Comparative Islamic Reform Philosophies in Muslim West Africa: A Societal Contextual Comparison of Shehu Danfodiyo 1754-1817 and Abubakar Gumi 1924-1992

Comparative Islamic Reform Philosophies in Muslim West Africa: A Societal Contextual Comparison of Shehu Danfodiyo 1754-1817 and Abubakar Gumi 1924-1992

Professor Mukhtar Umar Bunza¹,Dr Labbo Abdullahi²

Department of History Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto, Nigeria^1,2

DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.47772/IJRISS.2024.801032

Received: 14 December 2023; Accepted: 23 December 2023; Published: 28 January 2024

ABSTRACT

The bane of current reformism and revivalism among the Muslim societies is principally the emergence of pseudo Ulama without adequate or no spiritual and educational substance to support them in the discharge of their responsibility. Many have not gone through the required tutelage to prepare them on the task of guiding people or lack the spiritual armament which will tame their inner self to the principles of good deed-Salah: Taqwa, Ikhlas, and Mutaba’a.  The effect of lack of such grounded knowledge and discipline among most Du’at– callers, and the so-called mujaddidun– reformers, is misleading their followers into extremism or compromise in religious practices. The Muslim World today is suffering from this experience and the solutions are being sought for, in order to free Muslims from shackles and bondage of incompetent and incapable activists and revivalists of Islamic faith.

Under this premise therefore, this paper projects and appraises the spiritual and educational basis in the lives of two– reformers/revivalists in Nigeria: Shehu Usmanu Danfodiyo, 1754-1817, and Abubakar Mahmud Gummi, 1922-1992, whose engrained scholarship and spiritual aptitude made them exemplary reformers in the 19^th and 20^th century West Africa respectively. They were known as prolific writers, teachers, preachers and ascetic; the sterling qualities which made their renewal and reform not only successful but sustainable and violence free. The need to reinvent and relive their legacies will go along way in instilling transcendent and didactic spirits in the minds and thoughts of our contemporary reformers.

Key Words: Shehu Danfodiyo, Abubakar Gummi, Islamic Reform Movement, Nigeria/West Africa, Comparative Study

TOWARDS CONCEPTUALIZING RENEWAL AND REFORM- TAJDEED IN ISLAM

Islam is a natural religion, which has its fundamentals and tenets in tandem with the situation and circumstances regardless of time and region. Thus, the religion is dynamic and not static or given to oblivion on any societal needs and requirements. Therefore, its teaching and advocacies are always revived from time to time to strengthened its weakness as a result of human factor or societal changes in line with original and pristine sources and substances of the religion. Whenever, decadence, compromise or extremisms appears into its fold, scholars –Ulama’ at different times and shades as reformers clean the religion from all inequities to returned it to its closes of forms to the Prophetic period. The act and practice of reinvigorating and rejuvenating the faith of Islam over time and space is referred to as Tajdid– reform or revivalism, and the actors as Mujadidun-reformers or revivalists.

The fundamental reason behind this is the natural and historic convention that, the world affairs continue to interchange and rotate between truth and falsehood, righteousness and misdemeanour, liberty/freedom and oppression. That continuous struggle between the two opposing forces in human society makes it imperative for religion and its actors not to sit on the fence, but take side and support justice, equity and righteousness against wickedness oppression and ungodliness.  Over history, that was the task of the prophet and messengers of God, in sequence, one succeeding the other, and after them followed righteous persons who followed their examples. That was in congruence to the prophetic statement that ‘Ulama’- scholars, competent learned- are the heirs of the Prophets’.  The religion of Islam as opined Sayyid Qutb, ‘is constituted so as to provide men with the basis of that uniform creed by which they can fabricate the emotional, spiritual or practical elements of their system of life. The mission of religion (of Islam), basically, is to establish a working contact between mankind and the divine reality, and to provide for correlation between their own life and God’s unique system, thereby striking harmony and homogeneity between their belief and practice, between their direction and that of the universe.[1] Under this premise, it is intrinsically construed that the religion(of Islam) should and ought be made relevant in all circumstances and times in facets of life. The idea of reform and tajdid of the religion for the better therefore, has been indelible and historically ingrained in Muslims in society, and optimism for the supremacy and renewal from time to time is also well entrenched.

