The Learner

Muhsin Ibrahim muhsin2008@gmail.com   After breakfast on the morning of November 2, 2020, I turned on my phone’s Wi-Fi. I received several notifications from my email and social media accounts, particularly WhatsApp, Facebook and Twitter. Thanks to End SARS protest, I have been unusually active on Twitter recently. It’s more engaging and has become the battleground for socio-political, cultural and religious battle among Nigerians. However, the End SARS protest heightened this debate, especially between northerners and southerners who, arguably, differ on the issue. Unlike the previous days, today’s top trending topics are not about SARS at all. They are about a Kannywood star, Rahama Sadau. Although she’s not new to controversies, that of today is, I must say, provocative. It led to the creation of incendiary hashtags such as “Assistant Allah.”   Ms Sadau, this time, shared her photos on Instagram and Twitter the night before. She wears a tight, backless long sleeve...

Muhammad Muhsin Ibrahim @muhsin234 I wrote this rejoinder to counter insults of Nana A'isha (R. A) by a coterie of apparently sponsored-Shiite members on Nairaland Forum  on 12th Dec., 2010. The recent spate of blasphemy against the virtues of the Prophet behoved me to reproduce the article here with a few changes. Based on numerous accounts of authentic hadeeths and undistorted historical scores, Sayyidat A’isha bint Abubakar (R.A) was the favourite wife of the Prophet Muhammad (S.A.W). Some Muslim sects do, nonetheless, attack and accuse her with enthusiasm, backing their untoward actions on some free-emptied arguments and fabricated histories of what transpired after the death of her husband, the Prophet, between her and Sayyid Ali (RA). Besides, other Muslims – I am one of them – regard, revere and respect her in their best possible way; and she remains a role model for their women. The greatness of A’isha, to us, is nothing contestable and hence one needs everythin...

Muhammad Muhsin Ibrahim muhsin2008@gmail.com @muhsin234 Let me be categorically clear from the onset that I am not here to legitimize the president-elect, Muhammadu Buhari’s handshake with any non-maharam woman. The often cited instances of other Muslim leaders of, among others, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia doing the same is, at best, extraneous and at worst, clumsy. No amount of words, logic, wisdom, etc can make what’s already haram (forbidden) such as an unconditional body contact with a non-maharam woman by another man halal (legit). That is my understanding, firm belief and sturdy stand. Buhari’s action is, however, purely personal between him and his Creator, Allah. I am very sure that Buhari, being a Hausa-Fulani and Muslim, knows that. He would, if he at all allows it, definitely frown at anybody shaking the hands of his wife, his daughter or his female wards. He did not grow up seeing the same being done in their house nor in his immediate environment. And yes, we...

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...