Sultan of Sokoto and President-General of the Nigeria Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA), Alhaji Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar on Friday called for continued dialogues over issues of religion in the country.
He said making public comments do not help but aggravate the issues, assuring that Muslims in the country are good people who would not be provoked to take up arms against anybody.
The Muslim leader spoke at the opening of the 34th National Qur’an Recitation Competition organized by the Musabaqah Foundation for Quranic Recitation in Nigeria/Centre for Islamic Studies, Usman Danfodiyo University, Sokoto in collaboration with the Muslim Community of Lagos State.
In attendance were the governor of Lagos State, Mr. Babajide Olusola Sanwo-Olu; his Deputy, Obafemi Hamzat; Emir of Kano, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, Chairman of Police Service Commission, Musliu Smith, among others.
The National Qur’an recitation competition was established in 1986 as an annual Islamic competition. It is organised by the Centre for Islamic Studies, Usman Danfodio University, Sokoto to bring the Qur’an closer to the hearts and minds of young Muslims across the country.
This year’s competition will run from December 27th to January 10th in the Centre of Excellence.
Sultan said Muslims are very good people and they would continue to work with Quranic injunction which forbids man’s inhumanity to man.
He said while Muslims are generally good, there are bad ones as they exist in all societies, urging the government to deal with the bad ones.
Sultan said, “And I want to assure you that no Muslim would be provoked into taking up arms against anybody based on what you have been seeing in the media particularly of recent. These are issues we need to tackle; these are issues the various governments at all levels need to tackle by sitting down and talk to one another because making public comments don’t normally help.
“They aggravate situations. And I want to assure all, everything is right with us. The Muslims in Nigeria are very good people. We will continue to do the best. But among all good people, there are also bad people and we know there are bad people among all societies.”
He stressed that the Muslim leaders would not cease to give sound advice to the leaders to do the right and make the country a better place.
According to him, Islam is a complete way of life and Qur’an is very important to all Muslims. He said if everybody works with the injunction of the Quran, there would be no corruption or any form of criminalities in the society.
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