Let There Be A Force Against A Senseless War

Monday 19-Oct-2020, 7:47PM / 1926


Thought of A Salafee

By Aboo Aamir Al-Atharee

Bismillaahir-Rahmaanir-Raheem

I happen to be a Nigerian by birth and a Yoruba by tribe but a Muslim by faith and a Salafee by creed. 

You may wonder where am I heading to with my caption for this piece – a caption that says a force must arise!

Let me say from the onset (or, outset, I should say?) the force I am rooting for here is pacifist. A force of peace makers. Not from the United Nations or the African Union but from the best of the people – the Muslims; those upon the guidance of their Prophet (Sallallaahu alahyi wa sallam).

It is no news that our country is in a precarious state; it is on a verge of something malevolent unless Allaah the Mighty saves it. 

Lest you think I am being patriotic – in the Western sense, no. I don’t believe in Nigeria nor do I believe in its government. So I have never seen Nigeria as cheating me, or see its government as ‘selling my future or that of my born and unborn children.’ I am just purely indifferent to all that. I place all my trust in my Lord – Allaah. He has never cheated me and He will never do so because that is not part of His Lofty Attributes.

وَأَنَّ اللَّهَ لَيْسَ بِظَلامٍ لِلْعَبِيدِ

“…Allaah is never unjust to [His] servants." [Aal-Imraan: 182]

I don’t vote. I can’t recollect myself voting as an adult save that student election at Ahmadu Bello University then in 2000 (or 2001) – Zayyan/Tony Election. Let me laugh a little. The Ikhwaani-inclined guys on campus, then, hoodwinked us into voting (for Zayyan, of course) telling us if we did not, we were a disservice to Islam! I can recollect myself stupidly standing on a queue to cast a ballot.  How I wish I called the bluff of those guys then – yes I did call their bluff on other occasions over some practices on campus not in tandem with Islam viz. the Sisters’ Week of the Muslim Students where Muslim sisters would be on the podium in a week-long Islamic programme for an audience of Muslim men and women! Women in the front, men at the back! I, and some good brothers, later fought that practice and it was discontinued the following year. Alhamdullilah. 

We ought to have fought the call to voting too. But the ‘noise’ of pro-election people was deafening. It was like me and one other person against all the Muslims on campus. So it was a lost battle for me. may Allaah pardon me for my weakness. 

So I voted on that singular occasion. Though ‘we’ lost. Yes ‘we’ lost despite the mighty Muslim campaign. The Muslim democrats have always lost, if not before the election or after they won. And they will always lose. Aren’t’ they losing today?

So I am not patriotic, that is the gist. Though I was taught to be a patriotic citizen throughout my academic sojourn whether as a journalism student (at that same Ahmadu Bello University) or as a ‘budding lawyer’ at Obafemi Awolowo University – for a total of eight whooping years; so the dose was massive. Unfortunately for our trainers, I, and many people like me, did not cave in. 

We are only patriotic to Allaah, His Messenger, His Book, the Generality of the Muslims, and the Muslim Rulers. The ‘Muslim Rulers’, here, is well-defined in the books of Islam. 

A Muslim ruler in a democracy is to be respected as a Muslim even though democracy is disbelief. Scholars of the Deen say to declare a Muslim who takes part in a democracy as a disbeliever requires a lot of process and consideration of many factors. Believing that democracy is superior to the Sharee’ah is a major kufr (this is an instance) while believing that it is a necessary evil (also as an instance) is minor kufr. A sensible Muslim ought to run away from all kinds of kufr. 

So if I say I am not patriotic to Nigeria you should now understand why.

But I am Nigerian! This is an inalienable fact and a fundamental truism. I have no other home but this ‘contraption foisted on us by Frederick John Dealtry Lugard,’ to borrow their politicalese. If I had a choice as to where I wanted to be born you should be able to guess. But here I am in this place called Nigeria. My Lord is not to be faulted for that. 

And because Nigeria is a Muslim country! 

At that point my non-Muslim reader will take offence. ‘How dare you say that?’ Bros, it is obvious, Muslims are in the majority. So by your demoncratic standard, Nigeria is a Muslim country. We suppose rule una perpetually. I can hear you hiss, calm down (pun not intended), I am not a politician and I don’t canvass for votes. I said it earlier, didn’t I? So calm down (pun not intended still and will never be intended). 

The Muslim population in Nigeria, whether North or South, West or East (may Allaah forgive the Igbo Shaykh that died some days ago; its death is a big loss for the Muslims in the East and Nigeria as a whole), is my sole concern, and the concern of many ‘fundamentalists’ like me. [It seems the word ‘fundamentalist’ is losing its ‘potent’; Lagos-Ibadan press seldom use it these days].

So the message is: we don’t want the Muslims hurt in the unfolding commotion. So this step is aimed at preventing that. I, and others like me, are just taking preventive measures. We don’t want war. Not because we are cowards but because the war is going to be the most senseless in the century. Why will you follow a path some people followed of recent, that landed them in an unceasing damnation? Have you forgotten Libya and Syria?

The war, if you fight it, you are coming to ask one another later, ‘why are we even fighting?’ If you say you want to break away because you are Igbos and Niger-Deltans, what gives you the guarantee that a bigger war is not waiting for you when you are away? Don’t’ you read about what has become of South Sudan today? 

