I’ve often wondered what motivates one person to murder another. It must be the ultimate act of inhumanity for one human to consciously and intentionally go out of their way to snuff the life out of another human. Even though no murderer has the exact same motivation as another, I believe murderers are, for the most part, really intense individuals who strive for some kind of mental, physical or spiritual release. And even though not all murderers express validation for their actions, the more perplexing type of murderers are those who incorrectly justify the action of snatching another human’s fundamental right to life from them.
With the recent headlines of more towns being captured by the dreaded extremist Islamic sect running rampage in the North East and news that bombs were detonated in a bank in Bauchi State and a school in Yobe State, the brutality of these animals that claim to be carrying out a Jihad, has reached an astronomical level. While these illiterate, good-for-nothing, treacherous colon blenders prance about terrorizing people, carrying out suicide bombings and justifying it by saying that they are fighting for the course of Islam, the vast majority of Muslims recognize their actions as a perversion of Islam and which has nothing to do with Muslims.
As a Muslim brother, as a person who cares for his people, his country and cherishes Islam beyond everything else in this world, it is really shocking to see fellow Muslims and people from Islam all over the world resort to an action that is a complete contradiction to what Islam, a religion of peace, teaches us and stands for.
If I had a chance to look into the faces and speak directly to those Muslims, especially those Nigerians who interpret and preach our scripture in a manner that lends itself to the extreme act of suicide bombings and mass killings, I would ask:
“Whether at some point during your journey; during your really quiet sober moments, there have been points when you have asked yourself if the suicide killings that you send your followers to carry out in the name of Jihad is truly what our religion asks of you; whether the thousands of dead bodies and blood that now seeps down your hands is the obligatory religious sacrifice of which our faith and ‘Iman’ is built on?
All the people that you have sent to carry out what you have interpreted and preached as an essential Jihad have been just that; people. People who belong to others; who happen to be other people’s children, other people’s parents, other people’s siblings, other people’s friends, other people’s neighbor’s and other people’s dependents. Every time you send out our brothers to carry out your interpretation of what Jihad requires of them, someone suffers, someone dies, and parents lose their children. You do not send out your children for what you say is the ultimate, pious sacrifice; you don’t send out your parents or your wives. You don’t even send yourself, but you let our young brothers, our young men carry out the ultimate sin in Islam to fulfill the fate that you have not given yourself up to.
Yes, the suicide bombings and mass killings that you have subjected our society to is an ultimate sin, because using an Islamic eye to look at the concept of suicide bombings in its very basic form, it is impossible to rationalize it with the beautiful and peaceful teachings of Islam. As a Muslim, if you look at the act of suicide, ask yourself if Islam endorses suicide in any capacity? Whether there is any circumstance where the commission of suicide is encouraged or permitted? Even with your extreme interpretation of Jihad, the first and short answer has got to be absolutely not ever.
During your religious studies, you would have come across several examples of this prohibition from Hadith where it is explained quite explicitly that whoever commits suicide with any weapon will be punished with that very same weapon in the Hell Fire. In Hadith (Bukhari 7:670) Narrated by Abu Huraira, The Prophet (SAW) said, ‘Whoever purposely throws himself from a mountain and kills himself, will be in the Hell Fire falling down into it and abiding therein perpetually forever; and whoever drinks poison and kills himself with it, he will be carrying his poison in his hand and drinking it in the Hell Fire wherein he will abide eternally forever; and whoever kills himself with an iron weapon, will be carrying that weapon in his hand and stabbing his abdomen with it in the Hell Fire wherein he will abide eternally forever.’
