You Fight Almighty Allah When You Fight Boko Haram--Sultan of Sokoto

[Okey Iheduru]

You Fight Almighty Allah When You Fight Boko Haram – Sultan of Sokoto

opera.comFeb 23, 2020 7:25 AM

By Ikeddy ISIGUZO

Things are working out

Towards their dazzling conclusions,

So it is neither here nor there what ticky-tackiese befuddle ourselves with - Ghanaian writer Ama Ata Aidoo stated in her book, Our Sister Killjoy, 1977

NIGERIA has been fighting the Almighty Allah in the presumed battles against Boko Haram. That is why the war is unwinnable, the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar lll, said on Thursday. The fight against Boko Haram, he said, was pointless since the insurgency was a punishment from the Almighty on Nigerians, for their sins.

The Sultan, a retired senior army officer, spoke in Abuja at the 5th International Conference on Love and Tolerance: Countering Violent Extremism for Peaceful Co-existence. He said the solution to insurgency laid in Nigerians adhering to the teachings of the Quran and the Bible. He was not the first to say that the solution to the ravaging of the North East, and the regime of terror that Boko Haram has spread round the country, need a spiritual solution.

The Nigerian Army in September 2019 held a seminar themed, Countering Insurgency and Violent Extremism Violence in Nigeria Through Spiritual Warfare. The event passed without much attention because the army’s directorate of chaplain services Roman Catholic, Protestant and directorate of Islamic affairs, that organised, looked more at understanding ideologies that drive insurgency than suggesting prayers and penitence, the option the Sultan offered. Moreover, there was no voice at the event as loud as the Sultan’s.

Major-General Mohammed Yusuf, Chief of Administration, who declared the army seminar open had said, “By its nature, ideologies have the power to manipulate what people think, inform their opinion and direct their attitude. It is a well-known fact that terrorism and terrorist groups will not be totally eliminated by mainly military actions. This means focusing our effort on the under-laying narratives through ideologies that are employed by these terrorist groups to lure innocent citizens into their fold.”

Yusuf held that communities and the States needed common purpose in rejecting the ideology of insurgent groups. In place of the ideologies of insurgency, he proffered that appropriate counter narratives targeted at the ideology of the terrorist group would enhance the battle to halt insurgency.

Emir of Jiwa, Dr. Idris Musa, who represented the Sultan of Sokoto on Thursday, blamed sin for insurgency. “It is part of the punishment we are receiving based on our sins. If we can stop committing sin and abide by God’s words, things will change. The security challenge is our problem. The Holy Quran is a message to mankind. The Holy Bible is a message to mankind. If we cannot listen to what the Bible and Quran have taught us and we continue in our bad ways, what do we expect?,” the Sultan asked.

How would a pious life be the weapon for fighting insurgents who are holding Nigerians hostage? Did people not go to war in the Bible and in the Quran? What exactly was the Sultan’s point? When did he, in the 11 years or so of the fights against insurgents, realise that the approach was wrong?

The Sultan’s recourse to the Almighty being responsible for insurgency in Nigeria is frightening. It is also not a new as retort to a major national problem. At the height of the meningitis outbreak in Zamfara State, three years ago, Governor Alhaji Abdulaziz Yari said flagrant disobedience to God caused renewed outbreak of meningitis. He specifically said fornication was the main reason God was punishing Nigeria with meningitis.

“What we used to know as far as meningitis is concerned is the Type A virus. The World Health Organisation has carried out vaccinations against this Type A virus, not just in Zamfara, but in many other States. However, because people refused to stop their nefarious activities, God now decided to send Type C virus, which has no vaccination,” Governor Yari.

“People have turned away from God and He has promised that ‘if you do anyhow, you see anyhow.’ That is just the cause of this outbreak, as far as I am concerned.

“There is no way fornication will be so rampant and God will not send a disease that cannot be cured.”

According to Governor Yari, the most important thing was for the people to maintain a good relationship with God. Everything would be alright if the people repented, Yari said.

The Sultan is not an ordinary traditional ruler. He is addressed as His Eminence, a title that barely captures the influences he wields as a premier traditional and religious leader in the North, with global-spanning reaches. Many take his words for truth from the Almighty. His statement that Boko Haram was the Almighty’s punishment would be a new angle to how the Sultan’s followers would see the fight against Boko Haram.

Sultan Sa’ad Abubakar III had a pedigreed 31 years’ military service that was abbreviated when he became the Sultan in 2006. He was already a Brigadier-General. Abubakar was commissioned a Second Lieutenant in 1977 and served in the Armoured Corps. He headed a presidential security unit of the Armoured Corps of President Ibrahim Babangida. He commanded a battalion of African peacekeepers in Chad that the Organisation of African Unity set up, and was a Military Liaison Officer for the Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS, before appointments as Commanding Officer 241 Recce Battalion, Kaduna in 1993, from 1995 to 1999, ECOWAS Military Liaison officer and Commanding Officer, 231 Tank Battalion (ECOMOG Operations) in Sierra Leone from 1999 to 2000. He served as Defence Attaché to Pakistan (also accredited for Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Afghanistan) from 2003-2006.

