A most amiable Malam

Seated at my office at Wuse Zone 6, as deputy editor of the Weekly Trust then, I was very busy with production schedule when a call came through my mobile phone. I picked it up and heard someone immediately say ‘You Kano people are so selfish that even when you are doing something good, you […]

Seated at my office at Wuse Zone 6, as deputy editor of the Weekly Trust then, I was very busy with production schedule when a call came through my mobile phone. I picked it up and heard someone immediately say ‘You Kano people are so selfish that even when you are doing something good, you make sure you keep your brothers in the dark about it.’ I was so surprised by the comment that all I could say was ‘Really? What did Kano people do to you?’ In the same jocular tone the caller explained ‘I have here with me the copy of a news paper called the Muslim Worldview, the address on it says it is being published in Kano and I can’t believe that even when doing the work of God, you people will not let your brothers, next door to you in Zaria, know of it.’ He said.
I heaved a sigh of relief and answered that in fact the newspaper was well circulated in Zaria and even mentioned our two sales outlets there to him.  At this point he commended the effort and introduced himself to me as Muhammad Auwal Albani. Frankly the name didn’t ring any bell to me then. The only Albany I knew was the late scholar of hadith who was not a Nigerian. But before he put down the phone he had asked me to include his address in Zaria, as one of our sales outlets. I gladly did so, after I had explained to him that though the paper had a Kano address, because that was where the parent company, Sanda Memorial Investements is based, it was actually being published in Abuja.
Afterwards, I called my assistant on the Muslim Worldview project, Muhammad Auwal Usman, himself a Zaria indigene and mentioned Albani’s phone call. In excitement, he told me who Sheikh Albani was and gladly took the task of delivering every edition to him, as well as going there to collect our sales proceeds.  One day Muhammad, who now works at the ABU Zaria, returned from home and told me that Albani had said he was resuming his studies in Yola so I should now be sending copies of the paper to a name and address there.  From then till we ceased production, we sent every edition by commercial transport to Yola and received our sales proceeds through our bank account, as Sheikh Albani’s contact was very prompt in payment. What struck me was that though we featured interviews with Muslim scholars in the paper and he was responsible for introducing the Muslim Worldview to Yola, Sheikh Albani never asked us to publish any of his activities nor interview him.  We had just decided that it was time to feature him when circumstances forced us to close shop.
Sadly it was my former assistant Muhammad, who text me the sad news of Sheikh Albani’s assassination around midnight last Saturday. While praying to Almighty Allah to grant him forgiveness and a in Aljanna firdaus (along with his murdered wife and son) I also resolved to write a befitting tribute to this sincere and pragmatic servant of God. But then I stumbled upon the following piece by my big sister Dr Hadiza Isa Wada, (whom I knew from childhood as Anti Asabe) and decided to excerpt and adopt it for this column.  May Allah expose the murderers of our most amiable Sheikh Auwal Albani, amin.