You can’t force democratically elected people to resign – Sheikh Akinbode

Sheikh Abdullahi Akinbode is the founder and leader of Jamahliy Society Worldwide (JSW).

He founded JSW when he left the Nasrullahi Fathi Society (NASFAT) as chief missioner.

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The foremost Islamic scholar speaks on the mission of the society, why the country is facing so many socio-cultural and political challenges, as well as the recipe for a prosperous nation.

What led you to establish Jamahliy?

Rome was not built in a day. The Quran was not revealed once not because Allah did not have the power to do it that way.

The society started as Allah ordained and everything that has to go on as part of missionary activities must be in piecemeal. Knowledge is the starting point.

Teach people how to read. When people learn how to read, teach them how to think.

When people know how to think, teach them how to explore. Teach them how to investigate.

Teach them how to go about in life. It is not a day’s job, it is a dynamic exercise and it is a lifelong process.

So we do it as instructed by the recipient of that message, Prophet Muhammed (pbuh). The mission is just to establish the real deen (knowledge).

 In terms of expanding the scope of the society, how far have you gone?

We are not in a haste. Islam is a lifelong mission. If you say you want to start today and have 1,000 branches, it is not how many, but how well you are able to establish that mission.

Here in Jamahliy, the first thing we do is that we want to be known as a society of knowledge.

The minimum benchmark of knowing our member is that he should be able to read the Quran. He should be a reciter of the Quran. He must know Al-Quran.

 So how many branches do you have at the moment?

We operate on districts; not branches. A branch is being headed by an imam and he is the final say.

He has autonomy on his branch. But we have districts that are responsible to the headquarters and are really involved in the exercise of Da’awah.

Here in the headquarters, we have 30 districts that are being manned by governors.

So if you have a branch, definitely you have two districts: one for men and the other for women.

There are several Islamic organisations doing virtually the same thing and there are people who do not believe in the need to have these organisations; what is your take on that?

If you don’t investigate us, you won’t know us; and we don’t advertise what we do, but people who enjoy what we do appreciate what we do.

We have told you that we teach people how to read the Quran. We do Tafsir after Asr, tell me which organisation has Tafsir.

Tafsir is only done in the month of Ramadan. I started Tafsir when I was in NASFAT and I brought my Tafsir when I left NASFAT. So I have a mission.

All our women can read the Quran. When you come on Sunday, you will see children learning how to read the Quran.

During the week, you will see young boys being assisted in their studies – mathematics, English – we employ people and we pay them, but we don’t make noise.

People who don’t come to study us would just sit down and say, “They are just gathering people.”

Yes we gather people every Sunday. The fact that we have been gathering people is one thing. They gathered people for the #EndSARS protest.

The outcome of #EndSARS was destruction. We are not setting up chairs for meetings; rather for Tafsir. We sponsor people in the university, but we don’t make noise.

Someone just came from Ekiti State, he wants the branch of the society in Ekiti State, but it is not automatic.

We have to educate him because it is the imam that decides here, not the uninformed retirees. It is a society being driven by knowledge.

That is why people will just pass unguarded comments on us. It is not a platform for everybody. It is a market for the knowledgeable, scholars of Islam, people who would apply Islam to their callings.

You said the imam decides; do you see this as a missing link in some of the other organisations?

You have the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN). Who is the President of ICAN? Is it not an accountant? Is a lawyer not the President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA)? Why should somebody who is uninformed about Islam be the president of an Islamic society?

Was that why you left NASFAT?

I served them and when it was time for me to live I left according to the rule of law. I am not a young person.

I was to retire at 70. I retired at 60 voluntarily, but people would not tell the truth of the statement.

Nigeria is considered a religious nation, yet we have a lot of moral decadence, youth restiveness and unrest. Where do you see the missing link?

The Holy Quran says, “If your establishment of Solat, Zaqat, going to Hajj and fasting in the month of Ramadan cannot take away bad behaviours from you, are you of Islam?”

So you don’t say Nigeria is a religious nation or you can say a deceitful religious nation because religion has not influenced many of our lives.

The purpose of religion is to perfect your life. When you know the truth and you pursue falsehood and you call it religion, no, it can never be religion.

Religion must throw light into darkness, but when darkness is now overtaking the light, it is no more spirituality; it is devilish. People say they are religious, but we are not seeing the effect on them, whereas we are seeing the effect of religion in Britain and America.

But here in Africa, there are Muslims but they are not Islamic. This is caused majorly by ignorance.

 Is that why we have this tag of extremism on Islam?

Extremism is still part of ignorance. What is the meaning of extremism? There is no question of extremism; it is either you know or you don’t know.

It is the coinage of the social media people. When you see somebody, you say he is an extremist. Religion is personal and as long as it does not affect the life of your neighbour.

Extremism does not even come into Islam. Islam is either you know or you don’t know.

And when you struggle to know you will still find out that you don’t know.

How do we now address the challenge of people linking terrorism to Islam?

They can do anything they want. The Quran has prepared the mind of Muslims.

The Quran says, “You cannot please your enemy.” Your enemy will never praise you.

He would continue to oppose you. If they are painting Islam black in Africa and it is waxing stronger in the West; that is to tell you that people painting you black are your enemies. Have you ever seen an imam holding a gun?

Don’t bother yourself, just ignore them and continue with your own mission.

How will you describe the state of the nation given the high rate of insecurity?

If we are talking of leaders; everybody is a leader. The head of the family is a leader.

The head of the community is a leader, the head of state, the governor are equally leaders.

Why do we concentrate only on the overall head when the headship starts from home?

The father has failed in his own home, the children will definitely fail outside.

The head of the community, the chiefs, the baales and the magajis have failed in their respective communities, likewise the governors, ditto the president. But if everybody is disciplined the security will come back.

It is not the president or the governors that created insecurity. We put them there.

But if you now employ lawlessness or indiscipline, you cannot achieve legality from illegality. If you say protest is right, the end of protest is destruction.

Destruction is illegal. Illegality cannot beget legality.

So if we want a good society, we too should be disciplined. Do we want the government to quit?

Those we voted for, you want them to come out one day and resign? It is not done.

Democratically it is not done. We voted for them to be there for four years and they are accountable.

If after leaving the office, we now ask them to account for their leadership, we are on point. But when they are still serving and we now want them to leave, we are causing chaos, commotion, anarchy and lawlessness.