Should he be the one to suggest that a cancer like insurgency should be treated with painkillers? Is the Sultan’s position not surprising for someone with his background of fighting troublemakers? Is his position isolated?

Remarkably, in the same week, a bill was pacing through the Senate to set up special comforts for repentant Boko Haram fighters. There are oppositions to it, but for a government that has been releasing captured Boko Haram members, while the war rages in the North East, it just seems like a matter of time for the bill to become law.

When Boko Haram attacks, the Sultan said, Nigerians should go into prayer, meekly accepting the attacks as divine angst from the Almighty. Nigerians dare not fight Boko Haram, their punishment, otherwise they would have elected to fight the Almighty.

The Sultan has just added another ridiculous dimension to the indecisions on Boko Haram. He may not be speaking for himself.

[Cornelius Hamelberg]

 “The only reward of those who make war upon Allah and His messenger and strive after corruption in the land will be that they will be killed or crucified, or have their hands and feet on alternate sides cut off, or will be expelled out of the land. Such will be their degradation in the world, and in the Hereafter, theirs will be an awful doom; Save those who repent before ye overpower them. For know that Allah is Forgiving, Merciful.” ( Surah Al-Ma'idah : 33 – 34)

The mischievous, Islamophobic headline pretending to quote words attributed to His Eminence the Sultan of Sokoto is also a very misleading headline: “You Fight Almighty Allah When You Fight Boko Haram--Sultan of Sokoto”

So, who is this “Ikeddy ISIGUZO” – and why does Okey Iheduru post such an idiotic, malignant piece of trash and its insane, pathetic conclusions to this forum? To make a mockery of Islam?  To stoke anti-Sultan of Sokoto emotions? To promote a healthy discussion? Take note: His Eminence the Sultan of Sokoto is a very learned and educated Muslim - that why he is occupying the seat of his great spiritual ancestor, the Great Shehu Usman Dan Fodio – in my humble opinion, so far, the greatest Nigerian that ever lived – and to date, no Nigerian ( of any faith) has produced anything remotely of the quality of Shehu Usman Dan Fodio’s writings, some of which I have read, re-read and studied.

The mischief-makers want the general public to believe that His Eminence the Sultan of Sokoto has appointed Boko Haram as the punitive army of Allah subhanahu wa ta’la, that the Boko Haram terrorists are the emissaries of Allah subhanahu wa ta’la, specially sent to punish the Naija nation for their intransigence.

 In the light of  the Quranic verses above, that cannot be the case; God forbid: the leader of Boko Haram is not the Prophet of Islam, salallahu alaihi wa salaam , so it’s impossible that any representative of the Prophet, here on earth could say that “ You fight Almighty Allah, when you fight Boko Haram”

In a very similar vein, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef said that Hurricane Katrina was divine punish-ment for George W. Bush’s support for the Gaza and West Bank disengagement – and also because the Black people in New Orleans are guilty of neglecting the study of Torah. That was controversial enough and he paid the price, took a lot of flak for that and some other rabid statements he made about the victims of the Holocaust, about which he, later on, felt some remorse and therefore repented.

We  have also heard from the other Bother, no stranger to controversy Minister Louis Farrakhan speaking of Divine Chastisement ; still operating in the free speech zone of the 1^st Amendment, he has also had things to say about “ the synagogue of Satan” – and you can imagine the reaction of Judaism’s synagogue authorities, when in fact the expression “ synagogue of Satan” first occurs in the so-called “New Testament”

The idea of karma, of “as ye sow so shall ye reap”, of retributive justice , of poetic justice, of “ God moves in His mysterious ways, His wonders to perform “ and the vicious streak known as schadenfreude is all common knowledge. So, why are we so easily surprised or misled?

The prophets and their disciples – including chief rabbis, popes, cardinals, pastors, pedophile priests, etc have a special way of talking about God’s justice, God’s mercy, the rewards of leading a Godly life in this God-given lifetime and the punishments that will be meted to the unrepentant ungodly and corrupt, if not in this world then, surely in the Hereafter. This said, we must also understand that His Eminence the Sultan of Sokoto and the Emir of Kano combine the functions of both spiritual and political leadership and that when they speak to their followers or to the nation or indeed to the world, they do so combining the functions of the religious and the political.

