The Learner

This article was written by BALA MUHAMMAD and first published by Weekly Trust (Nigeria) on Saturday, 22 September 2012. It’s however very relevant as ever. The recent attack on the French satirical magazine, Charlie Hebdo’s office in Paris behooved me to reproduce it here. Inasmuch as I don’t condone the murder, the actions of the newspaper are downright condemnable.    _________________________________________________________   His name is Muhammad. And all of us, now One and a Half Billion Souls and counting, love him beyond compare. In fact we so love him that others just can’t understand or comprehend. They don’t get it, and they can’t get it, for they know not this kind of love. We love him more than we love our parents; indeed we love him more than we love ourselves! The moment we hear his name invoked, we immediately add: “May the peace and blessings of Allah be upon him.” O we so love him, Muhammad! He left us more than 14 centuries ago, yet it...