Islam

By Muhammad Sabiu

The National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON) publicly apologized on Friday for its inability to transport 1,500 pilgrims for the 2022 Hajj.

Mrs Fatima Usara, the commission’s Assistant Director, Public Affairs Division, issued a statement on the unfortunate drama on Friday in Abuja.

She stated that there would be nine pilgrims from Bauchi, 91 from Plateau, and 700 from Kano State, who were supposedly travelling to the holy country.

Usara also expressed regret for the commission’s inability to transport an estimated 750 intending pilgrims from the Private Tour Operators sector.

She stated that the commission accepted responsibility for the hardships and disappointments experienced during outbound airlift operations to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia by intending pilgrims for the 2022 Hajj.

Usara was quoted in the statement as saying, “Sadly, in spite of all efforts to transport all Nigerian intending pilgrims to Saudi Arabia for the 2022 Hajj, NAHCON was incapacitated in discharging this responsibility.

“Majorly due to last-minute setbacks that frustrated its plan to conclude transportation of pilgrims by June 27.

“Unfortunately, the chartered flights option that gave so much hope to NAHCON and the Private Tour Operators’ leadership also became a failure as their IBAN accounts failed accreditation by the respective authorities in Saudi Arabia.”

Meanwhile, a video of some aggrieved intending pilgrims who also didn’t make it to the 2022 Hajj has gone viral on social media, airing their grievances and cursing anyone who has a hand in their ordeal.

By Kabir Fagge Ali

Almajiri is a system of Islamic education practised primarily in Northern Nigeria. The term is also used to denote a person who is taught or undergoing learning within this system called “Almajiranci.”

Almajiri is derived from the Arabic “Al-Muhajjirun”, an “Emigrant” who migrates from his home to a particular Islamic school in the quest for knowledge.

Over the years, it has been a normal feature, a cultural norm to have seen children roaming the streets in certain parts of (mainly northern) Nigeria, all in the name of seeking Islamic Education through the system of Almajiri.

Before the arrival of British colonial masters, a system of education called ‘Tsangaya’ has since prevailed in the Kanem-Borno Empire. It was established as an organised and comprehensive education system for learning Islamic principles, values, jurisprudence and theology.

Established after madrasahs in other parts of the Muslim world, Tsangaya was primarily funded by the state. Islam traditionally encourages charity, so the community readily supported these Almajiri. In return, he (Almajiri) gives back to society through manual labour.

The system also produced the judges, clerks, and teachers who provided the colonial administration with the needed staff. The Almajiri schools provided the first set of colonial staff in Northern Nigeria.

The Colonial masters abolished state funding of Tsangaya, arguing that they were religious schools. “Karatun Boko”, western education was introduced and funded instead. With this loss of support, the system collapsed.

A 2014 UNICEF report put the number of Almajiri in Nigeria at 9.5 million, or 72 per cent of the country’s 13.2 million out-of-school children. Unfortunately, this is a disaster unfolding before our eyes, as some estimates claim that the number of out-of-school children in the country has risen past the 15 million mark, most of whom originated from the North.

Regrettably, the Almajiri culture has since outlived its purpose and has become a breeding ground for child begging and, in extreme cases, potential materials for recruitment into terrorist groups. Moreover, the pupils who were meant to be trained to become Islamic scholars have now had to struggle to cater for themselves, begging rather than learning under the watch and supervision of some semi-literate Quranic teachers or Mallams who themselves lacked the requisite financial and moral support. Hence, the system runs more as a means of survival rather than a way of life.

This is because the Qur’anic schools became hapless, unable to render any help. After all, the head of the school is not also financially stable. This ultimately leads him to enforce a rule that ensures the students get him food or money. The most annoying part is making it mandatory, as punishment is enforced on anyone who fails to turn in what is expected from him.

Deprived of a normal and decent upbringing, Almajiri children, usually little boys between the ages of 4 and 15, may have been direct products of polygamous marriage or broken homes or simply due to economic challenges that hit the family. They lack adequate family cover as children are sent out to the streets under the guise of Almajiri as soon as the family’s resources are overstretched.

The Almajiri grows up in the streets without their parents’ love, care, and guidance; his struggle for survival exposes him to abuse (homosexuality and paedophilia), used as a slave, brainwashed, and recruited for anti-social activities, and used for destructive and violent activities. This is the picture of the pitiful plight of an Almajiri child in Nigeria.

Additionally, Almajiri culture epitomises child abuse, social exclusion, and chronic poverty in all ramifications. Because the system is believed to be rooted in Islamic religion and Fulani cultural practices, many attempts to reverse the trend or end such abuse of humanity have always hit a brick wall.

The fact that Islamic teaching strongly forbids begging, except in exceptional circumstances, which include a man’s loss of properties or wealth in a disaster or when a man has loaned much of his money for the common good, such as bringing peace between two warring parties already proves that Almajiri system as it is being practised today is unIslamic. A child neglected by his parents is vulnerable to diseases and social crimes. To survive, he often has to beg from ‘dusk to dawn’, after which he returns to the Tsangaya (Almajiri school).

For the past years, the Almajiri system has created a cover for criminally minded individuals to abuse Nigerian children through trafficking and expose them to anti-social behaviours such as forced labour and sex slaves.

