FESTIVAL OF SACRIFICE

Throughout history and among great nations of the past there existed occasions of festivities among those nations and the nation of Islam is not an exception.The greatest festival in Islam is the Eid of Sacrifice on the tenth of the last month[Dul Hajj] of the Islamic calender.This great festival had its root thousands of years ago and it is directly associated to a great Prophet of Allah called Ibrahim[as].

There existed few men in the history of mankind that had suffered more trials and tribulations than Ibrahim[as] and at a decisive period of his life he was thrown into a blazing fire but our Merciful Lord commanded the fire to be cold and tender to Ibrahim[as].When Prophet Ibrahim attained old age his greatest worry was that he had no heir and our Merciful Lord granted him a son from his slave-girl and the son was named Isma'il[as].When Isma'il was born he undoubtedly became the apple of the eyes of his father and the most loved entity to his father.Then one day Ibrahim[as] received commandment from his lord to sacrifice Isma'il as a testimony to his obedience and dedication to his creator.Isma'il[as] was the most prized possession of Ibrahim[as] and what was expected of him was to willingly and unconditionally surrender that possession to Allah.It was a great trial but Ibrahim[as] was the father of Monotheism and his son,Isma'il, was the most obedient son to a father.Using Hegel's theory of historical interpretation,the commandment to Ibrahim was the thesis while Satan was the anti-thesis and the absolute submission to Allah's injunction by Ibrahim and Isma'il was the synthesis of that historical occurrence.

To encourage his father to execute the divine injunction,Isma'il declared to his father that he will find in him a patient and submissive person.When Ibrahim was about to carryout that divine order Isma'il was replaced with a Great Sacrifice.And that became a tradition for generations after generations.The greatest lesson to learn from this show of absolute obedience is that every one of us has his\her "Isma'il".Your "Isma'il" might be different from the "Isma'il" of Prophet Ibrahim[as];your "Isma'il" might be animated things such as your wife,parents,children etc or inanimate things such as wealth,position etc.For one to be a true follower of Prophet Ibrahim[as] and to be a true adherent to the religion he named one should be able to sacrifice his\her "Isma'il" for the sake of Allah.That is the true Ibrahimic path and is in absolute negation of obedience to Satan who is the greatest anti-thesis of Ibrahim[as] and his followers.

For those Muslims that went on Hajj[pilgrimage] their actions are guided by the actions of Prophet Ibrahim and his illustrious family and the slogans they are chanting "we hear,we obey" are in concord with the Prophetic Message of Ibrahim[as].The Pilgrims stoned the Satan as a symbol of Satan's hostilities to Ibrahim's obedience to Allah's injunctions and on that premise whoever obstruct obedience to Allah's injunctions is a Satan.That symbolic stoning is a rejection of oppression and tyranny.It is the symbolic condemnation of Imperialism,Neo-colonialism and Racism in the form of Zionism and all its facets.The unity of actions among the guest of Allah should be a call to unity among the followers of Ibrahim[as] and his submissive progeny.

As we celebrate the festival of sacrifice we supplicate to Allah to make our hearts submissive to the Qur'anic guidance,to lightened our paths with the Prophetic actions of Ibrahim[as] and to give us the patience and perseverance to oppose Satanic forces and their agents.Eid Mubarak.....

HARUNA ELBINAWI.

KADUNA-NIGERIA.
elbinawi@yahoo.com
elbinawiblog@blogspots.com

TOLERANCE IN ISLAM

The Encarta Dictionaries define tolerance as the acceptance of different views. In Engineering, tolerance is defined as an allowance made for something to deviate in size from a standard, or the limit within which it is allowed to deviate. It is usually designated by plus or minus sign of an integer number. In the thesaurus of words, tolerance simply means broad-mindedness and its antonym is intolerance.

 Islam is the religious sent by Allah to mankind starting from Prophet Adam [as] to Prophet Muhammad [sa] for the guidance and proper direction of man. Mankind has a choice; either to follow this divine guidance or to follow its antithesis which is the path of Satan-the cursed. Allah sent Prophet Muhammad [SA] with the last code of guidance-the Qur’an-in it is truth and light and whoever follows this coherent code is guided. The followers of this path are called Muslims and they are presently spread in every nook and corner of the world.