The internal and external challenges facing Islam as a religion and systematic code of life make it desirable for revivalism and renewal in time and space in human society. Internally, innovation, syncretism and omission/commission in the affairs of faith always compel the longing of competent person to lead for a return to the basics and fundamentals of the Religion. The revivalist movements like that of Muhammad bin Abdulwahhab, 1703-1793, Sayyid Ahmad Shahid, 1786-1831, Ismail Shahid, 1779-1831, Shah Wali Allah, 1703-1762, Shehu Usmanu Danfodiyo, 1754-1817, Alhajj Umar Tal, 1794-1865, Muhammad Ali al-Sanusi, 1789-1859, Hajji Shari’at Allah, 1781-1840, Muhammad Ahmad b. Abdallah, 1844-1885, Dudu Miyan, 1819-1965, and host of others, are some major examples of revivalists Islam in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries Muslim World.

On the other hand, the beginning of 20^th century ushered in to the Muslims World a new complex and delicate phenomenon in the form of rising secularism and atheism which accompanied western colonial and imperial occupation. The experience endangered the entirety of Islam into compromise and submission to secular Euro-American political, economic, social and religious ethos. Thus, from Jakarta to Northern Nigeria to Morocco there were emergent waves of anti-imperial movements in form of Mahdism and other shades resisting western incursion in the Muslim lives. That the new set of Ulama’ reformers were/are mostly those who combined Islamic and Western education and thus, championed a new groundswell of revivalists and reform movements with aim of the shielding Islam from the aggressive encroachment of Western civilization.[2]  The similitude of these reformers included, Muhammad Iqbal, 1877-1938, Bediuzzaman Sai’d Nursi, 1876-1960, Abul A’ala Maududi, 1903-1970, Malik Bennabis, 1905-1973, Hassan al-Banna, 1906-1949,   Sayyid Qutb, 1906-1966, Muhammad Natsir, 1908-1993, Burhannuddin Al-Helmy, 1911-1969, , Muhammad al-Tahir ibn Ashur, 1879-1973, Abubakar Mahmud Gummi, 1924-1992, Hassan al-Turabi, 1932-2016, and Rashid al-Ghannoushi, b. 1941, among others.

The 20^th and 21^st century revivalists and reformers confronted the task of retaining and maintaining the purity of Islam amidst imperial political and social superstructures, which endangered the existence of Islam.   These are in the opinion Youssef M. Choueiri, the major underpinning for revival and reform in contemporary Muslim World, viz:

It was against this background that religious revivalists’ movements began to sprout in order to reinstate Islam in its pure and original state. Islamic revivalism made its appearance and exerted an enduring impact in the outlying areas from Sumatra and the Indian subcontinent to central Arabia and northern Nigeria… Islamic revivalism was a reaction against the gradual contraction of internal and external trade, brought about by the mercantile activities of European nations, particularly the Portuguese, the Spanish, the Dutch, the British and the French. [3]

It was in consideration and appreciation of this fact that, Syed Habibul Haq Nadvi, theorised ‘The Contemporary Turmoil’, as a motivating factor sparking the revivalist and reformist Islam in the post-colonial period in the Muslim World. According to him:

The rise of scientific civilization and the secularisation of human society, posed serious threats to all the religions of the world. The two World Wars, the demise of colonialism and the liberation of the colonised Muslim World, and above all the death of communism, triggered Transworld spiritual resurgence. The clash between the secular and the spiritual became dominant norm. The invasion of Western culture at high speed into the Muslim World, destabilised the society.[4]

These therefore, necessitated the unprecedented emergence of reformers and revivalists’ movements throughout the Muslim World.

