In the name of Allah, the Beneficent the merciful'And fear the Fitnah (affliction and trial) which affects not in particular (only) those of you who do wrong'' (Quran 8: 25)SUDDENLY, the campus became an hostage; an hostage to fear, trepidation and uncertainty. Or a cemetery: those inside cannot go out, at least, by choice; those outside cannot go in by force.On Monday morning, that which was hitherto familiar in the University of Ibadan became unfamiliar. There was bedlam and commotion. Visitors to the university had to endure long-winding traffic queues at the gate; pedestrians had their bodies and bags frisked by the security apparatus. The university had been deprived of its sanity and identity; everybody had become villains in a season of anomie.'Exactly what is happening, if I may ask'' I enquired from one of the security men whose face bore all the gravitas of the challenging condition under which he was working. He contemplated my face as if in search of evidence that would establish my lack of affiliation to the Boko Haram. I returned his gaze with a more probing one. I could read his mind. I equally paid special attention to his lips. I did not want to miss out any of the two discourses: the said and the unsaid.He eventually opened his mouth and said: 'Information at the disposal of the authorities was to the effect that elements with links to the Boko Haram planned to attack some federal establishments, including the University of Ibadan and Benin. The elaborate security checks were, therefore, put in place in response to the information'.The verse, which prefaced this sermon came to mind. Allah says: 'And fear the Fitnah (affliction and trial) which affects not in particular (only) those of you who do wrong'' (Quran 8: 25). Then I mused: How and why on earth would this university become a target other than the fact that this is a season of fitnah' Then I remonstrated with myself: the how and why of this incident inhered in the how and why the United Nations building in Abuja came under attack. Whenever and wherever there is fitnah, reason becomes unreason, virtue becomes a vice, madness becomes wisdom.Part of Prophet Muhammad's choicest supplications (May Allah's mercies and benedictions be on his soul in Madina) usually reads: Allahuma inni audhubika min fitnat al-Mahyah wal-mamaat (Allah I seek your refuge from the tribulations of life and living and that of death and dying). He equally used to advise Muslims that before you set your foot out of your homes every morning say as follows: BismiLLah khrarajtu, tawakaltu alaLLAH, laa hawla wala quwwata illa billah (In Allah's name I set out; I put my reliance in Allah; there is neither strength nor power except with Allah). Just before you step out of your home, you should say this and thereafter take the right step out. In this season of anomie, neither gun nor bullet could provide the security; it is He who is secured by Allah that would be secured.When the security man at the university gate referred to the security report, which was received by university administration as the reason for the 'invasion' of the university campus by security men and women, I did not miss the unsaid of the discourse. Then I imagined the other discourse: 'Aren't you people the real reason for this crisis' Aren't you people the Boko Haram on campus, in this city, in Nigeria' Aren't you a Muslim''Then my mind replied: 'if indeed Boko Haram is pro-Muslim, then its negative activities should have spared all Muslims; its activities should have been targeted at non-Muslims and other entities it perceive as its enemies'.But if this has, indeed, not been the case, if people who have died as a result of its activities have also included Muslims, then the assumption that every Muslim is Boko Haram is supine and puerile. The negative construction of Muslims and the deployment of the phrase Boko Haram as a ploy to attack innocent Muslims would not have arisen. Such indeed took place the other day outside the University of Ibadan.A student of the University of Ibadan had gone on a visit to one of his friends in Agbowo. As soon as he was sighted by the friend's neighbours, the latter sought recourse to the age-long prejudices and stereotypes of Islam and Muslims in world history. He was constructed as the mirror of evil, a devil incarnate. His traducers shouted: 'Boko Haram'! They later took off on their heels!Reporting on the incident, the Imam of the University imagined two possibilities from the scenario both of which could have led to tragic consequences for the student in question: he could have been mobbed given the current state of paranoia which the narrative of the Boko Haram has inflicted on the psyche of Nigeria and Nigerians. The police could equally have intervened: the student could have been arrested, detained or even shot for attempting to commit suicide bombing.The above incident brings home some of the cardinal lessons in the Quranic verse quoted above. In that verse, Allah advise the Muslim Ummah and indeed, the world, to fear a tribulation which would afflict not only the evil doers.The narrative of the Boko Haram also exemplifies this fact: the 'fruit' of injustice, oppression and failure of governance, which was sown in Maiduguri is now been 'harvested' in the most heinous ways all around the country.The extra-judicial killing of one soul has now led to the celebration and the ascension of chaos and season of anomie all around the village. Thus the politics, geographies and the physiognomics of the phrase Boko Haram has become wider than originally thought of.Nowadays Nigerians cannot sleep with their eyes closed anymore; nowadays, our ears are polluted every morning with the destruction of innocent souls; nowadays, the opinion of Ted Turner, the owner of the CNN, that news is evil finds exemplification in the orgish reports that assail and assault our sensibilities every dawn.But the Boko Haram is equally a metaphor. It is a metaphor for the disconnect between the government and the masses. It is a metaphor for the disconnect between Islam and the Muslims.I close with the affirmation of the following truths: that nothing happens in this world except through the leave of Allah (swt); that this is not a chaotic world where pain and suffering happens at random, nor is it a lawless universe without a ruler and watcher where the strong ' be that a person or a nation ' can do whatever it wishes to the weak without a consequence; that the believer should know that Allah is aware of the minutest details of everything that happens, one earth. Allah says:'He knows whatever there is on the earth and in the sea; Not a leaf fall but with His knowledge: there is not a grain in the darkness (or depths) of the earth nor anything fresh or dry (green or withered) but is (inscribed) in a Record Clear (to those who can read). (Quran 6:59)(guardianfridayworship@gmail.com)
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