Abdal Hakim Murad – Nana Asma’u Paradigms of Leadership
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The transcript describes the history and cultural significance of Islam in Nigeria, including its influence on society, political and cultural bases, and cultural implications. It describes a woman of significant stature who worked at Mosque and other city buildings, provided accommodation for those in need, and acted punctiliously. She was the same with every single person he worked with, and he was in charge of repairing the city and other city buildings.
AI: Summary ©
Bismillah Alhamdulillah wa salatu salam ala Rasulillah. Were early
he was a happy woman while that.
So this is the fourth in our series of explorations of what
Muslim equivalents there might be to the rather Western managerial,
secular linear category of leadership in the context of
submission to God and divine omnipotence, we really need to
interrogate that category. And I've spoken at length about that
already.
You might recall that we have been broadening our
horizons to include, and not just for obvious contemporary reasons,
the female possibilities of leadership. And we looked at that
paradigm Hajer. And I want to continue that, although this may
be the only other female personality that that I invoke to
look at a recurrent but neglected possibility that has been present
in our heritage that for reasons connected to the Muslim love of
privacy and discretion, tends not to fill our imaginary archives
when we think of the great leaders or figure exemplified figures of
the Muslim past, but it's, the males are half of the ummah. And
we are often interrogated about this issue. In particular, it is
as well, to have some data up our sleeves. We note that because this
is the religion of high up modesty, the religion of hijab
it's kind of the HELOC of Islam. The Holy Prophet says, Allah Who
salatu salam liquidly Deen in Haluk will call local islam al
higher.
Every religion has its own characteristic virtue. And the
characteristic virtue of Islam is modesty if you're going to
translate higher as modesty, that obviously refers to males as well
and the Holy Prophet was well known for his own higher, but in
the context of our reticence about the male female male engagement in
the public sphere, something characteristically Islamic. We
find that the female contributions to the leadership paradigm in the
OMA is somewhat occluded, you have to read between the lines, because
they didn't want to be known you have in their case, particular
instance of the problem that we invoked in the first lecture,
which is that what really does it mean to be a leader when the Holy
Prophet alayhi salat wa salam says lettable Imara don't seek
leadership.
So 1000s upon 1000s 10s of 1000s, hundreds of 1000s of charismatic
females in particular history, their names will not be recalled,
although modern scholars try to look for some indicative
exceptions. One of the exceptions that I want to look at,
in this series of who will form the main focus of today's
discussion is one of the best known figures of
Muslim how's the land? So Zainab is going to be very happy because
we're talking about West Africa now, and neglected region of
Muslim cultural and intellectual achievement.
When the unsalted Dean, that misnamed faction rolled into
Timbuktu, four years ago, the world discovered that actually,
there's more manuscripts in the libraries of Timbuktu than in
Oxford and Cambridge put together the great black African city of
learning. And I've been there and the libraries are indeed,
scrupulously kept by aged, erudite gentleman, and it is still a city
of scholars.
So West Africa, one of these five regions of Islam that we talked
about the five colors of Islam, and one that tends not to be
within our field of vision, sufficiently, but a number of
scholars have brought that world to our attention, even though
those whose focus tends to assume that the Arab world is normative,
or the subcontinental world is normative tend not to know much
about those great areas of Muslim devotion, and Jihad and piety. And
so Wolf and tafsir had memorization and we need to know
that because it's very important part of the ALMA demographically,
so known as metal, the famous Mother of the scholars of early
19th century housing and
buried in Sokoto will be the focus of today's search for paradigms.
You'll note that she is
For the dawn of modernity, we began by looking at Imam Shamil,
who very much as a figure of that
transitional age between very traditional, timeless Fitri life
in the mountains of the North Caucasus, which had endured for
centuries without much change. And suddenly the eruption of
modernity, steam engines, artillery, modern forms of
communication, and military prowess, anti like Abdulkadir,
which is eerie stands at the meeting point of the two ages of
the two civilization, but now that it's metal, and her father, shape,
Ottoman done and 4d are all from before that time.
There's a few English explorers, who has kind of wandering around
at the time, the beginning of the 19th century, but the British
invasion of housing and doesn't happen for at least another 70 or
80 years. So she's not a figure who you can come up with as an
exemplar of how to deal with modernity. She is from a timeless
Muslim antiquity, but we have a lot of information about her and
her own writings, and Jean Boyd and Beverly Mack, who are the two
main scholars I think that Americans who've worked on her
have produced her a huge volume of English translations of her her
writings so we have sort of direct insight into her mind. She's not
just known through hearsay.
For those of you not familiar with the story of Islam in those huge
and populous places, and development of the learned
scholarly traditions and it is very much a land of Allah Matt,
Maliki FAAC Ashari Kalam and cordery and T Janita. So off.
The origins of it begins with 11th 12th century Morabito
movements, and then working on based in Marrakech, who weren't
just looking north to endorse but also looked south, lucrative trade
routes, gold slaves, ivory to the south caravan routes over the
Sahara and into the lands of the Sahara, where rain starts to fall
and things start getting green again.
But those areas are largely captured for Islam not through the
sword, but by a very slow process of intermarriage, percolation
substitution of one worldview for another so Senegal, for instance,
which is said now to be the world's most religious Muslim
country, in terms of the people are actually observant. If you go
there you see how extraordinary it is.
That it's not didn't come there through the sword, but largely
through
missionary work by the Tariqas and merchants and the fact that it had
access to the Atlantic Ocean also made it a little bit less
inaccessible than some other areas of inland Africa and then the
establishment of the city of Timbuktu, the presence even of
Andalusi and refugees in Timbuktu. Timbuktu is linked through
caravan routes to Marrakech and other routes when I was in
Timbuktu, we were shown a well. And we were told if you dive into
this world deep enough, you come up in another world in Marrakech
didn't try that but they have a kind of imagination that they're
connected to this great southern Muslim city of Marrakech, even
though there is Africa, there's elephants nearby. There's hippos
in the river, it's certainly not Morocco.
So Islam is moving along the coasts and moving south down.
