The inception of Islam in Yorùbáland was fraught with some practices alien to Islam which many early Muslims in Yorùbáland professed perhaps due to their ignorance or the bad influence of the preachers of the time.
Some early clerics were thought to possess certain powers that gave them an edge over the indigenous idolaters, this many times even made the latter dread the former.
Anyway if those powers were as a result of making use of the legal words of invocations sourced from the Quraan and the authentic Hadeeth, that would have been no problem, but if not that was an anathema, in fact an act of disbelief in disguise.
Yes there are karamaat (wonders) bestowed by Allaah on some of His righteous slaves. Sa'd bn Abee Waqqaas, a Companion, would always have his supplications granted by Allaah, for or against anything. Some Sahaba rode their horses over the sea when going for a battle. Abdullah bn Mubaarak, a taab taabieen, once prayed for a blind man to regain his sight.
Shaykhul Islam, Ibn Taymiyyah, rahmatullaah alayhi, had a book on karamaat auliyaa (al-Furqaan bayna auliyaa ar-Rahman wa auliyaa ash-Shaytaan) . He distinguished them from the aamal shaytaan (deeds of devils) that come from magicians and soothsayers.
Al-Imaam Ash-Shaafiee - rahimahullah - said if you see a 'shaykh' flying in the air (on a mat like the legendary Alladin), or walks on water, do not be fooled by that until you measure his actions against the Sunnah. The Sufi shaykhs do make esoteric claims around this. Sufism is a heresy in Islam.
Therefore all these claims to Knowledge of the Unseen is false. Allaah the Mighty says:
'Say: “None in the heavens and the earth knows the Ghaib (unseen) except Allah, nor can they perceive when they shall be resurrected.†Q27:65
All kinds of prying into the Unseen is unbelief as far as Islam is concerned.
So in ancient Yorùbáland many of the Baloguns of Ibadan such as Aare Momodu Latoosa, Balogun Ali Iwo, etc, would later become Muslims and, and were believed to be powerful. Laatoosa was described as been keenful on his daily salawaat even in the thick of war. There was even one Aare Osundina that would perform ablution under the hail of enemy's arrows.
A lot of vaguery you would say. Since there were no concrete evidence to nail those people specifically we would stop at that but no doubt that period of time was rife with kufr.
Some of them even did some heroic things for Islam like Abibu (Habeeb) Lagunju of Ede, who as a Timi of Ede, established a Shariah city-state in Ede around 1856, a Shariah City that made Ede as crime-free society.
It was even one of his sons that took Islam to Ile Ifè with his Ifè-born mother who was one of the wives of ÃbÃbù, that after ÃbÃbù was dethroned the third and last time and was exiled to Ibadan where he died in 1900.
A similar Shariah governance occurred in Iwo during the reign of Ọba Momodu Lamuye in 1860. So also in Epe under Iyanda Oloko Ãn 1875. So also in Iseyin during the time Ọba Nurudeen (Noo) in 1895. Aláà fin Láwà nà Agogoja of Oyo Tuntun in 1905. There was a similar attempt at ÃŒjẹ̀bú Ode in 1906.
And as far back as 1836, Oba Ali Atewogboye of Ado Ekiti (as Èwi Ado Ekiti), had become the first Yoruba Ọba that would refuse the ritual means of becoming a Yoruba king. He was begged before he accepted to be a king, on his own terms.
Those people really tried their best based on the prevailing circumstances. No doubt that they prepared the Islam of the later generation of Muslims in Yorùbáland. We are talking of about three to four generations away.
For instance, in Ilorin where Islam later poured south, there was been an Emir, Zubayr dan Abdusalaam, who Ãn his reign, in 1860, ordered that all materials of charms and juju be burned in the public square. He had threatened to deal with the pagans who engaged in fetish unless they repented.
However later in the history of Islam in Yorùbáland, including Ilorin, there came a generation of preachers of Islam who became associated with charms which they ascribed to Islam.
