Why Bandits Hurry To Do Hajj With Blood Money -By Abdulkadir Salaudeen

Hajj is the fifth pillar of Islam. It is apparently the last, not necessarily the least. The obligation of Hajj on the Muslims is a privileged one. It is not an obligation in the sense that praying five times in a day is. It becomes an obligation for whoever has the wherewithal to perform it.

What is required to perform Hajj after being a Muslim are, among others, wealth and physical strength. While performing Hajj has many spiritual (and even social and economic) benefits, it shouldn’t be a do or die affair. It is also not something to brag about. In other words, the hujjaj or hajjis (Muslims who have performed pilgrimage) should not look down upon other Muslims who are yet to perform it and may not be privileged to perform the once-in-a-lifetime ritual.

Many would ask: “Is Hajj really once-in-a-lifetime ritual?” This question is not inappropriate. The rate at which some rich Nigerians, politicians, and even kidnappers etc. perform Hajj almost on yearly basis may prompt people who are not well informed to ask such question. Hajj is a once-in-a-lifetime obligation. Though there are reasons why some people are privileged to perform it several times. It could be due to the business opportunities the season presents. Yes! People go to Hajj for business’ sake. This is not blameworthy. In fact, it is praiseworthy (provided the business is lawful).

Other people perform Hajj due to the nature of their jobs. Their jobs offer them the privilege. In this category are pilgrim workers, journalists, medical corps attached to pilgrims, clerics who regularly serve as guides and instructors on Hajj rites, etc. There is another category of regular Hajj goers. In this category are kidnappers, bandits, thieves, criminals, prostitutes, some politicians (public fund looters), juju clerics, and some sick elites who frequent Hajj just for show off, etc.

Do people in this latter category see Hajj as religious obligation? And do they perform Hajj for the sake of God? This is the main focus of this column. What is said above is just an introduction. We recently read that the DSS arrested two bandit’s kingpins on their way to Saudi Arabia for 2025 Hajj in Abuja and Sokoto Hajj camps as they prepared for their departure to the Holy Land.

Many wonder what could be the relationship between these blood-sucking criminals and Hajj. I wonder too. There is a widespread bogus, illogical, and dangerous notion that whatever sins a Muslim commits, and no matter how gravious and heinous they are, once they do Hajj, those sins would be forgiven. It is also held that any supplication one makes to God during the rites of Hajj will definitely be granted.

This is a thoughtless lie. Should anyone quote some certain hadiths—sayings of the Prophet SAW—to support those notions, we would insist he or she is misquoting our noble Prophet Muhammad. While the Kaaba—the Sacred House of Allah—is the best place to make supplications, acceptance of supplications or otherwise is determined by the wise decision of Allah Who knows what is good or bad for his servants.

It is true that there are clerics who, through their teachings, spread these notions among the criminally minded people. This is why religion could be dangerous if it continues to be preached by uncritical scholars that are literally glued to Islamic literature, but are ill equipped to contextualize text—especially in this trying times that morality is at its lowest ebb. The wrong teaching of religion contributes to why many of our elected Muslim rulers make it a point of duty to perform pilgrimage or lesser pilgrimage regularly after impoverishing the masses. They laugh sardonically at their victims (the suffering masses) as they gleefully jet out to Saudi Arabia to ‘please’ God with their ill-gotten wealth. Is this not fooling God? God cannot be fooled, anyway. But as they ‘play smart’ in their diseased ignorance, they end up fooling themselves unknowingly. (See Qur’an Chapter 2 verse 9).

Think about it. How would God forgive unrepentant bandits whose hearts are so hardened that feeding newborn babies to dogs do not make them cringe? (I mean babies born by a woman, not those born by a goat). How would God accept the rites of bandits whose supplication is to be bloody rich through shedding of innocent blood? If such god exists, that is a useless god. Not the Merciful God.

It was reported that the Prophet said “Whoever performs Hajj for the sake of Allah and does not utter any obscene speech or do any evil deed, will go back (free of sin) as his mother bore him.” (Bukhari, 1449). How does this apply to a bandit? What a bandit does is more than evil and the condition of forgiveness is not to do evil. Also, a Muslim who intends to perform Hajj is expected to make provision for the journey and the best provision, as Qur’an Chapter 2 verse 197 teaches us, is at-Taqwa (piety, righteousness, etc.). On the contrary, these bandits made their best provision by soiling their hands with the blood of the innocent. This is satanic. It is not godly.

In another report almost at the same time, Saudi Arabian authorities was said to have arrested two women alleged to be the wife and mother of one Ado Aliero who is one of Nigeria’s most feared bandit kingpins in the holy city of Medina where the women had been living under assumed identities. This is a good news. But the downside is that one might not hear anything about these laudable arrests by our hardworking security agents after the fanfare that comes with such breaking news. This troubles the mind.

It gives support to the recent claim by Borno State Governor, Babagana Zulum, that there are informants and collaborators within the Nigerian armed forces, among politicians, and even within the communities that collaborate with these enemies of humanity and agents of Satan. Zulum asserted that there is politicisation of security issues in Nigeria and called for a concerted effort to address them. In his words, “Let’s remove contractocracy. In six months, we can put an end to this madness; we need not politicize insecurity.

Many Nigerians will not doubt Zulum. But aside the politicization, there is religious aspect to it. And that is the belief that after all (i.e. after committing all atrocities), God could be ‘bribed’ by visiting His Sacred House in Makkah. This is where our respected ulama (clerics) should come in. They need to re-educate the ill-educated and miseducated among these criminals and the general masses that there is no forgiveness for major sins without repentance. They need to deconstruct people’s notion, especially Nigerians, about Hajj.

While Hajj’s significance will always remain significant to the Muslims, its significance should not be over hyped. It is this wrong notion about Hajj that gives wings to the practice—common among politicians and some wealthy individuals—of sending people to perform Hajj when Hajj should be the least of their priorities due to their pitiable economic circumstances.

Imagine giving ten million naira to a wretched and jobless man to perform Hajj—a man who could not pay a house rent and has become irresponsible in terms of caring for his family. Believing whatever he (the pilgrim) requests from God in the Sacred House will be granted, without setting aside a considerable amount as empowerment capital when he returns, is an extreme case of religious bigotry. Isn’t this thinking too skewed?

There are one thousand and one verses in the Qur’an that encourage the rich to help feed the poor. This is often overlooked. As if to teach God His religion, what we pay attention to is to send poor people who could barely feed to Hajj when God plainly and unequivocally declares that Hajj is compulsory only on those who have the means (see Qur’an Chapter 3 verse 97).

That said, incautious and unconditional narration like “The haji (pilgrim) will be forgiven, and all those whom the haji seeks forgiveness on behalf of” could be why the two wanted bandits (now in DSS net) wanted to do Hajj so that they can seek God’s forgiveness for themselves and for the remaining bandits in the bush. Our clerics should take note.

Abdulkadir Salaudeen
salahuddeenabdulkadir@gmail.com