These caravan routes are being carried particularly by the Kadri
up to Germany, of course, a lot later. If you go to Senegal and
Mali today, everybody seems to be either T Gianni or cordery but not
the tianya our later introduction and the creation of great centers
of learning, the ones that even Western Muslims will go to cover
that control by Daraa salaam, particularly those who are victims
of Afro Caribbean extraction. There's quite a few in Colac at
the moment, which is the big T journey center in in Senegal,
basically these are 19th century establishments and earlier
traditions of scholarship or other areas, not just in bulk to which
we might, we might talk about the creation, of course of the great
mosques of West Africa, famous one in gender, which is now a UNESCO
World Heritage Site, but also in bubble DLSR, which is the second
city of Upper Volta
Burkina Faso, which is a truly amazing gigantic structure of
Adobe on baked clay and logs, and it's, it's an African
civilization, and it's the Islamic civilization of Africa. So, this
is not
something that is happening amongst primitive people but
amongst people who produce great high
It's scholarship 80,000 manuscripts in Timbuktu and still
there's people coming in from the desert and Savanna around Timbuktu
with sacks and they say, Oh, here's my grandfather's books is
died. Does anybody want to buy them under these wonders? It's a
place of real erudition. The South African government recently built
a new conference center in Timbuktu exploring this way of
pushing back against the white man's idea of the Dark Continent,
actually, more books in Timbuktu than in anywhere in Europe at the
time.
And the processes of Islamization also facilitated by pilgrimage
routes, and the practice of the Sufi talk of sending out adapt to
remote places to call the people to Islam.
When I was in Germany for a conference last week, I met
somebody from Benin.
It lives in Paris, dresses in the traditional sort of blue African
thing with the hat, very colorful, but most incredibly beautiful,
immaculate, 19th century condition, of course, French
amazing. And he said, Why don't you come to our mole in Paris,
20,000 people come 20,000, West Africa's at a mole in Paris, it's
enough to make Marine LePen go into palpitations. But yeah, it's
a it's a demographically significant space, and of course,
growing demographically, because HIV tends not to hit the Muslims
in Africa as badly as it hits the Christians. So in Guinea, for
instance, which is a Muslim country in West Africa, HIV, HIV
transmission is about 5%. In Botswana, the most Christian
country in Africa is 28% 61% of children in Botswana are on
retrovirals. Its
catastrophic. And again, the Muslim idea of high modesty, keep
the genders apart does save a lot of lives.
A friend of mine used to work with us sponsored
radio station in Botswana.
And the State Department said we really need to do something about
HIV awareness. And he said, Well, the only thing in Africa that
really seems to keep HIV down is Islam. So what we should do is use
this American Railway Station for the propagation of Islam. State
Department went quiet for a couple of months. They thought this
wasn't quite in keeping with the principle of separation of
religion and state. But in any case, those are interesting
places. worth going to if you've looked at the little interview I
did with one of the traveling light episodes, which we did it
set a goal. I did it with somebody called serene Amador long gobble
is one of the all of the well off people and he talks a lot about a
place called Photo jalaun.
Photo Jalon is kind of the car birther ultimate point of the
Muslims call it a tradition of West Africa. It's a big
mountainous area.
They call it the Switzerland of Africa, physically very beautiful
lot of mountains, it's sandstone mountains with deep ravines full
of rainforest and just about everybody that is said to be a
half as and they have great mother says, and it's from the photo
jalaun that a lot of the 19th century movements including the
one that we're going to be looking at, tend to originate because some
of the patterns of what's called the Fulani Jihad emerged in the
early and mid 18th century, in the mountains of photo jalaun for
digital and is in Guinea,
which is about 85 90% Muslim country, very devout place.
Unfortunately, the Europeans when they came completely messed up the
linguistic and ethnic distinctions of West Africa because they came
up from the coast. So they created all these kind of long, narrow
countries like Togo, and Benin and Guinea. So you have often pagan
and Christian coasts, which generate sometimes the national
elites because the French favored them and the hinterland that
inland its Muslim Garner is another example of that and
they've had to cope with with this. So that dominant ethnicity
in the photo jalaun is fuller, full bear pill they call and in
Senegal, basically the Fulani people, who are located really all
over West Africa from the Atlantic coast,
to almost a Lake Chad Maiduguri Borno region of the top right hand
corner of Nigeria, and they are today known as being very
committed Muslims, nomadic pastoralists, everybody thinks of
the Fulani as the guy who stands on one leg all day with a spear
with lots of candles next to him but they're agriculturalists as
well and the photo
aloneness is very fertile,
and
has a rich agricultural
tradition. And if you study the history of the soul off in West
Africa in particular, you'll see that one way in which the talk and
Islam spread was to the cultivation of the land. At middle
Bamber after the French had exiled him came back and established his
new city at Toba Daraa salaam, which is now this amazing place.
And he did that by telling his Marines to cultivate the land.
This is to the south is hotter. So you can actually grow crops,
ground nuts, cassava, sorghum, bananas and so forth, if you use
the land properly, and once the politics has been stabilized,
these are very rich places. So the footer jalaun, the main city there
suddenly the city of the Allamah is called Labette, L A, B, E, and
the French put a little accent on it because they would civilize
these languages by putting into carve the
circumflex. It just looks better. The city of Lubbock, which is a
real powerhouse of the Olomouc, founded in 1755, by somebody
called Kurama alpha,
who is a name to conjure with in scholarly circles in West Africa
and will give us a sense of where this later idea of the Fulani
jihad of which Nana Asmat was apart, might have come from. He
really is regarded as the one who clinches the Islamization of this
quite difficult landscape, it's a bit like the Caucasus Mountains
kept one and a half 1000 metres, steep ravines, a lot of rainforest
at the time, of course, lions, it's a difficult terrain. And he
is the one who decided to take up arms against the traditional
elites.
And you have to understand what this is about, because I've
already mentioned that the spread of Islam to the south of the
Sahara isn't really through Muslim countries to the north, sending
armies down, they never did that. But instead comes about through a
slow percolation followed by political consolidation through
what's called a kind of Jihadist principle. But the jihadist
principle is not Muslims, against pagans, and certainly not Muslims
against Christians, because there wasn't a single Christian in these
places at the time. But it's to do with these charismatic preachers
who object to existing monarchical cultures and their that heavy
burden of taxation, which they lay upon a kind of in surfed
population. And this is one reason for this curse, couple of
generations later of the jihad, or samanda, unfold your in house or
land and what's now Nigeria, if you look at the people who are
coming to these people,
caramel Alpha had 99 disciples, it'd be a legendary number, but
that's what they tell you, for two gentlemen. And they're the ones
who want the great battle against the traditional elite of the photo
jalaun And Gideon areas to the south towards the towards the
coast.
And the those 99 were not really drawn from the traditional elites,
African society was very hierarchical.
And they were priestly, as well as royal castes. But these 99 tended
to people who are kind of Freebooters disaffected sometimes
escaped slaves,
just dissidents, people who had suffered and weren't really part
of the traditional, the traditional elite. So the Battle
of talents and that was his great victory in which is 99 Muslims
according to footage, Allen tales defeated the great host.
