The Masses to the Ulama: Ittaqu Allah, Fear Allah -By Abdulkadir Salaudeen

The Ulama are to guide and give direction. They are to put people on track when they are off track. They are to teach and impart knowledge. They are to be emblems of truth and speak truth to power. They are to admonish the masses to be morally upright and responsible.

However, things go awry when the masses begin to admonish the Ulama to fear Allah. Who then will admonish the masses? Who will admonish the laity, the illiterate, the ignorant, the uneducated, the semi-educated, and the educated but not in religious knowledge?

As Nigeria prepares for its periodic, once-in-four-year general elections, where failed and incompetent politicians are recycled as elected rulers, the ulama are bracing up to a new, self-contrived role which they did not inherit from the Prophet (SAW). They have started campaigning for failure and failed rulers, to the disappointment of the masses.

The masses are now uttering a two-letter word which they learnt from the ulama: ittaqu Allah, fear Allah. Whether it is said in Arabic or English, it remains a two-letter word.

But before I proceed, here is a caveat: not all ulama are data boys; not all of them are campaign tools in the hands of failed rulers; not all of them stampede, with cupped hands, for crumbs falling from the dining table of politicians. Not all of them employ divisive rhetoric. Not all of them label Muslims as infidels for not voting for a candidate they support.

There are ulama who have actually inherited knowledge, piety, and sacred prestige from the Prophet. Such are those who jealously guard their dignity and would not trade their clerics status for worldly things, no matter how tempting. There are ulama whose duty is to speak truth to power and would not falter in doing so under any circumstance. There are those who always hold the banner of justice aloft and will never waver. This column is not about this second category of ulama.

Having said that, let us focus on religious entrepreneurs—the first category of ulama—and the 2027 general elections. They are the ones the masses are sermonizing to fear Allah. But what is the masses’ business with admonition? We can’t blame the masses. Since the ulama are busy campaigning, nature abhors a vacuum. Someone must tell someone to fear Allah. We cannot chastise the masses for poking their nose into an affair that does not concern them, as we say in Hausa, “Sun shiga lamarin da bai shafesu ba.” We should blame the ulama whose irritating conduct made it a duty upon the masses to tell them to fear Allah. We should rather commend the masses for filling the vacuum.

From where should I even start? I think I should start with the Jigawa Endorsement, among many cases of “zubar da mutunci”—losing one’s dignity—among the ulama. It was reported that 500 ulama converged in Jigawa State. Why did they converge?

Not because 32 Muslims were killed in Sokoto around that time; not because Muslims were massively kidnapped in four mosques in Niger State, out of whom 30 have been reportedly killed; not because about 70 Muslims, including children, were killed in a village, Bia Buki, in Zamfara State; not because gunmen stormed the community of Woro in Kwara State, killing at least 170 people, the majority of whom were Muslims; not also because of the tens of thousands of Nigerians, the majority of whom are Muslims, who are forced to live a subhuman life in various IDP camps and kidnappers’ dens across the country.

So why exactly did they converge in Jigawa State? They did not converge to address a world conference on Muslim genocide under the Muslim-Muslim government in Nigeria; nor to meet President Tinubu with teary eyes and swollen, melancholic faces and tell him the country is drenched in blood; but because they wanted to make a public declaration of their endorsement of Tinubu for a second term. Could there be a higher degree of heartlessness and wickedness than the one displayed by these so-called ulama?

This was at the time an estimated 500 kidnapped Muslims were paraded by bandits in a bush in Niger State. A gunman in a viral video was heard saying: “These are all your people. We are showing you this video so that you can identify your family members, your fathers, mothers, children and relatives.”
As the Muslims were trying to identify their kidnapped relatives, so were they trying to identify those they know among their ulama, busy endorsing Tinubu. What a happenstance! I still want to believe some of these ulama were hoodwinked. They might not have known, against their will, that they were paraded to endorse Tinubu at that unfortunate Jigawa gathering.

If we can find an excuse for some of these ulama who might have fallen to the bait in the hands of dexterous politicians, what excuse can anyone find for the one who allegedly made this declaration: “We will guide Islamic scholars on the sermons to deliver, so they can educate their followers on why President Bola Ahmed Tinubu should be re-elected in 2027.” Isn’t this shameful?

While it is the ulama’s democratic right to vote for any candidate, even if the candidate is Satan, they should have learnt the hard lesson that the pulpit should not be used for that purpose. They should not ridicule Islam for that purpose. They should have listened to the Commander-General of the Kano State Hisbah Board, Sheikh Aminu Ibrahim-Daurawa, who, a few days before the Jigawa endorsement, advised Muslims to vote for any candidate of their choice, explaining that it is not about religion but competence and merit.

But because of crumbs, they will not learn. Isn’t the over-reported 600 million naira promised to be given to the one in Jos for a project a crumb? Trillions of naira are unaccounted for by this administration. But a cleric becomes fanatical and employs divisive rhetoric because of crumbs handed over to him by politicians.
If the donation announcement had not been made in public, these clerics would enthusiastically and passionately swear by Allah, as they have always done, that they have never received a dime from any politician. What a character! The masses, as it is today, would be inclined to take a drunkard seriously when he swears by Allah than some of these ulama.

What about those falling over one another to praise the appointment of Abdul’Aziz Abubakar Yari as Tinubu’s re-election campaign director general? Yari’s name and personality are conjoined with corruption and embezzlement of public funds in Nigeria’s political discourse. However, he is a darling to these clerics for reasons understood by them even after explanation. Or how would anyone appreciate this explanation?

According to them, Yari, a former governor of Zamfara State has been distributing rice and giving zakat. To these ulama, it does not matter where the money comes from. What matters is that zakat is paid. It does not matter how a governor fails to protect his people, fails to provide jobs and infrastructure, fails to invest in education, health and agriculture. What matters is the rice he distributes to thousands of IDPs in various camps. One of the ulama even took his time to compose lines of poetry, like Kahutu Rarara’s Ọmọ Ologo, to pour encomiums on Yari.

As if these ulama have not descended low enough, one of them said it is in the interest of every Muslim who desires to meet Allah well to vote for Tinubu. If this is not madness from the ulama, I don’t know what is. My advice to these religious entrepreneurs is that it is possible to be given crumbs to campaign for any candidate and still do the campaign responsibly. One can still maintain mental equilibrium after being given brown envelopes. These ulama should stop thinking they are well clad as they dance in public. What the masses are seeing, as they dance, is their nakedness. Thus, the masses’ admonition to the ulama: ittaqu Allah, fear Allah.

May I admonish the masses to limit their anger against the ulama to admonition. They should not go beyond that, like the youths in Sokoto State who assaulted the imam of a Juma’at mosque for posting a political campaign poster on the mosque.

Since the masses have dutifully told the ulama to fear Allah, my admonition to the ulama, in addition, is that they should be very careful. May we elect good leaders in the upcoming general elections. We are tired of rulers.

Abdulkadir Salaudeen
salahuddeenabdulkadir@gmail.com