5th Rabi’al Awwal 1444AH
Assalamu alaykum warahmatullahi wabarakaatuh
All praises and gratitude belong to Allah, the Most-High, Who has favoured our country (Nigeria) above many other countries on the surface of the earth. He provides sustenance for us in abundance and has made the land immune to the kind of natural disasters (earthquakes, landslides, wildfires, tsunamis, etc.) that we hear of in other lands. These are great favours which no one will recognize except the deeply thoughtful.
We seek refuge with Allah from the evils within ourselves and from the burden of our evil deeds. He, whom Allah guides, will never be misled; and he whom He allows to stray no one can guide him. I bear witness that there is no deity worthy of worship except Allah without partners and that Muhammad is His servant and Messenger.
O Allah! Bestow your salutation and peace upon your confidant and messenger, Muhammad (SAW), his family, his companions and all those who believe in him till the end of time.
O servants of Allah! Our great country is sixty-two years today! In this interval of our nationhood, so many things have happened. Not minding all the difficulties that we have had to grapple with, we have cause to thank Allah for the gift of life and the opportunity to discover our wrongs and making commitment to righting them. At times like this, we should frankly evaluate ourselves and determine what we have done right and where there are deficiencies with a view to correcting the deficiencies and strengthening the areas we have achieved some success.
Whatever we have had to go through as a nation is either a test from Allah or a recompense for our disobedience and bad behaviour. Allah (SWT) said: “And as for man (especially the disbeliever) whenever his Lord tests him and honours him (with wealth and other things) and is gracious to him, he says, ‘My Lord has honoured me’. But when He tests him and restricts his provision for him, he says, ‘My Lord has humiliated me’ (Q89:15-16). Do know that honour is not about wealth, nor is there any humiliation in poverty, rather it has to do with obedience and disobedience respectively. The years since our independence have witnessed peace and war, poverty and wealth, fear and tranquility, good and bad leadership, stable and unstable polity, etc. In these scenarios, we are too often given to putting too much emphasis on the pains and negative events. We are also failing to learn to correct our ways believing that a miracle will happen to take care of our negligence and inefficiencies.
O servants of Allah! Our country, which was the pivot upon which the Black Race looked up, has been a laughing stock in the comity of Nations not minding the avalanche of huge human and material resources that Allah has blessed us with. We simply have not had it good with the leadership and the followership. We have become a people waiting for miracles and as a result the mosques and churches are always filled to capacity yet no one is willing to do the right thing for the country to succeed.
Leaders of our beloved country have become dishonest to the people by constantly promising what they will not do, being unmindful of the severe consequences of their deceit. Allah asks (by way of warning): “O You who believe! Why do you say [you will do] what you do not do? It is greatly despicable to Allah that you say what you do not do” [Q61:2-3].
On the other hand, followers have become hopeless to the extent that they curse their leaders. They do see themselves as part of the problem of their societies; rather they point accusing fingers at their leaders all the time. These followers who insist in collecting bribe for every civic responsibility they are required to perform, the same people who destroy public utilities or simply do not pay public utility bills. And this ‘their leader’ is from among them! In this state of affairs how do we intend to make progress?
Sayyidina Rasulullah (SAW) was reported by Abu Ummah (RA) to have said: “Do not curse your leaders but invoke Allah to make them righteous, for their righteousness brings about your well-being as well.” On the basis of this wisdom, Imam Ahmad bin Hanbal (RA) used to say: “If I am guaranteed acceptance of (just) one supplication, I will invoke it on behalf of the leader” and was asked why to which he replied that: “If the leader is righteous and just, the entire people will benefit, righteousness will flourish, Allah’s blessings will descend on them, the righteous people will become dominant and the evil ones will become humiliated”.
O servants of Allah! Were we not insulting, despising and cursing our leaders? What has come out of it? The result has been that the worst of us have taken the reign of leadership, betrayed the trust of leadership, shown lack of concern to the welfare of the people and have made life unbearable for the majority of the people. These wicked leaders (which our collective bad manners have brought upon us) have been fingered as sponsors of the terrorist activities in our land and cannot be brought to book. How do we proceed from this state of affairs? Billions are budgeted for security, yet the situation is not improving.
Has the time not come for sincere dialogue among interest groups making up the country to find a way out of this imbroglio? I am not unaware of calls for restructuring which has rented the air for some time now and almost at the point of suffocating the government in power. The idea of restructuring to create a clear focus for the entity to run state affairs with business focus is a good one but may not achieve the desired objective because of the insincerity of those championing it.
In our view, as Muslims, the starting point in rebuilding our nation is a firm belief and trust in Allah’s promise that “if the people of the towns had believed and had the Taqwa (piety), certainly, We should have opened for them blessings from the heaven and earth …” [Q7:96]. Upon this foundation let the followers and leaders take cue. Let us go back to Allah in repentance with sincerity and faith.
O servants of Allah! The belief we call you to have is akin to the one that the Sahabah (RA) displayed before the Prophet (SAW) in Madinah when they embarked on building the Islamic State of Madinah. Brotherhood was the bedrock and everyone was prepared to play his role without any policing. Everybody was honest and appointments to positions of authority were given only to people with requisite competence and delegated powers were subject to scrutiny and no abuse was allowed.