Even former President Goodluck Jonathan designed a program under which a few Almajiri Model Boarding schools were established, which was aimed at integrating conventional western education into Islamic education, only turned out to be merely ‘removing a spoonful of water from a filled tank’, it wasn’t enough to adequately address the problem. As a result, less than five per cent of the children were captured by the Federal Government’s program meant to remove the Almajiri off the streets.

Therefore, as urgent, the government should take reasonable measures to address the Almajiri system in Nigeria to take them off the streets, even if it means banning the culture.

Unless it is banned or adequately reformed to meet the modern challenges and realities, the problems of underdevelopment, educational backwardness, and mass poverty in (northern) Nigeria will worsen. People will continue to bear children they do not have the resources to cater for, knowing that they could easily push such children out into the Almajiri system.

To conclude that the Almajiri system has deviated from its original purpose and is currently giving Nigeria a bad image in the international community is to admit the obvious.

This problem is a ticking time bomb waiting to explode at any time. And when it does, it will consume us all. But, it is still not late. So, something can be done to stem the tides.

Fagge is a student of Mass Communication at Skyline University Nigeria. He sent this via faggekabir29@gmail.com.

By Ahmad Deedat Zakari

Influential Turkish and Sunni scholar, Sheikh Mahmud Effendi passed on at the age of 93. 

Sheikh Effendi, who was well known for his emphasis on strict adherence to the sunnah, died on Thursday after battling kidney-related problems. 

His grandson announced his demise on Twitter on Friday, June 24, 2022. 

“His Excellency Mahmud Effendi, my grandfather, has reached Allah,” he tweeted. 

The late Sheikh was buried on Friday, after a funeral at the Faith Mosque in Istanbul. The funeral which was held after the Jumu’ah prayer was attended by thousands of people. 

Turkish President, Tayyip Erdogan joined mourners in paying tributes to the late shaykh.

“May God have mercy on Mahmoud Effendi, a spiritual guide in our country. He dedicated his life to Islam. I wish patience to his family, students and all his fans. Let him rest in peace,” he tweeted. 

Other important Muslim figures around the world have also joined in praying and extolling the virtues of the late sage. 

“Innā li-Llāhi wa inna ilayhi rāji’ūn. Saddened to learn of the passing of Shaykh Mahmud Effendi of Turkey. He revived Islam & Sunnah at a challenging time, inspiring millions of people in #Turkey & around the World. A great loss for the Ummah,” said Pakistan’s former Prime Minister, Imran Khan

“Do you know how you can tell a real scholar and walī of Allah?” 

“It is the fact that Allah has written the love of this person in the hearts of millions of righteous people from different backgrounds. The death of the Turkish scholar Sheikh Effendi shows such a love والله حسيبه.” Dr Yasir Qadhi tweeted

Imam Omar Suleiman was not left out in praying for the shaykh as he also took to his verified Twitter handle to mourn his demise. 

“May Allah have mercy on Shaykh Mahmud Effendi, forgive him and elevate him. What a loss for the Ummah. A man I always felt had a secret with His Lord that was manifest in his face,” said Imam Omar Suleman.

Sheikh Mahmud Effendi was born in Turkey’s northern Trabzon, he completed the memorization of the Qur’an at the age of 10. 

He authored Tafsir of the Qur’an in the Turkish language named Rahu’l Furkan. 

He was ranked number 34 in the 2022 edition of “The Muslim 500”; the annual publication by the Jordan-based Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre, which ranks the most powerful Muslims globally.

By Abdullahi A. Maiwada

“‘Parachute Journalism’ trivialize and sensationalize events that are more complex than a 30-second clip can capture” – Thomas L. McPhail.

However, this era of social media has made citizen journalists more dangerous than parachute journalists. While practitioners of the former are utterly ignorant about the basic principles of the profession, the latter is about placing journalists into an area to report on stories with little knowledge or experience. Lack of knowledge and tight deadlines often result in inaccurate or distorted news reports, especially during breaking news. 

While citizen journalists lack the fundamentals of news judgement, one cannot neglect their relevance in the business of news reportage. In some cases, the traditional media rely on citizen journalists for updates about issues in the form of eyewitness reports. 

The above implies that both parachute journalism and citizen journalism are interrelated at specific points. In most cases, their characteristics can be catastrophic and misleading instead of informing and educating. 

Even though I am not a fan of CNN, my recent update about the strategies by the new CEO Chris Licht making frantic efforts to redefine the usage of breaking news is a step in the right direction. “Moving away from alarming news distributing styles”, he said.

Both citizen journalists and mainstream media have fallen into the trap of fake news and hate speech precipitated by digital media. This is to satisfy the urge to take the lead in breaking the news.

In the word of my journalism lecturer Dr Kola Adesina “no time to think syndrome”. The outcome is having limited know-how to strike a balance between speed and accuracy. Thanks to convergence which created a blurry line between mainstream and digital media.

The primary reason we dish out content is to inform and not disinform, misinform and mal-inform. Why can’t we think twice and have a sober reflection before writing or talking? We should endeavour always to put a round egg in a round peg to avoid misleading society towards the direction of Rwanda. 

Influential media effect theories are still relevant in the digital age. The hypodermic needle/bullet, agenda-setting theories and the likes play a critical role in shaping the perception of the gullible and media illiterates who form the majority in our society. 

I have encountered a colleague who changed his perception of Russia based on an American movie. We have so many of them out there.

