Let Muslims Be Muslim

So much religion, little godliness! This was recently the personal message of one of my Blackberry contacts. Though I didn't ask what the situation was, I have had several experiences that I need not ask him before agreeing with him. A lady who once tried to introduce her religion to me and told me how “cool” I was and how I can’t be a true Muslim because I wasn't “violent” was the same person who when she needed money asked if I could help her by bending the rules of a Call for Tender process. Many of our Contractors usually register more than one Company or have influence in more than one Company so she would suggest to me the Companies to invite for the Tender together with her main Company. In the end, she will be the one submitting all the quotations under different names so whichever Company is awarded the Tender, it’s a win-win for her. In her mind, she was only helping herself and this has nothing to do with morality, ethics or godliness. I was also at the immigration service recently to renew my passport and despite the effort of some officers to ensure orderliness, there were some individuals of course with the collusion of some officers who try to bend the rules and jump the queue. Whichever religion we belong to, we seem to be more focused on an outward display of religion without internalizing the values of the religion. Our cars bear different stickers of praises, we place the holy books and rosaries or tesbihs on our dashboards and there are religious houses at every nook and corner of our streets. Yet there is so much immorality and corruption that pervade the land. We all want to have our way all cost, be rich through any means and we probably believe we can launder such filthy lucre by donating a part of it to “God”.

This is just a digression and not the main subject of my note. Today, a religious crisis is brewing in Lagos State. And this is not about the recent busting of a suspected book haram hide-out but the harassment of female Muslim students who have chosen freely to use the hijab. Two of these students were flogged recently by their Principals and this caused an outcry from the Muslim societies around the country but Lagos in particular. I hear that a petition has been written to the Lagos State House of Assembly by MURIC (Muslim Rights Concern) and an ad-hoc committee has been set-up by the House to consider passing a law banning or authorizing the use of hijab. Some argue that Nigeria is a secular State and the State should not be seen passing laws that seem to promote a particular religion but the protagonist of this line of argument fail to admit that most of the systems we practice today were from colonial masters who were Christians. The supposed “secularism” is in favour of one religion more than the other. I still say that the use of the Gregorian calendar (January-December) and observing weekends on Saturday and Sunday (which are Sabbath days depending on the church denomination) have their roots in Christianity. The fact that we have lived this way for long does not make them secular. What is this secularism “sef”? Really, it is a word that I am yet to fully grasp its meanings. Does it mean we should forget about all religions or we should accept all religions? If we were to forget about all religions, then in Nigeria we should not have holidays such as Easter, Christmas, Eid-el-Fitr, Eid-ul-Adha etc. We should only have Independence Day, Workers Day, and Democracy Day since these holidays seem not to be attached to any religion. If it means to allow all religions, then the worshippers of obatala, sango, oshun etc should also have their public holidays.

I think we only deceive ourselves if we say Nigeria is a secular nation whatever that means. Islam and Christianity are the main religions in Nigeria and I think we have accepted that in the way we are already set up as a Nation. We have public holidays for both religions; we try to make a balance with both religions when making political appointments and even at state functions we usually have a Pastor and Imam offer a prayer. It is high time we recognized that in order to stop the frequent friction between Islam and Christianity in Nigeria, we need to ensure that the members of each religion can practice their religion to the fullest without taking away the rights of the other to enjoy same.

Now back to showing so much religion without internalizing the values. While the efforts to ensure that the right to use hijab is guaranteed are being led mainly by MURIC, there seems to be some smaller groups not organized under MURIC calling out people for protests. This idea where every Muslim becomes his own government, every Masjid issues its own fatwa was not the way Islam was organized during the time of the Prophet (Peace be Upon Him). We had organization and course of actions and decisions were taken by the leadership. We have forgotten that we are supposed to organize ourselves under one banner as one Nation without tribe or ethnicity having one leader.

Before the fall of the Ottoman Caliphate in the 1920s, Islam was very powerful and there was order. All the Muslims across Middle East, Eastern Europe and North Africa were under one rule. Though not exactly, just as the 1.2billion Catholics all over the world consider the Pope as their leader, our goal is to strive to have back only one source of leadership but if we can’t be organized in small Lagos then we still have a long way to go. If we still had the Caliphate, we probably would not have Boko Haram, Ansaru, JAMBS etc in small Nigeria reigning terror on us all. Such elements would most likely have been taken care of. To my non-Muslim friends, the idea of an Islamic State is not to dominate the world or to force everyone to accept Islam. It is meant to provide order among Muslims and help Muslims to be better Muslims. In fact, in the Islamic States that have existed in the past the rights of Christians and Jews were guaranteed.

And going back again to the use of hijab, many Muslims seem to rush at anyone whom they feel has persecuted Islam or Muslims while they themselves are yet to internalize the religion. Though today at the mention of hijab, the Islamic head covering is what comes easily to mind but in the real sense it is the covering of one’s unclothedness. In Islam, all of a woman’s body is her unclothedness except her face and her palms. So when I see a Muslim woman that has covered her head but wears a short sleeve or a knee length skirt, I shrug. I also feel uncomfortable when I enter a bus with women that use hijab but when they get angered they curse the bus conductor or fellow commuters. What happened to the commandments of Allah and the Prophet (Peace be upon Him) that we should remain silent if we have nothing good to say, that we should not argue much because it breeds enmity, and if we have to argue a little it should be in a beautiful manner.