If suicide is forbidden then suicide bombing is strictly haram. Suicide bombing kills innocent people, and Allah says that whoever kills another; it is as if the whole of humanity is killed. You know as much as the next person that it is absolutely forbidden to kill people in Islam except in the case where it has been ordered by Allah, such as during war time. That circumstance does not exist in the present state that we are living in no matter what analysis you have given our situation. I’m sorry it just doesn’t! If you are well read in Islamic tenants, law and jurisprudence, you must know that, as Muslims, we are prohibited from taking the law into our own hands, even if we have been wronged. There is nowhere in the teachings of Islam to where any of us are permitted to make a judgment against another and take the law into our own hands. It is never permissible for you or anyone in the name of religion to suddenly decide to kill another or commit yourself to a bomb where you take your own life and kill innocent people without any right. It is a grave sin!
The one thing that you continue to speak of is Jihad. You rely on the concept of Jihad to justify your actions. You must remember that the Holy Quran does not make Jihad, in context of an article of faith. The sayings and traditions of the Holy Prophet (SAW) render it into a formula for active struggle that invariably and incorrectly tended towards a militant expression. Your suicide bombings and mass killings of those of alternative and different faiths are contrary to the purview of the real spirit of the Islamic Jihad. Your presentation of Islam as a crude and barbaric religion which gives itself the right to cause unwarranted human and material suffering and destruction under the guise of Divine authority is not the kind of Islam many of us find in the Holy Quran read in its entirety and in the precepts of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (SAW).
When you get upset at non-Muslims who read the Quran out of context, does it not occur to you that you also read and interpret it in a context that does not reflect the peace, patience and understanding that Islam represents and the teachings and life of the Holy Prophet (SAW)?
Among the attributes of God, the Holy Quran mentions that ‘He is the Source of peace and the bestower of security’. The establishment of peace and maintenance of security must, therefore, be the constant objective of all Muslims and non-Muslims alike. Every pursuit and activity which disturbs peace is severely condemned in Islam and you will find this in specific injunctions in the Holy Quran: ‘…And create not disorder in the earth after it has been set in order…’ Mischief and wickedness are condemned in several other verses and Muslims are commanded to work wholly for peace.
When you insist that Shari’a law must be applied in the whole of Nigeria you know that it is not realistic for Nigeria as a country to be ruled under Shari’a law. It has now been 15 years since some state governors politicized the issue of applying Shari’a law in their states. Fifteen years since some governors set off the domino that has culminated in what you have become today. Ask yourself whether those state governors have taken any responsibility for what they started 15 years ago. Those state governors personally benefited from that policy back then while blood was spilt and are still benefiting because most of them are now sitting cushy in the Nigerian senate while “you”, the pawn that was used by them, are today hunted as criminals, branded as terrorists, fallen as mass murderers. Ask yourself whether those states are earnestly practicing Shari’a today.
Thousands of people died in the sectarian and religious clashes that resulted from the fallout during that period. And for what? For the application of Shari’a which evidently, years on, was not a sincere application? If you believe that the application of Shari’a in those states has been successful and you desire to bring your family up in a Shari’a state, you have the option of moving to any of those states or doing a ‘hijra’ and migrating to an Islamic country such as Saudi Arabia instead of shedding the blood of people who are struggling to live day by day and struggling to do good by their families.
Nigeria is a country that is made up of not only Muslims. There are indigenous people of both the Islamic and Christian faith in all corners of the country. Each of those people has a right to practise a religion of their choice . What right does any one section of the community have to decide the fate and religion of the rest?
You were born into this country in its secular state and you have grown up as a Nigerian in its secular state. Millions of devout Muslims (Uthman Dan Fodio, Aminu Kano, Ahmadu Bello, Shehu Yaradua, Sheikh Jaafar; and so on) have lived and died in a secular Nigeria, as Nigerians before you. What would make you think that you have the divine right to make yourself responsible to decide a person’s faith for them above and beyond all those who came before you?
If the Holy Prophet (SAW) provided assurances to non-Muslim minorities living in Muslim majority countries and ordered Muslim minorities living in non-Muslim majority countries to abide by all laws and the rules of the country, there is no reason for any Nigerian Muslim not to abide by the laws of Nigeria. The belief that God is a just God that welcomes those who believe in Him, the last day and lead a righteous life, by whatever name they call themselves should be enough reason for us to co-exist peacefully. In the Quran, it is written that: ‘Surely, those who believe those who are Jewish, the converts, and the Christians; any of them who believe in GOD and believe in the Last Day, and lead a righteous life, have nothing to fear, nor will they grieve. [Quran 5:69].’