Finally, I will end my piece with the saying of our beloved Prophet (SAW). “Whoever believes in Allah and the day judgment should utter what is righteous or keep mute”. Gbam!!!

Abdullahi A. Maiwada is a superintendent of Customs attached to the Public Relations Unit, Nigeria Customs Service Headquarters, Abuja.

By Muhammad Sabiu

Lagos State’s ban on female Muslim pupils attending public schools in the state wearing the hijab was overturned by the Supreme Court on Friday.

In a 5–2 split ruling, the Supreme Court maintained the Court of Appeal, Lagos judgement from July 21, 2016, which overturned Justice Grace Onyeabo’s October 17, 2014 decision from the High Court of Lagos State.

The lead majority judge, Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, dismissed the Lagos State appeal against the 2016 decision of the Court of Appeal, Lagos, because it lacked merit. 

Justice Tijani Abubakar read the lead majority judge’s decision on Friday.

Wearing the hijab in the Yoruba-dominated region, which is a mixture of Muslims and Christians, has been causing a lot of controversies.

By Ibrahim Ado-Kurawa

Wole Soyinka is a Nobel Laureate who won the highest prize for his work in Drama, where he excelled. But as everyone knows, no one who opposes Western ideas will win that prize. In fact, those who oppose their indigenous worldviews are more likely to win it. A good example is Neguib Mahfouz, the Egyptian anti-Islamic intellectual. Ibrahim Maqary, on the other hand, is an Islamic scholar who became prominent at a very young age because of his proficiency and erudition. They are from divergent backgrounds. Soyinka was nurtured in the neo-pagan Western intellectual tradition. Maqary was nurtured in the Muslim intellectual tradition of Sudanic Africa.

The neo-pagan Western Civilization, sometimes referred to as Western Christian Civilization, considers itself as the superior civilization, and all others must judge their practices according to its criteria. The West, since Enlightenment, has continuously incorporated pagan traditions. Hence Roberts’s conclusion that “Europe once coterminous with Christendom is now post Christian and neo-pagan” (Roberts 1996: 583).

The Islamic and Sinic Worlds have resisted Western intellectual domination. Therefore Ibrahim Maqary and other Muslim scholars always speak their minds damning the irritation of Western neo-pagan inspired scholars. Soyinka will insist that he is independent, but this is not true. His ideas of freedom are not original but primarily influenced by Western Neo-Paganism. He is not even a pan Africanist compared to Walter Rodney, Ngugi and Franz Fanon, who resisted colonialism. He was only engaged in sophistry, which is a form of intellectual cowardice.

Yes, there are elements of African traditionalism in Soyinka’s ideas, but they are those acceptable to the West. They include his anti-Islamic and anti-Muslim postures. He supports animism in Muslim majority Yoruba land. Hence despite his liberal pretensions, he never opposed the killings of innocent Hausa Muslims in Yoruba land by Sunday Igboho and other Oduduwa terrorists as much as he opposed the extra-judicial killing of Deborah Samuel in Sokoto.

Like his Western patrons, Wole Soyinka never opposes the killings of innocent Muslims. Hundreds of Hausa Muslims and non-Muslim northerners have been killed by IPOB and unknown gunmen in the South East. Yet, Wole Soyinka and Christian Bishops never protested loudly as they did for the extra-judicial killing of Deborah. Their conception of human beings is rooted in the Western intellectual tradition where the other has no value.

Why has the Neo-Pagan West become so inhuman even though Man has been the pivot of its philosophy since Renaissance? This could only be understood within the context of European history and the abolition of Christianity, and the entrenchment of secularism. Jesus (peace be upon him) did not come to destroy the Law of Moses but to confirm it and give glad tidings of the coming of Ahmad (SAW), the last Prophet. Therefore his followers remained Jews until the conversion of Paul. And eventually, Jewish Christians under the leadership of James, who upheld the Law, were obliterated (Wilson 1984: 126-7). This paved the way for emphasizing only the teachings of Jesus relating to personal piety, and people were encouraged to regard Caesar as supreme in worldly matters (Mark 7: 17).

Subsequently, Christianity became the Roman Empire’s official religion, and the clergy wielded power and influenced decisions. During the theocratic phase, in some areas, the clergy ruled, and the Pope, as the head of the Christendom, crowned the Kings and Emperors. The Church abused this privilege because Pauline Christianity was not equipped for this purpose. This necessitated a Reformation led by the Protestant fathers. In most parts of Europe, the clergy were made to revert to the position Paul intended for them. Many scholars have shown how Protestant ethics led to capitalism (Raghuram 1999: 236). The Catholic areas of Europe also followed these steps, and the influence of religion in public life was gradually reduced. Europeans believe that they were backwards in the Dark Ages because of the influence of the clergy, which caused the “Christian disease” (Lewis 2002).

With the curing of the “Christian disease,” religion became marginalized in Europe, and there was a shift from God as the pivot of philosophy to Man (Aminrazavi 1996: 384). This was the Enlightenment philosophy. According to Kant, one of the greatest Enlightenment philosophers, this current facilitated the emergence of man from his self imposed infancy and inability to use his reason without the guidance of another (Inwood 1995: 236-237). The Enlightenment philosophy preached equality for citizens of the nation but encouraged brutality and even genocide against others.

