Abubakar Gumi
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Abubakar Gumi |
| Personal Details |
| Born |
1922 |
| Died |
1992 (aged 69–70) |
| Nationality |
Nigerian |
| Ethnicity |
Hausa |
| Era |
Modern era |
| Occupation |
Scholar |
| Religion |
Islam |
| Denomination |
Sunni |
| Movement |
Wahhabi |
|
|
Abubakar Gumi (1922–1992) was an outspoken
Islamic scholar and
Grand Khadi of the
Northern Region of Nigeria (1962–1967), a position which made him a central authority in the interpretation of the
Sharia legal system in the region.
[1] He was a close associate of
Ahmadu Bello,
the premier of the region in the 1950s and 1960s and became the Grand
Khadi partly as a result of his friendship with the premier. In 1967,
the position was abolished.
Gumi emerged as a vocal leader during the
colonial era, where he felt the practice of
indirect rule had weakened the religious power of
Emirs and encouraged
westernization. Beginning in the 1960s, public conflicts emerged between him and leaders of the
Sufi
brotherhood, some of whom he later debated on television programs in
the 1970s and 1980s. By that time, he had managed to keep himself and
his ideas in the spotlight by holding Friday talking sessions inside the
Kaduna Central
Mosque.
He used the sessions to revive his criticism of established authorities
based on his views of a back to the source approach or the need to
embrace a puritanical practice of Islam. He also criticized harshly the
involvement of
mysticism and the resulting
syncreticized practice of the Sufis.
Biography
Early life and education
The
Sheik was born in the village of Gummi to the family of Mahmud, an
Islamic scholar and Alkali (judge) of Gummi. His education started
within the walls of his family when he was a pupil of his father's
Islamic teachings. He later went to a school under the tutelage of a
Malam called Musa at Ambursa,
Sokoto province. There he was introduced to
Fiqh
and read books and praise poems on the prophet. The first secular
school he attended was the Dogondaji Primary School, while in the
primary school, he met the future 18th Sultan of Sokoto,
Ibrahim Dasuki
and excelled in religious duties. He was made Hakimin Salla (leader of
prayer) and was delegated responsibility for catering to the students
religious activities. Within a year, he was transferred to the Sokoto
Middle School, where Ahamdu Bello was teaching, there he was acquainted with
Shehu Shagari, Waziri
Muhammadu Junaidu, and Yahaya Gusau, the latter was a co-founder of Jamaat nasr al-Islam, a prominent
Nigerian Muslim organization.
After completing his studies at the middle school, he went to
Kano to study Law and was trained as an
Qadi.
He started work as a scribe to Qadi Attahiru but he soon became
disenchanted with the specifics of his job. He gave private lessons on
Islam and
tafsir as an escape from his disenchantment.
Early career
In
1947, Abubakar Gumi, left his job as secretary to Qadi Attahiru and
went to teach at the Kano Law School, which he had previously attended.
While in Kano, he met Sheik Sa'id Hayatu, a man widely considered one of
the most prominent victims of colonial rule. Hayatu was the leader of
the Mahdiyya movement and had just returned from a forced sojourn in
Cameroon.
Abubakar became enthralled with the teachings of the movement and
briefly became a follower of the Mahdiyya movement; he later married
Hayatu's daughter, Maryam. However, she died after giving birth to a
son.
In 1949, he took a teaching job at a school in Maru, Sokoto. The school had a famous tutor,
Aminu Kano, who was the co-founder of the Northern Teachers Association and proprietor of a few
Muslim schools.
Aminu and Gumi mingled and shared views on the influence of the
traditional society with the Islamic faith and also the indifference or
support given to the situation of
Bida or syncretism by the Sufi brotherhoods.
[2]
He left Maru to further his education at the school of Arabic Studies
in Kano. On completion of his studies, he became a teacher for two
years at the school. He also attended a school of education in Sudan.
[3]
In 1957, he became an interpreter for the Northern Nigeria government on
Saudi Arabia matters.
Conflicts
Abubakar Gummi had reservations about the administrative and religious guidance of the
emirate
officials in Northern Nigeria. His first dogmatic conflict with
authorities was in Maru. The conflict dealt with the practice of
Tayammum.
The chief Imam of the Mosque in Maru practiced the act of washing with
sand (Tayammum) before prayers while Gumi argued that Tayammum was only
applicable when water was not available, and water was widely available
in Maru. Gumi went further in his challenge of the practice, by asking
students not to show up for prayers until the
Imam reneged on practicing Tayammum. However, Gumi who had earlier written a scathing attack on the
Sultan of Sokoto,
now found the Sultan interested in his grievance with the Chief Imam of
Maru. A commission of Inquiry was raised on the issue with the support
of the Sultan. However, Gumi's knowledge of Islamic dogma was superior
and so was his argumentative skills, the commission ruled in favor of
Gumi.
[4]
Having gained a small victory over the Sultan, Gumi capitalized on the
attention he got by writing a critical article on the issue of Muslims,
especially the Sultan, accepting British titles. By then, he had begun
to gradually challenge established beliefs and attitude to actions among
the Muslim
Ummah.
[citation needed]
Another target of Gumi was the
Jibril Martin led
Ahmadiyya
movement. The movement was an easy target for Gumi, as some of the
movement founder's views were at odds with fundamental Islamic dogma, as
the founder had labeled himself
prophetic.
