Sheikh Albani: Legacy Beyond Dying - Nigeria Is Fast Becoming A 'Jungle Republic'
20 March 2014
By Mahmud Yabo
mahmudyabo@hotmail.com
Nigeria is ironically a country presently not trapped
in war but whose internal security situation has,
largely due to institutional collapse and dearth of
competent leadership, grossly deteriorated to the
extent that criminals like kidnappers, armed robbers
and murderers have turned its once serene and peaceful
cities and towns in to a terror-stricken population.
The recent proliferation of gunmen, attacking innocent
people including women and children in broad day
light, suggests that killers have become more
grotesquely determined in carrying out their dastardly
act of bloodletting. Some were killed in their sleep;
some in mosques and churches while in communion with
their Lord. More worrisome is the fact that most of
the people killed were the poor who had already been
denied of their own share in the nation's wealth by
their own rulers.
With exactly one month in to the 2014, and in what
appeared to be the killers' new year bloody ‘gift' to
the Nigerian Muslims community, the gruesome murder,
February1, of a renowned Islamic cleric, Sheikh
Muhammad Auwal Albani along with his family by unknown
gunmen in his hometown of Zaria was an indication that
insecurity has continued to rear its ugly head at an
alarming rate in the country. Before his death, the
prominent Islamic scholar was a leader of the
Salafiyya movement, an Islamic reformation movement
advocating strict adherence to the teachings of the
Qur'an and the Sunnah in accordance with the
understanding of the pious predecessors (Salafus-Salih),
the first three Islamic generations. Like all other
Wahabbi-oriented movements, the Salafiyya movement
seek to ‘clean' Islam of all the innovations that
later generations of Muslims have introduced in to its
doctrines, teachings and practices.
The word ‘Albani' was later added, by himself, to his
original name (Muhammad Auwal) and used as a pseudonym
out of respect for and admiration of one of the
twentieth century leading Islamic thinkers and
unarguably the number one authority in the science of
Hadith (Musdalahul Hadith), the late Allama Muhammad
Nasiruddeen Albani. In trying to follow in the
footsteps of the first Albani, the late Sheikh Albani
(the second) pursued Islamic scholarship with that
great avidity to have been recognised as one of the
best Nigerian Islamic scholars in the fields of Hadith,
Tauheed and Aqeedah.
In addition to that, the late sheikh, also a renowned
engineer, was no mediocre in the areas of western
education. Before his demise, he was undergoing
doctorate programme in engineering at the prestigious
Ahmadu Bello University Zaria. He was an ideal product
of both Islamic and western education who, obviously,
preferred education and intellectualism to militancy.
He was also an embodiment of a needed balance between
extremism and religious compromise. All his numerous
lectures, discourses and symposiums, which have been
recorded in audio and video formats, were mostly
centred on religious purity, moderation, education and
good leadership.
Not only that, his unwavering courage of telling truth
to power, and of saying his beliefs and convictions
even if they would not be entertained was the most
exceptional quality that the sheikh possessed. And I
believe that it was that ingrained courage, more than
any other thing, which attracted him admirers and
adversaries alike. Nonetheless, he was deeply loved by
his disciples, colleagues and associates, and who ever
had taken time to observe his radiating intelligence
and to listen to his mesmerising eloquence.
Many people have been curious about his killers'
identity and the motives behind the killing. More
curiosity abounds on what must have warranted the
swiping away of those souls in one blow like that. The
sheikh was obviously the main target; but unless the
timing was wrong and the gunmen were amateurs (which I
think otherwise), his family could not have been
killed accidently. People have already started
speculating and insinuating which I consider
premature, baseless and unfounded pending the
conclusion of the police investigation.
But what his assailants need to know is that they only
killed the sheikh but not his legacy, for his
teachings will continue to be illuminating spiritual
guide for millions of Muslims in Nigeria and beyond;
let the culprits understand that the sheikh has
bequeathed a sacred legacy beyond dying, by making his
54 years on earth beneficial to humanity. And after
all, the sheikh died for what he had hoped dying for.
With this, there is no doubt that insecurity in
Nigeria is the woeful failure of leadership because
the first responsibility of the government as the
custodian of the nation's security through its various
institutional security apparatuses is protection of
life and property of the citizenry. If the leadership
in the land is incapable of performing this first-line
function properly, then there is no justification for
its continued being in place. Nigeria is fast becoming
a ‘jungle republic' where the powerful and the rich
command more than seventy percent security, while the
poor and the majority having zero percent protection.
It is therefore imperative that the government
undertake holistic overhauling of security machinery
for optimal performance, especially as we approach
elections period. And also all cases of murders should
be properly investigated and the perpetrators be dealt
with accordingly, if Nigeria must continue being
called a nation (not a jungle).
Mahmud contributed this piece from 40 Ali Akilu
Road, Sokoto.
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EsinIslam.Com
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