Science Society.

Aindati Sisi from Senegal came first, while Aisha Abubakar Hassan from Nigeria and Shima Anfal Tabani from Algeria took the second and third places, respectively.

According to the organisers, the participants were women Quran memorisers with mastery of tajweed. They also have to be under 25 years old. 

The first position-winner received 250,000 dirhams; the second got 200,000 dirhams, and the third 150000 dirhams. Other participants who performed brilliantly in the competition were also handsomely rewarded.  

The Dubai International Holy Qur’an Award, DIHQA, hosts and organises the event for women worldwide annually.

By Muhammadu Sabiu

Ahead of the 2022 World Cup, which begins on November 20, the tournament host, Qatar, has released a list of dos and don’ts, especially for fans from other countries.

The wealthy Gulf nation has disclosed that spectators coming should note the bans that have been in place on alcohol, the LGBT community, exposing parts of the female body, and swearing are still in effect.

The host added that disrespect for mosques, loud music and sounds, dating, and taking pictures of people without their consent, are also banned.

Apart from the moral rules, there are also regulations concerning COVID-19 and its vaccine.

The Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy mandated that all visitors six years of age and older show proof of a negative PCR test result obtained within 48 hours of their departure or a positive rapid antigen test result obtained within 24 hours of arrival.

Rapid antigen test results from legitimate medical facilities that are not self-administered only will be accepted. If visitors do not exhibit COVID-19 symptoms, no additional testing will be necessary in Qatar.

Additionally, everybody above 18-year-old must download the Ehteraz contact tracing phone app, which the government manages.

By Dr. Isa Muhammad Inuwa

We woke up to the maddening, stunning macabre and grim sorrow of the demise of Sheikh Dr Youssef Al-Qardawi, renowned scholar and jihadist of international repute. As we weep profusely, both internally and outwardly, over this irreparable loss, his death indicates that the sun has set down for yet another era of Islam, as yet another chapter is closed.

Late Al-Qardawi can go down in history as a titanic whale in the fathomless ocean of Islamic knowledge and jurisprudence. He authored many valuable compendia and an estimated 120 to 200 books, famous among which is Al-Halal Wal Haram, that addressed and gave solutions to vital lawful and unlawful issues in Islam.

He was a contemporary of scholars and jihadists of like minds such as Sheikh Hasanul Bannah, Sayyid Qutub, Sa’eed Hawaah, Kishk and the rest. The personalities mentioned above formed the nucleus of the Islamic Brotherhood movement’ ‘Ikhwanul Muslimuuna’ in Egypt around the 1950s to 1960s.

Ikhwan’s formidable movement under the late Hassan Al-Banna’s leadership served as an alternative political group that brokered power in Egypt by participating in the democratic process and contesting political posts. Former president Muhammad Morsi was a testimony to Ikhwan’s influence in the mainstream politics of Egypt.

More so, the hitherto Islamic movement in Egypt, administered by vibrant and agile youths, had impacted and triggered similar gestures in many countries and Muslim communities worldwide.

While some Ikhwan eggheads, such as Hassan Al-Bannah, were martyred amidst the struggle, others, like the late Youssef Al-Qardawi, survived, lived longer and contributed to humanity on many fronts.

May The Almighty Allah accept the late Sheikh Qardawi and uplift his status in the highest and exalted Jannah, amen!

Dr Isa Muhammad Inuwa writes from Bayero University, Kano, Nigeria, via ismi2000ng@yahoo.com.

By Franziskus Kazimierz (Casmil)

The Al-Mubarak International Film Production LTD movie Mutuwar Aure (Hausa: Death of the Marriage), produced in 2018, tells a story set in a modern-day Hausa community by and large dealing with the common, or perhaps a rather notorious topic of divorce in the Hausa cultural context. Thus, set exclusively within a family context, the film’s plot tells a narrative between a family drama – or what it may be for “Hausa eyes” – and a love-triangle story. It also heavily proselytizes Islam and defends its values and proscriptions – especially prayer – and against sorcery – a generally well-pronounced motive within Northern Nigeria’s Kannywood. It is, arguably, also against the oppression of women being pronounced by critics outside and within the community. 

But beyond the mentioned main themes in the film, Mutuwar Aure develops a pretty interesting plot structure on its own, awaiting the spectators with unexpected turnarounds and slightly mixing genres, thereby making the plot’s twist even more curious.