 The Muslims in the world today are broadly divided into two groups and then sub-divided into splinter groups from those two broad divisions. The broad divisions are Shia and Sunni and these groups are further subdivided into smaller groups. With the exceptions of the Ahmadiyas and Baha’is,all the subgroups have the same Qur’an,believed in the last Messagership of Muhammad al-Mustapha[sa],prayed towards the same Qibla, have almost the same fiqh[jurisprudence] and have the same world view about universal Muslim brotherhood with no recourse to geography or artificial boundary. In summary, these subgroups are in agreement with the fundamental tenets of Islam but they differ on secondary issues.

 The first point of departure occurred in Islamic history when the prophet of Islam died. The companions were divided as to the next course of action; while some thought that the prophet should be buried first before the issue of succession is addressed, others believed that the issue of succession should not be delayed and they rushed to a place called Thaqifa even before the prophet was buried to addressed the issue of succession and that was how Abubakar emerged as the first caliph.

 The second point of departure occurred when the second caliph was fatally wounded. He selected an electoral college made of six companions and he charged them to elect a caliph amongst themselves after his death by three days. The companions were Abdullrahman bn. Auf,Zubayr bn. Awan,Usman bn. Affan,Talha bn. Ubaidullah, Sa’ad bn. Abi waqqas and Ali bn. Abi Talib. Three  people were short listed and they were Ali bn. Abi Talib,Usman bn. Affan and Abdullrahman bn. Auf.and when  the vote was cast there was a tie with each of the candidates getting one vote each.Abdullrahman bn. Auf then gave a proposal to break the deadlock that he will withdraw from the contest and he will have the veto power to appoint the caliph or the other two contenders  can withdraw and have the veto power. They all accepted and gave him the veto power. He looked at Ali bn. Abi Talib and asked him that if he is given the caliphate will he follow the Qur’an,the sunnah of the prophet and the path of the two preceding caliphs[Abubakar and Umar].Ali answered that if given the caliphate he will follow the Qur’an,the sunnah of the prophet and what he dims right. Ibn.Auf made similar proposal to Usman bn. Affan and he accepted that proposal and he was made the caliph.

 The third point of departure was the karbala tragedy that occurred in 61 AH when Husain bn. Ali was killed in the first ever Islamic Revolution. Corruption and  Fasad had dominated  the leadership then and it became a duty for Muslims to changed that. Though the Revolution was violently and brutally suppressed but the consequences were far reaching and to this day it is a source of inspirations to Revolutionary Movements. The karbala tragedy sealed the division of Islam and that division has existed to this day.

 The greatest challenge to contemporary Islam is not its history but intolerance by extremist groups in its house. The custom and culture of excommunication by these extremist groups is the greatest drawback to contemporary Islam. The Wahabis and Salafis groups are the most prominent of these groups and they can declare a person an infidel by the most insignificant issue. They had constituted themselves as registrars and only they are the true Muslims. They consider the celebrating of the Prophet’s birthday as a sin while Saudi Arabia-the home of Wahabism- celebrates its national day anniversary yearly and colourfully. They consider the wirds[spiritual discipline] of the sufi orders as an intolerable deviation that are worthless. They consider the unconditional and total love for the Prophet [sa], his household [as] and great scholars of Islam [rd] by the majority of Muslims as a worthless exercise. They are shallow and superficial in thoughts, knowledge, spirictual discipline, Islamic ethics and aesthetics. Their major trade mark is the killing of Muslims in the name of reformation and struggle.

 Tolerance is absolutely necessary for there to be unity in the house of Islam. In the Qur’an, Allah advised the Prophet [sa] that if he is hard and intolerable to his followers they will disperse from him. Allah commanded Muslims to hold on tightly to the rope of Allah altogether and they should not be divided. Nothings bring division more than intolerance. A person that has never attracted a single person to Islam will condemn millions to kufr because he has some secondary differences with them.