The origin of these 'Muslim' charms is still traced to some of the early Muslims in that you will hear those who possess those items today bragging that they got them from their forefathers.
These charms can be broadly divided into two: some that had some 'Islamic' colouration, and those that are purely pagan magic adopted by some 'Muslim' people for fortification and power.
The first category of charms is the type where those who do it would make some Quraan inscriptions on a sheet of paper then add some Names of Allaah (what they call Ismu Azami), then some names of the angels, then some names of the jinns. They would then wrap it and sew it into a leather, and hang it for whatever purpose. They call it Tira which in English can be rendered as amulets.
The Messenger of Allah - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam - warned from this. He said: 'Whoever ties an amulet, his affairs will not be solved.'
Tiras can come in different types: naqali (to transfer bad or good omen to others), katali (to kill another being), muhiba (to create love between two persons) etc.
This type of charms is believed to come via the people that brought Islam to Yorùbáland namely the Malians and the Nupawa (the Nupe people), later it became a norm in places like Ilorin from where it spread across such that the Muslim preachers of the early 20th century were so feared and dreaded because they had powers from the Qur'aan!
This is wrong. The Qur'aan is a Book of guidance not a book of magic. In fact Quraan decries the magicians. It says they will never become prosper.
'and the magician will never be successful, no matter whatever amount (of skill) he may attain.†Q20:69
Yes a Muslim can recite any portion of the Qur'aan and supplicate to Allaah with it. Qur'aan can be used to exorcise a possessed person but all this in the legislated manner.
There are a number of statements of invocations taught the Muslims by the Prophet - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam - when to eat, when to sleep, when to set out from the house, when at a fearful place, etc. But that one conjures some power that looks like a magic, that is a no-no in Islam.
Magic and sorcery is a major act of polytheism in Islam, that destroys one's Islam as the Messenger of Allaah - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam - said. As a matter of fact a magician is to be executed under the Islamic law.
The second category of charms some 'Muslim' figures engage in today is the act of seeking power from the pagan sources.
Some 'Alfas', as every Muslim scholar in Yorùbáland is often called, join some occultic groups to earn power. Some of them factually know all the odù ifá (Ifá lines) and a lot of ofo (Yoruba incantations).
They have gone as far as mixing the first category of charms with Isese practices. Some would write Qur'aan inscriptions with odù ifá. Innaa lillaah wa Innaa ilayhi raajioon.
So it is not totally strange when some of the Isese people accuse some of the Alfas as their accomplices. They trade in the same market and have same buyers. Though many of them are fraudsters.
How many of those alfas have been caught with human heads and other human parts?
Yahoo-yahoo guys, the ones that use human parts for fetish, take pride in them. In fact the existence of these alfas fuel the spread of Yahoo-yahoo practices.
There have been public display of such rascality by some of these 'Muslim' figures. Imagine someone saying whoever wants to become rich should get sixteen cow eyes, alligator pepper and some other fetish then he should recite a particular portion of the Qur'aan to cap it. This is pure Shirk.
So saddening that the fellow who made such a statement has failed to recant and repent especially with the present opportunity to come out clean on the matter. He is rather justifying it with baseless positions. Worse still he is a Mufti of a particular Muslim city.
This concept of Jalabi that many 'Muslim' figures do for people today is just a 'Muslim' version of pagan Isese.
So when we condemn Isese practices, these Jalabi people are included because they are connected. They sell the same market, meet in the same market and have the same buyers.
Alhamdulillah for the steady growth of Tawheed and Sunnah in Ilorin, and the rest of Yorùbáland. If not the people of Sunnah, these false Muslim clerics would have bastardized Islam.
So those people are the enemies within. Fighting them is even more strenuous than fighting the likes of Tani Ọlá»hun, that misguided kaafir. Nevertheless Tani Ọlá»hun should not go unpunished except if he repents.
This brings the series to a pause. Inshaa Allaah some addenda will still follow on this matter.
May Allaah reward everyone for following up. May He save us from misguidance. May He make us stronger in faith.
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