And my own people, the Yorubas, want to break away too, and form a republic on paganism! Will that be Ilosiwaju or Ifaseyin? And what assures my people that the old feud of Oyo Empire will not re-surface? We were not alive during Operation Wetie but we were told. Ife and Modakeke are still there on mutual suspicion, and they are both so-called Omo Oduduwa!  Please take note of that compound phrase, ‘so-called’ because this Oduduwa of a thing is the stupidest lie in Yoruba history. Or don’t you think it is foolish to say the world started from Ile-Ife, that a legendary cock was mandated to spread some sand across the globe? Haba, my people! 

So the message is we don’t want war because we don’t want any Muslim hurt. Senseless people can hurt one another not the Muslims.

You will definitely say I am biased. Yes I am. My ‘constituency’ is the Muslims. I have been very explicit with that. So no apology.

Do I want the non-Muslims hurt? Definitely no. What you have been fed with for centuries is that Muslims are blood-thirsty. Will you believe me if I say it is a sheer propaganda? The Muslims since the time immemorial had striven to protect the world more than the other people. Christians have killed more Muslims than vice-versa. Forget about the Muslim bad guys – Osama bn Laden, Al-Baghdadi and Sambisa-based infamous Boko Haram, one Christian bomb wreaks more havoc than these Muslim villains combined. That is no justification for their dastardly and stupid acts though. 

Go and read about the Crusades and the accompanied mercilessness of the Christians against the Muslims. If I tell you that Spain – where your favorite Barcelona and Real Madrid Teams – hail from was a Muslin state for 800 years you will ask me to tell another lie!  You may ask, where are then the Muslims of Spain? Your people slaughtered almost all of them. I said almost, and that is no exaggeration. Just few escaped to North Africa and other Muslim places! 

So we don’t want the Muslims hurt because we are already an endangered species. Your Superpowers have nukes in stock with which they can nuke all the Muslims. Can you now get the message? Thank you for your anticipated understanding. 

The good news however is that when the Muslims are not hurt you are not too. At that point, what will be sauce for the goose will be sauce for the gander.

So the force, mentioned in my caption for this piece, is necessary to forestall a mayhem and a pogrom. Unlike many forces, this force has no gun or any other weapon but a tool of da’wah – telling the people what is right and warning them from what is wrong.

وَلْتَكُنْ مِنْكُمْ أُمَّةٌ يَدْعُونَ إِلَى الْخَيْرِ وَيَأْمُرُونَ بِالْمَعْرُوفِ وَيَنْهَوْنَ عَنِ الْمُنْكَرِ وَأُولَئِكَ هُمُ الْمُفْلِحُونَ

And let there be [arising] from you a nation inviting to [all that is] good, enjoining what is right and forbidding what is wrong, and those will be the successful. [Aal-Imraan: 104]

So that is the force. And don’t underestimate it; it is powerful.

كَتَبَ اللَّهُ لأغْلِبَنَّ أَنَا وَرُسُلِي إِنَّ اللَّهَ قَوِيٌّ عَزِيزٌ

Allah has written, "I will surely overcome, I and My messengers." Indeed, Allah is Powerful and Exalted in Might. [Mujaadilah: 21]

You may ask, where is it located? Who are its members and commanders? You may never find answers to those questions because this force has been in existence since the birth of Islam – it is the very essence of Islam. Just subscribe to the teachings of the Qur’aan and the Sunnah as understood by the early Muslims you are part of the force.

May we use this opportunity to invite Lady Aisha Yesufu to the force, and many other Muslims agitating for a right albeit a wrong way. Yes, it is normal to feel bad for the high-handedness of law enforcement agents and members of security outfits of a country but resorting to civil disturbance in the name of protest and demonstration is not the way of the Muslims. 

The Messenger of Allaah (sallallaahu alayhi wa sallam) said: 

‘أفضل الجهاد كلمة حق عند سلطان جائر’

‘The best of jihad is a word of truth said to the face of a tyrant.’ [Saheeh al-Jaami: 1100] 

The application of the hadeeth is that you can visit a ruler to register your complaint about a social malaise but that you arouse tension against a ‘tyrant’ as Lady Aisha and her comrades are doing is completely against the ethos of Islam. Lady Aisha should know that except Allaah wills, she and other rabble rousers will share in the burden of every blood lost and every property destroyed in this unfolding inferno.

And she should respect the institution of hijaab in Islam. She is not using hers well. 

And we hope the modern scholars and their goons in the Ikhwani bloc like Ibn Taofeeq Abdulazeez, Ibn Abdullah Gbolahan. et al, will join the right force and jettison a path of doom.

It is not too late for anybody to join this force. Join it because that is the force that will win, if Allaah wills.

Are you ready?

Follow me on Twitter: Aboo Aamir Al-Atharee. 

You can send me a mail via: [email protected]
         
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Name: Hamdalah Animashaun
Tuesday 20-Oct-2020, 3:37AM
Comment: WALLAAHI, this moved me so much and raised my eemaan in ALLAAH, jazaakaLLAAHUkhayran akhee-l-Kareem. Love you liLLAAHI and I wish to know you more in shaa ALLAAH.
Name: Badmus Musa
Tuesday 20-Oct-2020, 12:29PM
Comment: Jazakumlloh kheran.