THIS expression is very instructive from the glorious Quran, which some misguided element in the country has jettisoned to pursue their devilish ideology that does not exist in Al- Islam.
The provocative killing of innocent souls, whatsoever, must be condemned by all, if we must live in this world in tandem with the teaching and practice of our religious belief that says that we must love our neighbour as we love ourselves. Anybody who feels that injustices have been perpetrated against him or her should find a civilised way of seeking redress in a competent court of law.
Nobody in this world has a monopoly of violence but men of ideas and responsibility have to exercise restraint not to aggravate the existing bestiality that we are witnessing in the Northern part of the country based on the fact that they do not want to rock the boat of a country that has potentials to be one of the best economies in the world.
The fact has to be reiterated to my brothers in this religion of Al Islam that we are allowing criminals to put us in defence on what our religion do not tolerate and we have to speak out en mass to condemn this callous activity of a tiny segment of the society. In the tradition of Prophet Muhammad (SAW) that if there is ill in the society, if you cannot speak out to condemn it, use your hands and heart to correct it. There is no justification whatsoever for anybody to attack places of worship, not to talk of killing human souls. The scripture is clear of those who commit suicide and those who kill fellow human beings that they will never find the favour of the Almighty in the hereafter. Lack of correct education in our religion has created a room for all sorts of characters to indoctrinate and imbue worshippers with lies and fallacy which cannot be substantiated in the religion of Al Islam.
We should not allow 00.2 per cent of the population to gang us and create fear and anxiety in our system, which made us to be trembling in our abode. We have to stand up and say to their face that they are creating mischief in the country and they are not Muslims as prescribed by the glorious Quran 2:256 “let there be no compulsion in religion; truly the right has become clearly distinct from error …. And Allah is hearing, knowing” The effective application of wisdom, persuasive preaching and logical argumentation are scripturally prescribed rules of engagement and proselytisation (Da’wah) in Islam.
Imams in all mosques must continue to emphasise the sanctity of life as prescribed by the glorious Quran 5:32 and relate the story of Prophet Muhammad’s support to Christians during his time by vacating the mosque for them to worship (Ibn e Saad and Ibn Hisham). Islam encourages its adherents to strive for the enthronement of goodness and repulsion of evil in every circumstances and accommodate plurality of creeds, ideologies and philosophies, which in itself is a manifestation of divine will as expressed in Quran 10:99 “ And if your Lord had pleased, surely all those who are in the earth would have believed, all of them; will you then force men till they become believers?”
The cowardly actions have put many innocent families in grief and paralysed human activities in some part of the country. This grievous destruction will continue to hurt this part of the country in future. Thousands have been rendered jobless because of their uninformed mind and madness, which cannot be substantiated in the scripture and teaching of the Holy Prophet (PBUH).
I now agree with the analysis of experts that poverty breeds all sorts of behaviour, which is now manifesting in the society. The blame of this problem lies with past and present leaders of our country, particularly Northern leaders, who had refused to encourage Western education alongside Islamic education, which many Muslims have embraced to put their wards in comfortable positions to reason logically and not to be swayed by illiterate scholars parading themselves under the guise of salvation from both the hypocritical evangelical Christian clerics and lazy Mallams, who continue to ignore the fact that religion is a private matter.
We have neglected history to our peril and continue to make the same mistakes not to allow our children to study history of religion development, could have might has placed them in good stead to know that worship is for the development of the society, and not the precarious evocation of sentiment to swell the number of members of a particular religion. The act of congregating was evolved to create companionship and co-operation for the mutual development, not the present penchant for wealth and material accumulation we are witnessing today.
This had led members of the society to be selfish, self centered and greedy, accumulating wealth the of the commonwealth to the detriment of the have-nots. We have neglected the basic things of the society to pursue mundane things. We forget that it is the responsibility of the whole society to train and inculcate norms and values in the younger ones, so that they will be able to be conform to the cause of the society.
We have allowed religious activities to kill our creativity and ideas that would have been beneficial to the whole society. Instead of critical thinking to solve societal problems, we pursue spiritual solutions to individual problems by congregating in churches and mosques 18 hours of the day. How do we realise that things are going wrong within our vicinity?
We have to examine the way we worship God and do evangelism in order to find time to look critically at our way of life and how to improve productive sector that will enable us create jobs and wealth for the benefit of all. We must sieve sentiments in all ramifications from our interaction and decision making for the progress of the country.
Kazeem writes in from Abuja.