Once we are able to come to term with the social re-orientation required to create a new citizen, then those who will be charged with public leadership roles will have to abide by the following precepts reported by Ali ibn Abi Talib (RA) from the Messenger of Allah (SAW) as antidotes for failures:
1. Public Resources should be deployed for the welfare of the citizenry for “When any gain is shared out only among the rich, with no benefit to the poor” the society at large suffers humiliation. The pursuit of personal gains has left the poor poorer. Nobody thinks about them. Otherwise, how can one explain the massive gap between the rich [(who count their wealth in billion/trillion dollars) without any economic activity apart from government patronage] and the poor.
2. Respect for Trust. “When a trust becomes a means of making a profit” society disintegrates. We see this betrayal everywhere and no one seem worried about the meeting with Allah where all trusts will be put to review as to how each trustee has performed on his/her trust.
3. Every leader’s tax record should be laid bare and citizens granted access to inspect and critique it. If the leader is a Muslim, he must also make available his Zakah payment records for “When paying zakat becomes a burden” it creates the wrath of Allah upon the people. A person who fails this test should not be appointed to lead the people in the new Nigeria.
4. Standardised Scales to be introduced in our markets to ensure consistent measurement and avoiding the pervasive cheating in our markets. “If people should begin to cheat in weighing out goods”, you should realize that this has never happened without drought and famine befalling the people, and their rulers oppressing them. These nefarious acts contribute to the steep increase in food prices – which we are witnessing now – which results in Governments bringing in tough and sometimes oppressive economic and legislative policies that affect the masses in a very negative way.
We should also cultivate the attitude of sincere advice to our leaders. Most of us make leaders go astray because we never told them the truth and never act truthfully with them. Those appointed advisers should endeavor to give good advice and those to whom an assignment is delegated should be honest and diligent. When Hudhayfah ibn Al-Yamani got to Kufa as its governor, he advised the inhabitants to “Beware of places of fitnah and intrigue.” “And what,” they asked, “are places of intrigue?” He replied: “The doors of rulers where some people go and try to make the ruler or governor believe lies and praise him for (qualities) he does not possess.” With these words, I advised all who will be privileged to advise our new leaders to be honest so that we achieve success in this world and the hereafter.
The task before all Nigerians, leaders and followers, is that of obedience to Allah and those in authority while those in authority should have the fear of Allah and be kind to their followers by being truthful to their oath of office. The leaders, as administrators of our commonwealth, and the followers who reside within the confines of the country must recognize and protect the mutual rights of one another. These include:
1. The Security Of Life and Property: In the address which the Prophet (SAW) delivered on the occasion of the Farewell Hajj, he said: “Your lives and properties are forbidden to one another till you meet your Lord on the Day of Resurrection.” The Prophet (SAW) has also said about the dhimmis (the non-Muslim citizens of the Muslim state): “One who kills a man under covenant (i.e., dhimmi) will not even smell the fragrance of Paradise.” The leaders should ensure that all threats to security of the nation and her inhabitants are viewed seriously and those who cause insecurity are not allowed to have peace within our territory.
2. The Security Of Personal Freedom: Islam has laid down the principle that no citizen can be imprisoned unless his guilt has been proven in an open court. To arrest a man only on the basis of suspicion and to throw him into a prison without proper court proceedings and without providing him a reasonable opportunity to produce his defense is not permissible in Islam. The various security services and spies maintained by the rulers of today’s world get innocent citizens thrown into gaol on flimsy premise of suspicion once they show disagreement with the ruler.
3. The Right To Protest Against Tyranny: Among the rights that Islam has conferred on human beings is the right to protest against government’s tyranny. Referring to it the Quran says: “Allah does not love evil talk in public unless it is by someone who has been injured thereby” (Q4:148).
4. The Right To Basic Necessities of Life: Islam has recognized the right of the needy people for help and assistance to be provided to them. He (SWT) therefore stated that: “And in their wealth there is acknowledged right for the needy and the destitute.” (51:19).
5. Equality Before Law: Islam gives its citizens the right to absolute and complete equality in the eyes of the law. Rulers Not Above The Law. A woman belonging to a high and noble family was arrested in connection with theft. The case was brought to the Prophet (SAW), and it was recommended that she should be spared the punishment of theft. The Prophet (SAW) replied: “The nations that lived before you were destroyed by Allah because they punished the common man for their offenses and let their dignitaries go unpunished for their crimes; I swear by Him Who holds my life in His hand that even if Fatima, the daughter of Muhammad, had committed this crime, I would have amputated her hand.”
O servants of Allah! We are clearly in very challenging times. Current leaderships are far from the ideals of servant leadership; if anything, we have master leaders. But I appeal to you all not to engage in unlawful activities. Do not destroy public utilities and do not harm others around you (physically or psychologically) but use this period to engage in prayers of repentance as the bad leadership that we see over us today is the result of our sins. Evil people, as the Prophet (SAW) said, will be enthroned over you when the evil in the land is excessive. So, we pray Allah to forgive us all our sins and change our leaders’ hearts to show better concerns for the followers and be compassionate on the poor.
We specially appeal to Allah to have mercy upon our leaders, guide them aright and help them to make life better for the poor. We besiege Allah not to put us to task by putting a wicked leader over us, even though we acknowledge that we have wronged ourselves and disobeyed His injunctions. Look upon us with Your mercy, O Allah, and enthrone for us leaders who will be kind and merciful unto us. Unto Allah is praise and glory.
Happy Independence Celebration. Kullu aam wa antum bikhair
Aquulu qawliy hadha wastagfirullah liy walakum innahu huwal ghafurun Raheem.
Suleiman Zubair
