Qur'an

By Isma’il Hashim Abubakar 

No doubt, the holy month of Ramadan is a special season that always reactivates our religious consciousness and hikes the level of our spirituality. As Nigerians are passing through unprecedented inflation and increase in prices of commodities, this year’s Ramadan came with a hope that it offered an opportunity for Muslims to use the medium for deep reflections, improvement and promotion of piety and righteousness, but also to devote their time for supplications so that Allah would take them out of the woods and mess they have been grappling with over the years.

One interesting feature of Ramadan season is the commitment of Muslim scholars to deliver religious lessons and to, in a more concentrated fashion, bring the Muslim public closer to Islamic teachings in such a way that they would graduate from Ramadan school with paperless certificates that attest to their participation in one month course for reform of faith and creed, learning and relearning of worship and liturgical formulas and practice, refreshing minds with Islamic history and so on.

Although a few scholars teach books apart from the Qur’anic text, including works on some themes such as traditions and biography of Prophet Muhammad (SAW), interpretation and exegesis (tafsir) of the Glorious Qur’an, the queen of heavenly scriptures and the apex Islamic text, is the dominant exercise that makes the month unique and the best of all other months. Returning to the Qur’an during Ramadan is a universal custom for Muslims, but Nigeria’s religious sphere annually unveils a scintillating atmosphere that other Muslim climes would hardly rival. Pairing a male chief Mufassir and a female recitation assistant (mai jan baƙi) seems to be a strange feature of this year’s tafsir, which elicits so many brouhahas.

As an age-old exercise, tafsir in Hausaland has seen several transformations and shifts both during pre-colonial and contemporary eras, which saw the emergence of hundreds of mufassirun (interpreters of the Qur’an) of varying calibres and credentials. However, the post-independence era has never seen an eloquent, erudite and versatile interpreter of the Islamic scripture like the prominent cleric, the late Shaykh Ja’far Mahmud Adam, who was assassinated in 2007 while leading dawn prayer in his mosque in Kano. Even by accounts and confessions of his critics, opponents and detractors, Shaykh Ja’far was proven and credited to have excelled all his peers and contemporaries in analyzing and expounding the verses of the Glorious Qur’an. His annual Ramadan tafsir at Ndimi Mosque in Maiduguri was a matchless and extraordinary religious conference that reawakened Muslims and renewed and revived Muslims’ interest in the Qur’an and the process of making meaning out of it. 

When Shaykh Ja’far exited the scene in a historic and memorable manner, having been assassinated by unknown gunmen, which enhanced his posthumous popularity and brought millions of Muslims to his camps, many young and upcoming scholars adopted his method of tafsir and not only sought to replicate his path but also rose to earn his popularity, prominence and influence. 

However, God destined that Shaykh Ja’far’s friend and longtime colleague, Dr Muhammad Sani Rijiyar Lemo, would be unanimously accepted to succeed the former in especially the Ndimi Mosque tafsir conference, which later relocated to Bauchi due to persistent insecurity in Maiduguri. Rijiyar Lemo’s erudition was vouched for by no other person more than Shaykh Ja’far himself, who during his lifetime repeatedly mentioned Rijiyar Lemo as a colleague on whom he relied in many respects, particularly in matters pertaining to Hadith authentication, the area in which Rijiyar Lemo specialized.

Interestingly, as sources informed me, when Rijiyar Lemo finished his PhD in Madina in 2005, he intended to stay in Saudi Arabia to work with a research and publication centre. Still, Ja’far prevailed upon him to return to Nigeria to engage in the Da’awah arena, insisting that he would be more useful at home than in Saudi Arabia. It must be a form of karama that Ja’far would successfully persuade a friend to come back to Nigeria, not knowing that he would be his successor within two years in many of his religious engagements.

Rijiyar Lemo’s relocation to Masallacin Gwallaga in Bauchi provided a fertile ground for him to effectively continue with the tafsir exercise and his method, which radically differs from his predecessor’s and makes his rendition more favourable to advanced students of Islamic knowledge. Perhaps one does not have to conduct further research when invited to present tafsir elsewhere and could just have to listen to and summarize the exhaustive tafsir rendered by Rijiyar Lemo. I have made it one of the few lessons I rarely miss within and outside Ramadan. 