To give an overview of the film’s plot – which primarily involves but a few characters only, making the film more understandable but maybe giving it too much “soberness”. It will certainly not be a spoiler to cheat about its beginning, when Abbas hands over a divorce letter to his wife, Rahma, containing the emotionally charged words “Náà-sàkee-ki” – I divorce you. By that, Abbas, a young man maybe in his early thirties, cuts one of the three possible ropes (igiyoyi) – with three cut ropes making reunification of the couple almost impossible. The twist of gloom on Abbas’ face makes the story’s plot seem predetermined, making him the “bloody antagonist” within the film – and Rahma, his victim, to be defended.

It is in this pattern the plot seems to be starting, but it is also precisely from this moment on that the story takes the unconventional twists mentioned above. In defence of Rahma, her family – in whose house Abbas is living – with a strong accent on its women seems to be ready to do everything for her – pronouncing it in a very hostile manner. By avoiding showing the strength of reconciliation, Mutuwar Aure heavily resembles Fuska Biyu (dir. Yaseen Auwal, 2018), a well-known Hausa movie containing similar features of adult women’s aggressiveness in order to fight for the interest of their own family. Throwing Abbas’ possessions out of the house, he also has to leave – having tried himself to send Rahma and their children away before. What is unknown to the spectators at this time is that the house where Abbas and Rahma had lived was granted to him by Rahma’s dad out of generosity. Therefore, by working heavily with fading-in back plots and visualized daydreams, the viewers may get the impression of Abbas being more than an antagonist while also being shameless and ungrateful.

Still, the movie contains more secrets to reveal. The more Abbas comes to Rahma, her dad and her family, the more it also becomes clear that there is something more to the divorce. Rahma was rude to him when she suspected that Abbas was having an affair with his secretary, Zainab – in this regard, we can observe a reversed love triangle.  

Thus, shortly before Abbas can marry his secretary, Zainab, they can reunite by the strength of Rahma’s prayers – while Zainab is being rejected for using sorcerers to conquer Abbas’ heart – finally, the superiority of prayer over magic is demonstratively portrayed.

It can, therefore – also looking at the whole film – not be underlined enough in what grade the film proselytizes the traditional Islamic way of life. Rahma and her family, whom some might surely cheer in their fight for women’s rights initially, drop to be full of naivety and false morals, constantly humiliating a righteous man asking for their forgiveness. Rahma’s father finally admits that he had called him names for nothing.

Abbas, on the other side, a poor teacher at primary school who seems to be doing nothing but exploiting Rahma and her family until they don’t seem to be profitable anymore and moralistically reciting the Qur’an, changes to a mistakenly humiliated, righteous character. Rahma, herself, finally asks for his forgiveness.

While dealing with a fascinating plot, the way of making it a film probably could be better. The setting resembles Risala (dir. Abubakar S. Shehu, 2015) – as it is set in a different time – than other films being set in the modern day  – by being quite sterile. There are hardly any scenes beside the Abbas’ house, making it appear like filmed theatre – the exact production environment for many, especially early, Kannywood movies. Though constantly in the background, music doesn’t play any role like in vocal numbers. By the combination of these circumstances, the film looks pretty puristic. It might be, therefore – although there are significant differences, why not (?) – a counterpart of Risala set in modern times portraying Abbas to be an innocent man being persecuted. Interestingly, though – of course – the place where Mutuwar Aure is set in – does contain modern equipment, the modernity is not really to feel, probably by missing liveliness.   Also, in the end – and somehow similarly to Risala – the happiness is again relativized by new – though unreasonable – suspicions of Rahma.

Still, the plot is full of exciting and probably unconventional twists opening a broad horizon for this kind of movie. Though it could have been livelier and more trenchant in its actions, it still has a powerful message and is, by that, fitting to be talked about, if not purely for entertainment.

Casmil wrote from Cologne, Germany, via kafrakize@aol.com.

By Isa Muhammad Inuwa

Thousands of Muslims in Kano, Nigeria, had Thursday converged at the Umar Bin Al-Khattab mosque, where they offered funeral prayer in absentia for the repose of the soul of the deceased Sheikh Youssef Al-Qardawi, who passed on in Doha, Qatar, recently.

Leading the congregation, Imam Sheikh Yahaya Tanko delivered the prayer interluded with four Takbirs (Allahu Akbar! chants) and supplications.

Addressing the crowd shortly after, Sheikh Tanko recalled that the distant funeral prayer was first conducted by the Prophet Muhammad (SAW), in Medina, for the soul of Al-Najjashi, the then late Emperor of Abyssinia (present Ethiopia). Al-Najjashi was deemed to have converted from Christianity to Islam before his death.

