Observations during vacation

…also published in Daily Trust

This piece was supposed to have been written three weeks ago following my return from vacation in Nigeria. However, I instead wrote on two closely related issues on the two subsequent Fridays respectively following my return.

During my stay in Nigeria, I drew same observations as every Nigerian based elsewhere automatically does whenever he visits the country. Incidentally, the curiosity of a typical foreign-based Nigerian about the happenings back home outweighs that of his home-based compatriot. Many a time, the former who monitors developments on the media turns out more up to date on important developments in the country than the latter. Besides, the former’s curiosity is partly inspired by the fact that he misses the country despite the enormous challenges bedevilling it, and is partly inspired by passionate desire to see real growth back home similar to what he sees in his country of residence.

Putting ideological struggle to rest

…also published in Daily Trust

The growing proliferation of divisive and irreconcilable ideological tendencies in the Muslim- majority northern Nigeria has given rise to an ideological struggle amongst various ideological tendencies in the region. The atmosphere gets increasingly saturated with conflicting ideological polemics representing the tendencies involved. The struggle is particularly intense amongst the Sufits following the two major Sufi ideological sects i.e. Qadiriyya and Tijjaniyya, Sunni-Salafists, Shiites and the recently emerged neo-philosophers who seek to “reform” the entire Islamic religion by adopting and promoting alternative understanding of the religion in light of some archaic philosophies developed over the centuries but intellectually debunked by reputable Muslim scholars then.

The era of Ruwaibidhah

…also published in Daily Trust

Being an Arabic word transliterated into English, non-Arabic-speaking readers certainly wonder what Ruwaibidhah means. After all, probably even core native Arabs, let alone the Arabic-speaking non-Arabs familiar with its meaning only learned it in the Prophetic Hadith in which the Messenger of Allah (SAW) first used it when he prophesied that “There will come to the people years of endemic deception, when the liar will be regarded as honest, and the honest man will be regarded as a liar; the deceiver will be regarded as truthful, and the truthful man will be regarded as a deceiver; and the Ruwaibidhah will talk freely” Who are the Ruwaibidah?’ His companions enquired. He replied ‘vile persons (i.e. persons of little worth) talking on public affairs.” (See Albany’s Silsilatul-Al-Ahadeeth As-Saheeha, Hadith # 1887) 

Looking at the trend of public discussions on various aspects of public affairs, I doubt if anyone doubts that the world is already living through these years. The negative influence of the Ruwaibidah in modern-day societies has resulted from the persistently falling standards of measuring the worth of individuals. Obviously, the standards have been hugely compromised at the expense of moral values enabling the Ruwaibidhah to not only attain relevance, but also influence public attitude and, in fact, call the shots on sensitive public matters for that matter.