Salafi

By Shamsuddeen bn Abd al-Hamid al-Kanawy

(i)Background

Alhamdu Lil Lah, was Salatu was Salamu alaa Rasulil Lah, wa ala Alihi wa Sahbihi wa man Walah.In the recent years, the radical ‘Qala-Kato’ trends of rejecting the canonization of Sunnah (the Prophetic traditions), as the second primary source of Islamic Shariah (al-Baihaqi 73-77, Ibn Hazm 96-104, Ibn Qutlubugha 38-39, al-Shanghiti 86), which Northern Nigeria had for decades been largely forced underground – thanks to their Maitashine progenitor’s blood-soaked rebellion against the authorities in the region’s several urban centers (Gari 21-24), have managed to spring back to life, although, chiefly clothed in a desperately selective anti-Salafi rhetoric, or more precisely, paired with an agitation to -at least, keep the Salafis at bay.

It is no surprise that, the reawakened ‘Qala-Kato’ storm in North Nigeria takes aim at the Salafis. For one reason, the Salafis, otherwise known as the ‘Ahl al-Hadith wa as-Sunnah’ (the Adherents of the Hadith and Sunnah), are relentless and vigilant defenders of the realm of the Islamic scriptures, whereby vehemently protesting all sort of attempts to distort, twist or manipulate their codes, in addition to their absolute commitment to the pristine methodology of the Salaf (Righteous Predecessors) (Hussein 31, Thurston 5, Gari 14), for another, almost all advocates of disguised and undisguised anti-Islamic and anti-Muslim sentiments, regardless of their agnostic, atheist, polytheist, Judeo-Christian, liberal, secular, modernist, nationalistic, racial or ethnicist backgrounds, as well as the al-Batiniyyah (esoteric cults) and zanadiqah (the plural of the Arabic zindiq: any individual clandestinely committed to extreme infidelity to Islam), heretic Muslim sects and affiliations who grossly deviate from the teachings of the Quran and Sunnah, not only loathe the Salafis, but also consider them a genuine threat to their respective missions, quests and convictions. In the Nigerian North and elsewhere, the Salafi scholars and students of knowledge, could be distinguished from the rest of the Muslim clerical elites, by their staunch dedication to resisting intellectual war against Islam and its original sources.

As expected, a confederation of presumed critical thinkers of the North and their allies has thrown its weight behind the ‘Qala-Kato’ controversialists. However, the pro-Qala-Kato arguments and assessments of the supposed thinkers, are neither aligned to academic and intellectual basis of any sort, nor do they appear to reflect the reality about the ‘Qala-Kato’ contentions and the scholarly responses to them, the theologies/thoughts, history and sociology of the Islamic affiliations and modes of practice in Northern Nigeria. Hence, their glorification, or rather idolization of the ‘Qala-Kato’ are obviously not warranted by intellectual competence or critical thinking, but -perhaps, dictated by their desperation to bend the truth, twist the reality, mislead, brainwash and rewrite history.

I fear that, the purported Luminants of the North and their allies, might have considered it their professional -and perhaps, moral obligation, as the chosen ones -privileged for their competence in Western sciences and European languages, as well as their familiarity –with particularly, the Anglo-American norms and thoughts, to lead discussions on Islam and its theology, whereby, validating, invalidating constructing, deconstructing and reconstructing the Muslim discourses at will, in a demonstration of utter disregard for academic basis and intellectuality.

Interestingly, none of their Western and West-centric inspirers; the Orientalists, their heirs and puppets within the Islamic world -who had to sacrifice everything for their embattled cause, did a good job of redefining Islam, just as Edward Said testifies that “One ought never to assume that the structure of Orientalism is nothing more than the structure of lies or of myths which, were the truth about them to be told, will simply blow away” and ultimately rules that ‘’I myself believe that Orientalism is more particularly valuable as a sign of European Atlantic power over the Orient, than it is a veridic discourse about the Orient.(which is what, in its academic or scholarly form it claims to be)” (Said 6).

Given the above, this essay intends to explore, assess and deal with misconceptions, fallacies and misinformation about the Salafi-Izala mode of Islamic da’wah and practice in Northern Nigeria that are championed by the West-centric detractors of the as-Salaffiyah, and whose censure and condemnation of it ripens into misrepresentation and distortion of its doctrine and methodology, mischaracterization and dehumanization of the key figures within its intellectual and da’wah constituencies, fabrication and/or promotion of false or erroneous facts about it and its adherents, as well as glorification of the flawed discourses and arguments of its opponents.

Thematically, this essay will focus on issues closely associated with the concept, doctrine, methodology and identity of as-Salafiyyah, its advent in Northern Nigeria, the making of the Izala society; Northern Nigeria’s largest and most well-organized Salafi da.wah platform, the nexus between the Izala and sister local and international Salafi affiliations and platforms, the interrelations between the Sufi Brotherhoods, and between them and the Salafis in the 20th and 21st centuries C.E, the Salafi stands and attitudes towards non-Salafi Muslim individuals, affiliations and sects, allegations of literalism, inconformity, intolerance, conservatism, extremism, and terrorism against the as-Salafiyyah and its prominent figures, international inspirers and benefactors. The Salafi attitudes towards temporal disciplines (Western education) modernity, political and civil participation and -of course, analysis and assessment of their responses to the current Qala-Kato and esoteric Faira Sufi controversies.

The essay will engage the gross anti-Salafi sentiments associated with the following West-centric submissions:

Usman Isyaku’s Oct 18, 2005 Facebook piece on North’s religious landscape, Abdulrazak’s “Masussuka and the Mirror of the Changing North’’ (and through him the analyses of Ibrahim Musa, Ahmad Sadiq and Dr. Musa, among others), sampled contents of Nuru Khalid (the digital Imam’s) moments of anti-Salafi agitation and rhetoric, including his weirdest claim that Wahhabism (as-Salafiyyah) is a British creation, Shehu Sani’s “Political Assassination in Nigeria”; and the last but not the least, Sunusi Lamido Sunusi’s “Identity Politics, Ethnics and Parochialism: My Engagement with Ja’far Adam”, his “In Defense of Reverend Father Kukah” and “If Poverty Continues in the North, Islam Will Disappear”.

It is worth noting that, in the course of its treatment of the issues highlighted above, the essay will – in sha Allah, engage as many profiles within the orbit of the sampled intellectuals as possible.

To be continued…

Shamsuddeen bn Abd al-Hamid al-Kanawy

shamsuddeenabounafeesa@gmail.comJalingo, Taraba State, Nigeria.