A friend of mine served his national youth service in one of the South-Western States of Nigeria in the early 90s.He was posted to a town that has a Muslim majority amongst its population. As a conscious Muslim his first point of call was the Mosque of the town. When he arrived at the Mosque he met men, women and children dancing inside the Mosque though they were singing Islamic songs. Drummers were beating their drums and women were wrangling their waist inside the Mosque. After the program my baffled friend approached the Imam who had studied Islam at the famous al-azhar university,Cairo.He told the Imam that what these people are doing is unislamic and that he is suppose to stop them. The Imam answered him that if he stops them they will go to the church the next day but he is educating their children and one day their children will stop these practices. My friend disagreed with the Imam but he tolerated them for the duration of his National Youth Service. After ten years my friend decided to visit that same town so as to visit the Muslim community and as in the past his first point of call was the Mosque. He discovered the old Mosque was demolished and an imposing one erected in its place and when he looked inside the Mosque he saw young Muslims memorising the Qur’an.He remembered the words of the Imam and tears started streaming to his eyes and he asked about the Imam and he was told that he has passed away. He visited his resting place and prayed for him.

It was tolerance that made Islam spread all over the world and it was tolerance that made Muslims the undisputed world powers for centuries. Broad-mindedness in thinking, vastness in knowledge, acceptance of different views and tolerance to other inclinations are the hallmarks of tolerance in Islam. Intolerance and sectarian extremism have no advantage in Islam and they only bred strife, harted, rancour and dissension in the house of Islam. Muslims should tolerate themselves as that is the only way unity can be achieved.

Peace be upon Muhammad [sa] and his immaculate progeny.

HARUNA ELBINAWI

KADUNA-NIGERIA

elbinawi@yahoo.com.

HAJ RIDWAN-THE DAWN OF VICTORY

The Arabs says

‘No Warrior except Ali

And no Sword except Dhul-Fiqar’

Dhul-Fiqar undoubtedly

The most famous Sword in Islam

There was an Ali’s follower

Mugniyya Imad

A great Commander

The Chinese will say Hero Imad

And the Indians will say Imad the brave

He cleansed Lubnan

And Palestine

Of Imperialist filth and the Zionist

Their hunting Dogs became death bodies

And the remaining fled

Dignity, Honor and Victory

He brought for Islam

On the day of his martyrdom

The then US President Bush said

  ‘The world was a better place without Mugniyyah’

And our Marhum Fadlullah answered

  ‘The world will be a better place without the White House’

His mother was a Zaynabite

All her three Sons were martyred

And she wishes she had a fourth

Allah’s mercy,blessing

Upon this mother

News of his martyrdom reached me

Tears, tears and tears

But true hero never dies

In our memory he lives forever

He lives the life of Ali and died the death of Husain

Allah’s enemies rejoiced at his death

Thought their objectives achievable after him

But how can that be

When followers of Husain exist

At the theatre of battle against Allah’s enemies

The Husaini School

A School based on martyrdom and justice

A School that says ‘NO’ to oppression, tyranny and occupation

A School that frees man from all servitude except servitude to Allah

A School that transcends the narrowness of this world

Imad is victorious in this School

A School that enters the vastness of the Hereafter

And wherein Allah’ Servants belong

In the proximity of their Lord

The One and only True Lord.

Peace be upon Muhammad[s], his Immaculate Progeny and his chosen Companions.

HARUNA ELBINAWI

KADUNA-NIGERIA

elbinawi@yahoo.com

This is a revised edition of the same title in honour of Commander Imad Mugniyyah [Haj Ridwam] written by me some years ago. Our Scholars said all information’s about him are classified but he was a pillar of Islam. If you Google-ed his name you will find information’s about him from the Western perspective and some of which are incorrect. We must celebrate this Warrior of Allah.

PERFECT WOMEN IN HISTORY

                                                    PERFECT WOMEN IN HISTORY

First couple in history are known

Mankind descended from them is known

Some men attained perfection

Their numbers were few

History is awash with their imprint

But only four women attained perfection

They were flawless without stain

They illuminated the world with their deeds

The world was inspired due to their excellence

What they produced changed the course of history

The Pharaoh was the symbol of oppression

He was cloth in tyranny and suppression

And Asiya was his wife

She was a woman that believed

But then believe equates death

She raised a Prophet of Allah

And the Prophet, she followed

It added courage to the oppressed

It was outrageous to the oppressors

They threatened, but she was firm

She lived in a great palace

Where all worldly needs have a solution

She discarded all and believed

The tyrant threatened and threatened

But she was firm

And she cried to the owner of the universe

O lord! Built a house for me in Jannah

And that house was built

And Allah saved her from oppressors

Her product changed the course of history

‘The story of Maryam was made immortal by Jesus’

She was a virgin and she conceived

Who has that distinction in history?

