Use Your Sense, Don’t Take Everything From Clerics -By Abdulkadir Salaudeen

We are still in the month of Ramadan. Although an important month, it has been the most abused month by clerics who seek to mislead unsuspecting worshippers and enslave them by means of religious gaslighting. Two weeks ago, in my column titled “Ramadan: Between the Muslims and the Pseudo Clerics,” I drew our attention to some categories of clerics that Muslims should run away from. In this column, I draw readers’ attention, again, to one of the antics employed by pseudo clerics to entrance their audience such that they lose their thinking faculty while they feed them with lies. I will return to this shortly after the brief admonition below. 

The month of Ramadan is full of blessings. The rich experience what the poor have got used to. I mean pang of hunger. For those who  are fortunate among the rich, that pang of hunger leads to pang of conscience. While the former is experienced by anyone that starves themselves for spiritual or medical reason, the latter (pang of conscience) might be experienced only by a few. 

Pang of conscience is a feeling of embarrassment, resulting from one’s bad behavior or habit which one regrets. The bad habit which is common among the rich is to  ignore the plights of the poor. It is to look the other way as hunger continues to strike the poor until they become emaciated. The fortunate and blessed ones among the rich would feel not only the pang of hunger in this noble month but also the pang of conscience. After fasting for a whole month, they would turn over a new leaf. They will not only sympathize with the poor but empathize with them. 

If this happens to the rich, it means they have actually passed through Ramadan and Ramadan has passed through them. It means Ramadan has taught them to be dutiful to Allah by helping the poor. It also means Ramadan has trained them how to sacrifice their hard-earned wealth to seek Allah’s blessings. 

The poor on the other hand who might have little or nothing to spend should exert much efforts to increase their acts of worship, especially the recitation of the Qur’an which is believed to have been revealed in the month of Ramadan. They should read the Qur’an as many times as possible. Thereby, seeking Allah’s blessings. The rich can also gain additional rewards by reciting the Qur’an despite having spent a lot to assist the poor. 

We have read a lot, and a lot has been narrated to us, about great Muslim ulama and awliyaullah (worshippers) who devoted their time to reading the Qur’an in the month of Ramadan. Some, we were told, would complete the recitation of the whole of the Qur’an everyday. Some would read more, some would read less. May Allah reward us and them. 

How many times have you completed the Qur’an in this month and how many times do you intend to complete it? If you have not started at all, this is the right time to start. If you think it is late already since we are almost halfway through Ramadan, I think it is not too late to seek Allah’s blessings. Our malams (clerics) told us that recitation of the Qur’an is one of the best acts of worship (especially for the poor who might not have other means to seek Allah’s pleasure in this blessed month.) Our clerics are right.

But don’t forget to use your sense when listening to some of these clerics. They mix falsehoods with facts. At times, they present one fact as a smokescreen to inundate their followers with a thousand and one falsehoods. If you are not knowledgeable enough to separate fact from falsehoods or to identify the crooks and the trusted ones among the clerics, always pray to Allah for guidance and use your sense. I mean common sense. 

At times, or even often, some of these clerics tell lies just to enslave you. They make you look helpless and feel defeated in your spiritual journey by telling you some stories and spiritual feats—that seem verisimilitude to tales by the moonlight—about some certain Sheikhs (men of God). 

If you accept those tales, the next thing is to make you revere those Sheikhs and their offsprings more than the reverence you have for your Creator, Allah. They might even tell you that worshipping these sheikhs is like worshipping Allah because they are close to Allah in terms of worship so much so that there isn’t difference between them and Allah. 

I will cite one instance to understand one of their antics and, hopefully, we shall realize why we should use our common sense not to fall victims of religious manipulation by the tales of some so-called men of God.

But before then, here is a question. Is there a limit to the number of times a Muslim shoud/could complete the Qur’an especially in Ramadan? Many will say there is no limit. One should just keep reciting. This answer is wrong! There is a limit because there are 24 hours in a day. This implies that one can only recite the number of Qur’an that is practically recitable in a day. Yes! A Muslim might wish to recite the Qur’an, say, a hundred times a day. But time constraint (24 hours in a day) will set a limit for him against his wish. This is a very simple logic. 

It is an established fact that a skilled and experienced reciter of the Qur’an could complete it within eight hours if he recites it at a faster pace. It is reasonable to believe this. But can one complete the Qur’an twice a day? Well, such reciters would have to overburden themselves to achieve that. That would mean immersing oneself in the recitation of the Qur’an—16 out of 24 hours a day. We can assume that this is possible. The remaining eight hours might be used for mundane things like sleeping, resting, eating, attending to other personal needs, etc.).

I watched a viral video in which a cleric was lying to his audience while the dull and credulous audience who lack the thinking ability to discern truth from falsehood were overawed by the concocted lie. A late Nigerian Sheikh (waliyyi) in a state in the North who is worshipped like God was said to have recited the Qur’an seven million times in his lifetime. No wonder some months ago, some senior worshippers of this Sheikh went to his well decorated tomb to update him (the Sheikh) about their worldly affairs and complained to him about their predicaments and sufferings!

Among other things, they foolishly told the man of God (perhaps he is even so-called), whose bones should have been pulverized in his grave that: “Things are tough. Prices of food and essential commodities have skyrocketed due to the removal of subsidy. We have come to you to ask for your intervention in this matter.” Hmm! Expecting an entombed helpless deceased to attend to one’s needs is the height of religious stupidity. Though these people apparently acknowledge God as God, one can conclude that they grudgingly do so. Their real object of worship is their Sheikh who, by virtue of having recited the Qur’an seven million times, has become ‘god’ in his own right. 

But common sense would tell you that even if one could recite the Qur’an the whole day without sleeping and avoiding all worldly distractions like a monk, the highest one could complete in a day is probably three. Let’s assume he does so unceasingly for seventy years, he would end up with the recitation of the Qur’an 76,650 times (which is impossible anyway). So, how is it possible to recite the Qur’an seven million times in one’s life time? 

Unfortunately, however, when these pseudo clerics unleash these lies as virtues, one is amazed to see their audience shouting Allahu Akbar (GOD is Great). May we not lose our senses—our ability to think clearly and make good judgements.

It should be noted, it is not even how much of the Qur’an one recites that matters. What matters is to what extent has the light of the Qur’an illuminated our heart. A heart that is well illuminated with the Qur’an will not cheat, will not lie, and will not steal private or public funds. Such heart will not be unjust to his fellow beings nor would he tolerate injustice. Don’t take everything from clerics. Don’t be enslaved in the name of religion. Use your sense. Ramadan Kareem.

Abdulkadir Salaudeen 

salahuddeenabdulkadir@gmail.com