For example, the French revolution, which was a product of Enlightenment that gave birth to the republic based on “liberty, equality and fraternity”, but it restored slavery after it jailed Toussant L’Ouverture, the leader of the revolt in Haiti who was inspired by the French revolution (Time, December 31, 1999 p. 164). This shift from God to Man led to all the atrocities committed by Westerners who came to regard themselves as superior and all others as expendable. They lost the compassion of Christianity and became Christians in name only. And they were always willing to use Christian missionaries for this agenda. As confirmed by Pope Paul VI, the apostles who were extremists were also willing to be associated with the European imperialists because they regarded all non-Christians as heathens.

The public aspect of Christianity was abolished because the clergy misused the privilege. This was why Roy made his statement: “Secularity and politics are born of a closing of Christian thought onto itself” (Roy 1994: 8). Fukuyama also observed that: “Christianity in a certain sense had to abolish itself through a secularization of its goals before liberalism could emerge” (Fukuyama 1992: 216). This made it possible for some Western Christians to hate others and commit the worst crimes in human history: colonialism and Nazism. As a result, more than fifty million people lost their lives during the Western-inspired Second World War, the worst in human history.

This Western imperialist epistemological vision has enabled Western leaders to commit the worst atrocities against humanity despite human rights pretensions. European Americans committed genocide against Native Americans and Africans to build their economy. It is universally acknowledged that Western leaders lied when they invaded Iraq, as there were no weapons of mass destruction.

They spent trillions of dollars to destroy Muslim countries: Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and Syria, causing the worst humanitarian crisis. Since World War II, the worst conflict has been the resource war in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) caused by Western companies. Over three million people have lost their lives. No one cares about these atrocities in the West, but their diplomats can talk about Deborah in Nigeria.

Wole Soyinka and some Christian leaders can show their outrage against the extra-judicial killing of Deborah but not the massacre of innocent Muslims in the South East precisely because their worldview is rooted in the Western intellectual tradition. Muslim lives are nothing to people like Wole Soyinka. Hence, he was one of those who signed the petition that the murderers of Tafawa Balewa, Sardauna and military officers of northern origin should be released because the lives of Muslim and non-Muslim northerners eliminated do not matter. And now they want the mob that killed Deborah to be prosecuted simply because she symbolizes the violation of the sanctity of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), not because of any humanitarian consideration since they are selective.

Wole Soyinka has no respect for the Prophet of Islam (peace and blessings be upon him). There is no problem with this since he is an acclaimed unbeliever, but he should show understanding of the Muslim position as an intellectual. Ibrahim Maqary, on the other hand, as a Muslim scholar, considers the position of the Prophet of Islam as more important than the world and what it contains. Therefore, just as Western imperialists can destroy countries to satisfy their hedonistic lives, Muslims are willing to sacrifice their lives for the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon).

Muslims have no history of genocide against non-Muslims or cruel destruction of countries as in the case of Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan and Syria or evil obliteration of communities like Tafawa Balewa in Nigeria.

Muslims, unlike Western Christians, have not abolished Islam; therefore, they cannot tolerate infringement on the sanctity of the Prophet. This is the worldview of the Muslims, and why should anyone query it? Must Muslims adopt a Western neo-pagan worldview? This can never happen. No Muslim scholar has ever called for the extra-judicial killing of anyone who violates the sanctity of the Prophet. It is the responsibility of the state to take action against those who commit this crime.

There is no doubt Wole Soyinka will continue his pretentiousness that Ibrahim Maqary should be sacked from the position of Imam of the National Mosque. This is one of the reasons why he was awarded the Nobel Prize – to promote Western neo-paganism against Islam. Ibrahim Maqary, on the other hand, will continue to attract the respect of the Muslims for protecting the sanctity of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). Muslim scholars will also continue to maintain their position that Prophet must not be insulted and, at the same time, no mob action or human rights violations of innocent citizens.

Ibrahim Ado-Kurawa is the Editor of Nigeria Year Book and Who is Who. He can be reached via ibrahimado@hotmail.com.

By Aisha Musa Auyo

Allah created marriage for lifelong pleasure and happiness. Therefore, beyond any other human relationship, marriage has the potential to make us happier. But there is a price to this happiness, which is CHARACTER. 

Marriage tests our character in every way. It tests our patience, work ethic, willingness to forgive, sensitivity to others, tolerance for those different from us, cooperation ability, endurance, and humility. Marriage is simply the biggest character test in life.

These tests integrate into our demeanour and give us a certain level of understanding, patience and maturity, and willingness to forgive. Moreover, it opens our eyes to the reality of life that unconditional love is exclusively for parents and children.

One needs to work more on his character, temperament, and personality to be able to live peacefully with others. Emotional intelligence plays a greater role in the relationship than anything else.

For most new couples, marriage was like a trip to the proverbial woodshed for the first several years. They were selfish, insensitive, angry and chauvinistic. After the first few years, many spouses were convinced that they had made a mistake in marrying their mate and that they were the cause of their misery.

But after lots of patience and endurance, when they look back at those times, they will realise that all the negatives that happened are crucial in forming their character. Many couples admit that they almost didn’t make it. They almost give up, but such circumstances forced them to decide to change and become more like Allah wants them to be… (patient, prayerful, selfless, understanding, and forgiving).

As a partner, know that your marriage will take a significant step forward every time you make a positive character change. Your spouse also will make positive character choices that will benefit your relationship, and you will have a great marriage, inshaAllah. It won’t be perfect, but you will be happier, contented, and at peace than ever before and will be glad to be committed to the lifelong journey.

