Also published
in DAILY TRUST
This piece was originally written in Arabic by
Dr Sani Umar Rijiyar Lemo, a learned Islamic scholar in Kano. And having found
it very educative and relevant, as Ramadan is around the corner, I sought and
got his permission (thanks to a third party) to translate it into English and
share it with the esteemed readers of this column.
Also, since the original Arabic piece is rich
in details and references, which perhaps only interest researchers and other
experts, I excerpt some selected segments therein yet without prejudice to the
points made by the original writer. After all, I had sent a draft of the
translated excerpts to him, which he approved accordingly. Below are the
translated excerpts from the piece:
{Holding Qur’an interpretation lessons during
Ramadan is a longstanding tradition in Hausa land, which according to some
historians dates back to the era of Ali Yaji, who ruled Kano in 1300.
Though it is a good spiritual tradition,
however in recent times it has been distorted by the intrusion of imposters
parading themselves as Islamic scholars, to promote their ignorance and mislead
the public, which warns of a looming danger against people’s belief and their
religiosity.
This tradition has been turned into an avenue
for the dissemination of bad ideologies, deviant doctrines and destructive
ideas under the pretext of interpreting the Qur’anic verses. All these are
perpetrated with a bizarre recklessness characterized by a great deal of
exaggeration in interpreting the Qur’anic verses without the slightest
knowledge of the commentaries of experts in Qur’anic interpretation and that of
classical Arabic linguists, and without ascertaining the narrative authenticity
of the purported Qur’anic explanatory narrations. There is also display of
cluelessness about the commentaries of Muslim Pious Predecessors and deliberate
phishing for invalid interpretations given by some commentators and writers.
Qur’anic interpreters in Nigeria could be
classified as: (1) who are erudite in the science of Qur’anic interpretation
and are well-educated in religious knowledge having acquired Islamic knowledge
and classical Arabic linguistics, and they fluently speak and write books in
Arabic.
The second category; (2) adopt only (Tafseer
Aljalalain) as their Qur’anic interpretation reference book, hence they only
give literal translation of what is in the (Tafseer Aljalalain), which largely
gives only literal meanings of the Qur’anic words without explaining their
contents and analyzing them.
In any case, this type of Qur’anic interpreters
is less harmful than those who distort the Qur’anic meanings under the pretext
of interpreting it, and are obviously less beneficial than those who are well
versed in the Qur’anic and Sunnatic knowledge, who benefit people.
A typical interpreter of this type hardly goes
beyond (Tafseer Aljalalain) and barely gives an explanation. He simply
translates the verses quite literally without going into explanation hence only
the basic suggestion is understood.
The third category; (3) is that who in addition
to (Tafseer Aljalalain) adds (Alsawy Footnotes) also. It is noticeable
that, whenever an interpreter from this category comes across a verse on which
there are (Alsawy) footnotes on it, he reads and translates the footnotes; most
of which are fallacious stories, falsified Hadiths and unconfirmed stories of
the purported circumstances surrounding the revelation of the verses. As a
matter of fact, some of such stories are prejudiced to the sanctity of the
apostles of Allah, yet such an interpreter doesn’t give a damn let alone
address them critically.
Many Sufi interpreters particularly the
extremists amongst them belong to this category. They adopt this book (i.e.
Alsawy Footnotes) as a means to attack the Sunni (Salafi) creed, promote
falsehood and mislead people into accepting the extreme brand of Sufism.
The fourth category; (4) includes those who
basically adopt (Tafseer Aljalalain) in their Qur’anic interpretation, however,
they only translate the Qur’anic words quite ambiguously to the extent that the
audience hardly understands anything except some Hausa words, which they utter
in a songlike style.
They don’t analyze the verses; they only
digress in order to attack the Sunni (Salafi) creed and promote Sufism. They
surprisingly round up the interpretation of the complete Qur’an within the
thirty days of Ramadan i.e. at the rate of one full part of the Qur’an within
the range of only two hours.
The fifth type; (5) is that who does not refer
to any reference book at all in his Qur’anic interpretation, instead he is
guided by his whim. He manipulates the Qur’anic verses in order to arrive at
some empty claims, which were never attributed to any of the generally accepted
Islamic scholars over the history, and also never written by any of the
recognized writers. His only aim is to promote his wrong ideology in the course
of which he manipulates and distorts Allah’s words.
Nevertheless, he brags that he interprets the
Qur’an without recourse to any book or reference, not realizing that he is
simply confirming his own cluelessness in disguise, in the sense that he can
never trace his ridiculous ideas in any reference book after all.
A very prominent Sufi scholar in Northern
Nigeria represents an example of this type of Qur’anic interpreters, as he
interprets the Qur’an according to his whim and boasts that he does not refer
to any book of reference, even though this is actually considered a shortcoming
in the Qur’anic interpretation. He hardly quotes recognized Qur’anic
interpreters and scarcely refers to the Companions of the apostle of Allah and
their Successors. His style and methodology simply go against them.
Storytellers also adopt his style; they hold
Qur’anic interpretation lectures in markets and other public places, and most
of them are amongst the so-called “Qur’anists”, who don’t believe in any other
book apart from the Qur’an, hence they interpret the Qur’an wrongly.
Anyway this phenomenon is encouraged by a
number of factors including; lack of religious sincerity from many so-called
Islamic scholars, scarcity of sound Islamic knowledge, rampancy of
cluelessness, fame-craving and indeed financial interests.
Also corrupt politicians play significant roles
in promoting this phenomenon having realized how religion influences people’s
emotions; they therefore capitalize on it and pretend to be champions of the
religion.
A corrupt politician for instance buys airtimes
in one or more radio stations for such imposters; some of whom are actually
bloody sorcerers, to promote confusion and deviant ideologies under the pretext
of interpreting the Qur’an. Also contributing to the prevalence of this
phenomenon are; weak public awareness and lack of sound yardsticks to assess
preachers.
To address this problem there is need for
organizing seminars, and workshops on the science of Qur’anic interpretation,
raising public awareness against listening to any Dick and Harry who claims
Islamic scholarship, also to warn politicians and wealthy individuals about the
consequences of facilitating the promotion of falsehood amongst people.}
Needless to add, I humbly concur with the
original writer, after all there has been some suggestion on the need to
regulate preaching in the country.
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