The Learner

Muhsin Ibrahim @muhsin234 I think I have not been busier, more disturbed and unorganized for a very, very long time as I have been in the past few days. Life is often a trial, futile and temporal. Thanks to Allah for creating us the way we are: oxymoronically determined, forgetful and seldom ignorant of what is going on around us and beyond. It’s His mercy. Else, the whole life would be uninteresting, tiring and, perhaps, worthless. The Trial We ‘celebrated’ this Eid-el-Kabir with literally empty pockets. Most of us thought the salaries of September would be paid as the day fell on the 24 th , a date when salaries could normally be given. It wasn’t. Moreover, known to all, salaries are paid prior to the due date if the time coincides with any feast like the Eid or Christmas. More so, being President Muhammadu Buhari is Muslim, some people thought, erroneously though, that he would ‘ favour’ his fellow faithful and pay the salaries. He didn’t. They (we, in fact) now w...

Muhsin Ibrahim @muhsin234 I came back to Nigeria after a two-year-stay in India. There has been so much to write about as so many things have happened, and more are happening since my return. Yet, procrastinations wouldn’t allow me. I balked on whether or not to write on this, that and numerous other itching issues. I have also been so busy: getting settled, resuming work and frequent visits from and to family and friends. And, above all, there’s no uninterrupted power supply, no reliable internet access and much more that were readily available while in India. I had never thought things would be that tough, in fact worse, prior to my return. Anyway, I heartily thank Allah as I am happy against all odds. I was contemplating on which and which topic to concentrate my first blogpost on after more than a month ‘break’. They range from the accusation of some people that President Muhammadu Buhari is now “Baba Go Slow”, or that he’s a northern president, or his anti-corruption c...

Muhammad Muhsin Ibrahim muhsin2008@gmail.com This article first appeared on Prof. Farooq Kperogi's column (his famous blog and the Daily Trust newspaper on Saturday) on 31st May, 2015. You may want to see it there:  Guest column: Incredible Indian English In both India and Nigeria , English is used as a second language. I couldn’t however resist being driven to write on Indian English— called Indianism or, more informally, “Hinglish”, which is a blend of Hindi and English—since my early days in the country some two years ago. Like in other nations where English is spoken as a non-native language, English usage in both India and Nigeria differ from British or American varieties in terms of phonetics, phonology, lexis, structure, etc. The distinctiveness of Indian English, though, is as incredible as the country itself. I am not here to disparage theirs and extol ours . I don’t subscribe to linguistic imperialism. But polishing our English to the level of intellig...

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, and whom I respect, impliedly asked me the above after reading one of my non-romantic articles  on India. Yes, India is ahead of Nigeria in terms of many developmental indexes like 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 purposed. 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,...

Muhammad Muhsin Ibrahim muhsin2008@gmail.com @muhsin234 Islam and its about 2 billions 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 (cigarette and alcohol deserve particular mention), pork meat, interest and usury, any sexual immodesty (adultery, fornication, incest, phonograph, etc.); gay marriage, among others. Religion is religion. It must not always seem reasona...

Muhammad Muhsin Ibrahim @muhsin234 Astrologists would want me to believe that June 1 is my lucky day. I will however not take them serious, 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, exactly a year later, I got married to the lady I have always appreciated being with. For anything, the day cannot go by like other days. 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 tantalizing 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 for this year, nor write a single word until about an hour or so ago. I had had, t...

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...