If you so desire to do a Jihad and draw people to Islam, why don’t you show them through example the pillar of peace and understanding that Islam preaches? Why don’t you tell them about the complete teachings of the Quran; about the pure way of life, about faith in God; all His angels, all His holy books, all His prophets, day of Judgment, and destiny? Why don’t you teach them about the virtuous existence and lifestyle of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (SAW)? Why don’t you talk about the need to perform good deeds for the benefit of community, nature, and mankind? The need to treat every single person equally like the way you treat yourself, the need for morality and the need for brotherhood, justice, equality, kindness, tolerance, love, sympathy, sacrifice and service to humanity? By doing that, you offer them a positive and attractive choice; by doing that you are more likely to succeed in your Jihad. Show them by positive examples, not by bombs, not by force, not by bloodshed and certainly not by death.
As true Muslims, who know and understand the teachings of Islam, it is not the fact that our religion is going through a period of scrutiny and slur that bothers us. After all, that is the challenge and lesson of faith. Such calamities are a test. They are like medicine; even though it is bitter, yet, in spite of its bitterness you still take it. The greatest reward comes with the greatest trial. As we have seen in all the Holy Books, the Quran, the Bible, the Torah, any religion must pass through hardships, scrutiny, persecution and ridicule in order to reach its ultimate goal. No matter what anyone says, many of us believe that is what Islam is experiencing now.
You must remember it is not what the people who know no better believe, think and say about Islam that matters, it is not the verses of the Quran and Hadith that are read out of context by non-Muslims to justify violence that is important, it is what we Muslims believe, think and say about what Islam stands for that is most important. And if you, as a Muslim, take verses in the Quran and Hadith out of context of the overlying message of peace that Islam preaches, then there is an incontrovertible cause for concern and you must acknowledge that you are part of the problem Islam is faced with. If you, as a Muslim, interpret Jihad to the extent that you can commit the ultimate sin of suicide to kill innocent women and children and blow up schools, banks, Churches and other people’s worshiping places, then, let’s face it, we have a real problem on our hands of which you are the perpetrators.
Nigerian Muslim leaders are constantly being accused for not speaking out against you and your actions. But the truth is that everyone is afraid of your evil aggression. Everyone is afraid of what you might do to them, their families and their communities should they speak since you seem not to have any boundaries. That is not just! That is not right! That is not Islamic! Our leaders are living and breathing people too, who have families who they strive to protect. Those same Muslim leaders that you and other Nigerians have vilified have gone out of their way to force a reluctant president to offer you an amnesty many believe you do not deserve. A gesture that you disregard. As long as those Nigerian Muslims who present a different view to you are not desecrating or defaming Islam, you should understand that they have a right to speak their minds on behalf of those who look up to them, just as you do every time you send out your messages on the internet.
You may consider yourselves to be Islamic scholars just because you have read and memorized the Quran and as scholars you and your followers believe that what you are preaching is gospel. But memorizing the Quran by no means makes you a scholar. It makes you a reciter (Qari) instead or a preserver (Hafiz), but it doesn’t make you a knowledgeable person (Alim). There are so many people in this world who have memorized the Quran, but the fact that they have done so does not qualify them to assume the function of a scholar. Everywhere in Nigeria, hoards of Muslims memorize the Quran, yet they cannot repeat a Tafsir of a single Ayah, so that in itself doesn’t qualify you or any other Muslim as an Islamic scholar.
However, every single rational scholar and knowledgeable person in Islamic law, from Saudi Arabia, to Indonesia, to Bosnia and beyond have all said the exact same thing; that no Muslim has the right to take the law into their own hands and just suddenly declare a war against a perceived enemy.