Know that before marriage makes you happy, it will make you grow.

Aisha Musa Auyo is a Doctorate researcher in Educational Psychology. A mother of three, Aisha is a homemaker, caterer and parenting/relationship coach.

By Abdullahi Abubakar Lamido

Bleak Economic Future on Losing bread Winner

Think of it; the moment you die, the socioeconomic status of your children and wives changes. Your children (those young among them especially) become orphans, and your wives are called widows. While alive, you worked hard and earned for their feeding, clothing, shelter, education, healthcare and general wellbeing. The moment you die, they lose a breadwinner. If in your lifetime you have searched from the Islamic Sharī’ah, you would have learned the art and science of planning beyond your lifetime for these prospective widows and orphans. After relying on Allah, you would have built for them a prospect such that they would live a life of meaning, success, prosperity and contribution, insha Allah. And here comes the relevance of family waqf; waqf, in general, being the Islamic instrument for institutionalising philanthropy and ensuring perpetuity in giving!

Family Waqf as a superb socioeconomic institution enables one posthumously to maintain his parenthood and breadwinner status for his family, generates him reward permanently and preserves the dignity of his progeny everlastingly. In family waqf, you find one of the essential instruments for planning the future prosperity of your progeny.

Family Waqf as Solution

Family waqf, also called posterity waqf, is a kind of endowment created as a futuristic investment for the sustainable prosperity of the endower’s relatives or friends. It is often called a restricted waqf, distinct from a public waqf whose benefits go to an open class of beneficiaries. It can be for the immediate family; wives and children. It may also include parents. It can be made for the extended family, depending upon the financial capacity of the endower. One can make a family waqf for a child with a special need, say one with sickle-cell disease. The beneficiaries of a family waqf, in short, are those defined by the endower.    

Significantly, although the primary beneficiaries of this form of waqf are those pinpointed from the endower’s family, time may expand the scope of the recipients of its fruits. When, for example, the revenues generated from the waqf grow so large beyond the family’s need, or when the family gradually goes extinct after some long time, the waqf could be converted to a public waqf, expanding the coverage of those who enjoy its benefits. Therefore, what distinguishes a family waqf from a general public waqf is its scope of defined beneficiaries. Virtually all other rules of its governance are the same with public waqf. It can be made a direct waqf, one that creates direct benefits, on an investment waqf whose revenues are distributed to the designated recipients.   

Family waqf can be made for the provision of all forms of welfare and empowerment services for the family. It can be made for education, healthcare, feeding, clothing and other needs. It can also be made, specifically for the sponsorship of Hajj to family members. In this regard, instead of spending five million naira for two or three members of the family to perform Hajj this year, the same amount can be invested as a waqf, such that after its maturity, the proceeds from the investment waqf can be used to sponsor Hajj for a certain number of family members every year. With proper management and Allah’s barakah, instead of three family members, dozens of them can enjoy Hajj from the same seed money even long after the demise of the original donor. Waqf multiplies benefits and rewards manifold.

More often than not, you hear people complain over the demands of their family members overwhelming them even as they want to contribute. But little do they know they have a satisfactory answer in family waqf. For example, suppose you know you spend two million naira for the education of your children and extended family annually. Why not make an investment waqf so that the proceeds of the waqf relieve you of any spending in that direction in some years to come?

Form and Functioning of the Family Waqf

A person can build a rentable shopping complex, subscribe to Islamic bonds (Sukuk), buy shares of a halal company, and dedicate the same and profits thereof as a waqf for the education of his children and grandchildren. Likewise, one can build an orchard full of date trees, mango trees and other fruit-bearing trees, dedicating them as a waqf for the future specific or general financing of the needs of their children.

When the endower specifies in the waqf deed that it is only for the education of his children, then, as a rule, no part of the rentals shall be spent on other needs, just as the resources cannot be used to fund the education of children other than his, except when the yields grow far beyond the education of the designated siblings. If the endower dedicates it to education and healthcare, its proceeds cannot be diverted to feeding the family or other things except under absolute necessity. All this is to safeguard the sanctity of the waqf, ensure its sustainability, and guarantee the continuous flow of its yields in line with the overall goals and objectives for which it is created.

 The good thing is that, like all other waqfs, making it a family waqf makes the investment/asset inalienable. It prevents it from being counted among the inheritable wealth of the endower, as it will remain a separate entity that creates benefits perpetually to the entire qualified beneficiaries. The asset can neither be sold nor given as collateral. It remains a waqf asset. This way, even when the children need other things, they source them outside the waqf, allowing the waqf to maintain its defined purpose perpetually.  

The idea behind family waqf stems from Islam’s emphasis on ensuring the wellbeing of a person’s family and biological relations and the need to spend continuously on all aspects of their needs; spiritual, intellectual, biological, physiological, socio-cultural, and so on. Talking about spending, the Qur’an draws attention to prioritising spending on the family. When, for instance, the companions continued to ask the Prophet (SAW) how best to organise their spending, Allah intervened with a divine spending formula: that whatever you plan to spend for good or charity, direct it to your “parents, relatives, orphans, the needy and the traveller” (Qur’an 2: 215).

