OFFICIAL WEBSITE OF THE ISLAMIC MOVEMENT IN NIGERIA.
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THE
DECLARATION OF THE ISLAMIC MOVEMENT IN NIGERIA: A PROSPEROUS SILVER
JUBILEE. The
movement is exactly a quarter century old from when its leader Shaikh Ibraheem
Yaqub Zakzaky openly proclaimed and invited people to join the struggle to
10th April 2005. It is in this spirit of momentous and
colourful occasion of celebrations I intended to make some microscopic
assessment of the inner part of the movement to at least illustrate the
glimpses of it successes but not to really measure its valuable
achievements. For the reason that the strengths and successes of an
Islamic movement is not measured by the amount of its followers, authority
or material possessions, but by the persistence and dedication of its
members even if they are few. At least the world has witnessed the
endurance, determination, perseverance, sacrifices and the stand-fastness
attained - no surrender no retreat. Since the movement is concern with the
transformation of the mind of people, development of such concepts are
gradual and difficult to appraise. Hence, this is the reason why it may be
difficult to evaluate and comprehend. No wander, prophet Nuhu (AS)
preached for 950 but had only a hand full of followers yet His objects
were hundred percent achieved. However, the movement operates in diverse
manners, we can still measure the little intangible portions of it no less
than to our conveniences, by revisiting its original foundations (aims),
important events, difficult incidences encountered and prime activities. Before
we go further, I would like to cast our minds back to the personality of
Shaikh Ibraheem Yaqub Zakzaky, whose leadership does not end with the
movement but covers a verse area of the sub-African Sahara west of the
Atlantic Ocean or even beyond. Like every leader of a divine movement, his
stateliness and personality is synonymous to that of the movement. Such
that, he is looked upon as the movement, and his achievements are those of
the movement and vice versa. His birthday is that of the movement; the
movement does not have a separate date of birth except his birthday,
because 2 years preceding the declaration, his commitments and ambitions
were ripped enough to draw international attentions and be imprisoned. It
was after the declaration that he started mobilizing the
‘intellectuals’ in the academic institutions. At that time, the
‘intellectual’ circles were full of ideological confusions and
disarrays, bombarded with philosophical jargons considered as axioms of
those yesteryears. Among the most prominent contender ideologies were
Communism and Capitalism to which most people believed were the only
orders of the days. It was within these circumstances that an oasis of an
alternative genuine philosophy awakening what seemed to have been killed
and buried emerged to hold up the great force in the East. To cut long
story short, it then rose from an individual to an extended population of
millions and most influential in this geographical region and beyond. ‘You can do your worst, if you have
option between life imprisonment and firing squad’.
This
is the response of Shaikh
Ibraheem Yaqoub Zakzaky to a
judge, after been counseled to plea for leniency of judgment. With this in
mind, I would assume that we know the Shaikh better, so that we can
progress. The
main aim of this movement is barely calling for the establishment of an
Islamic system and state, no more no less. And this particular aim alone
makes the distinction between this movement and others and its objectives
remain uncontestable to any organization. For
the fact that the movement has survived to witness the silver jubilee of
its placement before the public at a crucial and most delicate
circumstances, it is it self enough an in quantifiable achievement to
recon with. We will appreciate this fact only if we are able to visualize
the critical and fragile state of affair of the country at the time of the
declaration. It is then we would agree that it was extremely difficult for
the intellectual communities and the communities at the receiving ends to
conceive such a mountain-heavy message, even though it was their best bet.
Nobody other than Shaikh Ibraheem Yaqoub Zakzaky in the recent centuries
(on this continent) had the guts and the mandate from Almighty Allah to
venture into this risky and difficult task. Yes, it is tedious and risky
but has a good price. Only
few sectors or none could discern the true magnitude and the complicity of
the problems involved, because to everybody’s imaginations, the scenario
was more than a grand tsunami. Even the profound dissuaders of that days
did what they did in context of what they could weigh for selfish and
material ends, but not really because they could vividly guesstimate its
future potential influences as we have it today.
On the other extreme, there were some whom from experience could
have identified the future threats, but fortunately, they were blindfolded
and subsequently under rated it and abandon it to flourish, thinking that
it will spontaneously rotten away. Eventually, they yet remain to remark
on their ever-silly mistakes with regret and humiliation. Over
the years, this movement has developed from stage-to-stage,
status-to-status and from horizon-to-horizon of brighter to brightest
perfections. These positions have affected everybody in the society,
including those who could not perceive it and those who are vehemently in
opposition. The movement has succeeded in reforming them and members of
their families and their reformations are achievements of the movement. We
are hopeful in active participations of their children and grandchildren
in the movement. In
which ways does the movement affect the lives of everybody in the society?