I implore you, as a Muslim sister, as a mother, as a person who cares for her people, her country and cherishes Islam beyond anything else, to stop this war you have waged against a perceived enemy because it affects every one of us, you included. Stop the violence, stop the aggression and stop the bloodshed.
With the recent headlines of more towns being captured by the dreaded extremist Islamic sect running rampage in the North East and news that bombs were detonated in a bank in Bauchi State and a school in Yobe State, the brutality of these animals that claim to be carrying out a Jihad, has reached an astronomical level. While these illiterate, good-for-nothing, treacherous colon blenders prance about terrorizing people, carrying out suicide bombings and justifying it by saying that they are fighting for the course of Islam, the vast majority of Muslims recognize their actions as a perversion of Islam and which has nothing to do with Muslims.
As a Muslim brother, as a person who cares for his people, his country and cherishes Islam beyond everything else in this world, it is really shocking to see fellow Muslims and people from Islam all over the world resort to an action that is a complete contradiction to what Islam, a religion of peace, teaches us and stands for.
If I had a chance to look into the faces and speak directly to those Muslims, especially those Nigerians who interpret and preach our scripture in a manner that lends itself to the extreme act of suicide bombings and mass killings, I would ask:
“Whether at some point during your journey; during your really quiet sober moments, there have been points when you have asked yourself if the suicide killings that you send your followers to carry out in the name of Jihad is truly what our religion asks of you; whether the thousands of dead bodies and blood that now seeps down your hands is the obligatory religious sacrifice of which our faith and ‘Iman’ is built on?
All the people that you have sent to carry out what you have interpreted and preached as an essential Jihad have been just that; people. People who belong to others; who happen to be other people’s children, other people’s parents, other people’s siblings, other people’s friends, other people’s neighbor’s and other people’s dependents. Every time you send out our brothers to carry out your interpretation of what Jihad requires of them, someone suffers, someone dies, and parents lose their children. You do not send out your children for what you say is the ultimate, pious sacrifice; you don’t send out your parents or your wives. You don’t even send yourself, but you let our young brothers, our young men carry out the ultimate sin in Islam to fulfill the fate that you have not given yourself up to.
Yes, the suicide bombings and mass killings that you have subjected our society to is an ultimate sin, because using an Islamic eye to look at the concept of suicide bombings in its very basic form, it is impossible to rationalize it with the beautiful and peaceful teachings of Islam. As a Muslim, if you look at the act of suicide, ask yourself if Islam endorses suicide in any capacity? Whether there is any circumstance where the commission of suicide is encouraged or permitted? Even with your extreme interpretation of Jihad, the first and short answer has got to be absolutely not ever.
During your religious studies, you would have come across several examples of this prohibition from Hadith where it is explained quite explicitly that whoever commits suicide with any weapon will be punished with that very same weapon in the Hell Fire. In Hadith (Bukhari 7:670) Narrated by Abu Huraira, The Prophet (SAW) said, ‘Whoever purposely throws himself from a mountain and kills himself, will be in the Hell Fire falling down into it and abiding therein perpetually forever; and whoever drinks poison and kills himself with it, he will be carrying his poison in his hand and drinking it in the Hell Fire wherein he will abide eternally forever; and whoever kills himself with an iron weapon, will be carrying that weapon in his hand and stabbing his abdomen with it in the Hell Fire wherein he will abide eternally forever.’
If suicide is forbidden then suicide bombing is strictly haram. Suicide bombing kills innocent people, and Allah says that whoever kills another; it is as if the whole of humanity is killed. You know as much as the next person that it is absolutely forbidden to kill people in Islam except in the case where it has been ordered by Allah, such as during war time. That circumstance does not exist in the present state that we are living in no matter what analysis you have given our situation. I’m sorry it just doesn’t! If you are well read in Islamic tenants, law and jurisprudence, you must know that, as Muslims, we are prohibited from taking the law into our own hands, even if we have been wronged. There is nowhere in the teachings of Islam to where any of us are permitted to make a judgment against another and take the law into our own hands. It is never permissible for you or anyone in the name of religion to suddenly decide to kill another or commit yourself to a bomb where you take your own life and kill innocent people without any right. It is a grave sin!
