Why Tackling Almajirci is Tricky

Also published in DAILY TRUST

A critical look into the successive federal and state governments’ attempts to address the issue of almajirci, and how the phenomenon has often defied all proposed and implemented measures anyway, would show an irony quite hard to unravel. It is obvious that, there are three main players involved in the whole equation i.e. government, parents and alarammomi i.e. the Qur’anic tutors under whose custody the children go through the process of learning and/or memorize the Qur’an.

Government on one hand enjoys all the material advantages that would ordinarily enable it to influence the parents, conquer the alarammomi and bring almajirci to an end. These include, but not limited to, human, material and intellectual advantages, while on the other hand, the alarammomi lack virtually all necessary instruments to influence the equation in their favour, for they aren’t generally that knowledgeable in reality to argue their case intellectually for instance, let alone exert any influence in the formulation of the relevant policies.

Moreover, for several decades, successive Nigerian federal and state governments have utilized their coercive and persuasive instruments and even financial inducements to check almajirci phenomenon, but to no avail. And over the past decade or so, there have been attempts to reform and integrate the phenomenon into the mainstream educational system with a view to checking the persistent child destitution that largely characterizes it, yet with no prospect of success in the horizon.

The recent award of contracts by the federal government for the construction of almajiri schools in all 19 states of northern Nigeria represents a ring in the cycle of many other initiatives by various state governments to stem almajirci menace.

                                                                              
Nevertheless, almajirci has always defied all such measures and continued to grow anyway. Incidentally, for some die-hard alarammomi, such obvious government failure confirms the validity of almajirci, which they believe is being supported by Allah the Almighty against its detractors, who would always fail in their endeavours yet fail to realize the reason for their persistent failure. This notion has always been a source of pride and inspiration for such alarammomi, which also explains how they often regard any initiative to check almajirci as an exercise in futility, for (according to them) it seeks to challenge Allah’s wish.

In reality, the only reason behind the persistent failure to find a lasting solution to almajirci is the stakeholders’ failure to tackle it from the root. Tackling almajirci from the root simply means handling it with Islamic jurisprudential instruments to determine its status in Islam in the first place. Because as long as those who send their kids out for almajirci believe that, it is not only Islamic but a religious obligation also (as some may assume), they would definitely continue to resist and undermine any effort to reform it.

It is therefore imperative to address such misconception and in the meantime introduce better initiatives to integrate the phenomenon into the mainstream educational system without prejudice to the quality of the learning process.

Handling almajirci with Islamic jurisprudential instruments is obviously the work of experts in Islamic jurisprudence exclusively, though they could still avail of some professional advice from some other experts e.g. sociologists and educationists.

They need to take the concept of almajirci as a whole, dismantle it and analyze each of its components jurisprudentially to arrive at the appropriate Islamic injunction on it. This can be easily achieved by addressing (1) jurisprudential status of memorizing the Qur’an, (2) objectives of memorizing the Qur’an and (3) process of memorizing the Qur’an.

Interestingly, though pretty worthwhile, memorizing the Qur’an, which is supposedly the main objective that drives people to send out their kids to almajirci, is not an individual obligation, but rather a communal one, hence remains recommendable for individuals. While, providing parental care for children is an individual obligation on parents towards their children, and that they shall be accountable for it both here and in the hereafter accordingly.

In other words, parents are under religious, legal and moral obligations to provide food, shelter, security, health, education, moral and professional training… etc to their kids. And under no circumstances should they neglect such duties and send/abandon them to the harsh uncertainties of almajirci under the pretext of memorizing the Qur’an. Allah the Almighty would never charge parents if their kids did not memorize the Qur’an, but He would definitely hold them responsible for neglect of duty and exposing their children to unnecessary risks without justification if they abandon them under any pretext e.g. memorizing the Qur’an.

This is because, while memorizing the Qur’an is recommendable on individuals i.e. (Mustahab), giving such care and service to kids is obligatory (Wajib) as pointed out earlier.  And it is jurisprudentially established that, while doing a recommendable deed, one should not neglect either an obligatory duty or commit a prohibited act or omission for that matter.

Equally, with regards to the objectives of memorizing the Qur’an, it is clear that, it is basically to enable individuals and communities learn how to worship Allah the Almighty in the right way, derive His Pleasure and avoid His Displeasure. That is why He simplified its texts to read and understand; hence all its teachings are practicable, as they are precisely compatible with human nature, values and aspirations.

However, in almajirci, the kids, though obviously non Arabic-speaking, aren’t nonetheless taught the meanings of the Qur’anic Arabic texts, for even their alarammomi themselves largely don’t know either. So, one wonders how could they seek to fulfill the aforesaid main objective of the Qur’an if they don’t know what it says in the first place? Granted not every Muslim is required to know the detailed meaning of each verse of the Qur’an, however, an alaramma who is supposed to be an expert in the Qur’an is expected to know what it says, to say the least.

Moreover, in almajirci teaching and learning methods, not only learning the meaning of the Qur’an is neglected, but also the correct reading of the text is also compromised or even abused. The largely corrupted phonetic in which the alarammomi tutor the kids what is supposed to be the proper reading of the Qur’an, is in most cases too phonetically corrupted that it strips the words from its classical Arabic forms, which inevitably distorts the intended meaning of the verses.

Similarly, the wrong notion that, dedication to memorize the Qur’an necessarily entails going through severe hardships, destitution, prolonged and exhaustive stress, should also be corrected. Because it is such notion that motivates even some affluent parents to voluntarily expose their kids to such “hell” on assumption that only going through it can lead to the sound memorization of the Qur’anic.

This wrong view is not only illogical but it also undermines the attractiveness of learning the Qur’an and indeed generates confusion. Because how can any logic justify and reconcile the culture of unnecessary/professional begging and self-imposed destitution with Islamic civilization? As per as Islam is concerned, begging and dependency as such, and the many other related characteristics of almajirci have no room whatsoever. Interestingly however, like many other forbidden things in Islam, begging is reluctantly allowed in some few extreme cases; yet memorizing the Qur’an has never been among those considered cases at all.

I believe almajirci can only be discouraged and eventually checked by tackling it through the aforementioned and other related points, period.