In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful
“...he who kills a soul - unless it be for murder or for spreading mischief in the land - it would be as if he killed the whole humanity…” (Quran 5:32)
BRETHREN the euphoria of the victory of the Super Eagles over their Burkinabe counterparts in the just concluded African Cup of Nations would soon die out. It must be rested in order for something more lasting to replace it. Such is the nature of human life. Neither happiness nor sadness last forever. No matter how profound the grief is, once it is nightfall, it begins to wither away.
No matter the width and depth of the happiness, once it is dawn after the event, it begins to disappear. Brethren, show me a man who still weeps over the departure, last summer, of the beloved; my sister, have you ever come across a woman who still wears the wedding garment of last December all around town today? Thus happiness and sadness, like the human garment, age with the passage of time. We are all products of the moment. Like the balloon, we are all, on the terrestrial earth, fated for liquidation.
Brethren, while the whole nation was caught in the fleeting pleasure of the round leather game in South Africa, some elements within this contraption known as Nigeria were busy spreading terror and grief. They went on rampage in Kano. They murdered nine innocent female medics who were involved in the noble task of vaccinating children against polio. As at the time of writing this sermon, the identity of the perpetrators of the dastardly act is still unknown. But the discerning minds would recollect that sometimes in the past, controversy emerged over the propriety or otherwise, at least from the point of view of Islam, of vaccination of Muslim children against poliomyelitis. It was thought then, and erroneously too, that vaccination was one other plot from the West to decimate the population of Muslims in Northern Nigeria. The only way to counter the plot, the anti-vaccination stream argued, was for Muslims to campaign against it and protect Muslim children against exposure to the effects of the vaccine.
Brethren, the murder of those women showed the change in the discourse. It awakened us to the fact that this country is still down there in the abyss. No matter their identities, those murderers have achieved their objective- they mirrored the hiatus in-between what Islam says in the texts and the contrarieties in the existential realities of Muslim life all around the world.
In other words, dear brethren, the murder of the Medics and other care-givers in the north exemplifies the evil of illiteracy or ignorance, the depth of insecurity of lives and property in this country and the ascension of a dangerous trend which appears targeted at the complete pauperization and despoliation of human and material resources in that part of the country.
Brethren, argument against vaccination in order to prevent the outbreak of polio is to say the least ribald and puerile. It is ribald because its effect would be the opening of the door for the outbreak of polio to such an extent that it would become a pandemic. It is asinine because it fails to consider the statement of our Prophet that “every disease has a cure; explore cure for your disease because the Almighty has not created a disease except that He accompanies it with its cure.”
But why should the West become blamable for every problem confronting us in the Muslim world? How could the West become solely culpable for incidences of poverty, illiteracy, and social and political anomie in our land? Brethren, it is my humble opinion that those who killed those medics last week have lost the opportunity to exist and have, therefore, concluded that they would, in return, deny others the chance to live. I say this because I know that he, who has something to live for, would prefer not to die for nothing.
Brethren, until those in power rise up to confront the weaponisation of the polity by pooling the plug on the uncanny franchise already given to access to weapons of violence, this country shall continue to witness such dastardly acts.
Brethren, until those in power confront the problems of poverty, youth unemployment, failed infrastructure and conscious construction of inter-tribal dialogue among disparate nationalities within this country, this country shall continue to play host to such macabre dance as had happened in Kano. Brethren, until Muslims in this polity rescue Islam from the hands of those elements within us, who say that their own understanding of Islamic principles is the only valid one, we shall continue to suffer negative stereotypes from the hands of the Other.
Brethren, how can you say that vaccination against polio is haram whereas in Saudi Arabia, it is a prerequisite that a child present his first year vaccination certificate before he gets registered in school? Is it not true that possession of valid evidence of vaccination against Yellow Fever virus is a condition that must be satisfied before travelers are allowed entry into some countries in Africa and Asia? Is the refusal to engage in constructive criticism of the self not responsible for the fractures and fissures in our polity today?
Prophet Muhammads’s perspective (s.a.w) on the above is instructive. He said as follows: “I’m concerned about five events which would ultimately lead to the occurrence of five negative events: whenever a nation, particularly its leadership, forsake modesty and embrace profligacy and treachery, the Almighty would, in return, create insecurity and fear in their hearts; whenever adulterous and licentious ways of life become rife and popular among the leaders and the led, the occurrence of incidences of death and tragedy would result; whenever a nation or community engage in injustice through reduction in the scale of equity and egalitarianism, what would result is the pervasive experience of economic insecurity; whenever a group decides by themselves to use an instrument of governance other than that given to them by their Creator, an instrument which emphasizes the here and now and loathes the hereafter, nothing would result other than heinous bloodbath; whenever people go against agreements freely entered into by themselves and among themselves they should expect nothing in return but the invasion of locusts in human flesh whose hunger would be satiated by the terror they spread and the destruction they wreck”.
I must again close with the following wisdom from Prophet Muhammad: “The parable of the person abiding by Almighty’s order and restrictions in comparison to those who violate them, or sit idle while they are being violated, is that of those who drew lots for their seats in a boat. Some of them got seats in the lower part, which is the most rough and worst part, and the others in the upper. When the former needed water, they had to go up to bring water and that troubled the others, so they said, “Let us make a hole in our share of the ship and get water, saving those who are above us from troubling them, so, if the people in the upper part let the others do what they suggested, all the people of the ship would be destroyed, but if they prevented them, both parties would be safe.”
Culled from The Guardian