Your family, in short, occupies the first three spaces on your scale of spending preference. They are the primary beneficiaries of your giving, be it obligatory or voluntary. Now, if, as the Prophet declares, the most pleasing act in the sight of Allah is one that is perpetual and sustainable; then it becomes apparent that the most rewarding spending on the family is the “gift that keeps on giving”, that is a waqf that keeps bearing fruits to the family.

Start Early, Start Now!

It is important you begin the waqf plan early. Many people start their marital lives with moderate incomes, which, with little adjustments, a futuristic mindset and financial discipline, are sufficient to be divided into consumption, saving and little investments. However, financial shortsightedness often prevents them from allocating some portion of that “meagre income” to what would ease their financial burdens and create a sustainable flow of income – and reward- for themselves and their family in the future. Little do they realise that as their family grows, so do their financial burdens. If these are added to inflation and other economic unpredictables, the complexity of the situation worsens.

Many people do not also realise that the best immunisation from the negative socioeconomic consequences of shrinking disposable income is to begin early implementation of an effective financial plan. Many begin to regret when the regret cannot change anything; they would want to start to cry when the head is already cut off!  

So, plan for the future of your beloved wives, children and relatives. That is a Sunnah, a well-established one, for that matter. A viable and well-managed revenue-generating waqf can do that for you. You get double rewards; you safeguard your family’s future Islamically and earn rewards perpetually. Make an effective plan for their feeding, sheltering, education, medicine, and socioeconomic prosperity. Make a waqf for their Hajj, ‘umrah and general spiritual wellbeing. That is sunnatic. Do not miss the opportunity to practice this multidimensional Sunnah, the Sunnah of family waqf. Our dear mother and wife of the Noblest Prophet, Aisha, reports to us that the Prophet (peace be upon him) dedicated his seven gardens as waqf to benefit the clans of Banū Abd Muttalib and Banū Hāshim as recorded by Bayhaqi.

We also see emphasising family waqf in the guidance of the Prophet to his companions. After the revelation of the verse “By no means shall you attain righteousness/piety unless you spend of that which you love; and whatever good you spend, Allah knows it well” (3:92), Abu Talha met the Prophet and said, “This is what Allah has revealed, and the most treasured of all my wealth is this garden, Bayruhā’. I have set it aside as a ṣadaqah to attract reward from Allah. Therefore, you should administer it the way you wish”. The Prophet was amazed by this gesture. And so he said, “Certainly your wealth is blessed. Having heard what you have said, I recommend that you dedicate it as a perpetual charity to your relatives”. Based on this Prophetic advice Abu Talhah made it a waqf for his close relatives and cousins (Bukhari and Muslim).

It is interesting also that most companions of the Prophet are reported to have implemented this Sunnah. For example, Caliph Abubakar dedicated a house as a waqf for his son, and Umar dedicated a waqf near Marwa to his son. Also, Zubayr endowed a house in Makkah, another in Egypt, and yet another in Medina as waqfs for his children. Amr b. ‘Āss endowed a house and another huge property in Mecca for his children, just as Hakīm b. Hizām also dedicated a house as a waqf in Mecca and another in Medina for his son. After reporting all of these, Ibn Qudamah says in al-Mughniy, “All this are intact till date”.

Family waqf is a Sunnah of the Prophet, his companions and generations of Muslims in the last fourteen centuries. It is a well-developed institution that grew as a robust instrument for family empowerment and societal development until it faced the orchestrated wrath of the colonial monsters. The colonialists saw it as an institution that gave families and societies independence against their mercilessness and hence officially abolished it in Muslim nations like Egypt, Morocco, and so on.

Sadly, there is hardly any evidence of its practice as enshrined in Islamic law and civilisation here in Nigeria. With the growing waqf awakening in Nigeria, one hopes that a new page would be opened for entrenching this all-important Islamic civilisational institution. The good news is that with each family doing it, we gradually build a new waqf generation. Through that, we give a big blow to poverty at family levels before we finally eject it out of our communities. The early we sow, the earlier we reap. The more we sow, the more we reap. May we begin this journey NOW.

Abdullahi Abubakar Lamido, Chairman, Zakah and Waqf Foundation, Gombe . He can be reached via lamidomabudi@gmail.com.

By Abdullahi Abubakar Lamido

Introduction

In today’s Nigeria, we experience a rapidly growing population at an average rate of 3% per annum. We currently have about 220 million citizens and still counting. Our population is projected to reach nearly 400 million in the next 28 years. It is factual also that the population growth is much higher in the Muslim communities of Northern Nigeria than in other communities in both the North and the South.

Due to many reasons, foremost among which is the widespread practice of Islamically permissible polygyny, our population grows exponentially. At the same time, little is done to plan the expansion of infrastructure and provide alternative ways of coping with the needs of the expanding population. An average Northern Nigerian man likes and practices polygyny (i.e. marries more than one wife). In addition, family planning and birth control are generally considered taboos. Families are, therefore, mostly large.

While the population is supposed to be a blessing, it can also be a curse if not well managed. It is clear also that most of the Muslim masses and a large chunk of the Muslim leaders, intellectuals and even religious scholars are oblivious of the long term consequences of an ever-growing population that is not matched with a corresponding sharī’ah-compliant solid plan for taking care of the education, health, food and other socioeconomic and religio-spiritual needs of the expanding population.