Also speaking to the gathering, Professor Muhammad Babangida of Bayero University, Kano, announced that the late Sheikh Al-Qardawi was “a famous Islamic scholar of international standing, who spent the largest part of his life contributing to Islamic knowledge, through his teachings, writings and extracting solutions to religious matters (Fatwa)”.

He added that the late Al-Qardawi authored no less than 170 books, some of which consisted of several volumes. He said he was head of numerous Islamic bodies and that he migrated from his home country Egypt to Qatar because of threats to his life by anti-Islamic forces.

He described the deceased as a moderate jurist who maintained a middle course in proposing solutions on matters of Islamic jurisprudence. “He neither swerved to the extreme nor tilted to the most lenient side”, adding that he was very apt in addressing current issues arising in modern life in his publications and jurisdictions.

The scholar also described Al-Qardawi’s death as a significant loss to the entire Muslim World, whose replacement is difficult to find. He then asked God to forgive the deceased and rest his soul in the highest abode of Paradise. 

By Ibrahim Siraj Adhama in Mecca

Baba Sayinna Goni Mukhtar and Musa Ahmad Musa, both from Borno State, are competing in the second and third categories of the competition, respectively.

The preliminary stage was held between Saturday and Sunday in the hotel where all the participants are lodged and only successful reciters will make it to the final stage which will be conducted under full public glare within the precincts of the Grand Holy Mosque starting Monday.

Participants in the competition were drawn from Muslim countries around the world as well as representatives of minority Muslim communities.

The International Competition, which is returning after two years suspension due to the Covid-19 pandemic, promises to be exciting with the introduction of Qira’at category (now first category) and an upward review of cash prizes to be won.

Highlights of this year’s competition include visits to important religious sites in Mecca and Medina.

The competition will draw to a close on September 21 with the announcement of winners and distribution of prizes.

By Mallam Musbahu Magayaki

On Thursday, 11 August 2022, my elder brother and I went to charitably donate a mini solar inverter under the auspices of Babayo Mustapha Charity Foundation, founded by Bello Mustapha (Kogunan Katagum), to a mosque behind “Gidan Babale”.

Patiently, we waited for a while before Mallam showed up in order to inform him of the donation we had brought about by this foundation aimed at helping the vulnerable, low-income, and most importantly, upgrading the true religion of Allah (Islam) by contributing to what is needed in rendering religious services based on the foundation’s economic status.

As Mallam came out of his house to attend to us, we sat faithfully before him and exchanged pleasantries, after which we briefed him of what had brought us there. After giving him all the details, he agreed to receive the package but insisted that he wanted to know the actual donor, to which we reluctantly replied that it was Bello Mustapha (Kogunan Katagum), the son of the late Alh. Babayo Mustapha.

Upon hearing that famous name, Babayo Mustapha, he asked us to sit down properly. He wanted to share a good testimony of the late Alh Babayo Mustapha’s acts, which he didn’t want to reveal to anyone, including his family and friends during his life.

Mallam starts by saying that the deceased provided the plot of land where that mosque was built. And he was the first religiously concerned individual who began laying the mosque’s foundation up to its completion. He extensively went on to state that there were several mosques within and outside Katagum built by the late Alh. Babayo Mustapha. But he didn’t want the mosque preservers to tell the general public that he was the person who built them.

Sincerely, Mallams’ words keep ringing in my ears, demonstrating what the late Alh. Babayo Mustapha left behind are seemingly following in their father’s footsteps by taking over from where he ceased. In the sense that they are fully committed to rendering all sorts of religious contributions in the likeness of their late father.

In conclusion, I pray for the late Alhaji Babayo Mustapha to have the highest place in Jannah for promoting his religion. And I would like to equally encourage those he left behind to continue stepping up their efforts in doing similar religious services as their father.

Mallam Musbahu Magayaki writes from Sabon Fegi, Azare.

By Ahmad Deedat Zakari

Adam Muhammad, who lives in the UK, said he cried when he first arrived at Makkah for the 2022 pilgrimage. 

“I cried when I first arrived,” He told reporters. 

According to a report by Islamic Channel, the 53-year-old electrical engineer from the UK travelled around 4000 miles on foot to reach Saudi Arabia. 

He thanked the Saudi government for granting him and his family Hajj permits.

“The Saudi government granted my family and me Hajj permits when it knew I was travelling from the UK to Makkah on foot. I met with my family in Madinah after they arrived from the UK and walked together to Makkah. I feel grateful to them,” Adam said. 

