In the name of Allah, the most Beneficent, the MercifulBy the time through the ages!; Surely mankind is in loss; except those who believe and do good deeds; exhort one another to the truth and exhort one another to patience. (Quran 103: 1-3)TODAY's sermon is a product of an uncanny epoch and a witness to peculiar seasons. This sermon today comes from a griot whose heart is burdened by the schisms within the Nigerian polity, by the disconnect between Islam in the text and the existential realities of Muslim life and by the anomie which appears to have seized humanity by the jugular. Brethren, this is a season in which salt now tastes sour in the mouth, when honey becomes poison on the tongue.Or how best might we describe the storm between the Bar and the Bench; how do we bring ourselves round to side with individuals who engage in unwarranted destruction of life and properties' How do we make sense of the nonsense in the rape of a toddler by an adult; of the decision by a man to have sex with a chicken.Prophet Muhammad (may Allah's choicest peace and blessings be on his soul) once said that a time will come when Muslims would witness events the like of which were never witnessed by those who came before them; they would see things generations before them never saw; they would then wonder whether their Prophet ever envisioned such uncanny occurrences as to offer comments on such!In the midst of this hiatus, under the insuperable horizon of these seeming inanities, Muslims in Nigeria began the last Ramadan. As it was last year, we began the Ramadan all at once. Excepting a few group in certain parts of the country who insisted on their sighting of the moon, majority of Muslims in Nigeria began the fast on the same day and observed the 'Id on the same day. One critical factor for the two events was Sultan Saad Abubakr.Brethren, Sultan Saad Abu Bakr, going by the information at my disposal, is the 20th Sultan to sit on that stool in the history of what is now known as Nigeria. In other words, between February 1804 when Shaykh Uthman ibn Fudi embarked on his Jihad, which led to the establishment of what was later known as the Sokoto Caliphate, nineteen different individuals had held the leadership of the Muslim in that region. During the post-independence era, the position of the Sultan has had to experience series of challenges. In other words before today, we have had Sultans whose authority did not go beyond the northern parts of Nigeria ' Sultans who never ventured out of Sokoto and still pretended to be leaders of the Muslims in this country; we have had Sultans who were unceremoniously removed from power by military marauders.Now the ascension of Sultan Saad Abubakr to power in 2006 seemed to have opened a new chapter in the history of the Sultanate and, by extension that of Islam in this country. His emergence reminds one of the theory postulated by al-Mawardi on qualities expected of a leader in Islam. These include justice of probity with all its attributes; knowledge conducive to the exercise of independent judgment in crises or decision making; sound hearing, vision and speech so that perception could serve as a correct basis for action; physical fitness and freedom from handicaps to movement or agility of action; prudence that ensures wise handling of the subjects and able maintenance of their interests and dauntless courage in defense of the homeland and repulsion of enemies.Whether Sultan Saad Abubakr possesses these qualities or not is left to history. What is indubitable, however, is that he exhibits the gravitas of a detribalized Nigerian; in his persona you encounter the elemental qualities of a visionary leader; in his persona you witness the affectations of a luminary. Could all these be a function of his military background' Probably yes. Could it be the effect of his grounding in Islamic hermeneutics' Most certainly.But the quality of Islamic scholarship possessed by the Sultan, or lack of it, has proved to be of little importance compared to the bridge he has built, and is still building, across the Niger; the bridge of brotherhood he has built since his assumption of office between the Ulama in the Southern parts of this country and the northern Muslim authorities; the overpass he has facilitated between the Muslim youth in the south and their counterparts in the north; the bond or viaduct he has occasioned between the Muslim communities of this country and their Christian counterparts.Ironically, however, this Sultan is, to some among my compatriots, villainous in his posture and thespian in his religious beliefs. For his reasoned posture on the orgish 'dance' of the Boko Haram, he has been accused by some Christian critics as a supporter of the depraved group; for ensuring an uncanny balance in the observance of Ramadan in this country such that Muslims in the north and south now cease fasting for 29 and 30 days respectively and on a permanent basis contrary to the sunnah, the Sultan has been heckled and described by some groups in the north as blamable and a reprobate.Brethren the above is and should be a source of grave concern to us all as Muslims. It is equally instructive of the challenges inherent in political and religious leadership in this country. For the Muslim ummah, the circumstance of the Sultan today redounds to the assumption that we still have extremely difficult weathers to navigate; Muslims in this country still have to account for disparate forces within which constantly desire to break away from the commonwealth. We still have to engage texts, which supposedly grant groups within the Muslim ummah to break down the walls of brotherhood individuals like the Sultan constantly labour to build. Wherever you find yourself, once your identity is known to the other as a Muslim, prepare to answer questions on behalf a group like the Boko-Haram; guard your loins for 'attacks' from your non-Muslim compatriots on the roguish reign and anarchy in Pakistan; be prepared to furnish convincing responses to inquiries on how Maiduguri became a hungry under the watch of your fellow brothers.The recent attacks on the Sultan by some Muslim groups in the North reminds me of two issues: the practical and the jurisprudential. Sometimes in the past, a group in Malaysia observed Id-al-Fitr according to their own 'sighting of the moon'. The authorities in the country quickly stepped in to put the group in check. They were told that their action was capable of creating fitnah in the Muslim country. But this is Nigeria! Lack of effective governance at the center has ensured everybody and every household become mini-governments on their own!Shaykh Hasan al-Bana, in his book Tariq al-D'awah examined the unceasing tendencies for dissent among d'awah groups. He consequently said: 'for us to unite on that which is wrong is better than to be disunited as a result of that which is right' (Li'an najtam'a 'al' gayr 'aw'b khyrun min 'an naftariqa 'al' 'aw'b). I thought this principle speaks to today as it did to yesterday.(guardianfridayworship@gmail.com)
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