Gumi's fears about the movement were later fomented by the
organizational skills of the Nigerian founder, the movement gradually
became involved in the Western Nigerian
pilgrimage
board and had established schools for pupils in the South and was
moving up north in his dissemination of the principles of the Ahmadis.
Gumi took on the challenge easily and the movement's northward agenda
was curtailed.
Mass media approach
Sheik Gumi made his first pilgrimage to
Mecca
in 1955 and was joined in the journey by Ahmadu Bello. While in Mecca,
he translated Islamic works in the company of Bello and King Sa'ud. He
also met and befriended many members of the Ummah or Muslim community in
Saudi Arabia, many of whom later became his benefactors after the death
of Ahmadu Bello in 1966. On returning to Nigeria, he began to teach at
the School of Arabic Studies in Kano and also at some Muslim schools
founded by the Jammat nasr al-Islam (JNI) which were situated near the
metropolis
of Kaduna. A large part of his teachings focused on the differences
between tradition and Religion, and how to understand and embrace an
Islamic identity. He also wrote interpretations of the
Qur'an, mostly based on the
Sunna and translated the Qur'an from
Arabic to
Hausa.
This process led to the dissemination of the Holy book to a larger
Northern Nigerian audience and his views and message on fundamental
Islamic teachings began to find a wider audience.
[5] However, his opposition to the dominant Sufi brotherhoods such as the
Tijaniya and
Qadiriyya
earned him constant criticism and was usually attacked by some Muslims
on his interpretations, he usually replied that they should go on and
make their own interpretations, if they don't like his.
[5] By the 1970s, he became a regular feature on Television shows especially during Islamic events.
Rise of Izala and Islamic Fundamentalism
By the late 1960s, after the death of Bello, Gumi's major Nigerian
political support and moderating influence was gone. He felt the new
administration had the political power to curtail his views, and in the
process, he resulted to consult his friends in Saudi Arabia for moral,
dogmatic and financial support to promote a
Wahabbist interpretation of Islam centering on the rejection of mysticism, return to
puritanical
Islamic teaching and rejection of the then dominant Sufi brotherhoods.
He also wanted to find mass support in his battle with the brotherhood
and what he felt was their hold on the political process. Gumi, became
more interested in ensuring political support for his ideas, based on
his perception that a political Muslim has the power to change the
course of lives of a larger number of people than publishing scholarly
works or engaging in private debates and gradually became more
interested in political means to achieve an Islamic reformist end. In
the process, he became a supporter of
women's rights
to vote. By the early 1970s, to contest what he felt was the hijacking
of major Islamic political organizations by the Fityan al-Islam, an
organization founded in Kano by Mudi Salga, a leader of the Salgawa
network and who was opposed to some of the policies of the late Ahmadu
Bello and his Jamaat nasr al-Islam (the Association for the support of
Islam). He decided to start a movement and relied on his old students to
spread his views on Islamic dogma,
[6]
prodding many to take jobs at the JNI and enter into legislative
duties. He used his students as a foundation for the new movement to
challenge the Sufi brotherhoods and ensure a return of Islam to a
fundamental way. The rise of this movement
Izalatul Bidi'a Wa Ikamatul Sunnah or
Movement for the Rivival of the Sunnah, popularly called Izala, heralded the
radicalization of Northern Nigeria.
Many within the political cycles and Sufi Brotherhoods of
Northern Nigeria
held that Gumi was the principle that drove a wedge between Muslims and
non Muslims in Northern Nigeria, his interpretations of the
Hadith and Qur'an were based on his own personal views and not the Sunnah, and that he was monopolizing the
mass media for his personal views. He was also criticized for his rebellious views on traditional authorities.
[7]
Gumi believed that Nigerian Muslims should never accept a non-Muslim
ruler but also advocated peaceful coexistence with non-Muslims.
[8]
Awards and honors
He received the
Commander of the Order of the Federal Republicin 1987, he received the
King Faisal International Prize from
Saudi Arabia for his translation of the Quran into
Hausa language.
[8]
Abubakar gumi who was referred to as the father of izala as he
usually mentioned during his islamic teaching process,succeeded in
overwhelming the establishment of the 1970s organisation by name
izalatul bidi'ah wa iqamatussunah co-founded by one of his prominent
student whom gumi tutor in his previous job as a school teacher at
school of arabic studies (sas) in kano,though he also maintain his
membership in jama'atu nasrul islam (JNI) which favour him to proceed in
his islamic teachings at kaduna central mosque handed by the above
mentioned oorganisation JNI.
See also
Islamic extremism in Northern Nigeria
References
John
N. Paden, Muslim Civic Cultures and Conflict Resolution: the challenge
of democratic federalism in Nigeria, Brookings Institution Press, 2005. p
60. ISBN 0-8157-6817-6
Lomeier p 48-50.
John Owen Hunwick. Religion and National Integration in Africa: Islam, Christianity and Politics in the Sudan, Northwestern University Press, 1992. p 551. ISBN 0-8101-1037-7
Roman Loimeier. Islamic Reform and Political Change in Northern Nigeria, Northwestern University Press, 1997. p 51. ISBN 0-8101-1346-5
Paden p 61.
Lomeier p 209
Lomeier p 210.
Born 1957 for Syrian mother, Osama bin Laden was the seventh son among fifty
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