While commenting on the journey, Adam said it was difficult, and he made it solely for Allah’s sake. 

“I would feel mentally exhausted, unable to eat or drink too. But then something inside me would tell me that what are you afraid of? You have Allah by your side, and you can make it. I have lived for 52 or 53 years for myself. Why can’t I dedicate 10 or 11 months to Allah?” He said. 

According to reports, Adam reached Ayesha Mosque in Makkah on June 26, where a huge crowd received him. 

Adam had documented the progress of his journey on TikTok, where he is very active with over 2.8 million likes.

By Bala Muhammad

Every Israeli Prime Minister makes it an article of faith to attack Palestine – both the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. But as the West Bank is usually led by the compliant and complacent so-called Palestinian Administration of PLO inheritors, it is mainly spared the fury of Israel. But Gaza, the home of HAMAS and Islamic Jihad, always takes the brunt whenever an Israeli leader wants to flex muscle and show ‘manhood’.

With each passing day of the Israeli aggression against the Palestinians, with each additional death of a child or mother, Muslims worldwide are becoming more militant, more fundamentalist, and more jihadic. This is very ominous for the West, on whose behalf Israel is doing what it is doing.

Samuel Huntington, who died not too long ago, wrote Clash of Civilisations. Now, more than ever before, this Clash is at hand. If there is any cause that unites Muslims today, it is the Palestinian Question; if there is any future war that Muslim youth would gladly join and wage, it would be the Jihad to liberate Al Aqsa, Al Quds and Palestine. But for the Western-propped-up Arab regimes encircling Gaza, many young people would have gone into the Strip to join the martyred army of Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

In the matter of HAMAS, Faith will always be Triumphant. Incidentally, The Faith Triumphant is the title of Chapter Eleven in one of the most important books of the Islamic Movement, Ma’alim fit Tariq (Milestones), written by the Movement’s leading intellectual and Martyr, Sayyid Qutb (1906-1966) of the Muslim Brotherhood, Ikhwan al Muslimun.

In Milestones, Qutb wrote: “Allah says, ‘Do not be dejected or grieve. You shall be the uppermost if you are Believers’ (3:139). The first thought which comes to mind on reading this verse is that it relates to the form of Jihad, which is actual fighting, but the spirit of this message and its application with its manifold implications is greater and broader than this particular aspect. Indeed, it describes that eternal state of mind that should inspire the believer’s consciousness. It describes a triumphant state which should remain fixed in the believer’s heart in the face of everything, every condition, every standard and every person; the superiority of the Faith.

“It means to be above all the powers of the earth which have deviated from the way of the Faith, above all the values of the earth not derived from the source of faith, above all the customs of the earth not coloured with the colouring of the faith, above all the laws of the earth not sanctioned by the Faith, and above all traditions not originating in the Faith. It means to feel superior to others when weak, few and poor, as well as when strong, many and rich. It means the sense of supremacy which does not give in before any rebellious force.

“Steadfastness and strength on the battlefield are but one expression among many of the triumphant spirit which is included in this statement of Almighty God. The superiority through faith is not a mere single act of will nor a passing euphoria or a momentary passion but is a sense of superiority based on permanent Truth centred on the very nature of existence.

“The person who takes a stand against the direction of the society – its governing logic, its common mode, its values and standards, its ideas and concepts, its error and deviations – will find himself a stranger, as well as helpless, unless his authority comes from a source which is more powerful than the people, more permanent than the earth, and nobler than life.

“Conditions change, the Muslim loses his physical power and is conquered; yet the consciousness does not depart from him that he is most superior. If he remains a Believer, he looks upon his conqueror from a superior position. He remains certain that this is a temporary condition which will pass away and that faith will turn the tide from which there is no escape. Even if death is his potion, he will never bow his head. Death comes to all, but for him, there is martyrdom. He will proceed to the garden while his conquerors go to the fire. What a difference!”

So wrote Sayyid Qutb. Let us now end today’s treatise with the following story on Challenge, the type the Palestinians are facing: “The Japanese love fresh fish. However, the waters close to Japan have not held many fish for decades. So to feed the Japanese population, fishing boats got bigger and went farther. The farther the fishermen went, the longer it took to bring in the catch. If the return trip took more than a few days, the fish were not fresh. The Japanese did not like the taste.