Just to ensure that we do not misquote them or quote them out of context by lifting a few sensational sentences out of a long speech in this case, with reference to what the Sultan of Sokoto is reported as having said, it would be good to listen to the whole speech: The Sultan of Sokoto's speech at the 5th International Conference on Love and Tolerance. Alas, you cannot find a verbatim transcript of the Sultan of Sokoto’s address at that conference, this is bad enough. When such important personages speak, their every word should be recorded, for posterity. What one can surmise from the short excerpts and paraphrasing of what he said makes absolute sense to the rational religious mind. In essence, what he’s saying is not very different from what the Prophet Jeremiah said to the Israelites, for which reason they put him in stocks. It’s the same timeless message that all the prophets have preached, the same message that cost John the Baptist his head: Repent! Turn from evil and start doing good. Of course, the evil men don’t like hearing or listening to such a message. Thus King David  exalts the Almighty in Tehillim 92 // Psalm 92 and mentions something like the current Boko Haram iniquity in verse 6 – 12:

“How great are Your works, O Lord! Your thoughts are very deep. A boorish man does not know; neither does a fool understand this. When the wicked flourish like grass, and all workers of violence blossom, only to be destroyed to eternity. But You remain on high forever, O Lord. For behold Your enemies, O Lord, for behold Your enemies will perish; all workers of violence will scatter. But You have raised my horn like that of a wild ox; to soak me with fresh oil…”

 His Eminence the Sultan of Sokoto message is accurately reported HERE  - and please take note that he sent a representative to deliver his message at that conference.

We live in a world of cause and effect. One does not have to be a Marxist ideologue. Just  pay careful attention to the problems as delineated by His Holiness the Emir of Kano and you can easily figure out that some of the causes of terrorism, the various insurgencies and the general collapse of law and order into a general state of lawlessness and anarchy is to be found in the underlying causes such as poverty, unemployment ( a good recruiting alley for Boko Haram) not to mention the mass illiteracy due to the atrocious lack of an AWO type programme for the mass literacy of the North ( considering that the first word of the Quranic revelation was” Iqra!” : read ! – a Divine commandment . It is not Islam that promotes these causes or these effects. Islam is all for mass literacy. Islam is against theft, bribery and corruption, kidnappings, extortion- ransom and in the situation in which many women are widowed, Islam makes a compassionate social consideration of marrying widows - what some call polygamy. Islam is all for good government and good governance.

The current sorry situation is due to the lack of responsibility exercised by various succeeding governments since circa 1966. In other words, the current government has to address these problems. That’s why they were elected and appointed.

 To sum up what His Eminence the Sultan of Sokoto is saying loud and clear: Surah Ar-Ra'd  (The Thunder) Ayat 11 :

“Lo! Allah changeth not the condition of a folk until they (first) change that which is in their hearts, and if Allah willeth misfortune for a folk there is none that can repel it, nor have they a defender beside Him.”

 

 

 

 

 

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[Cornelius Hamelberg]

One must read over what one has written with the painstaking dedication of a scribe, before pushing the send button. One can’t keep on returning to make all kinds of corrections and amendments, but the occasional addendum should be okay before Okey Iheduru or Brer Ikeddy ISIGUZO starts saying something pleasant or unpleasant.

His Eminence the Sultan of Sokoto’s verdict demands some further reflection. Picking up the implications of what his representative said at the 5th International Conference on Love and Tolerance, one is tempted to make the following observations and tentative conclusions:

The ball is in the people’s court – it is up to them. Surah Ar-Ra'd (The Thunder) Ayat 11 makes it clear that Islam is not fatalistic, that “Indeed, Allah will not change the condition of a people until they change what is in themselves”

To my own way of reasoning and my own limited understanding,  this implies that  the Boko Haram Terrorists are incurring the wrath Allah subhanahu wa ta’la on a daily basis, that Allah subhanahu wa ta’ la must be very angry with Boko Haram terrorism, fed up with their being responsible for the death and destruction of so many innocent fellow citizens, fellow men,  women and children, not to mention the murder of Christians and the destruction and desecration of their places of worship, as if they are not aware of what the Holy Quran states in Surah Al-Ma'idah ayat 82 – which expresses a special Islamic affection towards Christians.

If the Boko Haram “ insurgency” is the result of Nigerians on the whole not following in the footsteps of Jesus who said, “ Take up your cross and follow me” and not taking this line of the prayer verse  of al Fatiha seriously  - Ihdina al sirat al mustaqeem -  then what do the teachers of Islam say about those events that are clearly designated as Islamic terrorism ? That that’s the way Allah punishes Jews, Muslims, Christians, the mushrikin and the kuffar, alike?

 Loves’ Body by Norman O Brown – an interesting Chapter VI on Representative ( page 109 – 125), Nigeria, as a collective…

How to stop the insurgency? 

 

[Cornelius Hamelberg]

Lastly, all things considered, how does one justify Islam as a or the Religion of Peace?

So, ideally, Boko Haram would like to proclaim their caliphate and raise their flag over some or all of Nigeria. Is there some other way of achieving this goal, by means that are other than terrorism? Surely, Jihad / Holy War is not synonymous with terrorism? 

Based on the idea that "Allah will not change a people until they change themselves”, are we to resign ourselves to the somber and not so consoling conclusion that Allah will not change the terrorists' disposition to terrorism unless the terrorists earnestly try to change themselves?