In Muslim-dominated northern Nigeria, there are four major ideological trends; mysticism, “liberalism”, extremism and Salafism. Obviously, Sufi mystical orders spearhead the first trend; the so-called liberal Muslims advocate for the second, extremist groups pursue the third and the Salafi revivalists propagate the fourth.
However, at the moment, I am not dissecting the respective ideologies of the parties representing these trends; I am, instead, highlighting the impact of the trends on the Iman (i.e. Faith) of unsuspecting Muslims.
Starting with religious extremism as represented by Boko Haram terror campaign, which has caused enormous loss of human life and massive devastation in the region, it’s obvious that their indoctrination drive targets and focuses on remote areas, outskirts of cities, slums and marginalized urban communities where Islamic religious awareness is particularly low. Interestingly, all potentially violent purportedly Muslim groups focus on such areas in their brainwashing exercises, capitalizing on the pervasive ignorance and gullibility of the people out there.
Whereas, the so-called liberal Muslims who, though are largely barely literate (in terms of Islamic religious knowledge) yet seek to reinterpret Islam and align it with their narrow perception of modernity, target promising but inexperienced unsuspecting Muslims in, particularly, institutions of learning and, of course, on the internet platforms.
They advocate for switching to philosophy as the basis for interpreting the Qur’an. However, while churning out their ridiculous adopted ideas, they betray their inferiority complex and inconsistency. For instance, they fail to observe the simple fact that the philosophical theories they derive their illusions from, and on the bases of which they want “modernize” Islam, are actually old-fashioned theories having predated Islam. This explains their fondness for quoting the likes of Plato, Socrates or Aristotle who had lived more than one thousand years before the advent of Islam, to ironically reinterpret Qur’anic verses in a “modern” way.
Likewise, when they also consider other bases for reinterpreting the religion, they deliberately skip the era of the Sahaba who learned the Qur’an directly from the Messenger of Allah, practiced it accordingly in his presence and consequently earned the Pleasure of Allah the Almighty. Instead, they (i.e. so-called liberal Muslims) go for the heretical and already intellectually debunked philosophical theories of Mu’utazila, Mur’ji’a, Jabariyya, Qadariyya etc, which they read albeit not from its primary Arabic sources, but from some quoted excerpts translated into English in some explanatory books or websites. Besides, though they are thinkers, albeit actually self-proclaimed, they sound too unimaginative to think beyond such archaic theories.
Of course, this is what happens when someone too ignorant to just read and understand the contents of Islamic knowledge directly from its sources, i.e. the Qur’an and the authentic Hadith collections fools himself into believing that no religious issue is too advanced for him to handle simply because he reads some books written in, say, English, by some equally ill-informed and/or misguided Muslims or even non-Muslims for that matter.
Now, ‘Yan Haqiqa are equally increasingly provocative these days. They are brazenly insulting Allah the Almighty and ascribing His Divine Attributes to a late Senegalese Sufi leader of a mystical order. Many of them in Kano, for instance, have gone to the extent of blatantly claiming to be gods and also claiming that everything is god. I am sure some readers may find this quite hard to believe, but it’s actually the reality, also one can investigate to verify. After all, a few (I think less than three) years ago, one of them, and while glorifying that late Senegalese mystical order leader at a Maulud gathering in Kano, insulted the Messenger of Allah (SAW) publicly, and effectively got away with it. And ever since then, Yan Haqiqa have been releasing extremely blasphemous songs and speeches.
Incidentally, though their blasphemous belief is inherent in their belief system as maintained in their mystical books, it has been largely kept away from the public; and for one to be introduced to it, he needs to undergo a bizarre and mentally exhausting mystical indoctrination process to eventually be mentally and ideologically prepared to be absorbed into it.
Though, being the only valid religion in the Sight of Allah the Almighty, Islam will certainly survive these challenges, after all it has survived worse challenges and will always certainly survive all challenges; yet, the Iman of many unsuspecting Muslims wouldn’t necessarily survive it. Because, if left unchecked, such blasphemous assertions by ‘Yan Haqiqa and the anti-Islam agenda of such so-called liberal Muslims, may begin to sound quite normal, if not appealing, to some unsuspecting Muslims.
Obviously, under these circumstances, one’s only protection against going astray, is his ability to cling to the pristine and only acceptable Islam by Allah the Almighty, which is and will always remain contained exclusively in the Qur’an and the authentic Sunnah according to the perception of the first Muslim generation i.e. the Sahaba followed by the immediately succeeding generation i.e. the Taabi’oon and those who followed their footsteps, which is what Salafism means.
