Hajiya Bilkisu Bintube: Tribute to a star

As a family friend, Auntie Bilkisu was very close to my dad, and to my Aunty. As such she was one of the numerous aunties that one encounter in life. My first encounter with the late Bilkisu was in the late 80s, when ideological movement really kicked-off. She stood out even in a crowd and […]

As a family friend, Auntie Bilkisu was very close to my dad, and to my Aunty. As such she was one of the numerous aunties that one encounter in life. My first encounter with the late Bilkisu was in the late 80s, when ideological movement really kicked-off. She stood out even in a crowd and was un-relenting.
Of recent, in one of her numerous seminars and conferences, in particular the International Quds Day at Sheraton Hotel, Abuja, she called me (as I entered the Hall), with her computer opened in front of her. As usual, she asked of my dad; that was on 26/07/2015.
From my own understanding of the many messages Hajiya Bilkisu left is that women represent the largest demography that consistently and serially has its rights violated and withdrawn.
They are the most convenient and easy victims of domestic violence, of displacement and humiliation during wars, of human trafficking, and of the flesh-for-sale business. Due to the perpetual war Muslims have had to endure for the past 100 years as well as their own centuries-old departure from the guiding words of the Qur’an and the standard of the prophet (SAW), the situation of Muslim women is probably more desperate than any other women, even those in the poorest African and Central American countries.
The socio-economic and intellectual potential of one-half of the Muslim population basically lies dormant. But the overall condition of Muslim women is a measure of how well an Islamic society is performing.
When Muslim women are marginal in their societies, then the ummah is marginal in the world; when Muslim women are on the peripheries of socio-economic development, then the ummah is on the fringes of human productivity and advancement; when Muslim women are not protected, then the whole ummah is violated; when Muslim women are raped by non-Muslim soldiers, then the ummah is penetrated by imperial occupation forces and their God-denying hedonistic cultures; when Muslim women are forced to flee the security of their homes, then the ummah is insecure in its own homelands; when illiteracy is forced upon Muslim women, then parochialism becomes the standard of the ummah; and when Muslim women have no rights, then the ummah has no respect.
This is for Hajiya Bilkisu, for we cannot shy away from your conviction and what you stand for. Your departure to the next world leaves a huge mark of absence that we pray to God to endow us again with another extraordinary life to fill in the vacuum. May Allah accept your sacrifice!
Muslim Mahmood writes from Wuse II, Abuja.