She obeyed Allah and she was blessed

An infant testified her innocence

She was pure

And purity was her companion

She got food from Allah

And she was humble

Humility was her relation 

She stayed with a Master

And she learned

He taught her the codes of guidance

And she delivered a guide

Her product changed the course of history

‘Cover me, cover me’

Said the seal of Messengers

‘Take the glad tidings, O Cousin’

The most obedient wife answered

And who is more insightful than khadijat?

‘You keep good relation with your kith and kin’

You help the poor and destitute

You serve your guest generously

You assist the deserving when calamity afflicts them’

Khadijat said to Allah’s beloved

The foundation of Islam was her wealth

She was a pillar that cannot be broken

Allah blessed the beloved with her love

The love that begets Fatima

Fatima, the lady of light

A lady that illuminated mankind

At Mubahala

Allah addressed her alone as ‘our women’

In testimony of her perfection

Making her peerless among creation

For her excellence

Universally she is called az-Zahra

A part of the most beloved of Allah

If she is angry, Allah is angry

Who has that distinction in creation?

And married was she

To the only warrior in history

Islam’s greatest mind was her groom

A union of perfection

Allah testifies this in Sura Hal Ata

‘In Fatima’s garden grew two unparrareled boughs’

Hasan and Husain

The Princes of Paradise

The depots of guidance

Their sons were Imams of Muslims

Allah called her ‘al-kauthar’

The Arabs called her ‘Ummi Abiha’

Others called her ‘Siddiqah’

Some called her ‘Zakiyya’

And we called her ‘Batool’

‘She was a flower from the flowers of heaven’

She was the root of all imams

She was an apogee of chastity

She was the greatest example of womanhood

Her products changed the course of history

Haruna el-Binawi

elbinawi@yahoo.com

KADUNA-NIGERIA. 

*These verses are in honour of Sayyida Fatima az-Zahra [as] on her Birthday.

IMAM ALI BN. ABI TALIB[AS]

A son born to Abi Talib

A believer and uncle to my Rasul

A protector and defender to my Islam

An Imam to all was Ali

An Imam to all Imams

Allah made his mother His guest

At Ka’aba-the House of Allah

And Ali was born

As a guest of Allah

At the House of Allah

At the House of Prophethood

An abode he lived

Always a Companion to my Rasul

And an eternal companion to my Rasul

Ali smelled fragrance of Prophethood day and nite

At a time only three were Muslims

And Ali was a Muslim then

Allah commanded my Rasul to invite his family

At the banquet only Ali answered

And three times was it he answered

At Hijra he replaced my Rasul waiting for Quraishi swords

‘And among men is he who sells his NAFS for the pleasure of Allah’

Allah said that in the Qur’an

A sword called Dhul-Fiqar was his

An only sword in history

At Badr bn. Utba died by Dhul-Fiqar

At Uhud it was a shield to my Rasul

At Khandaq Amr bn. Abduwad ceased to ridicule my Rasul forever

At Khaybar Marhab was divided into two by it

A day the gate of Khaybar became a bridge

At Ghader Khum

Ali was presented as the Wali of my Rasul

Allah’s order it was

Ali’s friends are Allah’s friends

Ali’s enemies are Allah’s enemies

Ali -brother to my Rasul

Ali- husband to al-Zahra

Ali- father to Hasanain

Ali- friend to Ammar, Abu Dhar

Ali- just ruler and knowledge gate

At 19^th Ramadan

A son of Muradi

Ali’s head was opened by this cursed son

Alas! Mountain of faith and piety tumbled and crumbled down

And making the world of Islam mournful

And Ali said

And ‘By the God of Ka’aba I have succeeded’

And the pillars of guidance are demolished

And martyred was he three days latter

And at Najaf he was buried

These verses was for the celebration of the Moulud of Imam Ali[as].It was written by an incapable composer who made this attempt because of his love for  AhlulBayti Rasul. Peace be upon Muhammad al-Mustapha[S] and his Immaculate Progeny.