While few are partly aware of some of the projections related to population growth vis-à-vis the socioeconomic and other realities, we are largely oblivious of the need to develop Islamic oriented ways of building the society and coping with the socioeconomic challenges associated with our growing population and exponentially changing societal dynamics. Therefore, the issue can quickly become controversial during any discussion.

But a society that accepts, based on an interpretation of religious teachings and cultural beliefs, that polygamy – rather polygyny – should be widely practised and even encouraged should also be a society that always goes back to the scripture for proper guidance on how to manage polygamous families. Since, as a religious Ummah, we have accepted what Islam has provided for us of the permissibility of having many children, is it not also Islamically incumbent upon us to go back to the Qur’an and Sunnah to learn how to organise the social, educational, economic and other needs of our families? Within this context, I intend to introduce family waqf, an almost entirely unknown Islamic institution for organising and planning the prosperity of families in Nigeria.  

Unpleasant Consequences of Life without Planning

How often have you heard stories that end with statements like: “Allahu Akbar! Late Alhaji Adamu was a wealthy person, a kind, gentle, and successful businessman. But look at how his children are suffering…”; or “Can you remember Alhaji Mai-Turare: the owner of XYZ Business at Tudun Muntsira quarters? Do you know that this hopeless drug addict is his son! He dropped out of school and joined a team of hooligans…Allah ya sa mu gama da duniya lafiya (May we have a good end in this world)”. And similar stories?!

Those are recurrent stories in Northern Nigeria. You have several successful entrepreneurs or accomplished aristocrats and professionals who reached the zenith of fortune in their chosen businesses and professions and lived lives of accomplishment and contribution. However, shortly after their demise, their estates would be shared among their 30 heirs; four wives, over 20 children, etc. After a few years, those inheritors of enormous wealth would fall from the world of prosperity to that of harsh poverty.

Many people would be rich, with an ever-expanding flow of income in the booming years of their careers. Still, they would never think of making a sustainable investment for the future prosperity of their children, not even for their life after retirement. After the family has grown large, inflation has multiplied manifold, and life has become unbearably expensive against their sources of income which have rather contracted due to age and other factors; they turn from affluence to poverty, battling to settle even the most basic of their bills. They neither invested for their retirement nor made an ever-flowing investment for their second life, the eternal life after death.

They have no passive investments that generate income for them at old age, nor a waqf (endowment) that would continue to fetch them rewards even while in their graves. They have no plan for what would sustainably finance their family’s education, health, and other essential needs. And so the worst happens. And the whistle is blown for their final, inevitable transition to the next world, leaving their family in economic and financial confusion, which often spirals into other messes in the spiritual, social and mental spheres. Soon after dearth, history forgets them as they have left nothing that continues to fetch them rewards and people’s prayers, not even for their immediate family.

The Importance of Making a Financial Plan

But why is it essential to make a financial plan for your children’s and family’s future prosperity? Does that have any place in Islam? Sa’d b. Abu Waqqas was an uncle to the Prophet (peace be upon him). He was among the ten topmost companions that received glad tiding of a direct entry ticket to Paradise in one sitting. He was rich. Actually, very rich.

One day, during the farewell pilgrimage, the Prophet visited Sa’d on his sickbed. After exchanging greetings, Sa’d told the Prophet that I am seriously ill, as you can see. He apparently was doubtful of surviving that illness. He said, “And I am a very rich person, but there is no one to inherit my wealth except a single daughter.” He then asked if he could give two-thirds of his wealth to charity, leaving one-thirds for the daughter. The Prophet instantly replied with a quick “No”. “What of half?” The Prophet again said, “NO”! What of one-thirds?” Now, here is where the Prophet reluctantly approved by saying, “One-third! Even one-third is huge and too much”. Anyway, the Prophet followed this with a statement that deserves the attention of parents at all times; “It is better to die leaving your heirs in affluence than to leave them in poverty, so they continue begging people for alms”. 

Many lessons abound in the above conversation of great personalities. One, piety and affluence are never mutually exclusive; you can be profoundly pious and superlatively prosperous. Two, connected to this, enjoying worldly opulence does not preclude enjoying everlasting other earthly felicity. In fact, worldly riches are effective instruments for attaining success in the next world. This is clear in the stories of great companions like Abubakar Siddiq, Uthman Bin Affan, Abdurrahman and, of course, Sa’ad.

Significantly also, you can plan all of these for your loved ones beginning with your children and wives. Not only you can; you have to! This is Prophetic advice, if not an order. The Prophet (may peace be upon him) made it impermissible for a person, especially while bidding farewell to the world, having no chance on sight to go to the market and earn more resources from gifting out his fortunes lest he throws them into poverty after him.

In simple terms, what the Prophet wanted from us is to plan for making our children self-reliant, self-sufficient and socio-economically empowered. With this, instead of being dependent, they will be independent. We should try making them givers, not receivers, assets rather than liabilities. Ask yourself, if not for empowering the deceased person’s posterity, why would the Sharī’ah even prescribe the inheritance laws in the first place? And in the Hadith of Sa’d above, the Prophet wants us to understand that the philosophy behind inheritance itself is to plan for the sustainable prosperity and economic independence of the deceased’s heirs; leaving them with sufficient inheritable resources to make them rich (agniya’) as against poor (alah).  

Abdullahi Abubakar Lamido, Chairman, Zakah and Waqf Foundation, Gombe . He can be reached via lamidomabudi@gmail.com.