Let’s look at some practical cases of this phenomenon. The Shaikh was
imprisoned for a period of a decade by seven Nigerian Presidents for
simple statements like ‘Islam only’, and
‘there is no authority except that of Allah’ and so on.
Gradually today, we are at a new horizon at which saying those things are
not longer attracting punishments. Utterances that your Muslim brother
would have frown at it in the past, nowadays, any Tom, Dick and Harry can
chant it and go untouched. This is how the movement softened courses for
the rebelling preachers, the tough right fighters and the opportunist
Northern Governors and their Cohorts who dreamt of implementing deceptive
political sharia. They sing ‘sharia only’, ‘no going back’,
etc with no fair of harassment. Whereas, we can vibrantly remember in the
seventies, a minister was sacked on account of starting a speech with basmala
and later, a Nigerian soldier who was tortured, court marshaled and
sentenced to prison, sequel to his refusal to partake in unislamic acts.
Presently, this may not longer be case. In
addition, the movement introduced ta’alimat, pre-khutuba
and ijtima ever since its early days to teach and enlighten its
members. It gradually became a common endeavour amongst religious groups
and societies who tested and saw the benefits. Other issues like
brotherhood in which we associated ourselves with other Muslims (in
Palestine, Iraq, Iran, Bosnia Kosovo Banda Aceh, Afghanistan and so on), Tahajjud
I’tikaf and seclusions were also observed with great dismay for the
first time among the members of the movement. Another one is the formation
of formal Islamic institutions and the uses of accurate veils (hijabs)
for female were among what were first established in the movement. After
the initiation, they are slowly absorbed by the society. Some that are
getting disseminated are unity, defying oppressions and tyrants, use of
demonstrations to express feelings, allegiance and defense for leaders,
etc and soon after these will be self-reliance, and militancy. Whatever
the case, the groups or individuals cannot emulate all things, unless they
restructure, amend their policies, regroup and form coalitions with one
another. Upon
all achievements, most members of the movement will like to mention the
introduction to the path of the Ahlul Bait(AS) of the Holy prophet
(AS), which is indistinguishable to soul rebirth and a beginning of
original life as the greatest triumph so far. On this course, the feelings
and the experiences are original such that one can easily discover self
and the worlds around. If not for the Shaikh we couldn’t have known the
wills of the Holy prophet (SAW). Our gratitude goes to him, who showed us
the way and went further to teach us the original, living and energetic
version. It activities are blissful and bountiful for every non-satiatiable
souls. There are hourly, daily, weekly, fortnightly, monthly, annually,
and periodic activities of assorted natures for individual and or group to
observe. In the day, apart
from the obligatory prayers we are engaged with other supererogatory ones together with ta’akibat,
tawasils, ziyarat, du’a, recitations, laylatut tarbiya and talimat.
Du’aul khumail, du’aul jumat, du’aul Nutba,
munajaat, tafsirul Qur’an are observed on their days and time
together with birthday of the holy prophet (SAW), Imams (AS), and devoted
servants of Allah, commemorations of Ashura and Qud,
Palestinian solidarity days, Eids and other memorable events as
well as the prescribed activities for each month of the year. Compared
to the rest of the society, the movement is confirmed to be the most
enlightened and organized group of people with superior ideas, foresights
and powers of analysis on religious, political, social, or cultural
issues. It takes decisions and stands on behalf of the entire members of
the community through its influences. During the first gulf war for
example, within a short moment, the leadership of the movement was able to
scrutinize the whole situation on both sides-Saddam Hussein on one side
and America and her allies on the other side and took a permanent stand,
regardless of their hidden agendas and propaganda while remained confused
regarding. A position that
has been maintains up to date. Another instance was when some so called
leaders called for jihad following the killing of some Muslims by the
Christians, at the beginning, almost everyone believed it was a true jihad
and had wanted to come out and fight; but Shaikh Ibraheem Ya’qub Zakzaky
vehemently denounced and refuted the call, saying that it was tribal and
not religious. And eventually that was that. There are so many such
examples. Perhaps because of these among other things, the influence of
the movement is felt all over the world, in dissimilar manners. Now,
how are the movement and its leadership in the eyes of people? Since there
