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Satire
Evils of divided faith
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- Category: Comments
- Written by M. U. Ndagi
- Hits: 3158
In principles and practice, Islam is defined as a monotheistic religion. The creed statement “There is no God except Allah and Muhammad is His messenger” signifies that only Allah is worth worshipping; and from Him alone must all help be sought. Several verses and texts from the Qur’an and hadith of the Prophet Muhammad (SAW) give testimony to this statement of fact. Islam enjoins believers to be firm in their belief in the Omnipotence and Omniscience of Allah (SWT); to be sincere in their worship; and to also distant themselves from anything that would put their faith in jeopardy or subject it to some form of ridicule.
While traveling recently to a far-away end of the country, I had a stop-over at a township restaurant near a motor-park in one of the northern states of Nigeria. As I approached the entrance of the restaurant, a middle-aged man with long beards that appeared more artificial than the look on his face suddenly appeared before me. He was wearing long chains of extraordinarily large beads round his neck as if he were a spiritualist from the kingdom of jugglers. Without any invitation, he greeted me; surprisingly in my mother tongue, pretending to have known and met me before. However, I refused to be moved by his frolics. Realizing that his pranks failed to stimulate the expected response, he apologetically sought to have an audience with me which I granted. In a few seconds, he told me about how he helped a man whose marriage broke down, lost his job and became bankrupt, out of his problems. Having understood that the strange man was looking for unsuspecting clients for his fraudulent trade of tsubu or Babalawo (spiritualists), I asked him if I looked like someone who has lost his job or whose marriage is threatened. He kept mute and audaciously tried to open another discussion which I quickly dismissed by telling him to repent from playing psychological tricks on people. Of course, I could have played in to his hands if I have allowed myself to be enthused by the surprise I got from his greeting me in my mother tongue even though we have never met anywhere.
Those with poor quality of faith in Allah (SWT) from among the educated elite and less-informed Muslims are more vulnerable to the tomfoolery of spiritualists who pretend to have answers to man’s numerous problems. Very many Muslims today tend to believe that the solutions to their socio-economic problems rest more in the hands of spiritualists than in Allah’s to whom belongs the prerogative of decision in all matters. Some contemporary Muslims find it easy when faced with crises of ill-health, employment and matrimonial issues or dilemmas arising from crucial ambitions of life such as power and wealth; to run to spiritualists than to seek for help from Allah (SWT). We consider it a case of divided faith for a believer to make recourse to synthetic powers as sources of guidance and comfort.
Two reasons could possibly account for divided faith common among contemporary Muslims. First, today’s students of our traditional Qur’anic schools are not prepared to undergo the rigorous learning experiences that were part of the 19th and 20th centuries’ culture of scholarship in Muslim communities in Nigeria. Today, they acquire little knowledge about Islam and graduate themselves in to the world of tsubu. They lack the patience and determination to sincerely pursue the search for further knowledge of Arabic and Islamic sciences. Second, modern scholars too contribute to the problem by their refusal to pre-occupy themselves with teaching, which was traditionally the dominant career among Muslim scholars of the last two centuries in the non-Arab Muslim world of Africa, including Nigeria. Some modern scholars have abandoned their zaures (learning halls) for the luxuries of this life as well following contracts in Government Houses; leaving those with the thirst for traditional Arabic and Islamic education to find alternative in tsubu.
We remind the spiritualists that any recourse to the use of amulets and charms in the attempt to find solutions to a problem or realize an aspiration is tantamount to associating partners to Allah (SWT), which in Islam is a grievous sin punishable by hell fire. Allah (SWT) states in Qur’an 3:109 “To Allah belongs all that is in the heavens and on earth: To Him do all questions go back (for decision)”. It is human for even the spiritualist himself to be in need of Allah’s help for solutions to his own problems. If a spiritualist were self-sufficient, he needn’t indulge in tsubu; he wouldn’t also be requesting his clients to bring money, clothes, cows or other consumables. If the Prophet (SAW), as we are told in the Qur’an, did not have knowledge of the future, how could an ordinary man like Malamin Tsubu be granted such a favour? Qur’an 7:188 mentions “Say: I have no power over any good or harm to myself except as God wills. If I had knowledge of the unseen, I should have multiplied all good, and no evil should have touched me...”
The evils of divided faith are certainly more than the simulated and temporary relief availed by the psychological tricks of a Malamin Tsubu. The belief in and the use of charms is a short-cut to mistrust and breakdown of marriages where one or both spouses become clients to services of a Malamin Tsubu. Disunity and disharmony among siblings could also result from going after Malamin Tsubu. Bankruptcy is a more serious consequence for those who visit Malamin Tsubu. Usually, the spiritualists have a way of retaining their clients by telling them such things that would keep the former attached to them while at the same time using their clients’ wealth to service their daily needs for as long as the relationship lasts. May Allah (SWT) safeguard our faith from becoming divided between God and man, amin.
Condolence:
We condole with the Yar’adua family and indeed Nigerians over the death of President Umaru Musa Yar’adua. We pray to Allah (SWT) to grant him eternal mercy and give his family the fortitude to bear the loss, amin.
