BUK, HUDAIBIYYA, GHANA CELEBRATE SISTER BILKISU

It seems, in sha Allah, we shall never hear the last of our late sister, Hajiya Bilkisu. And that’s just as well, alhamdu lilLah. For whenever we talk about her, or Prof Tijjani el-Miskin, or any of the other hundreds or thousands of our brothers and sisters who have preceded us to the Great Beyond, […]

It seems, in sha Allah, we shall never hear the last of our late sister, Hajiya Bilkisu. And that’s just as well, alhamdu lilLah. For whenever we talk about her, or Prof Tijjani el-Miskin, or any of the other hundreds or thousands of our brothers and sisters who have preceded us to the Great Beyond, one or two tongues will say “Allahu Akbar, Allah Ya jikansu”, or “May Allah forgive them”, or similar prayer. May it be so that when we also die we are mentioned in such an endearing way that per chance someone will pray for us so.
As you read this (morning of Saturday October 24, 2015), I am in sha Allah speaking at a symposium in memory of late Hajiya Bilkisu Yusuf, mni, organized and being held at Mambayya House of Bayero University, Kano. It is holding at the Sa’adu Zungur Auditorium of the House in Mambayya. My co-discussant this morning is another sister, (may she live long), Hajiya Sa’adatu Hashim, Ameerah (Chairperson) of the Federation of Muslim Women Associations of Nigeria (FOMWAN), an umbrella organization through which Bilkisu served human-kind for several decades.
So, then, if you are in Kano and not too far away from Gwammaja, you may just catch a few comments on this great woman, or be able to state yours. And perhaps the poignancy of the correlation between the late owner of Mambayya House, Mallam Aminu Kano, the person whose name adorns the Auditorium, Mallam Sa’adu Zungur and the late Mallama Bilkisu shall be a topic for another day.
In his letter inviting me to the symposium, my senior colleague and Director of Mambayya House Prof. MD Suleiman, said interalia: “The Aminu Kano Centre for Democratic Research and Training, Mambayya House, Bayero University, Kano has planned to conduct a symposium in memory of the late Hajiya Bilkisu Yusuf, mni…The topic of the symposium is: The Role of Civil Society Organizations in Championing the Course of Women in Nigeria: A Tribute to Hajiya Bilkisu Yusuf, mni. It is in view of the above that I respectfully wish to invite you as one of the speakers on the above topic…” Without hesitation, I had immediately cancelled all my diary entries for the day and answered “Present, in sha Allah!” That’s what Bilkisu was to us, and will continue to be, in sha Allah.
Before the Mambayya House Symposium of today, the Hudaibiyya Foundation (part of the Ummah National Islamic Centre to which Bilki and el-Miskin also belonged and contributed), held its Annual October 1 Seminar and dedicated much of the discussion to the memories such lately-departed brothers and sisters as Prof el-Miskin, Hajiya Bilki and Prof Ahmad Falaki. Special Guest at the occasion was Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau, former Minister of Education and former Kano State Governor, a founding member and benefactor of Hudaibiyya and one who was close to all three departed.
And then our good brother and senior colleague in the journalism profession and Director of the Africa Islamic Economic Foundation, AIEF (<http://afrief.com>) Baba Yunus Muhammad, whom we simply call BY and who is based in both Tamale, Ghana and Zaria, Nigeria, sent me from Ghana a 3,245-word tribute on Bilki (while this Column is only about 1,200 words), a tribute which he must have also shared with many others. For the benefit of those who haven’t got it, I excerpted the following few paragraphs (and anyone can get the full 3,245 words via private email from me or BY at [email protected]):
“The Islamic tradition takes great pride in its scholars. The learned of Islam are supposed to be ‘the inheritors of the prophets’…The true mission of a Muslim scholar is to be a person of thought as well as action…History testifies that many Muslim scholars have lived up to this very demanding ideal. One such worthy representative of the scholarly tradition of Islam, a woman contemporary with our own age and hence closer to us in thought and emotions, was the late Hajiya Bilkisu…
“In the past three weeks, I have read scores of tributes and stories about her from brothers, sisters and friends. They have been extraordinary – and each story they have shared about this towering personality will surely keep her alive in our hearts and memories for a very, very long time to come.
“I first met Bilkisu…in July 1985 in London, United Kingdom, at the World Conference on the Impact of Nationalism on the Muslim Ummah, an annual international event that was organised by the then Muslim Institute for Research and Planning, London. [One other Nigeria delegate was late Prof Tijjani el-Miskeen, who also died in the stampede].
“…[At the London Conference] I had circulated a document on the plight of Ghanaian Muslims and a Call for Action among some few carefully selected delegates on the first day of the conference. Bilkisu was among the recipients…Over breakfast, we discussed extensively about…establishing an Islamic Centre in the country. Her emphasis was on education as the only sustainable instrument of empowering the Muslims, even though as a strategy it could take a very time to make an impact…
“I discovered two interesting features of Bilkisu’s mental make-up: one was her photographic memory for she remembered everything to the minutest of details; and secondly, Bilkisu was completely open to ideas, ever ready to concede her mistakes, and did not hesitate to change her mind when faced with more powerful and convincing arguments, unlike most Muslim intellectuals and professionals, who once having made their minds on a certain issue saw it as a matter of dishonour to change it.
“By the time the conference ended, we had developed an elaborate blueprint to establish a multi-purpose Islamic Centre in Ghana. On the first sight, the proposed centre, with all its ambitious programmes, looked a bit far-fetched. Some delegates only said ‘Brother, this looks good but where will you find the resources to implement it’? But when I later shared my frustration with her over the response I was getting from people, Bilkisu simply told me to ignore all those pessimists, and as if she was encouraging by a flatter, said given my ability to pluck out solutions virtually out of thin air and turn distant dreams into present realities, the project, in her estimation was not an impossible goal.
“Alhamdulillah, it was nineteen years after our first meeting, precisely in 2004, when the ideas contained in the Blueprint matured and the Centre, known as Al Furqan Foundation was formally established in Tamale, in the Northern region of Ghana. It is to Bilikisu’s credit the Centre has organised four successful major international Islamic events in Ghana and…the establishment of the Africa Islamic Economic Foundation.
“Bilkisu’s was a life fully dedicated to the service of Islam with, and by the Pen…In spite of her exceptional intellectual abilities, there was never a slightest trace of arrogance in her attitude. She treated everyone with equal respect…She listened to every point of view, every argument; and judged its own merit. A corollary of the absence of arrogance was her simplicity. She had no illusions of grandeur nor a desire to amass large quantities of wealth – both conspicuously notable amongst many intellectuals of our age.
“Today, Bilkisu lies buried in her grave…I believe it was only her body that was buried. Her ideas and the ideals she stood and laboured for are still with us…I ask Allah, the Most Generous and Most Magnificent, to crown her with His Mercy, Forgiveness, and reward her with the highest grade of Al Jannah.”