The prohibition of human sacrifice in Islam

The sight, as usual, particularly for those who have not lost their sanity, was abhorrent. It was grisly. It was grotesque. Yes. Here, I refer to the mangled body of an unfortunate compatriot of ours who was found in that city the other day. She had been murdered. Her body was already dismembered.

It was not the first time. No. It was not going to be the last time. Indeed. It was not. Only a couple of weeks ago, the decapitated body of a mentally challenged homeless young man was found in another part of the city. All vital parts of the man’s body were removed. His remains, like that feasted upon by vultures, were discarded in the ravine as if he never deserved to live; as if the Almighty was unaware of his situation and circumstance. The perpetrators of the heinous act thought that the Almighty was oblivious of their action!

Whenever these egregious events occur especially in Southwest Nigeria, well-meaning compatriots of ours usually express dissatisfaction over the incessant occurrence of the egregious acts and frustration by the seeming feckless approach of the security service to bring perpetrators of the odious acts to justice and swiftly too. But who are those faceless elements whose business it is to transact in human life, human parts and subject our society to opprobrium? Why does Islam not only prohibit unwarranted destruction of life but equally render nugatory, and eternally too, human sacrifice?  

Human sacrifice is a common practice or ritual in some cultures and traditions especially before modernity. Such rituals are usually embarked upon to appease or please gods whose thirst or anger, it is believed, can only be assuaged and averted by the desecration of entities it did not or could not create (human life). In the contemporary period, the acceptance of Islam and Christianity especially in parts of Africa where traditional worship held sway had led to a thaw and a downturn in these wicked practices. Islam has demonstrated, particularly through the story of Prophets Ibrahim and Ismail (upon them be peace), that shedding human blood in appeasement of the divine is not only unacceptable but equally a villainous imputation of evil to God, the Almighty. If He, the Almighty has no need for animal meat nor its blood (Quran 22: 36-37), Islam contends, how could He then command the sacrifice of human life that represents the acme of His creation?  The Almighty says again: And do not kill your children for fear of poverty. We provide for them, and for you. Killing them is a grave sin. And do not come near adultery. It is immoral, and an evil way. And do not kill the soul which God has made sacred, except in the course of justice. If someone is killed unjustly… (Quran 17:31-33)

But the hold that Islam and Christianity have over large sections of the populace in parts of West Africa, and indeed Nigeria, has continued to wane no thanks to the impacts of modernity, erosion of communal values and, recently, the craze for quick wealth among the citizenry. In their overarching pursuit of money and indeed quick fame, some youths, including university undergraduates have signed on to and become members of secret societies and groups whose main activities consist, in the main, of perpetrating internet fraud (yahoo-yahoo) or engaging in voodoo including human sacrifice (yahoo-plus). These are young boys of around twenty-years of age who want to own landed properties at Banana Island in Lagos or Apo Village in Abuja, ride in cars their forefathers would never have dreamt of and engage in pleasures of the body that could potentially lead them to damnation.

Such is the story of an undergraduate student of mine who started very well by combining his studies with rendering services to staff in the university quarters. Then, all of a sudden, we stopped seeing him. Shortly thereafter we heard that he had rented a three-bedroom apartment in the city and was now riding a car that I, a Professor at bar, can ill-afford after more than three decades as a University employee. He soon started skipping classes. When eventually he came to my office, I beheld the persona of a character whose horizon had changed completely. When I asked him about his new business outfit, he muttered: “I am into logistics Sir!

“Logistics!”; that is the register of those who belong to the underground, the underworld and the cosa nostra in our society. These are agents of darkness and of Beelzebub. With the recent relaunch of the so-called Isese-day in Southwest Nigeria, the region should be prepared for a return to life in the wild, where only one principle dominates- eat or be eaten!; where women would be prohibited from the streets because of their gender and where libations, comprising human blood, would be poured to the gods of darkness!