SHIEKH GUMI: POLITICS IS SUPERIOR TO PRAYERS
SHIEKH GUMI: POLITICS IS SUPERIOR TO PRAYERS
By:
Nurudeen Dauda
September 11, 2022
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Permit me to say it in clear terms that this is not a "commemoration" but rather a "tribute" to a great soul in the person of late Sheikh Abubakar Mahmud Gumi who died exactly 30 years ago today. The knowledge of Islamic Jurisprudence (Fiqh) is very important in the Muslim World.
Late Sheikh Abubakar Mahmud Gumi as a great scholar of "Fiqh"had succeeded in strengthened "Islam" and "Muslims"in Nigeria and the world at large during his life time due to his seminal interpretations of issues based on the circumstances the Muslims of the time found themselves . As a great "Faqih" (an expert in Fiqh) he had a clear interpretation that Muslims should join the Armed Forces, Civil Service, Customs, Police Force , Banking work, setting up Hotels , studying Law, women's education etc., at a time when most scholars were "skeptical" or even openly against it.
Below was his verdict on an election in the 1980s that led to an unnecessary controversy:
"Politics is superior to prayer. The irony is that most of those who narrated this were not present on the day Malam made the statement that is being misinterpreted. I was in the gathering the day Malam made this statement. We were preparing for local government election in Kaduna . The two contestants were one Reverend Aboki , who was a Christian and Alhaji Sule Bako , who was a Muslim. There was only one local government in Kaduna at that time, which was the one at Magajin Gari. This was during the regime of Babangida and the voting method adopted then was Option A4. It was a system whereby people would form a queue and would be counted. On the Saturday preceding that of the election, during Malam's class where he read Sahihul Buhari at Sultan Bello Mosque, people asked him questions pertaining to the then impending election. They told Malam that election was coming up next Saturday and the system adopted was Option A4. They also asked about what they should do if they were on the queue waiting to be counted and prayer time was due. Should they abandon the queue and go and pray and probably miss the opportunity to be counted or should they wait to be counted before going to pray? Malam advised they should remain on the queue and be counted first because , if they should leave the queue , the opponents could take advantage to manipulate the election and win. He said it was better they remain on the queue and be counted and then later combine their Zuhr with Asr prayer because this had become a necessity. He said it was better they delayed that prayer and be counted than to leave and at the end of the day allow a Christian win the election. He said if they allowed a Christian to win the , he might prevent them from praying totally in the future. He said the election at that time was more important than the prayer they would go and observe. Malam never said politics was more important than prayer . But at that , they were on the queue , it was better for them to wait to be counted than to observe the Zuhr prayer. He said since the election would finish before Asr, they could delay their Zuhr and combine it later with their Asr prayer. Malam gave an answer that suited the situation on ground. But people who were not even present spread the rumour that Malam said politics was more important than prayer. This was what happened and the situation under which Malam gave his verdict".- according Mal. Yusus Hussain in a book called The Selfless Reformer: Sheikh Abubakar Mahmud Gumi(pp.341-2)
May the Almighty Allah have mercy on our highly revered Sheikh.