Sultan’s bitter pill for flamboyant scholars
Speaking recently in Katsina at the opening ceremony of the 32nd National Qur’anic competition, the Sultan of Sokoto and President-General of the Nigeria Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs, His Eminence Alhaji Muhammadu Sa’ad Abubakar III; cautioned Islamic clerics against flamboyant lifestyles. The Sultan expressed worry at how today’s scholars, with their predictable large followership, engage in show of wealth by “riding in luxurious vehicles and sleeping on water beds”.
Represented by the Emir of Katsina, His Royal Highness Alhaji Abdulmumini Kabi rUsman, the Sultan emphasized that a decent lifestyle is what was needed by scholars to demonstrate exemplary leadership. Islam, according to the Sultan, is a modest religion that encourages decency; adding that Muslims are enjoined to adhere strictly to Islamic teachings in order to create and sustain a virtuous society. Sultan’s comments have concisely captured what has sadly become characteristic of many scholars in modern times.
While flamboyant scholars may find Sultan’s statements bitter and indicting, it is indeed the truth; and “truth”, they say, “is bitter”. Unlike the founding and foremost scholars of the 19th century Sokoto Caliphate and other early scholars in Katsina and Kano including Shaykh Muhammadubn al-Sabbagh (otherwise known as Dan Marina) and Shaykh Muhammadubn Abdulkarem al-Maghili, many scholars in contemporary Nigeria are a complete contradiction of their ancestors in nearly all ramifications.
Of course, the Sultan is not saying that scholars should wear tattered clothes or be tasteless in their food or indecent in shelter. The prime message from the Sultan is that scholars should allow modesty to practically permeate all that they say and do in their public as well as private life. To retain their name as traditional custodians of knowledge, the definition and interpretation of decent lifestyle by modern scholars, no matter how substantially modernized they have become, must be within the moral framework of modesty.
For everyone who lays claim to knowledge and calls himself a scholar, there are basically three things to look for in him. They are scholarship, apathy to materialism and humility. If the last one is missing in a scholar, you do not have to bother, in my opinion, to look for the other two. We would elaborate on these three attributes in subsequent paragraphs; making comparative analyses between orthodox and modern or flamboyant scholars.
Scholarship or knowledge is the foremost trait of a scholar. A scholar is discerned with exceptional passion for knowledge as well as its dissemination in the simplest, friendliest and attractive manner. For instance, scholars of the Shehu Usmanu Dan Fodio-led Sokoto Caliphate demonstrated parching thirst for scholarship as they were routinely attached to their study rooms; addicted to their books; preoccupied with classical literary activities; and spent significant part of their time in teaching and preaching. Flamboyant scholars of today have, however, deserted their foyers (Zaure in Hausa) for the waiting rooms of distinguished lawmakers, honourable ministers and other political office holders. It has become usual of them to lurk around the corridors of power in government houses and local government secretariats. Genuine scholars have no need to loiter around government offices.
During the formative years that led to the establishment of the Sokoto Caliphate in the 19th century, scholars and leaders of the Caliphate had no electricity, let alone fan or aircondition; they had no typewriter let alone computer; they had no analogue telephone let alone mobile handsets; they had no biro let alone fountain pen. Their writing materials were pens made from cornstalks and ink extracted from shrubs. They used yarn coated with Shea-butter wax (Mankade in Hausa) as lantern; their laps as tables; and donkeys as their