The one thing that you continue to speak of is Jihad. You rely on the concept of Jihad to justify your actions. You must remember that the Holy Quran does not make Jihad, in context of an article of faith. The sayings and traditions of the Holy Prophet (SAW) render it into a formula for active struggle that invariably and incorrectly tended towards a militant expression. Your suicide bombings and mass killings of those of alternative and different faiths are contrary to the purview of the real spirit of the Islamic Jihad. Your presentation of Islam as a crude and barbaric religion which gives itself the right to cause unwarranted human and material suffering and destruction under the guise of Divine authority is not the kind of Islam many of us find in the Holy Quran read in its entirety and in the precepts of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (SAW).
When you get upset at non-Muslims who read the Quran out of context, does it not occur to you that you also read and interpret it in a context that does not reflect the peace, patience and understanding that Islam represents and the teachings and life of the Holy Prophet (SAW)?
Among the attributes of God, the Holy Quran mentions that ‘He is the Source of peace and the bestower of security’. The establishment of peace and maintenance of security must, therefore, be the constant objective of all Muslims and non-Muslims alike. Every pursuit and activity which disturbs peace is severely condemned in Islam and you will find this in specific injunctions in the Holy Quran: ‘…And create not disorder in the earth after it has been set in order…’ Mischief and wickedness are condemned in several other verses and Muslims are commanded to work wholly for peace.
When you insist that Shari’a law must be applied in the whole of Nigeria you know that it is not realistic for Nigeria as a country to be ruled under Shari’a law. It has now been 15 years since some state governors politicized the issue of applying Shari’a law in their states. Fifteen years since some governors set off the domino that has culminated in what you have become today. Ask yourself whether those state governors have taken any responsibility for what they started 15 years ago. Those state governors personally benefited from that policy back then while blood was spilt and are still benefiting because most of them are now sitting cushy in the Nigerian senate while “you”, the pawn that was used by them, are today hunted as criminals, branded as terrorists, fallen as mass murderers. Ask yourself whether those states are earnestly practicing Shari’a today.
Thousands of people died in the sectarian and religious clashes that resulted from the fallout during that period. And for what? For the application of Shari’a which evidently, years on, was not a sincere application? If you believe that the application of Shari’a in those states has been successful and you desire to bring your family up in a Shari’a state, you have the option of moving to any of those states or doing a ‘hijra’ and migrating to an Islamic country such as Saudi Arabia instead of shedding the blood of people who are struggling to live day by day and struggling to do good by their families.
Nigeria is a country that is made up of not only Muslims. There are indigenous people of both the Islamic and Christian faith in all corners of the country. Each of those people has a right to practise a religion of their choice . What right does any one section of the community have to decide the fate and religion of the rest?
You were born into this country in its secular state and you have grown up as a Nigerian in its secular state. Millions of devout Muslims (Uthman Dan Fodio, Aminu Kano, Ahmadu Bello, Shehu Yaradua, Sheikh Jaafar; and so on) have lived and died in a secular Nigeria, as Nigerians before you. What would make you think that you have the divine right to make yourself responsible to decide a person’s faith for them above and beyond all those who came before you?
If the Holy Prophet (SAW) provided assurances to non-Muslim minorities living in Muslim majority countries and ordered Muslim minorities living in non-Muslim majority countries to abide by all laws and the rules of the country, there is no reason for any Nigerian Muslim not to abide by the laws of Nigeria. The belief that God is a just God that welcomes those who believe in Him, the last day and lead a righteous life, by whatever name they call themselves should be enough reason for us to co-exist peacefully. In the Quran, it is written that: ‘Surely, those who believe those who are Jewish, the converts, and the Christians; any of them who believe in GOD and believe in the Last Day, and lead a righteous life, have nothing to fear, nor will they grieve. [Quran 5:69].’