Articles
Evils of divided faith
Category: Comments Written by M. U. Ndagi Hits: 3158
In principles and practice, Islam is defined as a monotheistic religion. The creed statement “There is no God except Allah and Muhammad is His messenger” signifies that only Allah is worth worshipping; and from Him alone must all help be sought. Several verses and texts from the Qur’an and hadith of the Prophet Muhammad (SAW) give testimony to this statement of fact. Islam enjoins believers to be firm in their belief in the Omnipotence and Omniscience of Allah (SWT); to be sincere in their worship; and to also distant themselves from anything that would put their faith in jeopardy or subject it to some form of ridicule.
While traveling recently to a far-away end of the country, I had a stop-over at a township restaurant near a motor-park in one of the northern states of Nigeria. As I approached the entrance of the restaurant, a middle-aged man with long beards that appeared more artificial than the look on his face suddenly appeared before me. He was wearing long chains of extraordinarily large beads round his neck as if he were a spiritualist from the kingdom of jugglers. Without any invitation, he greeted me; surprisingly in my mother tongue, pretending to have known and met me before. However, I refused to be moved by his frolics. Realizing that his pranks failed to stimulate the expected response, he apologetically sought to have an audience with me which I granted. In a few seconds, he told me about how he helped a man whose marriage broke down, lost his job and became bankrupt, out of his problems. Having understood that the strange man was looking for unsuspecting clients for his fraudulent trade of tsubu or Babalawo (spiritualists), I asked him if I looked like someone who has lost his job or whose marriage is threatened. He kept mute and audaciously tried to open another discussion which I quickly dismissed by telling him to repent from playing psychological tricks on people. Of course, I could have played in to his hands if I have allowed myself to be enthused by the surprise I got from his greeting me in my mother tongue even though we have never met anywhere.
Those with poor quality of faith in Allah (SWT) from among the educated elite and less-informed Muslims are more vulnerable to the tomfoolery of spiritualists who pretend to have answers to man’s numerous problems. Very many Muslims today tend to believe that the solutions to their socio-economic problems rest more in the hands of spiritualists than in Allah’s to whom belongs the prerogative of decision in all matters. Some contemporary Muslims find it easy when faced with crises of ill-health, employment and matrimonial issues or dilemmas arising from crucial ambitions of life such as power and wealth; to run to spiritualists than to seek for help from Allah (SWT). We consider it a case of divided faith for a believer to make recourse to synthetic powers as sources of guidance and comfort.
Two reasons could possibly account for divided faith common among contemporary Muslims. First, today’s students of our traditional Qur’anic schools are not prepared to undergo the rigorous learning experiences that were part of the 19th and 20th centuries’ culture of scholarship in Muslim communities in Nigeria. Today, they acquire little knowledge about Islam and graduate themselves in to the world of tsubu. They lack the patience and determination to sincerely pursue the search for further knowledge of Arabic and Islamic sciences. Second, modern scholars too contribute to the problem by their refusal to pre-occupy themselves with teaching, which was traditionally the dominant career among Muslim scholars of the last two centuries in the non-Arab Muslim world of Africa, including Nigeria. Some modern scholars have abandoned their zaures (learning halls) for the luxuries of this life as well following contracts in Government Houses; leaving those with the thirst for traditional Arabic and Islamic education to find alternative in tsubu.
We remind the spiritualists that any recourse to the use of amulets and charms in the attempt to find solutions to a problem or realize an aspiration is tantamount to associating partners to Allah (SWT), which in Islam is a grievous sin punishable by hell fire. Allah (SWT) states in Qur’an 3:109 “To Allah belongs all that is in the heavens and on earth: To Him do all questions go back (for decision)”. It is human for even the spiritualist himself to be in need of Allah’s help for solutions to his own problems. If a spiritualist were self-sufficient, he needn’t indulge in tsubu; he wouldn’t also be requesting his clients to bring money, clothes, cows or other consumables. If the Prophet (SAW), as we are told in the Qur’an, did not have knowledge of the future, how could an ordinary man like Malamin Tsubu be granted such a favour? Qur’an 7:188 mentions “Say: I have no power over any good or harm to myself except as God wills. If I had knowledge of the unseen, I should have multiplied all good, and no evil should have touched me...”
The evils of divided faith are certainly more than the simulated and temporary relief availed by the psychological tricks of a Malamin Tsubu. The belief in and the use of charms is a short-cut to mistrust and breakdown of marriages where one or both spouses become clients to services of a Malamin Tsubu. Disunity and disharmony among siblings could also result from going after Malamin Tsubu. Bankruptcy is a more serious consequence for those who visit Malamin Tsubu. Usually, the spiritualists have a way of retaining their clients by telling them such things that would keep the former attached to them while at the same time using their clients’ wealth to service their daily needs for as long as the relationship lasts. May Allah (SWT) safeguard our faith from becoming divided between God and man, amin.
Condolence:
We condole with the Yar’adua family and indeed Nigerians over the death of President Umaru Musa Yar’adua. We pray to Allah (SWT) to grant him eternal mercy and give his family the fortitude to bear the loss, amin.