HARUNA ELBINAWI

KADUNA-NIGERIA

elbinawi@yahoo.com

IN PRAISE OF ALLAH AND HIS RASUL

Praise be to Allah

Whose worth cannot be described by speakers

Whose bounties cannot be counted by calculating instruments

Whose claim (to obedience) cannot be satisfied by those who attempt to do so

Whom the height of intellectual courage cannot appreciate

Whom the diving’s of understanding cannot reach

He for whose description

No limit has been laid down

No eulogy exist

No time is ordained

And no duration is fixed

He brought forth creation through His Omnipotence

He dispersed winds through His Compassion

And made firm the shaking earth with rocks

He sees even when there is non to be looked at from among His creations

He is only One, such that there is none with whom He may keep company

The foremost in religion is the acknowledgment of Him

The perfection of acknowledging Him is to testify Him

The perfection of testifying Him is to believe in His Oneness

The perfection of believing in His Oneness is to regard Him pure

The perfection of His purity is to deny Him attribute

Whoever attaches attribute to Allah recognizes His like

Whoever recognizes His like regards Him two

Whoever regards Him two recognizes part of Him

Whoever recognizes parts of Him mistook Him

Whoever mistook Him pointed at Him

He is a Being but not through phenomenon of coming into being

He exist but not from non-existence

He is with everything but not in physical nearness

He is different from everything but not in physical separation

He acts but without connotation of movements and instruments.

He initiated creation most initially and commenced it originally

Without undergoing reflection

Without making use of any experiment

Without innovating any movement

And without experiencing any aspiration of mind

He allotted all things their times

He put together their variations

He gave them their properties

He determined their features knowing them before creating them

And He realized fully their limits and confines

Ages passed by

And times rolled on

Fathers passed away

While sons took their places

Till Allah deputized Muhammad[s] as His Prophet

In fulfilment of His promise

In completion of His Prophethood

His pledge had been taken from the Prophets

Muhammad[s] traits of character were well reputed

His birth was honourable

Then Allah chose for Muhammad[s]

To meet Him and selected him for His own nearness

Regards him too dignified to remain in this world

Decided to remove him from this place of trial

So He drew him towards Himself with honor.

Peace be upon Muhammad[s], his Progeny and his chosen Companions.

Compilation:

Haruna el-Binawi

elbinawi@yahoo.com

KADUNA-NIGERIA.

These are the words of the Amirul Muminin, Ali bn.Abi Talib [as], in his description of Allah and the Prophethood of Muhammad[s].I only rendered them into verses for outline. [Nahjul Balagha-Sermon 1]

The letter of Amirul Muminin, Ali bn.Abi Talib, to Malik al-Ashtar when he appointed him the Governor of Egypt after the death of Muhammad bn. Abubakar [ra] is another masterpiece. That letter is the most encompassing, accurate and complete guide to political authority and good governance ever written.Even non-muslims had attested to this. When you read that letter you will fully grasps the greatness of Islam’s greatest mind.

THAT EVIL OLDMAN OF OTTA

‘The poverty of the people is the actual cause of the devastation and ruination of a country and the main cause of the poverty of the people is the desire of its ruler and officers to amass wealth and possessions whether by fair or foul means.’

                                                                                                                                               Ali bn. Abi Talib.

 During the 1999 elections, I was in Kebbi state for my National Youth Service. I acted as a polling clerk in one of the polling booths at Kalgo Local Government Area of Kebbi State. The police officer attached to the polling unit and I arrived the village as early as 8.00am in the morning. We arraigned the furnitures, pasted the posters of the two presidential aspirants and settled down to wait for voters to come and exercise their franchise. Since the two presidential aspirants were all from the Southern part of the country, the turnout of voters was low and there was no excitement or competition. The village head was among the first callers, he greeted us in Hausa and we answered with respect. He asked me who among the aspirants is a Northerner; I told him they are all Southerners. He asked me who among the aspirants is a Muslim; I answered him that they are all Christians. He asked me who among the aspirants is a farmer; I pointed to Olusegun Obasanjo, and he said that is the person they will vote for.

