In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent the Merciful

“…In the creation of yourselves, and the fact that animals are scattered (through the earth), are signs for those of assured faith”- (Q45: 3-5).

THUS we come to the end of the story- the story of 2012; and thus we arrive at the beginning of another story- the story of 2012. The beginning and ending of a year, be it the Islamic or the Gregorian, usually occasions some sense of anxiety in the men and women of intellect and understanding.

To begin a new year is to begin a journey one is not sure of completing; to end a year is to enter into some psycho-spiritual trepidation. This is exemplified in this saying of Prophet Muhammad (May peace and blessings of the Almighty be on his soul): “A Muslim is torn between the two stations: between the past in which he is ignorant of what has been his record with Almighty and a future about which he is oblivious of what shall be the decisions of the Almighty in it”.

Thus the beginning and ending of a year, instead of being a source of infantile indulgence in celebration and perfidious revelry, should be occasions for sober reflection. It should awaken in us the necessity to take stock of our failings, the necessity to reconnect with our Creator, the necessity to repair what we have unwittingly destroyed in our spiritual capitals such that we may thereby rescue ourselves from the imminent retributions of our iniquitous predilections.

Put differently, dear Brethren, each time the year ends either in Dhul Hijjah or December, it feels as if something in us as humans dies with it; I become attentive to the nearness of the expiration of the cosmos; I address myself to the possibility that this world can implode at the next moment.

Nothing seems to exemplify the acute perfidy of these times and the depth of the weakness and hollowness which superintend human affairs nowadays more than the events of recent weeks and days. Contemplating these events- the brouhaha over the propriety or otherwise of the proposed allocation of over N406 million on the purchase of foodstuff by the federal government, the propriety or otherwise of the intention of the various state governments to borrow millions of dollars to execute phantom projects, or even the insistence of President Jonathan to do everything he promised not to do and his announcement to the nation that he would not do everything he covenanted to do- can indeed be disorienting.

Events of this year, therefore, remind me of yet another saying of Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w): “The Hour (the day of resurrection) will not come until a man passes by someone’s grave and says: “Would that I were in His place”. Here the Prophet is alluding to that particular instance in human history when the dead would lose nothing having left the world; when men would wish they are dead before death becomes their portion.

Thus I wonder what those who have died in this country have indeed missed. In other words, over 30 years after my father left this world, my compatriots in the village still use lanterns and go to the stream in search of water. Ten years since the assassination of that politician, my compatriots still eke their living in a state of insecurity; five years since she was “murdered” by the failure of state infrastructure, federal roads still remain death traps.

Brethren, is the Prophet not right when he says a time will come when the living would wish they are dead- dead to the nauseating and ribald governmental sophistry on the removal of fuel subsidy, dead to the absolute subterfuge being paraded by government officials who believe the current political class is the best the Nigerian society can aspire to get.

Brethren, in the midst of these storms and typhoon, agents of shaytan who masquerade under the canopy of Islam and roguishly and maliciously posture as the defender of the Crescent continue to inflict harm, death and tribulation on innocent citizens of this country. Last Saturday, the group carried out their threat to attack innocent Christians. Their agents sent scores to their grave, deprived the infant of the companionship of their mothers and fathers, and unjustly orphaned children at the very hour and moment of their happiness.

Let me use this medium to commiserate, once again, with the families of those who have died in these unfortunate events. A brother who went to Maiduguri just before the Id Kabir was robbed and eventually killed by those who purport to face the Kaaba. Just before he died, he proclaimed the kalimah- la illaha illa Allah! Then his killers reportedly lamented thus: Musulumi ne?

Brethren, whether Muslim, Christian or even the hard core atheist, Islam abhors unjust killing and despoliation of human and material resources on earth. Shall we reiterate, therefore, that the solution to these orgies of violence, the panacea to this state of anomie, should be sought, not inside Islam, which has, itself, become a victim. Rather the solution should be sought from within the negative underbellies of the socio-economic and political set-up of this country.

In other words, agents of death who now parade the streets in the north, the kidnappers who have decided to hold the East and the South-South by the jugular, the armed robbers who have turned the South-West to a slaughter slab are all products of a society which is at war with itself. The Nigerian society is at war with itself because it is at war with its Creator, the Almighty. Solution to the insecurity in this nation should be sought in the scenes of ignorance and poverty in our cities. Of all the creatures of the Almighty, it is only humans that commit suicide and when they do, it is usually meant as a strategy and a medium through which it could deliver its message no matter how benign and crude the latter may seem to the observer.

Brethren, the year 2012, like the ones before it, would go down in the annals of this country as that in which national insecurity was taken to another dastardly level. It was one in which the religion of Islam was unjustly seized upon as a warrant for the transaction in wanton destruction of lives and property. Year 2012 was one in which banks were bombed before being robbed.

Brethren let us use this Friday to supplicate to the Almighty so that this country may be rescued from the precipice of implosion. Let us appeal to those whose task it is to superintend our affairs to cease measuring their prosperity by the adversity of the ordinary Nigerian. In other words, is it not true that the refusal of the Ministry of Works to repair bad roads led, in part, to the recent attraction for the purchase of private jets? Is it not true that the bad state of our hospitals led to the caravan of the rich in our airports all of who are in search of medical redemption outside our shores?

I pray the Almighty rescues this nation from the evil machinations of the enemies “within” and “between”.

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