The Sultan of Sokoto and President General, Jama’atu Nasril Islam, (JNI) Sa’ad Abubakar lll, has lambasted some Muslim clerics for misleading their followers over the outbreak of the dangerous coronavirus in the country.
The sultan equally expressed anger and sadness over the refusal of some of the clerics to abide by measures put in place to curtail the spread of the COVID-19 across the country.
The Sultan, who is also the spiritual leader of Muslims in Nigeria, while condemning the attitude of the clerics warned that the coronavirus was real and that adequate precautionary measures must be taken.
Recall that the leader of Izalatu Islamic sect in Plateau State, Sheikh Sani Yahaya Jingir, had been reported to have told his followers that there was nothing like the deadly coronavirus ravaging the world.
He had described the virus pandemic as a western conspiracy to stop Muslims from performing their religious rites, noting that the virus was a lie.
Recall also that two Islamic clerics were arrested in Kaduna while conducting the Friday congregational prayers in Malali and Ungwan Kanawa areas, in the Kaduna North Local Government of the state despite the ban on such gatherings and a curfew imposed on the state by the Kaduna State Government to curb the spread of the virus.
Reacting to the incidents on Monday, the Sultan, through a statement issued by the JNI Secretary General, Dr. Abubakar Khalid-Aliyu, pleaded with Muslim clerics to stop misleading the Muslim community on the deadly virus.
The Sultan stated that it was sheer ‘monumental ignorance’ for anyone to claim that the coronavirus does not exist.
He further described the attitude of some of the Muslim clerics as ‘unfortunate and myopic.’
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The statement read in part, “Jama’atu Nasril Islam under the leadership of His Eminence, Alhaji Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar, the Sultan of Sokoto and President-General, JNI, is once again saddened with the recent unfortunate developments of misleading the Muslim Ummah (Community) by some sections of ‘Ulama (preachers) over the coronavirus prevalence.
“We must as an Ummah avoid a repeat of the current trend in Italy, which was partly due to non-adherence to expert advice over the pandemic. Allah, the most wise says “…So ask those who know if you know not” Q16:43. Therefore, we should all bear in mind that knowledge is an amanah (trust) and must be safeguarded and delivered as such, thus the need for this statement.
“One may not be wrong to conclude that the action of some of the ‘Ulama clearly depicts sheer whims and caprices of their myopic worldview, stark ignorance of reality based on genuine knowledge and medical scholarship.
“It is, however, regrettable that as the negative actions of such preachers incite innocent Muslims, who are unaware of the serious health implications of adhering to such empty dispositions that invariably endanger humanity.
Nonetheless, it should be noted that the issue of plague and/or pandemic is not new throughout human history, either at various times or places, the Muslim world inclusive.
“It is thus sheer monumental ignorance to falsely claim that the pandemic of the coronavirus does not exist and that it is a lie and a shadow of a ghost.
Such lamentable utterances leave much to be desired by any scholar that is worth being called a scholar. Moreover, the matter is a documented fact whose medical precedents have been set in curbing its tide in human history.
“Therefore, the current position of government is not a new standpoint to curtail the spread of the infection.
Rather, new methods of mitigating it and nipping it in the bud emerged in this contemporary world we live in, as a result of scholarly findings.”