Why is it that we cry foul only when some rights seem to be taken from us and we do nothing over the ones that are in our full control? I believe when Muslims decide to be more Muslims and practice as much of our religion as we can control, Allah will help us with the other ones and even non-Muslims we get to understand Islam more and will appreciate that we are in no competition with them but only want to practice our religion the way it ought to. People we understand that Islam is more that a religion but a way of life. I will like to share some personal experiences but I need to warn that I am not trying to portray myself to be holy or cool. I am still striving to improve my relationship with Allah.

There was a lady who on several occasions at the canteen had commended the way I eat. She said, “my wife will love me because I finish everything in the plate.” To her, it was my habit but for me it was a religious exercise. In one of the sayings of the Prophet, he said the stomach is the worst vessel to fill. He says if we have to eat, we should eat a little, fill one-third of it with food, another third with water and leave the last third for air. It was also reported that the Prophet eats slowly, will never leave a grain in his plate, will never complain about a food but leave it if he didn't like it. In order to emulate this practice of the Prophet, I start from the point of ordering the food. I make sure I ask for what I can finish and I try to finish it except rarely when something is wrong with the food. This habit is one capable of strengthening the love between the rich and the poor because if the rich is not wasteful there will be more for the poor, capable of strengthening the love between mothers and their children, wives and their husbands.

I will tell you another story. When I was in the University, there was a girl I liked but I couldn’t ask her out because there was another brother who was already doing same. When I told one of my closest friends (a non-Muslim) who was also my room-mate, he didn't understand why I will place such a restriction on myself. I should “play my game” and allow the other guy to play his too and let the lady decide. Afterall, she is yet to say yes to the other guy. I tried to explain to my friend that it was a restriction placed by my religion and it is meant to avoid enmity among brothers. I told him if I had to make an approach, I will have to be sure that she had turned down my brother. And as if God was going to make an example of him, someone whom he had been telling about a girl he was trying to ask out was also trying to ask out the same lady behind his back. This particular guy will go back to the lady and tell her all my friend had told him about her, how she’s forming to be difficult and how he was going to leave her if she doesn't respond positively. When my friend got to know about this, he was so shocked and furious. I then reminded him about the restriction I placed on myself but rather than accept the beauty of Islam, he tried to make a distinction between my case and his. Luckily for him, today he is married to that lady.

There was also a day while at Unilag, the call for Asr prayer had been made at 4pm and a room-mate (a non-Muslim) was surprised that I had not risen up to go and pray and he asked why I wasn't going to pray. I told him that I had prayed Asr together with Zuhr at 1pm. I explained to him that Islam permits us to join Zuhr and Asr at the time of Zuhr if there was a change of weather for instance rain. This was to prevent a situation where people won’t be able to come to say their Asr in congregation if the rain didn’t stop on time. For him, he appreciated how practicable Islam is and for me I felt if I wasn't saying my prayers regularly he wouldn't have reminded me of it.

There are a lot of Islamic virtues which are totally in our control: modesty, truthfulness, trustworthiness, promptness etc. I hear that some years ago in Port-Harcourt, if you wanted to do business people will tell you to look for an Alhaji due to the virtues they had then. I do not think it is the same now. Today Alhajis now swindle Alhajis, Muslims (including me) get late to work, cheat their employers, are wasteful when they know it’s the company paying. Imagine how much good it will do to the religion if the Company finds out that the expense bill is always low when they send a Muslim on an assignment and they realize that it is not just his habit but the habit of all members of his religion, that he will eat moderately and he will not take alcohol which is usually expensive.

Do we still make our wives to change their father’s name to ours when in fact they should keep their fathers’? If you die and she has to remarry, she changes her name again. How often would she have to change her name?

The more Muslims become Muslim, the more non-Muslims will get to appreciate the beauty of Islam and the more Allah will make it easy for us to get what we ask. We need to go back to the golden era when we were role models. Muslims were known not to be idle; they invested their time in an activity that will earn them reward either in this world or the hereafter. We were pioneers in medicine, navigation, arithmetic, literature, archaeology. We bequeathed the world with Arabic numerals which today can easily handle large numbers and several decimal places which would have been very complex with Roman numerals. Even the Prophet (Peace be Upon Him) commanded us to seek knowledge as far as China, China being the farthest place known at that time so it is strange that some “Muslims” will say to seek education is forbidden.

While Muslims try to become better Muslims I definitely want a society that guarantees religious rights such as the use of hijab by Muslim women without fear of discrimination. On a final note, today I work with a Company that permits me to register only one wife. I will like to see a day when I can register up to four that my religion has permitted even if I decide to stick with one. This right just like many others does not take anything away from the man who has decided to stick with one. Does it?