By Muhsin Ibrahim Inna lillaahi wa innaa ilaihi raaji’un! There is a particular cruelty in the timing of some deaths, a cruelty that refuses to be explained away. Muslim Abdurrazak Ibrahim, 31, died on a Friday. Every Friday without fail, he would send a Jumu’at Mubarak message, a small ritual of love and faith that connected him to family and friends across the distance between a soldier’s post and the world back home. On this Friday, he sent nothing. He could not. He had already gone. Muslim was the firstborn son of Abdurrazak, who named him after his uncle — a tribute to my older brother, Muslim. Abdurrazak, a retired soldier, had fought in battles inside and outside Nigeria and had returned home carrying the weight of friends lost in the trenches of Liberia, Sierra Leone, and beyond. His children, Muslim and his brother Bilal, would both join the Nigerian Army. The week of his death was, without either of us knowing it, a week of farewells. On Wednesday, my busiest day, Muslim aske...
The Scholar Who Shaped My Journey: A Tribute to Abdalla Uba Adamu By Muhsin Ibrahim Growing up surrounded by books at home, I aspired to be a writer. In 1999, as an adjunct teacher at a local Islamic school, I received my first-ever salary, which I spent on books. Many experienced writers advise that you must be a reader to become a writer. So, I read as much as I could, especially back then, to realise my dream. At some point in 2005, Freedom Radio, Kano, invited Prof. Abdalla Uba Adamu for an interview. As a versatile academic, he spoke at length on various topics, including their Yahoo! group and the KanoOnline forum. I became very interested in both. That was the year I finished secondary school, and I was eager to improve my English to pursue my writing dreams while also preparing for higher education. I wanted to contact Prof. Abdalla via email, which I noted when he mentioned it on the radio programme, but I was unsure whether he would reply. When I finally gathered the courage...