And after the battle, a council of Olomouc was created nine on on
that of these fullback people and each alum was responsible for the
civilizing if you like of one of the nine provinces of the 14
jalaun by being the rd and ensuring the correct practice of
the religion and one of kalamalka alphas directives to them was that
they should respect the masters of the soil which meant that they
were not to turn out the old Eddie's but simply to
cancel that old practices.
And so, Lab A becomes this big, pacified center and even today it
has the second biggest market in Guinea. The biggest one is the
medina market in corner Korea, which is the big mosque which is
completely amazing place, especially if you really liked by
Like, sort of plastic crockery from China. It's
not really for tourists. But there's another really big one in
Lubbock. And that starts to get commerce moving and Islam is
moving to the south of the Sahara in a civilizational, rather than
just nominal way. Um, so we have
a number of Alana, who then become exemplary figures to know alio is
one of them who's still celebrated across the region who comes and
asks
Qatar mocha alpha, if he can come to these lands, and teach and kind
of mocha Alpha says, Well, shall I give you a village or
an area of land or some wealth that he says no, I just want
enough space for my grave. That's all I need. So it gives him the
space for his grave, and he lives as a kind of their head, calling
people to Islam and he's called the Imam relative of 40. jalaun is
known for that, to this day, the first great Imam of the Great
Mosque, the
turn of the arrow, who's a more recent Fulani figure dies in the
1980s. I think, because it's still very much a living tradition. It's
quite remote and hasn't been messed around by tourism, more
fundamentalism or anything much. It used to be a railway, but I
think it's not working any longer. So it's quite protected. Certainly
no internet. There was in Timbuktu, there was only one cafe,
in the whole town where you could get an internet connection, but
it's kind of dial up and very problematic. So it's a protection
for these places. So to know Alio, has given us this great poem,
which is the history of the Allamah, photo jalaun 409 verses
and it gives you a summary of the Hadith scholars, the Great,
the great morphus Cyril, so this becomes really a powerhouse. And
one of the things that's happening and this becomes significant for
the Fulani jihad, it's better known as horsmonden Fodio, further
to the east, is that they see that the old strict hierarchies which
really aren't based on any kind of universal ethics, but on keeping
the masses in their place, are rooted in the indigenous religion,
which is essentially a form of witchcraft. It's about placing
spells on your rivals. Every house has its own rather crude idol,
which you offer sacrifices to. And there's no real sense that
religion is about universal virtues. It's just about what can
I get out of this situation and out of this person is very similar
to that it's not to the pagan religion of the Arabs of Makkah
before Islam. It's not really about universals. It's about what
can this God do for me and my family and my tribe. And because
that is, in many ways, the norm that alternative to the
monotheistic paradigm in ancient societies, you find that the
Quranic polemic against that local antic argument for the poor, and
the refugees and the dispossessed, etcetera. And it's polemic against
the kind of magical practices of the elites fits very well in the
context of a place like West Africa and is one reason why
Islam, even though it's from a very different place, is a very
good fit. And these people become very, very profoundly Muslim.
From these areas, not just the photo jalaun But an area closer to
the antic Coast color photo total, you have Fulanis kind of nomadism
is to some extent in their blood moving around, and the family of
the famous Schaffer Osman dan Fodio actually originate in photo
Torah, which is new photo jalaun, but they come in the 14th or 15th
century, according to the stories, so they're not local, they're from
elsewhere.
The story of Osmond and Fodio is it's the great story of Muslim,
the Muslims to * Muslim, West Africa, really. And although he's
not the main focus of today, we need to get our heads around his
story because it's kind of emblematic. I was born in 1754, in
a town near a kind of city state, which is called Go beer. Gob IR
which is the biggest political unit in inland West Africa at the
time, it seems nominally Muslim, but in practice, there isn't much
Islam going on. Some of the rulers have Muslim names, sorts of Muslim
names, but
basically, it's still
a state ruled by practices.
have
magic done for you is from a family called a Toron. Kava clan.
These are the people who come originally from much further to
the west of the total area.
The atmosphere in Alcala which is the capital of Gobi, becomes
increasingly hostile to the Alannah.
And there's various rules like the assault on bans, the wearing of
the turban, he bans the wearing of any kind of headcovering for women
and so forth, and the family move from from Ocala to a place called
Degen D G L is the kind of Hijra and sometimes referred to as the
shareholders first Hijra. And then he studies with his father
Mohammed bin for the anti becomes habit of Quran studies, Maliki
Farooq Khalil and the basic texts.
It's because he's mainly known for his sort of political work, but he
has a very considerable literary output which has not been properly
discussed. But these people often quite erudite. So I found a
reference from a scholar in Mauritania, who had been
corresponding with Nana as metal, which he was well known outside
housing and consult on religious issues. And he says, Oh, we have
learned women as well in our village. There are several women
who have memorized the more than one out of samnaun.
Even in Mauritania, that's quite a feat because that's like learning
the London telephone directory. That's a Monster Book of early
Maliki Falconer kind of just saying, memorize this. So
these people are not superficial scholars, but they are part of
tradition, which in Morocco Mauritania, Timbuktu is a very
major core center for scholarship. He also studies under somebody
called Gibreel and Omar who is from Agadez, which I think is
knowing Nichelle kind of Sahara city, which is another center for
the propagation of the Maliki felt rather like Timbuktu and it's true
Jabril have an honor of that he receives his initiation into the
Cowdery tariqa, which is the great kind of
ideological principle which is pushing forward, the Dawa, the
missionary work in West Africa.
So we have an image of life in Daegu,
when Mohammed dies and Osmond and for do becomes the kind of leading
scholar,
first citizen of the town, he has 67 students kind of look at how
fast the famous 99 years 67 And they teach in a traditional West
African way sitting underneath an acacia tree. There's no point in
going indoors, sitting under a tree is the way to do it. And
they're studying in the traditional way with charcoal and
boards and memorization, memorization, memorization and
also
performing the old art of the gods via his type of de sol Worf. Even
though he and Nana has now his daughter can't be understood in
any context other than that of two. So what is quite a kind of
straightforward type of to so off the bat, the initiation rites seem
to have been just a handshake and the administration is an hour rod
to be said after the prayers. It's not a complex, tiny thing. It's
not the Whirling Dervishes, or the Jezebel Lea of Marrakech, it's
fairly
it's an it's an ancient type of DeSoto off based on the way of
Abdulkadir algae learning, of course.
So Osman comes of age and in his 20s becomes an active teacher.
He wants to propagate the filth and the ailment and he wanders
around the towns of the Gobi or salt in aid for about 12 years,
gathering disciples and spreading the PFIC.
