In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful And as for those who put up a mosque by way of harm and disbelief and to disunite the believers and as an outpost for those who warred against Allah and His Messenger (Muhammad) aforetime, they will indeed swear that their intention is nothing but good. Allâh bears witness that they are certainly liars. Never stand you therein. Verily, the mosque whose foundation was laid from the first day on piety is more worthy that you stand therein (to pray). In it are men, who love to clean and to purify themselves. And Allah loves those, who make themselves clean and pure. Is it then he who laid the foundation of his building on piety to Allah and His Good Pleasure better, or he who laid the foundation of his building on the brink of an undetermined precipice ready to crumble down, so that it crumbled to pieces with him into the fire of Hell. And Allah guides not the people who are dhalimun - cruel, violent, proud, polytheist and wrongdoer. (Quran 9:107-109).LIVING in Nigerian during the past one week has been highly instructive of the inimitability of the power of Almighty Allah in relation to the inconsequentiality of all human vocations and aspirations.The past one-week, like the ones before it, has witnessed the passage of time, the passage of souls and the passage of seasons. The week bore witness to a reduction in my life span and yoursif I had 1000 weeks to spend on earth, it meant I have 999 weeks left!The past one-week effectively witnessed the end of the sojourn of some people on earth, it marked the end of earthly life of a colleague of mine and the then Acting Head of the Department of Religious Studies, University of Ibadan, Dr. Mrs. Dorcas Akintunde. She bade the world goodbye some days ago. Her death, once again brought home the solemn truth, human beings are like manufactured products.Any product on display in any supermarket has both manufactured date and expiration date. With reference to humans, our expiration dates are known only to our Creator, Allah may His name be exalted. From Allah we came and unto Him we shall return (Quran 2: 156)Akintunde was a good Christian and a friend. She was like the beautiful tree in the forest, beautiful trees do not last in the timberland. The last one-week has also meant business as usual for some segments of the Nigerian population. Here reference is being made to humans who have forgotten Allah and Allah had consequently caused them to forget their own souls. The week has been business as usual for some government officials in our ministries- to the latter government business is no mans business.The week has been business as usual for kidnappers in certain parts of this countryyoung Nigerians, who believe in Hitlers philosophy that the sum total success of a man will always be determined by his originality plus his brutality. So the youth have held some cities in the Eastern parts of the country hostage to their orgish desire. In them, shaytan has found veritable accomplices. In them our society can see its own fiendish image.In the past one week, it has been business as usual for death squads and irredentist elements in Jos, who have continued to kill innocent souls, Moslems and Christians, with reckless abandon. Today, Jos remained a slaughter slab despite all the feeble posturing of those in power, it has become a wasteland.Once humans constitute themselves as the center of gravity, once we consciously apostacise and throw the Divine away from our life, then our society can only become like that of the jungle where might is right.Our society has even become worse than that of the game reserve. In the latter, animals do not kill themselves for fun. Nowadays humans kill themselves for pleasure and engage in mutual despoliation as sacrifice to assuage the ascension of spiritual-social anomie.The past one-week has also been business as usual for our politicians, who view the coming elections in April as the very essence of their existence and perhaps the only reason for which they live. Two events bear some relevance.The first had to do with the storm created by the political hiatus between the godfather of Ogun politics and his godson. For a moment, it felt as if the centre has crumbled and would never hold again. But just before we went to sleep, we were regaled with the news that the duo had sheathed their swords. The son was asked to seek his fathers forgiveness, the father, in turn accepted the penitence, in the manner of the pope, of his errant schoolboy.However, the icing on the political oddities which played itself out last week was the news that former president Obasanjo has built a mosque beside his library in Abeokuta. The news was broken by an elder in a mosque in which I observed the Jumuat service in Lagos. Members of the congregation looked one another in the face as if they wanted to say, I beg your pardon! But the man went on: Dont ever say a man is a disbeliever in Allah. Obasanjo has built a mosque. I attended the opening ceremony together with some Moslem scholars from Ilorin!Silence immediately descended on the mosque. The man had been asked by the Imam to supplicate to Allah after the prayers out of deference to his spiritual-religious mien and pedigree. But his supplication became an anti-climax to the days sermon.Series of questions flooded the congregations minds but they were too shocked to talk. Since when did Obasanjo become a Christian philanthropist What is wrong in the donation of a mosque by Obasanjo to the Moslems Is this mosque not a Greeks gift I moved close to the man, and whispered in his ears. Did Obasanjo say he has become a Moslem He shook his head in the negative. I asked him again. Did the Moslems ask him to build a mosque for themOnce again he said he was not sure. As I went out of the mosque, the story of the disbeliever in Allah and His prophet, who built a mosque, Masjid Dirar, came to my mind.Is the mosque built by Obasanjo not reminiscent of Masjid Dirar, built by Abu Amir - a political mosque, a mosque built to settle the Moslem segments of Ogun State, to solace them to forget the injustice being visited on them by Ogun politicians, who appear to have the notion that no Moslem is worthy of being a governor of the state as yet Is this mosque not a metaphor for the money usually given to the electorates by politicians in order to corner their conscience, corrupt their vision and appropriate their votes With reference to such mosques like the one mentioned above, Allah says:And as for those, who put up a mosque by way of harm and disbelief and to disunite the believers and as an outpost for those, who warred against Allah and His Messenger aforetime, they will indeed swear that their intention is nothing but good. Allâh bears witness that they are certainly liars. Never stand you therein... (Quran 9: 107).(guardianfridayworship@gmail.com)
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