The Learner

Muhammad Muhsin Ibrahim @muhsin234 Why did you come to study in India if it is not better than your country, Nigeria? Three keen followers of my blog, one Indian and two Nigerians, whom I respect, implicitly asked me the above after reading one of my non-romantic articles  on India. Yes, India is ahead of Nigeria in many developmental indices, such as the economy, military establishment, and infrastructure. It is, however, ahead of it also on various other unmentionable indexes such as racism, communal clashes, maternal mortality, female foeticide and infanticide; child labour and slavery, etc. Though mosaic as India is, you can’t, or rather shouldn’t, generalise. No hyperbole in the above comparison: each country has its good and bad sides. My coming to India, as I said before, was deliberate and purposeful. I dug deeper and had a lengthy back-and-forth over email with the university I was joining. My area of specialisation is film-related (not English, as many, I ...

Muhammad Muhsin Ibrahim muhsin2008@gmail.com @muhsin234 Islam and its about 2 billion adherents suffer an acute ad hominem criticism in various places in the world today. The condemnations are wide and wild. While the notorious one centres on terrorism carried out by some Muslims, dubbed extremists, a salient other one is on the many prohibitions embedded in the religion. A non-Muslim friend of mine once told me, “I can’t practice Islam. There are more ‘Noes’ than there are ‘Yeses’ in it”. I didn’t quickly affirm or snub her allegation. I instead felt the need to study the whole thing thoroughly, and so I did. There are, of course, many “noes”, which are, nonetheless, for the wellness of humankind. For instance, Islam bans all intoxicants (cigarettes and alcohol deserve particular mention), pork meat, interest and usury, any sexual immodesty (adultery, fornication, incest, pornography, etc.), gay marriage, among others. Religion is religion. It must not always seem reaso...

Muhammad Muhsin Ibrahim @muhsin234 Astrologists would want me to believe that June 1 is my lucky day. I will, however, not take them seriously, as I don’t believe in that pseudoscience. But no doubt, the day stands unique in my life. At least two life-shaping incidents happened to me. First, I assumed duty as a Graduate Assistant at the prestigious Bayero University , Kano in 2012. Second, precisely a year later, I married the woman I have always appreciated being with. For anything, the day cannot pass like any other. I think it deserves a particular remembrance and commemoration, though not in any ritualistic manner. This year was unlike the previous one. I had then wanted to give a tantalising treat to my wife, which was subsequently marred by some chilling and killing incidents in both Nigeria and India that do not bear repeating here.  I had not planned to do anything special this year, nor to write a single word, until about an hour ago. I had had, two days ...