NIGERIA: FELLOWSHIP, NOT CONFRONTATION II

Almost three years ago on this page (in January 2012) when the ferocity of the North Eastern (and national) calamitous attacks reached unprecedented heights (surpassed only by what is happening NOW), this Column advocated the need, urgent and necessary, for understanding between Muslims and Christians. We argued at that time that we are ALL under […]

Almost three years ago on this page (in January 2012) when the ferocity of the North Eastern (and national) calamitous attacks reached unprecedented heights (surpassed only by what is happening NOW), this Column advocated the need, urgent and necessary, for understanding between Muslims and Christians. We argued at that time that we are ALL under attack, Muslims and Christians.
We are all in this together.
Unfortunately recently, with the massively heightened escalation of this tragedy, more un-fellowship speech is coming out of the mouth of some leaders of our Christian compatriots. Many of them, perhaps because 2015 is around the corner, or perhaps in the hope that we may get “Western-style ISIS/ISIL/IS intervention”, are claiming that it is ONLY Christians that are under attack. In actual fact, more Muslims, numerically, economically, are being massacred every day in the North East and other places.
We are all in this together.
Two very important reasons have made it necessary to revisit this need for fellowship. First reason was the recent remark by the Emir of Kano Muhammadu Sanusi II to the effect that we must all be ready to defend ourselves against this onslaught. Various media houses reported the Emir as urging Nigerians to brace up to defend themselves against the extremists who have mounted a bloody campaign against Nigerians; killing, maiming and overrunning territories.
The Emir spoke last week at the weekly recitation of the Holy Qur’an as part of prayers for peace in the country. He urged religious and community leaders to undertake the immediate task of reinventing courage in their people, particularly the youth, in preparation for self-defence. People must stand resolutely in the face of attack and not abandon their towns, women and children, he said.
“These people”, the Emir said, “when they attack towns, they kill boys and enslave girls…People must stand resolute. People must not assume that the crisis will not reach their area. If it comes, we are asking God to give us fortitude, but if He wishes to take martyrs from amongst us, we should be ready to give our lives.” He reminded the congregation of Muslim clerics who came from various Islamic schools in Kano of the saying of Prophet Muhammad (upon whom be peace) that whoever dies in defence of his country, family, life or wealth is a martyr.
The Emir also called on the people to make preparation for defence with whatever way possible. “People must not wait for soldiers to protect them. There are even instances where soldiers on ground ran away in the face of attack,” he said. He asked experts in the area of security and defence to use their expertise in the quest for seeking the pleasure of God by employing it to end the current crisis. He expressed the hope that the insurgents would be defeated, affirming, “God will grant us victory over them.” Amin! Amen!
We are all in this together.
Emir Sanusi’s remarks remind one of what Bilqis, the Biblical Queen of Sheba, said when consulting her advisers on the matter of the letter sent to her by Prophet Sulaiman (King Solomon), upon whom be peace, as reported in Qur’an Surah An Naml (The Ant) 27:34:
“Verily! Kings, when they enter a town (country), they despoil it, and make the most honourable amongst its people low. And thus they do.”
If Emir Sanusi’s remarks are a good reason, the second reason to revisit this matter is by far the most devastating. Muslims, Christians and Jews (and even many a belief besides) believe in a last day, The Last Day. On the tumult that will take place on that Day, Allah Himself describes it in Qur’an Surah Al-Hajj (The Pilgrimage) 22:2:
“The Day ye shall see it, every mother giving suck shall forget her suckling- babe, and every pregnant female shall drop her load: thou shalt see mankind as in a drunken riot, yet not drunk: but dreadful will be the Wrath of Allah.”
Now, a group of refugees, fleeing Mubi, recently arrived in Kano. Among the stories they told was of a pregnant woman who was on the run with many others. Suddenly, in the middle of nowhere, her labour arrived. She was left behind. Inna lillaHi wa inna ilaiHi raji’un! Allah helped her and she personally took her own delivery of twin boys. She detached herself from them, cleaned up herself as much as she could, looked at them as they lay there helpless, defenceless, and LEFT THEM THERE AND RAN! Inna lillaHi wa inna ilaiHi raji’un! “…and every pregnant female shall drop her load…” Last Day pre-enacted!
We are all in this together.
We must collectively remember the Mongols and the Huns of centuries past. Back in 1258 Mongol forces under Hulagu Khan devastated the Muslim Abbasid Caliphate in what is now known as The Siege of Baghdad. History records that the attack was for no apparent reason, for the Caliphate had much earlier entered into a peace treaty with the Ilkhanate Mongols. It was just a Scourge from God. The invasion left Baghdad in a state of total destruction. Estimates of the number of inhabitants massacred were up to 1,000,000. Baghdad was sacked and burned. That event is widely regarded by Western writers as the end of the Islamic Golden Age.
Those Mongol hordes did not only attack Muslims; they also sacked many Christian cities. All over the then religious world (Muslim, Christian, Hindu, Bhuddist), the supplications rising from the mosques, cathedrals and temples were the same: “O Lord! Deliver us!”
Much earlier than the Mongols, the then newly Christian Western world had suffered another Scourge – Attila the Hun. By the fifth century of the Christian era, the Huns were an aggressive, dangerous, conquering tribe under their leader, Attila, known as ‘the Scourge of God’. Attila played a very infamous role in the misfortunes of the Christian Eastern Roman Empire, then in its heydays. In 447 AD (a century before the birth of Muhammad, the Prophet of Islam, upon whom be peace), Attila inflicted such heavy devastation in those early Christian times only equalled by Hulagu Khan almost a millennium later.
Attila did against Christendom what Hulagu did to the Lands of Islam. A historian, Callinicus, in his Life of Saint Hypatius, put it thus: “The barbarian nation of the Huns…became so great that more than a hundred cities were captured…And there were so many murders and blood-lettings that the dead could not be numbered. Ay, for they took captive the churches and monasteries and slew the monks and maidens in great numbers.”
Therefore, Hear O Nigerians! Muslims, Christians, all! Fast! Pray! The devastation being visited on our lands is against us all. Therefore, Muslims to your mosques; Christians to your churches! Let us all pray and fast that the Merciful Lord save us from the new Mongols and Huns, because history records that by the time the Hordes were done, half of the world population (as it then was) had perished.
We are all in this together, wallahi!
May Allah save those Twins of Mubi! Inna lillaHi wa inna ilaiHi raji’un! (We are from Allah, and unto Him shall we return!) And HasbunalLahu wa ni’imal Wakeel! (Allah is Sufficient for us and He is the Best Disposer of affairs!)