Besides the main task of interpreting the verses of the Qur’an, answering questions at the beginning of the conference and leading the session of conversion to Islam by giving the testimony to new converts by the scholar, one of the top themes which Rijiyar Lemo’s tafsir focused on this year was stressing and underscoring the position of Sunnah as an essential component of Islamic legislation. Rijiyar Lemo’s defence for Sunnah came at a time when the year witnessed simmering misunderstandings and social media exchanges about the position of prophetic reports in some popular Hadith collections and the degree of their authenticity. This debate was ignited earlier by Abduljabbar Nasiru Kabara, who was imprisoned after he failed in the historic debate, which then silenced his impasse and briefly paused discussions on the matter. The matter returned, it seems when after he visited Iran to deliberate the plight of Palestinians, Dr. Ahmad Gumi prodded and stirred the discussions through his utterances, which were interpreted by many as a continuation of the task of condemnation of Sunnah which Abduljabbar Kabara started.

Rijiyar Lemo’s response was complemented by a mention of several references for readers, such as Mustapha al-Sibā’ī’s masterpiece and grand defence for Sunnah titled “al-Sunnah wa Makānatuha fī al-Tashrī’ al-Islāmi’ī“. Needless to say, hearing the names of new books is among the countless benefits of listening to Rijiyar Lemo’s tafsir in particular and other Islamic lessons in general. From all indications, Rijiyar Lemo has the ambition to publish an excellent tafsir of the Qur’an before or immediately after interpreting the whole Qur’an in Bauchi or Kano, where he also replaced Shaykh Ja’far at Usman Bin Affan Mosque, Gadon Kaya.

Ismail Hashim Abubakar, PhD, wrote from Morocco. He can be reached via abuarqam89@gmail.com.

By Yuhya Gambo, PhD

Obviously, we truly need to be reminded of the true purpose of the Quran. The Quran is not just a book to be recited and memorized but rather a source of guidance and wisdom that we should strive to understand and implement in our lives.

Decades ago, the late Sheikh Abubakar Mahmud Gumi (may Allah have mercy on him) authored his famous book of Tafsir titled “Returning the Minds to the Meaning of the Quran” (رد الاذهان الى معاني القرآن). The book was written at a time when many Muslims in our community had drifted far away from the core teachings of the Quran. Back then, the Quran was mostly read to seek blessings in ceremonies and other gatherings, and nothing more.

Just like many others, I benefited immensely from the radio broadcast of tafsir sessions of the late Sheikh. Ever since I listened to his Tafsir of Suratul Nur, I learned how Allah wants me to relate with different categories of women in my life, the etiquette of entering people’s houses, and the requirement to lower my gaze and not stare at women lustfully. Alhamdulillah.

Also, I learned about the high status of Aishah (an epitome of chastity), the Mother of the Believers (may Allah be pleased with her). The enormous lessons inspired me to memorize the Surah entirely. May Allah reward Sheikh Gumi with Jannah, ameen.

As Muslims, we badly need the Quran in our lives. Not only does it nourish our inner selves, but it also contains every guide for us to prosper in this Dunya and the hereafter. We must make deliberate efforts to benefit from the pure knowledge and guidance contained in the Quran.

The Quran is practical; it is meant to guide our complete life, be it our spiritual, social, or economic dealings. It is equally meant to guide our creed (belief), speech, and actions to that which Allah is pleased with.

In Majmu’ al-Fatawa 23/55, Sheikhul Islam Ibn Taymiyyah (may Allah have mercy on him) said:

‏”المطلوب من القرآن هو: فهم معانيه والعمل به، فإن لم تكن هذه همةُ حافظه لم يكن من أهل العلم والدين”.

“What is required with regards to the Quran is: To understand its meanings and act upon it, for if this is not the goal of its memorizer, the person cannot be considered among the people of knowledge and [complete] religion”.

