‘iPhone 15 is it, not university education’

Brethren, we must begin by supplicating to our Creator to grant our brethren in Palestine divine support and succour as they continue to face death and destruction in the hands of the powerful. We pray for His miraculous intervention in support of the oppressed in Gaza, in the West Bank, in Palestine and all around the world. We believe that He is able and capable; we are convinced that within His control lies the portents of the heavens and earth.    

Two stories provided some cathartic relief for me from the ongoing tragedy in Gaza. Both stories were however very ‘familiar’ in their ‘unfamiliar’ ways. They were stories that reminded me of the depth of the abyss into which our world has sunk; stories that were and are instructive of how perverse our world has become.  

First, my attention was called to the Conservative Party conference that was held on the 4th of October, 2023 where Rishi Sunak, the present UK Prime Minister made some remarks on transgenderism, a new phenomenon in Europe that seeks to define gender not based on biology any longer but by human choice to be whatever they choose to be. The UK Prime Minister, apparently frustrated by the new ‘fashion’ in British society, therefore, took up the gauntlet by saying that ‘common sense’ should differentiate a man from a woman, that doctors should be able to tell a male patient from a female patient and that people should not get ‘bullied into believing’ in transgenderism. He said: “Patients should know when hospitals are talking about men or women. And we shouldn’t get bullied into believing that people can be any sex they want to be. They can’t. A man is a man and a woman is a woman — that’s just common sense.”

The Prime Minister’s remarks expectedly attracted very passionate debates from within and outside the United Kingdom. While his supporters heaved a sigh of relief and considered his statement as the most appropriate response to the increasingly growing queer dominance in the UK, a section of British society was offended by his position. His critics viewed it as an affront to the freedom and personality of queer individuals. Rishi Sunak and his supporters were of the view that gender identification by birth is the ‘right’ path, while to his critics like Tim Hopkins, gender identification by choice is the way to go!

Ordinarily, in the so-called ‘free’ world that we have found ourselves in, what Britain does with its society should be of little concern to Nigeria. If the United States grants its citizens the freedom to change their gender every day as they do with their clothes, such should occasion no trepidation or concern among brethren in Malaysia. But the challenge we are facing is the pressure being put by the West on nations outside their shores to accept the ‘new normal’. There are cathedrals and churches out there in the West where indulgence in sexual perversion is being ‘blessed’ in god’s name! 

While the world awaits the next turn in this march towards debauchery, the story below was also brought to my attention. It is that of a young girl who asked her parents to purchase what they refer to as iPhone 15 for her (I am still wondering where is iPhone 14 and 13!). Utterly unaware that their daughter had set up a camera that would record their conversations, the girl’s parents rebuked her for her inordinate desire to acquire a phone of such a highly prohibitive price, particularly at a time when the girl was still pursuing admission into one of our nation’s universities. As soon as the conversation ended, the girl went on to upload the encounter she had with her parents on Twitter and before you know it, her story went viral. Before you could say Subhanallah, somebody offered to buy the said phone costing a minimum of #950000 for the girl. Eventually, she became joyous. She was happy for ‘trading’ her parents’ dignity and sense of responsibility for material gains; she subjected her parents to global opprobrium for her to enjoy material patronage!

Here lies the kernel of today’s message: exactly where do we stand regarding the global socio-cultural currents that are threatening our sanity and sense of morality? What concerns do events of today occasion in your mind? Is it not true that these days are completely different (Quran 3: 140); is it not true that our days are completely dissimilar to this so-called contemporary period? 

In other words, unlike our days – those days of innocence, chastity and morality, the contemporary period is circumscribed by by-products of modernity; Cable television networks, of multiplexity of apps and platforms: WhatsApp, Instagram, Twitter pages and ‘’handles”. Nowadays babies desire to make sense of their world as soon as they emerge from their mothers’ wombs; unlike before, they come to the world with grey hairs, with eyes wide open; eyes that ‘look’ the world straight in the ‘face’. Indeed, these are end-times: these are times when portents of resurrection are within contemplation, yet humanity remains heedless (Quran 21:1).