is no direct relationship between the movement and the states, they tried
to develop indirectly l means of liaising with the movement. The state,
the federal governments and the international communities seek for the
movement’s opinions on matters they intent to put into operation or at
least to estimate their proximity to fairness. Most of the time, they use
the press to get the opinions. That is why there is no state the Shaikh
visits without confronting requests from the press operators (NTA, state
TVs, etc) to have a chat with him. The majority of the topics they present
are in relation to political maters that they couldn’t solve using the
paid professionals over there, for which they come to search for better
solutions. When the Northern Governor’s Forum invited him to lecture,
they addressed him ‘the leader of thought’, from whom they wanted to
benefit to solve pending problems. Some times, topics were posed only to
assess the response of the movement if they should implement policies. Even
at the international level, the situation is the same in spite of their
arrogance; they also come to seek for the opinions and reactions of the
movement before they execute prorammes and operations that are of
international interest. For instance, we witness the trooping in of the
CNN, BBC World, World Reuters, France News Agency, and Associated Press
(AP) in to Zaria town one after the other to hear Shaikh’s view and
reactions should in case they launch attacks on Afghanistan. Shortly after
that, they returned before invading Iraq. Another one was the American
journalist who came purposely to inquire about his opinion on the coming
of American war ships to Nigerian waters. He specifically asked if Shaikh
would mind should America come and steal Nigerian petroleum. These are not
mere stories, because they all came and interviewed at our presence. Each
and every one of them became satisfied and convinced whenever Shaikh
explains. I remembered some occurrences after the interview with the CNN
when Shaikh made a certain comment in a casual discussion and the CNN
correspondent requested that the statements be repeated for him to record
and his request was granted. On another day, after a very long time
discussions with the Associated press, Shaikh lightheartedly complained
that much of his useful time was taken away and the journalist apologizing
and said ‘Shaikh, you know you are educating us and I am more on your
side than the American government’. Another one is the France News
Agency journalist who had discussion with many people in Nigeria starting
from Lagos Ibada, Abuja, Kaduna and Kano and finally after interviewing
the Shaikh he said ‘you are the only viable thing in Nigeria’ as his
last remark. This is in close reality to an earlier observation made by
one Nigerian press operator who says ‘whatever is said about religion in
this country without your contributions is incomplete’. Last year Al
Arabiyya television station reported a discussion with As Sadiq Al-Mahdi,
the former Sudanese prime minister commending and singling this movement
to be the best in the world and defending all his claims with clear
evidences. Once a former Nigerian head of state was opportune to speak
with Shaikh in a ceremony, he seized the chance to demand for prayers from
him and he there after expressed gratitude and luck for the opportunity
met. The Journalists or not,
nobody had ever conversed with Shaikh and is not satisfactorily convinced,
however controversial the situation may be. The visit paid to the Shaikh
by the ambassador of the united nation and that of the delegations from
the Vatican Island are other separate incidences that drew attentions. Some
times ago, the Nigeria Intelligent Agency (NIA) conducted researches, to
asses the aims and the motives of the groups and organization in the
country. To everybody’s shock, the results were that there were no group
of people with good intention and hope for the Nigerian nation other than
the member of this movement. We congratulate them for that fairness. On
the other side of the diversity, we face open hostilities from the enemies
of the movement who are day-in-day-out engaged in plotting against the
movement. They daydream that one day, they will eighty-six it, its
followers and sympathizers. We are fully aware that the name of the leader
of this movement has since been among the first ten that American fair
most as is contained in her black book. In my opinion, it is too absurd
and greatest cowardice to fair the armless. A similar plot manifested when
Shaikh was in detention, once a conniving Mallam who knew the deadly plans
they had against the Shaikh, confidently told his followers that if Shaikh
Ibraheem Zakzaky get away of these traps they should rather support him,
because it will confirm that he is a close associate of Allah (Waliyy).