“To solve this problem, fishing companies installed freezers on their boats. They would catch the fish and freeze them at sea. However, the Japanese could taste the difference between fresh and frozen, and they did not like frozen fish. So fishing companies installed fish tanks. They would catch the fish and stuff them in the tanks, fin to fin. After a little thrashing around, the fish stopped moving. They were tired and dull but alive. Unfortunately, the Japanese could still taste the difference. Because the fish did not move for days, they lost their fresh-fish taste. The Japanese preferred the lively taste of fresh fish, not sluggish fish. So how did Japanese fishing companies solve this problem?

“To keep the fish tasting fresh, the Japanese fishing companies still put the fish in the tanks. But now, they add a small shark to each tank. The shark eats a few fish, but most of the fish arrive in a very lively state. Because they are challenged, they kick and protest and ultimately arrive fresh. Or martyred.”

Allah has put a tiny shark (Israel) in the Arab tank. Only some fish called Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah are kicking. The others are frozen stiff. RIP. After all, L. Ron Hubbard once wrote: “Man thrives, oddly enough, only in the presence of a challenging environment.”

May Allah help the Palestinians.

Dr Bala Muhammad wrote from Kano, Nigeria. He can be reached via balamuhammad@hotmail.com.

• Book time: The Walking Qurʾan: Islamic education, Embodied Knowledge, and History in West Africa
• Author: Rudolph T. Ware III.
• Date of Publication: 2014
• Number of Pages: 330
• Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press
• Reviewer: Shamsuddeen Sani

After recently reading a book about Quranic Schools in Northern Nigeria, I was left hungry for a less Western way of presenting the subject matter. So I serendipitously laid my hands on this book, and knowing that I have read about the author in the past, I didn’t hesitate to devour it.

Following a broad introductory section, the book delves deeply into an interdisciplinary examination of the knowledge philosophy underlying Quranic education. This required an in-depth historical ethnography of the institution in modern-day Senegambia, which lays the way for comprehension of the conceptualization and transmission of knowledge. It also strengthens the case that internalizing texts, even by swallowing them, was crucial to understanding and remembering the material. This book’s central concept represents the embodiment and actualization of Islamic knowledge.

Importantly, these early chapters look at the emergence and long-term evolution of a native West African clerisy. Ware underscores how these African Islamic instructors and thinkers were the primary agents of Islamization in a continent unperturbed by the early Islamic conquests. In order to avoid rulers (and maintain their independence), they established a unique framework for the interactions between political and religious powers. It also emphasizes both moral and political economies of studying and teaching the Qur’an throughout the 18th century focusing on how the growth of the Atlantic slave trade led to the breakup of this model of pious distance from power.

As we near the middle of the book, Ware thoroughly explored the historical account of the enslavement of ‘huffaz’ in Senegambia from the 1770s until the advent of the French colonial rule in the late 19th century. With clerics viewed as embodied exemplars of the Quran, such incidents of enslavement were perceived as more than just violations of Islamic law, but as desecrations of the Book of God.

The book meticulously illustrates the chronological narrative of Senegambia’s revolts, rebellions, and even revolutions inspired by the enslavement of “the walking Qur’an.” Without going further into spoilers, these historical happenings culminated in the climactic radical movement by African Muslim clerics and their disciples, with a cascade of events leading to the overthrow of hereditary slave-owning kings in 1776, the abolition of both the Atlantic slave trade in the Senegal River Valley and the slavery institution itself.

These narratives would lack crucial context if they did not include the efforts of formerly enslaved people and other oppressed groups to use the legal abolition of slavery in the French colonial state to assert their dignity through the dissemination of the Qur’an in the early 20th century. They fought to transform their very selves through Islamic education while doing so from within the epistemology of embodiment and in opposition to regional traditions that stigmatized their bodies because of their social standing. The establishment of mass Sufi organizations and the emergence of new French and Muslim teaching forms were only two of the many changes in colonial Senegal’s political and educational landscapes fueled by this knowledge-sifting process.

This outstanding work profoundly serves as the first step for anyone interested in learning about Qur’anic instruction in West Africa. A significant chunk of detail about Quranic education in West Africa jumps right off the page, you can feel the author’s passion, and as he claims, this is the narration from within. The writing style is genuinely simple and engaging and has a powerful sense of atmosphere. It gives you a lot to chew on and is one of those books that it would not feel right if you didn’t give it the five stars it deserves.

Rudolph T. Ware III is a historian of West Africa at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He formerly taught at the University of Michigan and then at Northwestern University. His work aims to confront and dispel Western misconceptions about Islam.