And
also
Zamfara, which is a very, very superficially Islamist area,
basically, people are still practicing forms of magic that is
very distressed by this because he can see the human consequences of
that type of religion. Nowadays, very often we have this kind of
rose tinted view of paganism as a kind of Celtic Eden where we sort
of danced around Stonehenge and love the moon. And, in fact, if
you look at the religious iconography of West Africa, it's
clearly designed to inspire fear. Look at the masks
The idols, the images, it's not the kind of thing that you
wouldn't want to show your baby one of those images for instance,
it's about intimidation, darkness, fear, jinn activity, it's
manipulation.
And this was really very distressing to the Cordelia isn't
just a moralizing desire to crush the kuffaar. This is an app, a
direct sense of human distress that there are no universal for
like Elon virtues. It's just everybody manipulating different
spirits to try and get things out of people.
There's no real collective unifying worship. Instead, the
peasants will
sacrifice and much needed grain to the household ladle every day, or
animals will be sacrificed at sacred rocks, that kind of thing.
Sacrificial culture designed really, because people are afraid
and afraid of
natural and supernatural forces. It's very much based on fear.
So this is distressing him. And he obviously he sees the solution as
being Tawheed. So he, even though he's kind of committed not to
going anywhere near the salt hands, he goes to Gabi and he gets
an audience with the salt time. And he tries to get some
concessions for the local Muslim communities. He wants permission
to be able to spread Islam.
And he also seems to have given some lessons to the heir apparent.
You unfair, there was a bit of a piece of work, maybe a little bit
like current situation in Saudi Arabia and heir apparent is really
powerful. Watch out.
So
you have a nominally Muslim assault on
you have de facto a pagan world. The main practice involves
the seeds of the former apple tree which when consumed, have
hallucinogenic properties and will send you into interesting trance
like states, a lot of charm selling against rivals. This is
how it is but he has this key permission to teach and so his
reputation is growing people can come to him.
Even though the ALA mat in Gabi are not allowed to be armed, not
allowed to carry swords. But people come to him and they look
to him for some kind of alternative.
He has two sons, Abdullahi and Ahmed Bello, who both become very
distinguished teachers and ultimate and writers in their own
terms.
But his main support seems again, to have come from the peasantry,
the people at the very bottom of the heap, who aren't really
offered anything by the monarchical structures or the
priestly structures of, of God here, and are just there to be
exploited or chained and sent down to the coast to be taken off the
Americas as slaves, but their situation is a particularly
miserable one, and the bulk of his support seems to have come from
them. So
he is based in Deger, more and more of these poor people looking
to Him as some kind of deliver some even say he's the MACD or he
always denies this, he doesn't believe there's the MACD.
But then the Sultan in gold beer in the 1790s starts to become
uncomfortable. Why is this because Osman dan Fodio has had a dream.
And in the dream he sees the Holy Prophet giving a sword to
AbdulQadir Gilani, who then hands it to Osmond and Fodio,
which he takes his permission for himself to wear a sword. The
Allamah are allowed to operate with royal permission in gabion,
but they're not allowed to be armed. So in a lawless place.
That's hazardous.
But now, this symbolic girding all of the sort of Osmond and 40s
seems to suggest that this is potentially a political threat.
And so, a new proclamation comes out the world proclamation.
Nobody is allowed to teach Islam except done for himself because of
his status. Nobody is allowed to convert to Islam. Nobody may wear
a turban no woman may cover her head.
This is the new law that is coming down. You infer this kind of error
apparent become assault on he succeeded further in 1802 and
turns out to be even more
more difficult.
Can you imagine an heir apparent, getting involved in some barely
disguised assassination attempt? Inconceivable. Well, invites us
man dan Fodio, the most revered person in the land and even the
pagan civil This is a guy we can't really get concessions out of he
seems to be not playing by our rules. He is invited to the Royal
Court is given sales, safe conduct, he comes in order to
plead for the permission to His disciples to teach Islam.
And during the world audience, young Pharaoh produces a pistol
doesn't really some ancient Flintlock thing
and pointed at the shareholder and fires. And there's an enormous
bang, but it seems to have misfired and the assault on
damages his hand, and the shareholder is untouched. And in
that superstitious world, everybody takes this as a sign of
Shaco is allowed to depart. But it's clear that there is now a
relationship of war because
the Govier have tried to assassinate shareholder Osman den
Ford the year and then there's an obscure incident in which some of
the student Allamah are taken prisoner by gurbir. And the chef
who sends some of his men to liberate them. And one thing leads
to another and eventually it becomes clear that Gobi er has to
be fought and has to be overthrown.
Is this, some Westerners would say, basically, class war? This is
the masses led by this carrot charismatic kind of Lenin of
Nigeria, overthrowing the evil Tsar and his Rasputin in Govier.
Or is it a religious war to heed against those scary statues? Or is
it just a dynastic rivalry between ethnic groups?
Well, it was certainly clear in the shareholders mind that this is
about justice. And this is about God's justice. And this is about
knocking down all of those structures, which are clearly
impeding the peasantry and replacing them with a radical
image of the worship in the mosque where everybody lines up as equals
something which is totally inconceivable. In traditional West
African society, as it was in India before the arrival of Islam,
we just didn't get people from different castes, standing
shoulder to shoulder, foot, touching foot, all of that stuff.
Sometimes it gets a bit
intrusive, but you know what I mean? This is a very radical thing
for extremely hierarchical traditional societies. That is the
most important thing you do, which is worship, which is the
community's public declaration of its identity and its togetherness.
It doesn't matter who your parents were, you're just all kind of in
the same line before the same God that's only interested in what is
in your heart. This is a radical overthrow, and this is why
he makes this move. So he's elected imam of the community and
declared an emirate. And at that outset, he doesn't do too well as
a battle of some sort in 1804, where he is defeated quite
seriously and 200 bearers of the Quran half his are defeated.
But they nonetheless managed to establish a permanent base at a
place called gwendal. And slowly, other Muslim areas in this strange
liminal world where people know they're Muslim but they're more
interested in going to the the witch doctor. They, ultimately,
most of those in house or land in Katsina cannot Zarya, and so
forth, decide to side with with the shareholder partly because of
his personal charisma, he does come across as kind of a holy man.
It's part of the appeal of something like Imam Shamil, just
amazing, individual charisma and unbridled ability of the man
convinces them that this is a power that will prevail. So after
for CGS kobir, falls in 1808, and the largest state in West Africa
is now in the hands of che horseman than 40.
So, he himself withdraws. He goes to a place called CIFA with his
300 students and basically spends his time on island.
