Lessons from Eid al-Adha

Today, many Nigerians are scarred by the level of the negative use of religion being perpetrated by so-called religious leaders who for the sake of being advantaged, favoured and financially buoyant are campaigning for women and men of their religious profession to be in power or remain in power.  As a former archbishop of Canterbury […]

Today, many Nigerians are scarred by the level of the negative use of religion being perpetrated by so-called religious leaders who for the sake of being advantaged, favoured and financially buoyant are campaigning for women and men of their religious profession to be in power or remain in power.  As a former archbishop of Canterbury once wisely cautioned, “he who gets married to the fashion of the day will become a widow when that fashion is no longer current”.
Eid al-adha as a challenge to Nigerian Muslims and Christians
This festival our Muslim neighbours have just celebrated is popularly called Eid al Akbar “Baban Sallah” in Hausa.  Scripturally, it is named Eid al-adha (festival of sacrifice) from the story in Q37:100-113 with a similar but more detailed narration in Gen. 22:1-19 in both the Hebrew and Christian scriptures.  The eid is in commemoration of the obedience of Father Abraham (Ibrahim) who obeyed God – the Almighty (Ala- Ta ‘ala), sought the cooperation of his only son (not named in the Q, but traditionally believed to be Isma’il (the older of the two sons – Ishaq was yet to be born then according to Islamic tradition).  It is this spirit of obedience of Abraham that gives one of the two key lessons to the three Abrahamic religions in this story.
The second lesson from this episode is the willingness of Abraham to sacrifice his only son to God who, in the first place gave him that child.  It is to commemorate this lesson that our Muslim neighbours sacrifice a ram for sharing during this annual eid.
For the survival of Nigeria – we seize this festive occasion to call on all our Religious, Traditional and Political Leaders to fear God, speak the truth, encourage respect and celebrate our different interpretations of common scriptural incidents in our Books.
Religious Leaders are reminded that they will give an account to God of all their promotion of enmity between Christians and Muslims in this Country. We challenge and call on them to be humble enough to go and learn productive ways of interpreting their scriptures and get some education in the religion of their neighbours of a different religious persuasion.  The silence of Religious Leaders in the face of the promotion of blatant corruption, dubious and deceptive interpretation of scriptures, the fanning of the embers of hatred and bitterness for those outside their religious community will only lead this country to self destruction.
Traditional Leaders. We remind our Traditional leaders that Abraham is revered among the three Abrahamic faiths, we therefore call on our traditional leaders in our country to be fathers to  all religious communities and be obedient to God who has called them to lead his people.  Nigeria is a very mixed country; every part of the country has a mixture of tribes and religions.  An Emir, from the Abrahamic example is a father to all even though he is a Muslim. So also, a Traditional Chief – though a Christian is not a Chief of the Christians alone but a Chief and Father to those of other faiths within his territory. The Prophet of Islam, Muhammad (pbh), found himself in a pluralistic city of Madina with – Jews, Christians, the ansar (who invited him from the city of Makka) and the al-muhajirun (who accompanied him from Makka to Madina).  He governed all as a community with the concept of Ummatun Wahidatun (one community) with a Code of Conduct giving every group its freedom.  Like Abraham, the Prophet of Islam was obedient and sacrificed his own ambition to the will of God who created the community.
To our Political Leaders – we call on them, for the sake of our survival especially in Arewa as Ummatun Wahidatun, to reflect very carefully on the lesson of sacrifice Abraham is teaching us all from the story of the sacrifice of his son mentioned above.
The north today is crying for leadership –the late Sardauna of Sokoto played his part – it is about time our politicians stopped using his name without following his principles. Sardauna practised equity, he believed and demonstrated the spirit of sacrifice by not amassing personal wealth, and he spread development equitably and treated northerners as one without any segment of the region feeling left out. He was not perfect but, he did all he could to live sacrificially for the survival of Arewa. Unfortunately, today Arewa is in need of leaders who are willing to sacrifice their small ambition of wanting to be leaders at all levels, join hands with all – Christian and Muslim of Arewa extraction and build one community – Ummatun Wahidatun as the prophet of Islam did.  Our politicians must, from the story behind eid al-adha stop, reflect and, like Abraham, give up what they see as most costly to them and work for the unity of Arewa and the peace of this nation. Similarly, all Muslims and Christians seeking political leadership roles in our country must, as believers in the teachings of their scriptures, sacrifice their ambitions like Abraham for the unity, survival and development of Nigerians.
To my own constituency, the religious, I challenge everyone to – remember that on the Day of Judgment, God is going to ask us to give an account of what we taught those whose spiritual responsibilities he has entrusted into our hands! There is too much unhealthy relationship between religious and political leaders in Nigeria today; it must stop if this country is to survive the impending dangers ahead.
Learning from the experience of a Maliki Mufti of the Republic of Senegal, we counsel:  Religious leaders should, as a matter of policy avoid any offer that would be tantamount to political sponsorship. Courtesy, should be accorded while concession to collaborating with political office is to be avoided or shunned. Religious leaders should, as a matter of courtesy be willing to make their peace with political territoriality but less willing to collapse religion into such territoriality.
There is a large body of material in both Christian and Muslim traditions to support a public role for religion without requiring theocratic rule.  Religious leaders in Nigeria must not use CAN and SCIA to indirectly introduce theocracy into governance in a democratic country like Nigeria. Unfortunately, the way religious leaders today in Nigeria are hobnobbing with political leaders is very worrying. Here is a witty aphorism on the point being made: “The best of the rulers is he who keeps company with men of (religious) learning, and the worst of the learned men is he who keeps the society of the king” ( Sufyan Thauri in “The Book of Governance for kings”. )
Professor Sanneh comments on this saying: “Religion, and worldly affairs prosper together when political rules are qualified by moral principles, and they suffer when moral principles are qualified by political expe-dience”.
Our religious leaders who, today are hobnobbing with those in power need to take these words of wisdom very seriously.
I call on all religious leaders to stop simony – today pilgrimages, prayer vigils are being held to attract politicians in high places for money. Eid al-adha is an opportunity to reflect, ask for forgiveness and then decide to live sacrificially and obediently for Nigeria to survive!
 Dr Idowu-Fearon is Bishop of Kaduna (Anglican Communion)