QUR’AN FOREVER – SABILUL KHAIRAT @ 25

Last Sunday, twenty four students of Sabilul Khairat Islamiyya School, Tudun Murtala, celebrated their Qur’an Graduation. There were five boys and NINETEEN girls, as is usual these days. At any Qur’an Graduation in many the Muslim states, the girls usually outnumber the boys by at least two-to-one; in this particular gaduation, the outnumbering was almost […]

Last Sunday, twenty four students of Sabilul Khairat Islamiyya School, Tudun Murtala, celebrated their Qur’an Graduation. There were five boys and NINETEEN girls, as is usual these days. At any Qur’an Graduation in many the Muslim states, the girls usually outnumber the boys by at least two-to-one; in this particular gaduation, the outnumbering was almost four-to-one. When one asked where the boys were or have been, one would then get to know the obvious answer; they are busy with El Classico. Sad.
Tudun Murtala is a working class area to the east of Kano Metropolis. A ‘working class’ area, simply explained, is a habitation that would have several challenges – economic, social, cultural – because its inhabitants come to live there from disparate and separate and distant places, and may not hitherto have been related at all, one to another. In this type of setting, therefore, communal activities would be difficult to undertake, for no one could claim to be premier stakeholder, unless there are determined youths like those of Sabilul Khairat.
The coming into being of this school, and its sustenance, is as a result of tenacious determination of a group of young people who have been at it for a quarter of a century. Sabilul Khairat started out in 1991 in front of the house of one Mallam Abdullahi Danbaba with twelve students; later, one Alhaji Muhammad Mai Rabano gave his uncompleted building to shelter the school. It was several years later that the youths of the area “recruited” external school patrons to ensure it gets its own premises and buildings.
The “shakers and movers” of this youth movement, led by the likes of Muhammad Saminu, Abubakar Bana, Kabiru Dalibi, Muhammad Auwal, Zainab Muhammad and many others, together with the up-and-doing PTA, solicited the assistance of people far away from Tudun Murtala. Through this tactic of ‘recruitment of external patrons’, Dr. Sa’id Dukawa of Bayero University, Kano (BUK), renowned politician and scholar Shaikh Ibrahim Khalil, one-time MD of the defunct Triumph newspaper Alhaji Kabiru Muhammad Gwangwazo, Radio Kano’s Rilwan Malikawa and Ahmad Sabo (all of whom had no prior relationship with the area) became the school’s leading advocates – and it paid off in 2005 when the school came into its own.
Why is this important? It is important in that communities should understand and emulate the innovative approach of these young people of Tudun Murtala – that is, don’t wait on only people living around you, fish wide and fish deep, you may be lucky to catch bigger game than the ones that live with and around you. Meaning, if you want to develop your community, go outside the community and recruit others to help you. From the year 2010, Sabilul Khairat Islamiyya School began a bi-annual Qur’an Graduation and this, of 2016, is the fourth. And they have never looked back.
In his Keynote Address, Guest Speaker Shaikh Abubakar AbdusSalam (Baban Gwale) of the Aminu Kano College of Islamic Legal Studies, said of the Qur’an that Fourth Caliph of Islam Ali bn Abi Talib (may Allah be pleased with him) once narrated that Prophet Muhammad (upon whom be peace) mentioned the calamities that would afflict the world at the end of time. The Companions (may Allah be pleased with all of them) asked the Prophet if there were any way out, to which the Prophet replied “Yes, the Book of Allah! The Book that contains the tales of the past as well as of the present; the Book that resolves all issues. Whoever uses the Qur’an as an aide would surely say the truth; whoever uses it for adjudication would surely be just; for it is [Allah’s] Speech so clearly spelt…”
The Scholar continued to say that the Prophet directed Muslims to “Read the Qur’an! For it would come on the Day of Judgment and intercede [with Allah] on behalf of those who used to read and recite it.” In addition, Second Caliph of Islam Umar bn Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him) narrated that he heard the Prophet of Islam say “Truly Allah uplifts some people by virtue of their familiarity with the Qur’an, as Allah also decreases the dignity of those who are neglectful of it.”
Those among the Companions of the Prophet (upon whom be peace) who committed the Book to memory always had a pride of place with him. For example, Allah (Exalted be His Name) Himself once directed the Prophet to ask Ubayy bn Ka’ab (may Allah be pleased with him) to recite for him the Qur’an. At another occasion, the Prophet was passing bye and heard the excellent recitation of Abu Musa Al-Ash’ary (may Allah be pleased with him); the recitation was so sweet that the Prophet stood where he was unnoticed by Abu Musa for a length of time as if affixed, and couldn’t leave. That’s the hold of the Qur’an.
At another occasion, said Shaikh Baban Gwale, the Prophet shed tears from the sweet and melodious recitation of the Qur’an by Abdullah bn Mas’ud. Similarly, at the Battle of Uhd, when it came time to bury the martyrs (Shuhada) those who had memorized the Qur’an among them were given the honour of being buried first.
And on the matter of Divine upliftment via the Qur’an, the Guest Speaker mentioned that one of the leaders of the authenticated Schools of Recitation, Imam Qalun, was deaf; and in spite of his obvious disability, he was well respected by all because he was an authority on the Book of Allah. Imam Qalun, without hearing a reciter’s words, would follow a recitation by the movement of the reciter’s lips, and would correct or approve such recitation. Imam Malik, the greatest scholar of Madina during his time, used to visit Imam Nafi’, teacher of Imam Warsh (another leader of the authenticated Schools of Recitation) because the latter was a scholar of the Qur’an; this despite the fact that even Kings had to visit Malik for knowledge.
The Guest Speaker finally urged parents to take particular care and pay particular attention to children who show propensity towards learning and memorising the Qur’an, and that they should ensure their wards repeat and recite day and night what they have memorised earlier; that they should pray for those children and for others to be like them; and they should do all they could to encourage them. Turning to Government, the scholar called for a new approach to Qur’anic studies by making efforts towards modernising the system and eliminating the bastardised Almajiri phenomenon.
In his contribution, BUK’s irrepressible academician Dr. Muhammad Tahir Adam (better known as Baba Impossible) gave a holds-no-barred discussion of the Shaikh’s lecture. Impossible said the impossible – he castigated and shamed and chastised and condemned the male gender for not only failing in their God-assigned responsibility of being ‘men’, but also in the way and manner boys are raised today with no inkling of what the word ‘responsibility’ means. He said the fact that the graduating girls in Sabilul Khairat were quadruple the number of boys is an indicator of the failure of the male gender.
He added that it used to be that at marriage solemnisations in the past, the groom would be admonished to feed, clothe and shelter the wife, as well as educate her on the nuances of the religion. Nowadays, said the scholar, the wife has become not only the provider and feeder of the family, she is also gradually becoming the scholar, capable of not only teaching the husband about the religion, but her children as well. Good for women, shame on men, said Impossible.
In his Vote of Thanks, PTA Chairman Alhaji Shuaibu Isa particularly thanked the Darasu Shaikh, Mahir Auwal Sulaiman and Royal Father, Alhaji Haruna Ajiyan Chiroman Kano.