The old village sage was right in his judgement because since Obasanjo is a farmer then they have something in common and by extension his government will implement policies and programmes that will advance and enhance farming in Nigeria. But that was not to be because after eight years in power Olusegun Obasanjo did practically nothing to advance farming in the country despite mountain of promises. Olusegen Obasanjo assumed power in 1999 with a lot of goodwill from Nigerians and with great expectations after successive Military dictatorships. The annulment of June 12 election by the Babangida regime had placed a big crack in the heart of unity of the country and the ruthless crackdown of pro-june 12 activist by the Abacha regime worsened the already dicey situation. The Nigerian Nation looked forward to its leader to heal these wounds and place the Nation back to the track of development and progress so that Nigeria can take its rightful place among comity of Nations.

After eight years of Obasanjo’s government all the indices of development and progress were reversed backward. Power generation was at its lowest ebb since the country’s independence despite colossal sum of money spent. Billions of dollars were alleged to have been spent in that sector but the whole of Nigeria was in darkness. Power availability is the foundation of industrialisation because all modern industries depends on power and in its absence even the industries that existed collapsed resulting in the retrenchment of tens of thousands of workers therefore increasing the poverty index of the country. Until this day not a single person was arrested for bringing misery and discomfort to Nigerians. If Babangida’s regime institutionalised corruption in Nigeria the Obasanjo’s government perfected it to the extend that corruption became a norm in government circles. The bribery scandals involving Halliburton and Shell are tips of the iceberg and the fifty million-Naira-per-Legislator bribe during the aborted third term saga was just an introduction. Obasanjo’s government is the most corrupt government this country has ever seen and it conferred sainthood to Babangida’s government that held the record before now.

Honesty and integrity are words not found in the dictionary of that government. Public trust and accountability are words that are alien to that government. Public institutions and corporations were auctioned off to cronies at a give away prices and custom duties were exempted for the richest men in the land .Elections were conducted to a large extent as a formality and those Nigerians who tried to protect their votes were butchered .Maurice Iwu, known to friends and foes as a criminal and a gangster, was the election umpire. Elected positions were arraigned without elections and people ‘win’ elections in accordance to the wimps and caprices of the despot. Votes casted were more than the registered voters and even dead men were ‘resurrected’ to cast their votes. Criminals win elections from prison without campaigning and prostitutes were shamly voted into high elective positions.

As for morality and family values you can only find it in the dustbin of history .Obasanjo’s son sworn an affidavit in a court of law that his father had illicit affair with his wife. Non of the accusers denied this allegation to this day. What do you expect from a man with such a reputation? The immorality and debasement of this man was so glaring that he recently declared that ‘even Jesus Christ [as] cannot conduct free and fair election in Nigeria’. A blasphemy and in my religion [Islam] the life of this man is not suppose to have value .But General Babangida conducted a free and fair elections in this country on June 12,1993.That elections was adjudged to be free and fair by all parties and the losers congratulated the winners. Obasanjo intends to corrupt the name of one of the greatest men in history, a personality whose birth was miraculous and Allah attested to that in the Qur’an .Jesus Christ [as] did things of which science will never have answers to and metaphysical laws became hypothesis.

After his third term bid failed, he anointed two unknown and incapable politicians as his successors and one of them was on the pangs of death .In his short sojourn as President of Nigeria, Umaru Musa spent more time on his sick bed than at his seat of power. This is the reward of a despot to a Nation that was united in rejecting his third term bid. Umaru Musa was succeeded by Jonathan Goodluck-a man of contradictory personality. He said he wanted free and fair election but he also wanted his unelected Aids as delegates to his party’s primaries. What a contradiction? Everybody in this world knows that there was a zoning arrangement in PDP but Obasanjo insisted that it has never existed! This has splited the PDP into two and PDP will never be the same again.

The opposition will be the greatest beneficiary of this feud and they should exploit it to their maximum advantage. Majority of Nigerians want change because the party that is ruling them for the past eleven years had failed woefully .The great people of Nigeria should bury their sentiments and unite to rest power from this evil cabal that had impoverished them and stalled their progress and development. That evil oldman of Otta is part and parcel of this cabal.

Haruna Elbinawi

KADUNA-NIGERIA

elbinawi@yahoo.com.