Let us make the Quran our companion and guide in this life and the hereafter. In fact, we need the Quran today more than ever!

By Muhammad Abdurrahman

Pope Francis expressed his strong disapproval of the burning of the Quran, stating that he was both angry and disgusted by the act. He rejected any notion that this action could be considered a form of freedom of speech.

Recently, there was an incident of Quran’s desecration in Sweden where a man burned a copy of the sacred book outside a mosque in the country’s capital city. The Pope has made remarks in response to this event.

On Sunday, 57 Muslim states — under the banner of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation — said that collective measures are needed to prevent acts of desecration of the Quran and that international law should be used to stop religious hatred.

Swedish police had granted Momika a permit in line with free speech protections, but authorities later said they had opened an investigation over “agitation against an ethnic group”, noting that Momika had burnt pages from the Islamic holy book very close to the mosque.

Sweden’s government condemned Momika’s actions on Sunday, calling them “Islamophobic”.

By Abdurrahman Muhammad

The University of the Holy Qur’an and Taseel of Sciences of the Republic of Sudan awarded Nigeria’s Minister of Communications and Digital Economy and renowned Islamic cleric, Professor Isa Ali Ibrahim (Pantami), with an Honorary Doctoral Degree in Qur’anic Science.

While the Honourable Minister was awarded in May 2021, he received the award certificate and shared the same on social media only recently.

According to the official social media handles of the Minister, he was the first person in sub-Saharan Africa to receive the award. The statement, in part, reads:

“With the exemption of North Africa, he was the first African to receive the recognition on the Glorious Qur’an.”

During Ramadan, Sheikh Pantami delivers Tafsir at the Annur Masjid in the Nigerian capital, FCT Abuja. He also holds other preaching sessions outside the Holy Month at the same mosque or elsewhere.

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 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.

• 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.

By Muhammad Dattijo Kabir

Islamiyya system has been proven to be an alternative to the Almajiri system. In the Islamiyya system, it is easier to commit the Qur’an to memory within the shortest period with decency. And it also allows the children to seek other knowledge that will aid them in confronting the present challenges. Almajiri system can only be insisted to be reformed when it is proven that that is the only way to learn the Qur’an. The system poses a lot of danger to the children, such as health challenges, inferiority and, of course, most of them become morally debased in the end.

Reforming this system alternatively means rewarding irresponsible parents for their irresponsibility, creating unsustainable programs which cannot see the light of the day. Instead, the government should ban and criminalise the system and absorb all the already enrolled Almajiri into formal schools. Then any other parent that wants his child to learn the Qur’an by traditional means must first provide shelter, food, and health facilities for the welfare of the child and must ensure that the child goes to school to at least get primary education.

No one is saying karatun allo should be banned. Karatun allo differs in content and operation from the Almajiri system. While the former entails learning Qur’an by the traditional design by all and sundry, the latter entails recruiting young persons to learn Qur’an by traditional means without provision for food, shelter and medical facility for children recruited. The said recruited army of children relies only on begging leftover food and tattered clothes for subsistence.

It requires no second thought to believe that this system of taking young children away from their parents at the ages they need their parents the most should be stopped and criminalised. No child under the age of 12 should be taken away from his parents’ house in whatever guise. There is nothing good in the Almajiri system as practised today. The system has served and outlived its usefulness. It became archaic and, to some extent, barbaric considering the conditions of the children involved in the system.

There are more decent systems which are alternatives to the already abused system. The system indirectly supports irresponsible parents to breed bundles of children they know they cannot cater for. The parents use the system to abdicate their parental responsibility of feeding, clothing, educating and sheltering their children.

Also, the half-baked Malllams use the system as a means of income. The activists are using it to get themselves employment from international NGOs. The nagging question is, can Qur’an be learned through a more decent system than this child molesting system? The answer is yes. Thousands of children have committed the entire Qur’an to memory through the modern Islamiyya system.

Let’s move on; the system is not viable in the present era. The era of dogma has passed. Let every child be supported by his father and take Quranic education before his parents while attending school. Any system that encourages parents to take their children to the street is barbaric and should not be encouraged.

