Back to the pulpit

Also published in Daily Trust

Ever since the emirs of the now defunct Daular Usmaniyya began to delegate their responsibilities as chief imams of their respective emirates, to others and subsequently abandoned their pulpits by appointing substantive chief imams, they created a huge vacuum that can only be filled when they return back to their respective pulpits.

Besides, the value of their pulpits was hugely reduced though not necessarily because the appointed chief imams are not intellectually qualified to climb them but because the weight of the pulpits and, by implication, the impact of the message being delivered on them depend, to a large extent, on the influence and charisma of the emirs whose words carry a lot of weight and indeed outweigh that of any Islamic scholar including the chief imam for that matter.

Though I don’t know when exactly this trend started, chief imams perform the spiritual duties of the emirs of their respective emirates, which include delivering the weekly Juma’a Sermons and leading Muslim congregations in, particularly, Juma’a prayers. In any case this is likely to change as the revered Emir of Kano Muhammad Sunusi ll is actually trying to revive that abandoned tradition, which Sheikh Usman bin Fodio, the leader of the Islamic revolution that created the emirates, had introduced, of course in accordance with the Prophetic Sunnah.

By the way, I must admit that, even though the Emir is intellectually sound enough to perform the duties of Chief Imam in addition to his duties as Emir, I had thought that he would not keep it up and that he would also soon revert to the status quo.  However, now that he has so far kept it up perhaps except when he is away, he certainly deserves credit.

After all, as a remarkably influential emir who is also practically the second most important emir of the now defunct Daular Usmaniyya and whose influence transcends the geographical boundaries of Kano Emirate, Emir Sunusi ll is likely to inspire other emirs who have relevant intellectual capabilities to return to their respective pulpits.

Also If this trend is maintained, it will restore the relevance and indeed highlight  the imperative of considering the moral qualities and intellectual soundness (in Islamic knowledge), among other qualities, of the prospective emirs vying for their respective ancestors’ thrones in various emirates, which would in turn gradually restore the spiritual significance of the emirates.

Though stripped, long ago, of their political powers, emirates, which obviously lack any legislative or executive capacity to legislate, execute or enforce laws, still command a massive amount of public respect, which is indispensably needed to maintain public order and social cohesion, especially in view of the persistently declining public confidence in the system and those who operate it at various levels of government.

Therefore the need for the emirs’ return to their pulpits has never been more urgent due to, among other things, the worsening security crisis in the region and which is obviously linked to the religious misunderstanding and confusion that resulted from decades of reckless and inexcusable neglect of Islamic religious works especially as they relate to teaching, public preaching and propagation.

Moreover, as the situation stands now, no one doubts the helplessness of the Ulamas to address the worsening consequences of that neglect let alone introduce measures to effectively address the causes of the crisis. After all, many Muslim clerics, having compromised their integrity by choosing to exploit their positions in pursuit of selfish interests or in order to serve some mischievous agendas, are already part of the problem and have consequently lost their supposed moral ground to be part of the solution or any serious reform process.

The imperative of intellectual tackling of the ideological doctrine on the bases of which unsuspecting Muslims are being indoctrinated and misled into terrorism necessarily underscores the need for religiously well versed emirs to return to their pulpits, as it also highlights the need to henceforth ensure that emirates’ thrones are reserved for the intellectually sound (in Islamic knowledge in addition to any other part of knowledge they may also have ) among the princes jostling for the positions, instead of only ‘Yan Boko  among them.

For instance, the Juma’a Sermon delivered by Emir Sunusi ll of Kano a week after the last terror attack in Kano Central Mosque in the course of which he dismissed Boko Haram’s false claim that they adhere to the Prophetic Sunnah, and argued that we (i.e. the mainstream Muslims are the real Ahlusunnah), was particularly inspiring and resonated among Nigerian Muslims even though they have heard similar and even more profound supporting arguments from the few brave Muslim scholars who still dare to openly challenge Boko Haram deviant doctrine and activities.

I believe that if the Emir of Kano keeps it up and also diversifies the issues he addresses to include the other heretical dogmas, unfounded rituals and practices being vigorously introduced by some vested interests and individuals masquerading as religious clerics to mislead gullible Muslims into Bid’ah and even Shirk, other emirs with similar intellectual capabilities would begin to do the same or even more, which would in turn create a phenomenal religious awareness among Nigerian Muslims that would not only inspire them but would also enable them to easily avoid being misled and manipulated.