In the same vein, the lost of leadership and public relevance which suffered since the colonial inroads, has been identified as another basis for the emergence of reformers and renewal movements in Muslim societies, because leadership and sovereignty in Islam belong to Allah, all serve as His Vicegerent, executing and enforcing His will on earth. The necessity of returning ‘God as a Law Giver’ in the Muslim society has been identified as one of the bases for the emergence of reformers past and present. The same as Pharaoh arrogated Divine Power to himself, which was challenged by Prophet Moses, and Nimrud also claimed power of life and death and absolute control over citizens which was challenged by Prophet Abraham, or the power of the Quraish fetishes which was challenged by Prophet Muhammad, are  according to this law the same as the influence and grip of traditional institutions and Western imperial displacement of Shari’ah for English or Common Laws of Western Liberal Democracy are being challenged by the rightful and competent followers of the Prophet in the present world.

Sayyid Abul A’ala Mawdudi expounds on this important factor and asserts, thus:

power and leadership in society, are crucial for this (bringing about justice and equity in the society) because these are the decisive factors in human affairs. Human civilization travels along in the direction determined by the people who control the canters of power… A society in the hands of those who have turned away from God… drifts towards rebellion against God.[5]

Western Civilization, and as well the Muslim nations that are or were under its radius of influence never recognize religion, (Islam) as relevant or has any form of importance in public realm due the avowed rejection of religion institutionalized in its ideology. That, ‘Western Civilization is perhaps the only one in human history that started its onward march by firmly, unequivocally and openly banishing God from public life, or at least making Him irrelevant and redundant’.[6] That in line with the discourse put forward by Lasine Kaba and tagged as’ ‘Islam Marginalized’ and ‘A Renewed Vigor and Radicalism’, as the experience of Muslim societies in the Post-Independence era in West Africa, 1950-1990 with the response of Muslim elites against the damage done to Islamic institutions since the European occupation in the late 19^th century and beginning of the 20^th century. The renewed clarion for the reintroduction of the suspended Islamic law, lack of recognition of Muslim rights and peculiarities in the modern education system, and other institutions.[7] In East Africa for instance same issue of marginalization of Muslims resulted to reformism and revivalism among Muslims; ‘the vision of the universal Ummah, the commonwealth of all believers over time and space, and impulse to influence other Muslims, as well as to reform their practices to bring them in line with scriptural Islam (after decades of European colonial experience), are factors necessitating the emergence revivalists and reformers’.[8]

That was the same scenario in Nigeria. What characterized the period were efforts to position Islam in the new colonial and post-colonial dispensation. That was why the enactment of the Penal Code and its application in 1959/1960 in order to provide a sense of belonging to the Muslims in the new Nigerian state.[9] The Penal Code provided the operation capacity of the Shari’ah especially in civil and family matters. Professor John Hunwick summarized this period as it affects Northern Nigerian in the following:

Muslims frequently argue that how public life is conducted is a fundamental part of the faith. In particular, in common with revivalists in the Sudan, Pakistan, Egypt, Algeria and elsewhere, they argue that their faith is incomplete if they do not live within a system of Islamic law-sharia. Following the establishment of colonial rule in Nigeria at the beginning of the 20th century, sharia law continued to play an important role in the northern region of Nigeria, though by independence its domain had essentially been confined to family law. In the southern two (later three) regions it never had any official recognition. In the northern region a Shari’a Court of Appeal was established, but with the demise of that region and its division into six states in 1967, appeal courts were established at the state level but without an ultimate single court of appeal. This issue of a Shari’a Court of Appeal became a contentious issue in debates about a new constitution in 1977, when northern Muslims, joined by some southerners, argued for a Federal Shar’ia Court of Appeal.[10]

The reformers and revivalist, past and present, according Choueiri, have common features and characteristics with which they are distinguishable.  The instance for return to original Islam, the advocacy of independent reasoning in matters of legal judgements, the necessity of fleeing (hijra) physical or otherwise, and the fervent belief in one single leader as either the embodiment of the renewer and just imam, or as expected Mahdi.[11]  Zeenath Kauthar further added, ‘the provision of critical assessment of ‘erring’ political leadership, providing critique of literature authored by pseudo-intellectual, insistence to the Muslim that Islam is a complete system, including political and economic systems, and provide alternative political thought to counter Western and other non-Islamic thoughts and practices’[12] are the source of contention in contemporary resurgence in Islam.