Eventually, the waliyy was liberated victorious. This is how far,
broad and concentrated is the influence and weight of the Shaikh in the
world. On
hearing that the movement does not have mosques, one of the Pop’s
delegations wandered and asked the Shaikh, ‘how then do you reach out to
people? The answers to this question are simple. First and foremost, Shaikh engages in intercontinental trips
to attend meetings, conference, workshops and seminars; and visit holy
places to widen our perspectives. His
expeditions have helped in linking the movement and the country with other
countries and organizations abroad. Because of his potentials and the
contributions, the supreme leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Grand
Ayatollah, Sayyed Ali Khamenei nominated him a member of the International
Assembly of Ahlul Bait(AS), which automatically lifted the
movement. There he is involved in serious researches, analyses, lectures,
and dealing with essential international concerns. Recently an
international non-governmental organization, the ‘union of the NGOs
supporting Palestinian courses’ was inaugurated with Dr Zahra Mustafawi
(daughter of the late Imam Khomaini (H)) as its coordinator. This movement
played a role in the formation and is a principal member. The organization
consist of Muslim, Christian and communist NGOs whose common interest is
to liberate Palestine. Our Quds solidarity activities are second to
none, but that of the Islamic Republic of Iran in the whole world. Another
organization is the International Assembly of ‘Takrib Baina Mazhahib’.
Its functions include, working out modalities and implementations of
unifications amongst Muslim madhahibs (including the unpopular
ones) and improvising means of padding any negative repercussions where
arises, to form a free unified global Muslim community that can set free
the rest of the world from the draconian clutches of the oppressive so
called super powers. Every member of this assembly has great roles to play
at his own locality; but you can see how hard and complex (in our own
case) it is to bring together Nigerian Darikas, Wahabis and above
all Shi’a and Sunni.
Thanks to the able Shaikh, we have begun to see radiance of bright
light along the tunnel. Shaikh also intensively participate in lecturing,
conducting ta’alim and exegeses of the Holy Qur’an, attending
occasions and so on. He is
just more than a busy man. In
another form, his messages reach people through the Almizan
newspaper that mostly carries the opinion of the movement. It is the first
independent Hausa newspaper and the most widely circulated too in the
country. Is the only newspaper that addresses the problems relevant to the
interest of all classes of people in the country, even to the interest of
the peasant farmers in the most remote settlements. All
members of the movement have imbibed from the blessed knowledge of the
Shaikh and from where he directs to seek for knowledge. Consequently,
there are forms of graded awareness and believe among members who are true
representative outside the movement more especially within the guards (hurras).
The hurras is a multipurpose force whose role ranges from
coordinating to traffic warding and from policing to militancy. Although
without a well-defined specialization, they are competent enough to wad
away any wicked force with the special but local trainings they acquire.
Most of its members are wholehearted and manifest qualities replica of
that of the movement. The
movement has units (Dairah) of followers in towns, hamlets,
villages and regions. The units are as complete and self-contained as the
movement and are led by a reliable representative of the members of the
unit. There are thousands of such units in existence, through which the
idea of the movement disseminates to the farthest towns and villages. The Dairahs
outreach through different forms of evangelisms-use of the mass media,
street preaching, visits, books and pamphlets, and songs. The
songs of the movement are coordinated by the Itihadush sha’arau.
The Itihadush sha’ara is a union of evangelist singers that
contribute immensely in relaying the messages of the movement to far and
near audiences, using their artistic verbal communications. They also
boost moral, motivate, energize and make occasions lively. There
are many important organs of the movement that carry out specific and
vital duties. Among them is the resource forum of the Islamic movement. It
another out let to wider world. It comprises of the elite,
businesspersons, and so on. The key functions of this forum are many, but
some few are: pulling together its working class members and bridging the
gap between the movement and different classes of people, organising
programmes, funding and documentations. It works hand in hand with the
academic forum. This second forum operates in academic institutes. It is
an umbrella for awareness of students and lecturers of higher leaning. The
medical team is another organ that renders health services to the movement
and to the community in forms of resettling refugees, assisting in
emergency works, running the public health centers and hospital during
strikes, public enlightenment and carrying out communal sanitations in the
cities, and villages all free of charge. It has highly proficient members
and well equipped with branches scattered all over the nation. The
Shuhada'u Foundation ( muassasatush shuhada) is a formally
established non governmental organization that carters for the dependents
of both the living and the departed martyrs of the movement until they are
economically and otherwise independent. At 25, the movement has only 120
departed martyrs who left behind hundreds of reliant that are being
sustained and trained. This
figure will keep rising until we eventually reach our final goals –
Islamic system or martyrdom. Others
like the working groups of Fudiya Shools, Foundations, Business;
and Centers, Sisters, Drives, Marketers, etc merit to be analyzed, but
should be spared for other discussions I
will conclude with the following quotation, which was one time BBC’s
quote of the week: ‘I
wish the case had continued so that the winner and the vanquish are
determined, but since they decided to withdraw the case for eminent defeat
I have no objection’ I.
H. Mshelgaru
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