He has to was yours.
And structure of administration that it is they're using quite
severe Kadri principle
halls emphasize the inviolability of the law and of the authority of
judges the unacceptability of bribes. He does establish order.
And he writes a number of interesting books in which he
talks about in how to run a state, the conduct of courts, and so
forth. And he becomes not so much the political force but a kind of
moral eminence,
warning of abuses. He has a lot of books over 100 aluminum armella is
one of his best men, in which he takes the traditional progression
of Islam imagine
what to do with your body, what to do with your mind what to do with
your spirit, and portrays each one of them as a fight against
impurity or against dirt. The pagan religions have been really
interested in impurity you find a bit of somebody's nail clipping or
some kind of impure thing. And you use the psychic resonances that
dark energy of impurity in order to produce certain hype
manipulations. And in an African context, he then presents Islam as
the alternative to that as the religion of purity. Just as the
film is about is doing a formal physical impurity. So also
doctrine is about avoiding impure bunny beliefs. No man will surely
corner Nergis polytheists are impure. And similarly, the whole
Sufi taxonomy of the purification of the soul and the avoidance of
the impurities of desire and personal whims, backbiting,
slander, etc, etc, becomes part of this rather great book, which
he writes, I think he writes it originally in Arabic, although he
writes in other languages as well,
and becomes something of a classic, it's still still
available.
So he says that the science of soul is obligatory because there's
no other science that will teach you the method of adorning
yourself with beautiful traits. So he says every McAuliffe legally
responsible Muslim must learn enough of the sower to enable him
to acquire praiseworthy qualities and avoid blameworthy ones.
Then he talks about envy has said, which is often the basis of
magical religion, you will always filled with sadness and misery,
because Allah continually pours out blessings upon your enemies.
So every one of those blessings which is in itself, a blessing is
causing you suffering.
Fear and hope are of the commendable qualities which you
need to come by your chief fear by remembering your vices, the
severity of Allah's punishment, your own weakness and Allah's
total power over you. Hope is the heart to joy when it sees Allah's
Grace overflowing and the immensity of His mercy.
So, there's been plenty of fear in the old pagan religion.
If I don't sacrifice to this day or to my baby will die or the
rainwork form, it's that kind of negotiation with sin forces, but
hope, forgiveness, these are not practices it is not principles
which are generally associated with crude pagan forms of
religion. So a new horizon of purity is being opened up.
So
he has
many sons and daughters. I've already mentioned Abdullah, he and
Mohammed bello who become kind of Deputy as Mohammed bello becomes
ruler after his his death and another very substantial scholar
in his own right this university in in Nigeria named after him.
But we wanted to focus on the famous daughter Nana Asmat.
She is born to the shareholders wife may Maulana Muhammad Viet
Bella is born to another wife her work may mourn it gives birth in
1793 to Nana, a smell. And this is a bit of a surprise because
according to Hauser tradition,
if you have twins, she has a twin brother. You have to call them
Hassan and Hussein.
If they're girls you call them Hassan and Hasina. If it's mix,
and you call one person, the other Hasina but that's what you have to
do. But the Shaco just calls one of them Hasson he has a twin
brother called Hasan, but she is called a snap.
It's kind of surprising, it seems that he has in mind
because SeRa is part of their study practice, the famous Esma
bint Abu Bakar. If you were with us for the Sierra lectures last
year, you'll remember her significance where the Holy
Prophet and Bobak is are in the cave. And the light of the Night
of the Long Knives is just taken
Place and Grace are looking for them.
That Asmaa is the one who by night risks her life by going up the
mountain to bringing them food and drinks, they should call that and
knit arcane, one of the two belts because you have to carry all this
stuff
stuck into her girdle and she also becomes a warrior. She's quite
terrifying with the Battle of yarmulke, it seems so no doubt the
Shaco knew all of this and he wanted his daughter to be have
some of the baraka of that strong woman, I smack that Abby backer,
she's the half sister of Aisha. Okay, so to stone gold coming out
of the family of Abu Bakr about as much as about 10 years older.
So she is also a scholar. Basically, everybody the boys and
girls in the family have to be scholars, the shakers house has
hundreds of books in it. And these are beautiful West African
manuscripts wrapped up in leather things that really revered things
so she would have been brought up in this world of books. And
usually when her brother Mohammed or Bella went off for a journey,
it was to find more books. So hundreds of books in this house in
Vegas, and the books are all in Arabic, or full full day. So word
about the languages. There's no Arabs around. But Arabic is the
language of Islamic learning. And many of her books and poems and
her father's books and poems are in Arabic, but nobody other than
Allah can use them. So they often speak their own language full full
day, which is the main form of literary Fulani, which is a very
difficult language.
There's West African languages not only have it's not as simple as
having a passive and an active voice, but they have other things
as well, depending on who you think might have done something
complex. They have different moods, different voices. West
African languages are often extremely complex and difficult,
so full full day, which is written at the time in the Arabic script.
Our journey
is the language of Fulani families. But the ordinary
population speak Hausa, which is a very different language,
completely different language. So they also speak and right in house
as well.
She also writes and perching cameras EQ, which is another
completely different language, which is the language of the toric
people to the north of the nomads of the Sahara. It's kind of Berber
language, which also has its its literature, although it's less of
a literary language. So like her father, she is highly literate in
four different difficult languages. And we have writings by
her in all four, life is really their head. This is a royal
palace.
Her father, although who's the ruler refuses to take a salary and
earns an income by becoming a rope maker. So he spends his time
Mohammed or bello has a vegetable garden. She does the usual female
domestic chores. So it's a very fit very rudimentary style of
life. By the age of 10. She has become a half as a man. And then
by this time, the conflict with good beer has started and they
have to
escape go into various encampments. But she continues to
learn at the age of 14, she marries good adult Dan Lima, who
later on becomes the kind of wazirx, the deputy of the Shaco by
the age of 20. She has her first baby. And then she writes her
first book sometime in her early 20s. When she's got two small
toddlers,
she's still able to produce a book 10 B Hill her feeding.
