By Femi Abbas
E-mail: femabbas756@gmail.com
Tel: 08122697498 (Text only)
PREAMBLE
While it is heartening that Nigerian Mosques are still full of Muslim youth today, the real usefulness of their congregation is yet to be provided.
Despite this situation, however, a silent Islamic renaissance seems to be foraging rapidly especially in Southan Nigeria. The current situation looks like a repeat of the situation that led to the formation of the Muslim Students’ Society of Nigeria (MSSN) in 1954. This requires a big thank you message to Nigerian Christian propagandists who are incessantantly causing Islamic awareness for Muslim youths with their belicose threat to Islam in Nigeria.
With this Christian antagonism, two great possibilities are expected to ensure the sail of Islamic ship through the coast of Good Hope in the 21st century. One of those possibilities is the return of the Mosque to its original objective. The other is the inalienable continuation of Islamic dynamism in reshaping the destiny of mankind.
HOPE
The hope that these two possibilities are achievable in the hands of today’s teeming Muslim youths is in fulfilment of a fundamental prophecy about the signs of the last days. One of those signs is that ‘the sun will start rising where it used to set’.
The reference here is not to the physical sun. It is rather to the spiritual photosynthesis of the souls of mankind for the ultimate metamorphosis of those souls from mortality to immortality. That photosynthesizer is Islam. And, the fulfilment of this prophecy is gradually being confirmed today either by technology or by the sciences.
THE MOSQUE
Mosque is not just the meeting place for offering Salat five times a day, it is also the centre of congregation for Ju’mat prayer every Friday. It brings the Muslims together twice in a year for congregational observance of Eidul-Fitr and Eidul-Adha. Yet, the meeting place called Arafah which is the climax of Hajj is a Mosque.
The Mosques in Makkah, Madinah, and Quds (Jerusalem) serve the same purpose as those in Cairo, Jakarta and Rio Sydney. And, there is no difference between the Mosque in Sokoto and the one in Tokyo.
The language and the method of worship in Islam, everywhere, is the same.
FORTIFICATION
Generally, the Mosque plays a central role in fortifying the unity of the Muslims wherever they may be. But unfortunately, with time and Muslims’ crave for material benefits, the Mosque has been relegated to just a place for the observance of Salat alone. That is the real cause of the backwardness in which the Muslim Ummah is now wallowing.
IRONY
It is ironic that the Imams who should manage the Mosques lack administrative prowess. And, those who claim to be Mosques administrators lack Islamic knowledge. The result is that majority of unemployed Muslim youths who should find succour in the Mosque are frustrated even as the Mosque remains helpless. Where are we going from here?
RAMADAN KARIM!