By Aisha Musa Auyo

‘If you don’t want to be criticized, do nothing, say nothing and be nothing. – Unknown

This article is inspired by a Facebook post asking why women were yet to send opinion articles to an online news medium despite sending them numerous invitations. 

Northern Nigerian (‘Hausa-Muslim’) women have peculiar characteristics that distinguish them from others. First, their personality is governed by religion and culture, with irksome societal expectations that women belong to the home, kitchen and the other room.

Thus, women are expected to keep their views to themselves. They can only talk when the matter is homemaking affairs regardless of their level of education, experience and expertise.  When a northern woman comes out to write or make her views known to the public, she should be ready to face the consequences of that action for the rest of her life.

Suppose you are active in this social media village. In that case, you will notice how women are ridiculed, dragged to the mud, abused, misunderstood, misquoted, and sometimes lies and falsehoods spread about them. These issues do not start and stop on social media. Even friends and families tend to misquote or misinterpret write-ups and then spread them to others who may have missed them. Others may take the write-up personally and assume it’s for them or about them. That has caused a lot of family conflicts and tension. 

On the other hand, one needs to have time to engage with those who made comments or reactions. One needs to spare time to reiterate and reexplain specific points, which is draining and time-consuming. Not to talk of the harsh and ridiculing responses that will make one lose their cool.

As a writer, I know one can’t force an understanding in a single direction. People understand only from their level of perception, experience, exposure and open-mindedness. A northern woman should know that her writing will be misunderstood, misinterpreted, and misquoted.

I have several stories to tell. My friend was crucified to the extent that she didn’t want to write even a single word again. The writer in her has been killed. She has logged out of Facebook altogether. And do you know what caused the rain of abuses? Because she refuses to engage in a private chat with men.

There was a time I made a public post that I don’t chat with men due to the endless ‘hi, salam’ messages I receive daily. I wrote that whatever a person wants to talk about should write under my public post or forget about it. Among the annoying comments is that I should leave the platform since I’m not willing to chat privately. As if the app is all about private chatting with the opposite gender. A coursemate sent me an abusive message that I’m now arrogant even before getting my doctorate since I have not been answering his ‘hi’ and ‘salams’.

There’s also this young fiction writer I met via Wattpad. She writes so well and has many followers. She makes readers cry, and her characters become so real in our hearts that we feel like family. But then, all of a sudden, she stops writing. So, when I asked her why she told me how her aunt reported her to her parents that she was busy influencing northern women to leave their marital homes.

The book that got her publicity is about a woman who has stayed and endured abusive marriage, then left after 20 years, started life afresh, and her new man and new home became paradise on earth.  Her point is there’s life out there for abusive victims.  Her point is it’s never too late to leave. But her parents were brainwashed, and she was prohibited from writing. She was a great writer, and I miss her.

I remember an instance when someone just tagged my name in a story with the caption “sak labarinki” [Just like your story]. And that story has no similarity whatsoever to my life. Come and see comments, people asking me how my story goes that they want to hear from me. That really scared me, and I felt like I would never write again!

Another incident that got me thinking was when a renowned world feminist got married, and a female Arewa writer or activist was tagged and grilled. That activist once wrote, ‘marriage is not an achievement’. She wrote that based on the Arewa context, marriage is the only achievement for a woman, which lead many girls and parents to marry their daughters to the wrong persons. This culture has led many women to endure hardships and other abuses just to stay married.

The activist’s point was there’s more to being a woman than just getting married, and honestly, some marriages are not an achievement. I know this will come up whenever that girl is getting married, that is, if she is lucky to get a mature suitor and brave enough to endure ridicule and insults from family and friends. This thing will also come up whenever her future daughter is getting married. The future son-in-law will be reminded that his mother-in-law doesn’t recognize marriage as an achievement. Simply put, this statement will hunt her for generations. The internet doesn’t forget.

Similarly, there are monitoring spirits waiting for you to make a mistake in the grammar, so they drag you down or ridicule you.  You never know some exist in your friend list, but they are there, waiting for one wrong move.

To be brutally honest, one has to be tough to endure all these and more. A woman is an emotional being, and one single word can crucify her to the extent that it also affects those around her.

I recall a post by a blogger that goes, ‘This is her husband writing. I want you to know your comments and reactions have affected my wife so badly that even we, her family members, are affected. I wish you people were more understanding and emphatic. This blogging is her passion, and you have killed her spirit. She has been crying for days, and we are all mourning the dead spirit. If anything, I hope this makes you feel better about yourself and what you wrote’.

So before a northern woman writes, she needs to ask herself: If she is emotionally strong and ready to tackle so many obstacles that will come her way and that may hunt her for a lifetime. Is she prepared for that commitment? Is it even worth it? 

Frankly, those who keep to themselves are more at peace than those who write. A person’s essays or write-ups will surely outlive him, and if the writer has written good, worthy articles that benefit him, here and hereafter… but at a cost!

On a final note, we need to do better in writing comments and reactions to people’s write-ups. The hadith ‘Falyaqul khaeran auliyasmut’ also applies to writing. If your comment is not constructive and will not inspire, encourage or motivate, then kindly leave it to yourself. We should also remember that we will be held accountable for what we say, write, or make others feel!

Aisha Musa Auyo is a Doctorate researcher in Educational Psychology. A mother of three, Home Maker, caterer, parenting and relationship coach.