It's clear that her father is very keen on women's education versus
long before Europeanisation it's just part of his tradition. It
said to me, this comes from the Cowdery tradition, because
abracadabra, Dylan is mother or mohair had also been a scholar,
and his aunt or Muhammad had also been a scholar. So there's a
precedent in academia for teaching the girls. And this is still the
case in many parts of West Africa, that a pious education as opposed
to a modern kind of vocal education will be
given to the girls, along with a lot of poetry and Sierra and
mounted,
got started singing
it also seems if we're trying to understand how she becomes this
female scholar
Who's revered that as well as this other a tradition, her father in
his kind of real dislike for the indigenous
Honor Code of his people had seen many of the practices to do with
what nowadays the politically correct are called toxic
masculinity as being reprehensible. There's an ethos in
housing land called Polacco, which is a kind of extreme machismo,
involving rituals of sort of self inflicted pain and humiliation and
rites of passage, as young men are initiated into manhood, that is to
do with a kind of exaggeration of the warrior stature of the man
which he saw as being from the NAPS from the ego. So he was
concerned to step that up, because very often, it expressed itself in
a kind of as a toxic masculinity that could take its take itself
out on on women. So, however, one interprets this by the age of 30,
she is regarded as somebody who not only is a woman who in a man's
world has become a scholar, but as somebody who is very actively
doing things for women, who are Gauri is her title in housing and
the mother of everybody.
If you take some orphans, she's concerned, particularly to train
up a Carder of women teachers call the young turtle. And these are
worth knowing about because it's kind of a women's terrier club,
but probably closer to the Tablighi jamat, I would say, if
you want to parallel in the subcontinent, it's like a women's
Tablighi Jamaat.
She recognizes that the ordinary people are sunk in destructive
forms of paganism,
and extreme forms of social hierarchy and superstition. And
she wants to as a devout woman, bring them to the purity of tau
hade.
The customers are not going to do that the Allamah are not going to
do that. It has to be done to women and women teachers. And so
she creates this basically an organization of friars, wondering
women, usually women of a certain age that are 50 and above, because
it was easier for them to travel and not be molested.
And this group still exists. A couple of years ago, I had an
email from somebody in Bamako in Mali, a lady there, who said she
was from the Malian young title, and they still working and
basically inconspicuous because they tend to work with really poor
women, illiterate women, teaching them the basics of Islam, just as
Maulana Muhammad Ali is in India. So the Tablighi Jamaat, basically
as being for illiterate me what is in up in places that were
subjected to various forms of Christian or Hindu missionary
activity and needed to defend themselves. So a young title
activist was called the judges she will be
charged with teaching the basics of Islam,
the follow the line, how to pray,
in particular purity rules.
And equipped with lots of stories, she had no point in going with
books.
So she would be equipped with rhyming stories of the lives of
Abdulkadir energy learning, and as the Sahaba and of the ollie app,
particularly the earlier of photo jalaun.
A lot of ethical instruction. So how to behave correctly when
haggling in the marketplace.
Knowing about religion, so she has a poem that still known in I think
it's in, I think it was in full full day. And then she translated
it into herself into Hausa, which is called the Quran, which is not
the Quran, but which is a poem that enables you in about 30 lines
to remember the names and the sequence of all of the, the surah
of the Quran. And it's kind of a tussle. So she asked for Allah's
forgiveness to Bukhara, and Iran and so forth. You learn those 30
lines and you've got the sequence in the names of the organic
sources by heart. She also wrote poems on Athena, correct belief.
And then the young Tarot ladies these judiciously does when they
were in a village for a while, and that local women had learned to
chant or sing these poems. They will then be taught how to write
them down. So this was the kind of literacy program as well. Using
the Arabic script the
Imagine the script.
And in this way, without any kind of intervention by the Alama at
all,
Islamic piety and literacy would, would spread. And
sometimes in her poems, you find references to some of her friends,
which gives you a kind of sense of who she was and and how she was.
So for instance, a very popular one is a eulogy.
On Elegy, let's say in Islamic civilization, we have this idea of
Rafat or Marcia, after somebody important dies, all the court
poems write a great panel Jarick to the virtues of the deceased,
like
Nabis great, pennant direct assault on stolen land and
magnificent and so forth. They tend to be kind of great.
Pulling out all the organ stops of language, but she writes quite a
few of these and sometimes you get a sense of her affection with some
of her friends. And sometimes these two would be in this very
oral culture where people were avid memorizes the virtues of her
companions who have become well known. So here's one,
energy for a friend of hers. We know her by the name of Ayesha
Ayesha, it was a woman of Wonder filled with virtue forbearing
upright a pious servant of Allah. She was among those who guard
themselves from evil by saying the Tahajjud prayer, telling her
prayer beads giving sadaqa reading Quran, rooting out presses and
taking on heavy responsibilities. She brought up orphans and give
assistance to widows. She was a pillar of strength to her family
and was good to kinsmen and strangers alike. Simple things but
in Nice, rhyming, rhythmic metrical, Hausa verse, so this
could be memorized in some informal gatherings in the
villages. The virtues of these people would take center stage in
the villages imagination and the old stories of ancient warriors
and demons and sprites would be would be banished.
So, once the untangle had reached a village and trained up, people
locally, one or two of them would then either go to dig L or later
to socket or to study with Nana Asmat will herself and will then
be sent out to other villages in this huge, very superficially
Islamist environment. And sometimes the non Muslims as well.
That would be non Muslims will be memorizing the stuff they had the
same languages. And so the process will just kind of extend without
any money changing hands. It was entirely done by by volunteers.
There were a few formal signs. One of the institutions of the
actually pagan kingdom of Goby was that the assault on sister was
always called the inner who is the kind of Chief which I suppose,
who was responsible for adjudicating disputes between
soothsayers who are cast Oracle's about auspicious date for
a battle or starting the harvest,
who you could go to for talismans of particular efficacy. And this
inner person that kind of high priestess of Gobi or society would
wear a particular kind of hat. So not as metal has the idea of
copying that hat, and giving one of them to all of her young Tarot
ladies, but with a red kind of strip of cloth or ribbon attached
to it, indicating that something new was afoot, and red indicates
the blood or the fire of personal sacrifice in paganism doesn't
really the idea of overcoming the lower self in this kind of
paganism at any rate,
but this time, this has to be
religious authority exercised by women but in a strictly
monotheistic sense, based on the practice of overcoming the nafs.
Yeah, and this red cloth would be wound on the kind of initiation
ceremony when a new young Tarot member was trained and regarded to
be suitable to be sent off to some remote village. And this is
remember a big empire builder into the south and up to Lake Chad in
the in the east and it's a big country. So there's a lot of them
and this winding on of the red cloth indicate that they were
officially authorized by her to go out and do this. She writes poems
also that seem to be for non Muslims or for recent converts and
many of her poems which are about the heroic
offered on a search term seem to be like that as an India very
often med poems about the Holy Prophet now poems are used by the
missionaries. And in India, it's often the Chishti is also brought
to the god area after all, as part of their calling
us the virtues and the amazing stories and the miracles of the
Holy Prophet as a way to win over people who may not know anything
about Waldorf and prayer but find these stories amazing. So she has
a well known poem in praise of Armada, which it has a lot of
resonances from the border of Campbell's theory.