If you so desire to do a Jihad and draw people to Islam, why don’t you show them through example the pillar of peace and understanding that Islam preaches? Why don’t you tell them about the complete teachings of the Quran; about the pure way of life, about faith in God; all His angels, all His holy books, all His prophets, day of Judgment, and destiny? Why don’t you teach them about the virtuous existence and lifestyle of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (SAW)? Why don’t you talk about the need to perform good deeds for the benefit of community, nature, and mankind? The need to treat every single person equally like the way you treat yourself, the need for morality and the need for brotherhood, justice, equality, kindness, tolerance, love, sympathy, sacrifice and service to humanity? By doing that, you offer them a positive and attractive choice; by doing that you are more likely to succeed in your Jihad. Show them by positive examples, not by bombs, not by force, not by bloodshed and certainly not by death.
As true Muslims, who know and understand the teachings of Islam, it is not the fact that our religion is going through a period of scrutiny and slur that bothers us. After all, that is the challenge and lesson of faith. Such calamities are a test. They are like medicine; even though it is bitter, yet, in spite of its bitterness you still take it. The greatest reward comes with the greatest trial. As we have seen in all the Holy Books, the Quran, the Bible, the Torah, any religion must pass through hardships, scrutiny, persecution and ridicule in order to reach its ultimate goal. No matter what anyone says, many of us believe that is what Islam is experiencing now.
You must remember it is not what the people who know no better believe, think and say about Islam that matters, it is not the verses of the Quran and Hadith that are read out of context by non-Muslims to justify violence that is important, it is what we Muslims believe, think and say about what Islam stands for that is most important. And if you, as a Muslim, take verses in the Quran and Hadith out of context of the overlying message of peace that Islam preaches, then there is an incontrovertible cause for concern and you must acknowledge that you are part of the problem Islam is faced with. If you, as a Muslim, interpret Jihad to the extent that you can commit the ultimate sin of suicide to kill innocent women and children and blow up schools, banks, Churches and other people’s worshiping places, then, let’s face it, we have a real problem on our hands of which you are the perpetrators.
Nigerian Muslim leaders are constantly being accused for not speaking out against you and your actions. But the truth is that everyone is afraid of your evil aggression. Everyone is afraid of what you might do to them, their families and their communities should they speak since you seem not to have any boundaries. That is not just! That is not right! That is not Islamic! Our leaders are living and breathing people too, who have families who they strive to protect. Those same Muslim leaders that you and other Nigerians have vilified have gone out of their way to force a reluctant president to offer you an amnesty many believe you do not deserve. A gesture that you disregard. As long as those Nigerian Muslims who present a different view to you are not desecrating or defaming Islam, you should understand that they have a right to speak their minds on behalf of those who look up to them, just as you do every time you send out your messages on the internet.
You may consider yourselves to be Islamic scholars just because you have read and memorized the Quran and as scholars you and your followers believe that what you are preaching is gospel. But memorizing the Quran by no means makes you a scholar. It makes you a reciter (Qari) instead or a preserver (Hafiz), but it doesn’t make you a knowledgeable person (Alim). There are so many people in this world who have memorized the Quran, but the fact that they have done so does not qualify them to assume the function of a scholar. Everywhere in Nigeria, hoards of Muslims memorize the Quran, yet they cannot repeat a Tafsir of a single Ayah, so that in itself doesn’t qualify you or any other Muslim as an Islamic scholar.
However, every single rational scholar and knowledgeable person in Islamic law, from Saudi Arabia, to Indonesia, to Bosnia and beyond have all said the exact same thing; that no Muslim has the right to take the law into their own hands and just suddenly declare a war against a perceived enemy.
I implore you, as a Muslim sister, as a mother, as a person who cares for her people, her country and cherishes Islam beyond anything else, to stop this war you have waged against a perceived enemy because it affects every one of us, you included. Stop the violence, stop the aggression and stop the bloodshed.
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