Fadar Bege’s songs, one year after: A tribute

In fact, I was not an ardent listener of his songs, and I knew virtually nothing about him. I used to listen to his songs casually when my children played them on cassettes.
Anytime I listened to them, I experienced something touching in my heart that would make me want to listen again. I was not so attached to them because of the musical instruments used for the songs. I found them uncomfortable because I thought such instruments are forbidden in Islam.
When we finally finished the hajj rites and I returned home, the issue of his death was still fresh on people’s minds and wherever you went, you would hear his music being played. Many of his songs that were not known to me before were recorded by my children and as I got home, they welcomed me with them. I found my children completely changed, they became so serious with their religious teachings and tried to practice the Prophet’s tradition in the things they did and their discussions were always about love of the Prophet.
I was impressed by the changes and encouraged them to do more. All of them said their quest was how to get the love of the Prophet (SAW), his true love. They recited the blessings on the Prophet (SAW) all the time. Apart from the normal one that they recited while doing house chores, they decided on their own to recite the blessings on the prophet ten thousand times every day.
Since then, our discussions at home revolve round the Prophet’s love and all this is as a result of listening to Bege’s songs. If one listens to them attentively, without prejudice, one will learn a lot of things about the personality of our beloved Prophet (SAW) and our responsibilities towards him as his followers. I have decided start listening to his songs when I later learnt that the prohibition of musical instruments lies with the lyrical content of the song. If the singer is using repugnant words in his songs and using the musical instruments at the same time, listening to them becomes unlawful but where he uses pleasant words, such as praising the noble Prophet, such songs can be listened to without any fear of committing a forbidden act.
The theme of Bege’s songs is the love of the noble Prophet (SAW). One of his fans, while commenting on his songs, said there is no word that another praise singer would use to praise our beloved Prophet (SAW) which Bege did not use to praise him. He used his songs to appeal to our conscience, to make us ask ourselves how much we love to the Prophet (SAW). Take for example his song ‘Musa Lura,’ where he outlines the benefits brought to humanity by the Prophet (SAW). How he had suffered persecution, hunger, injuries and other unpleasant things to spread the religion.
He described how the Prophet (SAW) tried to protect us from dangers both here and in the the hereafter. He also asks what we have done to him to reciprocate the gestures while wondering how people are so carried away that they care less about all that he has done to them and adore others more instead of adoring and obeying him (SAW). His songs have revolutionised and reformed many people as attested by them and led to the emergence of singers of the Prophet’s praise.
There are such singers that emerged in states like Adamawa, Taraba and Gombe, among others across Nigeria and even beyond, after Bege’s death. Another thing that his songs bring, is happiness, as a woman once told me that whenever she is disturbed, she would send her children away from her room and listen to Fadar Bege’s songs and then her sadness would disappear.
Bege’s songs also make one to understand that there is no mortal in this world that deserves our absolute love except that of the Prophet (SAW), it is his that is genuine love, all other claims of love are false and can easily turn to hatred. This most illustrious singer started as a poor and dejected person in Wudil in Kano State, but his attachment to the Prophet (SAW) raised him to a high and enviable position. We are praying that it will be the same in the hereafter. Adieu, Fadar Bege. We love you for Allah’s sake and we pray to be with you near the noble Prophet on the Day of Reckoning. May Allah Ta’ala bless the children you left behind.
  Sumayya wrote in from Gadon Kaya, Kano