Let us think the everlasting God, praise be to the King who created
Mohammed, let us forever invoke blessings and peace upon the
Prophet who excels all others athma that
except the song of praise, I shall sing excepto people Let us praise
and murder
at the border actually has a lot of influence in those places.
There's so many copies that you can see visited the libraries in
Timbuktu, everybody seemed to be copying down to the border,
everybody's memorized it. Mohammed Bello, her half sister, wrote to
tuck miss of the border, which is a kind of poetic extension, you
add additional verses in the same same meter.
She also made a lot of use of some of her father's poems including
one call yearning for the Prophet which is still recited in some of
the mosques in Hausa land today is very, very popular classic work.
And she is known for being indefatigable, she doesn't have
downtime.
Like her father, so Mohammed Bello, after his father's death
describes his father like this, he never worried when explaining
things and was never impatient. If people fail to understand to all
alike, he spoke of the things which would be useful to them. And
even when sometimes happen to us ask questions right in the middle
of a talk, he will just stop and give an answer.
So, like, us, man,
the daughter was concentrating on ordinary people. So good adult,
who's her husband said, What's mundane for you? Allah helped him
by decreeing that his followers should all be of the ordinary
people, just like those who followed the Holy Prophet.
Let me
Yeah, some more information here about the
custom of Bori which is that kind of magic pre Islamic magic
presided over by the inner of, of Gobi. So one of her strategies to
combat this because very often, the pagan magic was to do with
either making people sick to incantations, or healing people.
So she combats this by providing an Islamic alternative. And in the
shamans family, you find a lot of TIB Nabawi books
a lot. And she writes book, a book called tuber Nebby. And this book
is written specifically to explain how by using prophetic medicine,
which is sometimes what Anik recitations and sometimes herbal
remedies of various kinds, you have something more effective than
the pagan sort of medicine man incantations of the of the heathen
people. So she lists some classic ailments like dysentery,
headaches,
anxiety, what we call depression, all of the things that people
would have gone to the shaman or the soothsayer for some
remedy for some incantation, and explains the the Hadith based
remedy recommended for this, but it's also a female oriented book
in that she gives specific recitations and practices
recommended for things like breastfeeding, childbirth,
weaning and so forth.
And she has another medicine book tab, she's the one again still
used, which is basically a list of remedies for psychological but
also physical ailments. So seen very much as a kind of healer as
well.
She also kind of books about the history these are monumental times
the world is changing. When her father dies, and the new ruler
Mohammed bello also dies. She is the one who gives us the most
information about him and his time because she writes nine non poems
in which she basically outlines the, the sequence of events in
Mohammed or bellows life, and she writes it together with her
husband, many
These books seem to have been kind of co authored as informal
relationship, they would always be asking each other for a rhyme for
instance or to remind them of somebody's name. So they do seem
to have worked
closely and he also was a person of very considerable stature. So
one of these English travelers certain Hugh Clapperton, who is
passing through in 1824
describes good adult as follows An elderly man, he was excessively
polite. He spoke Arabic extremely well, which he said he learned
solely from the Quran. Good Edo is an excellent man who has unbounded
influence with the assault on to whose sister he is married. From
very few outsiders accounts. It's interesting that Europeans despite
the confidences of early Empire, and stereotypes of Africa as the
Dark Continent, when he actually encountered somebody like this, he
does say the man is excessively polite, European stereotype of the
Dark Continent at all.
Stereotypes which endure I was trying to look up the
the Fulani Jihad and this alternate in a very old edition of
Encyclopedia Britannica from the 1960s, which has been donated the
CMC library, history of housing and according to the Encyclopedia
of return for Seneca then begins when British rule starts.
Nothing else. Remarkable even though these people are much more
literate than your average colonial administrator,
it was just an amnesia.
So her husband is important in her life.
He also writes books as well as being the kind of grand vizier of
the new state. So he writes a book called Roald Dahl gene and garden
of paradise, which is
just an account of all of the miracles of Osmond and 40 of the
Koran that which he had witnessed personally, not hearsay but things
that he'd actually seen in the sheiks presence.
Good adore dies in 1849 still respected figure when people in
houses land call their sons good adults, because they remember the
memory of this person, person a very considerable stature. So what
I've done
is to prepare handout for you believe it or not, if these can be
pushed around, I hope we have enough. So
it's the one in tiny print that I'm looking at at the moment.
So eating 49, her husband of 50 years or so dies.
And she writes one of her energies. Martha for Hill, which I
have here in somebody's translation in four, which gives
you a kind of sense of not just her personality, but the closeness
that existed between her and her husband, so let's
get into her presence by
taking a look at this.
I turned to the Almighty who never tired if he is asked he gives he
alone never dies. I come to you who avails everyone because I feel
lonely because I think about my beloved, the pain is unbearable.
May I be forgiven and set on the path? I pray I might learn to
accept what you have decided which no one can change. The death of
Greek people is sufficient warning to people to ignore this world
which has no virtue. Let us resolve to divorce the world three
times because this means with finality without return.
We remember the deaths of bello and article and now the
Reconciler. So husband has also gone he worked conscientiously to
put things to write and benefit Muslims. He was untiringly
hospitable to strangers. He honored all the senior members of
the community and protected the rights of everyone regardless of
their rank or status. He honored to shake hands womenfolk, his
children and his relatives. He neglected none of them. He was
close to the shithole and bellow and explain their affairs. He
studied the Quran, oh god forgive his sins.
He was exceedingly generous in every respect. He provided
accommodation for all who came. He was the same with every one
stranger and kinsmen alike. He constantly attended to the needs
of the people, making sure that they had food and drink
tirelessly. He helped them to endure Miss 14. Likewise, he
explained about affairs known to him and sent gifts to those in
need never seeking recompense. He was in charge of repairing the
shithole and bellows mosques and other city buildings, tasks he
never tired of. He was also in charge of repairing the city gates
and the tombs. He was there
audience and acted punctiliously. He stopped corruption and
wrongdoing in the city. He acted sternly about such matters. He
held fast after bellows death, honoring his purpose and
explaining it to the people.