Muhammad Dattijo Kabir. Muhammad is a lawyer, a human rights activist and a public affairs commentator. He lives in Kaduna and can be reached via jibrilmuhammad27@gmail.com.

By Abdulsalam Alkali

Almajiranci is an informal educational system that is predominantly practised in Northern Nigeria. Almajirai are teenagers ages 4-17 who are sent away from their dwelling by their respective parents to seek Islamic knowledge, a source for sustenance and clothe themselves by begging for alms from people.

The Almajiri system has produced prime leading Islamic intellectuals in Northern Nigeria. Still, along the cord, the system has been altered with the rise in population, making it a system that makes children of tender age susceptible to danger.

It’s awful how Almajirai are abandoned to cater for themselves even though parents should be responsible for their children’s needs and provide them with education. Sadly, parents choose to neglect their responsibility towards their children and abandon them at the early phase of their lives. This is unfair and should be tackled; else, it will erode our societal values.

Numerous discussions and symposia have been held on the predicaments of the Almajirai and how to reform the system. But it is all an exercise in futility because there has been practically no action to stem the tide.

The government, civil society organisations and traditional leaders have a role to play. First, the government should enact legislation prohibiting parents from taking their children to the Almajiri school. In addition, the government should make primary and secondary school free and compulsory so that poor and vulnerable parents can send their children to both formal and informal schools for our society’s good.

Abdulsalam Alkali writes in Maiduguri, Borno State, via abdulsalamyusufalkali71@gmail.com.

By Uzair Adam Imam

Who could have thought that the lingering issue of street begging would still be persistent despite the imposition of an outright ban on begging by the state government? Likewise, who would believe that the state government will continue to be the captive of the past, allowing Almajiri parents to drop around their children for Qur’anic education without shelter, food or clothing?

This and many more have called into question the government’s effort to end street begging in the state.

Recalling the statement issued by the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor of Kano State, Abba Anwar, the Kano State Government announced the ban of street begging in the state. It said that the effort was to fully consolidate the free and compulsory primary and secondary schools education.

“The decision was meant to integrate the Almajiri system into the policy and address the lingering problem of street begging,” Governor Abdullahi Ganduje said in the statement. He further warned that Almajiri teachers must accept the newly introduced approach by the government and that “If Almijiri teacher thinks he cannot accept the new policy he has to leave the state. 

“When Almajiri are caught begging, it is not only that beggar is caught but also his parents or guardians. Such parents or guardians would be taken to court to face the wrath of the law,” the governor added.

The statement disclosed that the newly introduced system was meant to allow the beggars to continue their studies to secondary school and beyond.

But despite the declaration, promises and threats against beggars and their teachers, beggars are still on the state’s streets. They beg from car to car, tricycle to tricycle and from person to person freely and in the presence of security personnel.

Meanwhile, Almajiris in Kano were neither being thwarted from begging nor introduced to western education, as the governor promised.

One of the Almajiri teachers in the state who spoke with The Daily Reality said, “I had no idea of the new policy the state government introduced and no official of the government contacted him ok the policy.”

An educationalist, who prefers not to be named, opined that; “I believe this will definitely be a joyous and celebratory idea if the government could be able to implement the new system.

“But sometimes government plays politics, and I am afraid this might be one, considering the length of time since the assertion was made.” He observed.

Some beggars who were brought to the city from Minjibir explained to our reporter that they face no challenge from anyone. According to them, they move around freely in every nook and cranny, including Nassarawa GRA, where the Kano State Government House is situated.

“We are brought here for Qur’anic education from Minjibir Local Government. Our Tsangaya is situated at Rimin Kebe, Ungogo LGA, and we are not even aware of the ban on begging in the state.”

The lingering problem of street begging is known to anyone living in Kano and the North, or even the country as a whole. But it is worse than expected in the North. 

Kano State Government’s idea of banning street begging is an idea many residents applauded when launched. The ban was introduced to enable the Almajiri to acquire western education while undergoing their Qur’anic education. The ultimate goal was to empower them in society.