As for the shareholders message whenever the people gathered
together, he reiterated it to them. He was very serious about
this. The mosques and the prayer field preoccupied him as did the
preservation of the shekels books which he collected and had copied,
because he feared they would not survive, and if they were not
rewritten there would be lost. For the Shaco had certain of the
attributes of the prophet by the grace of the Prophet. His books
were written for Muslims oh god ensure their usefulness. God bless
Kidada and Grantham a peaceful rest in the grave until the day of
judgment. And all that day, oh, God, may he may he be given shade,
and may be saved by the best of mankind Amande his son, and on
that day when deeds are weighed, by his good deeds exceed his bad
for the sake of the Prophet, or God, may he receive his paper in
his right hand on the bridge, save him and place him with the
redeemed may drink of the waters of California together with bellow
reunite them with the shithole in paradise, where there is no
partying, unite him with Bella who has his friend in the place of
contentment, where joy is forever.
Show him the face of the chosen one the prophet and unite him with
those who see God himself than all will be fulfilled. Oh, God
received my words, I thank you and pray for blessing on the best of
mankind, his family and companions, and all those who
followed on who faithfully followed the path of the Prophet,
which is the son of him is finishing the year 1265 as the
Hijra. What's interesting about this is that clearly, she had been
close to her husband and respected him. But also, what she doesn't
mention is his kind of worldly titles and accomplishments. He was
the Prime Minister, the grand vizier of the biggest state in
Africa at the time, she doesn't even mention that she's only
interested in his human virtue not in his CV and his accomplishments,
it's a very interesting thing to reflect upon, quite unlike a
modern obituary.
So, she continues after his death to work and to build up her
women's organization, her young tattle.
And, also, to translate. This is a world with different languages,
full full day was her family's native tongue. But as we've
mentioned, that ordinary people
only spoke Hausa. And so much of what these people did as cultural
mediators was to include the house of speakers in the circle of, of
knowledge. So she's known as a translator as well between these
two complex languages one of often and and for years.
Most famous poems
is in full full day called Tibet Haqiqa which means
no reality, no God's truth, be sure of God's truth, which is his
advice to people who are in positions of responsibility and so
that this advice might not
fall into oblivion. She translates this after her father's death into
a house or into what I'm told it very beautiful house.
stances and it is still very, very popular in northern Nigeria. So
here is
an English translation of her house a translation of Osmond on
40 years. Tibet Haqiqa. In
full full day.
If you become ruler with authority over people you're to look after
the interests of everyone. Strive hard to do well for fear you will
burn. He will becomes ruler to devour the people will be will be
devoured by fire hear often. Be sure of God's truth.
Whoever seeks a position of authority so that he can grow rich
or powerful, or slightly allied himself with wrongdoers or those
who pay money for titles of authority. Without doubt or burn
hereafter, be sure of God's truth.
Any anyone who wants to find peace in this world and the next should
act peacefully, and anyone who refuses my advice will be sorry.
But the lowest village chief who is merciful will escape hereafter.
Be sure of God's truth.
Rulers must persevere to improve affairs Do you hear? Do you hold
rules do not stray Do not be too anxious to get what you want.
Those who are oppressed the people in the name of authority will be
crushed in their graves hereafter. Be sure of God's truth.
act righteously toward the people and do not cheat. Be always
compassionate to them your reward is hereafter do not follow those
who have strayed from the path those who prevent victims from
lodging complaints, will themselves be kept from access to
heaven, be sure have gone through.
Those were the case should seek legal redress. Instead, they
choose to go to influential people. They do not seek lawful
judgment as instructed. There is of course commotions and spread
slander we'll be shrieking here after be sure of God's truth.
There are some who inflate market prices and others who double deal
when selling. There are still others. Let me tell you who
swallow up the wealth of the Treasury. The fire will swallow
them. Be sure of God's true.
Other people's sole means of livelihood is in seizing property.
Others lie waiting concealed in order to steal. Others cheat. They
are there in readiness. Women who binds their husbands with spells
will be bound up in * be sure of God's truth. Those are some
selected verses from this very
famous poem which in the context of
corrupt Nigerian politics is still
considered to be a vitally important reminder of
religions, severe ethics in a time, where plundering what is
actually quite a rich country, Nigeria with its oil, wealth and
other mineral mineral agricultural wealth has become a kind of
scandal. This voice is still a prophetic one, and, as I say,
frequently read so she embarks on these translations to preserve the
shareholders heritage and also like her husband good adore. She
looks after the shareholders books. She's a kind of archivist
and librarian books in that culture needed kind of constant
attention so it's not to be eaten by insects and to the south, you
have humidity as well, so rebinding the books and ensuring
the preservation was one of the things that she would regularly do
in her old age in 1864. She dies and she's buried in Sokoto quite
close to her father and her home.
Known as the gang, Kara two is a kind of place of pilgrimage has
been kept more or less unchanged since that time, the antiroll
still regarded as a place of inspiration and to barrack for
themselves even though I'm told a lot of Sokoto has changed. beyond
recognition, still, the memory of these people
is fragrant and fresh. So that's a kind of brief summary. Was it a
simple life or simple I guess in the best sense, not a complex
life. houses made of rammed earth.
Simple, but often beautifully crafted rush matting on the floor,
simple ceramics, and everywhere, poetry everywhere, mounted
everywhere, and a determination which runs throughout the life of
this family and the terracotta clan, generally, that religion is
for
everyone, and particularly for the poor and the most a dark theme,
success of the mission of the Holy Prophet, as we saw last year was
through his inclusion of those who had never been included,
and his problematizing of the idea of inherited rank and wealth and
prestige, completely subversive and revolutionary idea in that
context. And so it was in the hierarchical world of the Sahel,
and 18th 19th century West Africa in the same revolutionary Sira
principle turned out still to be effective and transformed so many
lives, taking people out of the fierceness of magical, despotic,
absolutist, hierarchical tribal world into a world where you could
speak different languages, and you could become a member of the
Tariqa, or the untangle irrespective of your ancestry, and
everything leading ultimately to the mosque, where it's always
first come,
first served, who is in the front line, whoever gets there first.
This is the revolutionary principle of Islam, which we often
tend to forget and the extraordinary transformations
which it brought in the lives of those who were voiceless, who had
no literacy who had no capacity to answer back in a despotic null age
and it's through these people and preference really, for the poor
and the downtrodden and the things that they did for widows, orphans,
and those
Other Quranic categories. There's a cat recipients generally, which
shows that only monotheism can lastingly make a moral difference
in those contexts. So may Allah subhanaw taala make her memory
fragrant and insha Allah give her light in her grave and Charlotte
inspire us men as well as women in this age to remember those
essentials of religion, about justice
and about the light and hope of monotheism. Rather than focusing
too obsessively on issues of the furore, which is the plague of the
Muslims of our time. That seems to me, let us get our priorities
right. BarakAllahu Li Gong will reform in quote was salam ala
kumara
Cambridge Muslim College, training the next generation of Muslim
thinkers