To consolidate our understanding and conceptualizing of the concept of Renewal and Reform in Muslim Societies the following two hypothesis by three renowned Muslim Thinkers (Al-Maghili, Nadvi and Qaradawi) will suffice:

Muhammad bin Abdulkarim Al-Maghili on the Muslims’ belief and concept of renewal and reform in Islam maintained that:

It is related that at the beginning of every century God sends a scholar who regenerates their religion for them. There is no doubt that the conduct of this scholar in every century enjoining the right and forbidding what is disapproved, and setting aright people’s affairs, establishing justice among them and supporting the truth against falsehood and the oppressed against the oppressor, will be in contrast to the conduct of the scholar of his age. For this reason, he will be an odd man out among them on account of his being the only man of such pure conduct and on account of the number of men like him (emphasis mine).[13]

According to Nadvi:

…the promised Imam Mahdi is destined to appear at the end of time in order to sanctify the faith of Islam and to liberate and deliver the oppressed mankind.  He will create a new age before the death of time and will emancipate mankind from the slavery of man. He will restore man’s status as the vicegerent of God on earth. His mission is to revive the sublime and the fundamental teaching of the Qur’an and Sunnah. The fundamentalists (reformers and revivalists) as the representatives of the promised Mahdi, have been appearing at intervals to revive the teachings of Islam, to protect and defend the religio-political entity of the Muslims. Islamic fundamentalist resurgence is a theology of liberation and renaissance and not an ideology of protest. [14]

As al-Shaikh Yusuf Qaradawi expounded in his treatise, Tajdid al-Din fi Daw’ al-Sunnah, and synoptically cited in his Approaching the Sunnah: Comprehension and Controversy, ideologized the concept of reform and renewal in Muslim society as follows:

…for the renewal of a thing is that by which an effort is made to return it to what it was like on the day of its origination, and then it emerges so as to seem new despite its antiquity. This is achieved over time, and the patching of what has frayed, so that it reverts closer to its original form. So, the meaning of renewal is not the alteration of its ancient nature, or the preplacement of it by another thing, novel and newly created. For that has nothing to do with renewal (emphasis mine). [15]

Under the above premise therefore, presentation of brief biography of two Reformers of the 19^th and 20^th century Nigeria and West Africa, Shehu Usmanu Danfodiyo and Abubakar Mahmud Gummi will further make our discussion and analysis of the subject matter more comprehensive and inclusive.

A COMPARATIVE SKETCH OF INTELLECTUAL BACKGROUND OF DANFODIYO AND GUMI

Shehu Usman Danfodiyo, ‘the outstanding man of the 19^th century for the Bilad al-Sudan’, was born in Gobir at a place called Maratta in the land of Galmi, in the present-day Niger Republic on Sunday 15^th December 1754[16] (29^th Safar 1168 A.H.). He was known as bin Muhammad, bin Usman, bin Salih, bin Harun, bin Gurdo, bin Jabbo, bin Muhammad Sambo, bin Ayyub, bin Masiran, bin Buba Babba, bin Musa Jakkollo. He was twelve years older than his brother Abdullahi Fodiyo.  Their mother was Hawwa’u daughter of Muhammad son of Usman son of Hamma son of ‘Ali. Her mother was Rukayya, daughter of the popular Muhammad son of Sa’ad son of Ladan son of Idris, son of Ishaq, son Masirana. Foduye (popularly termed as Fodiyo) is a Fulfulde word meaning “learned”, “jurist” or ‘teacher’, a nick name for Muhammad the father of Shehu and Abdullahi. This shows that they were born and brought up in an environment of learning and scholarship, which consequently had a considerable influence on their life and carrier.[17]                                 

Shaikh Abdullahi(d.1829) continues on the account of their: among them, was the son of our maternal Aunt Muhammad son of Muhammad,  our paternal and maternal uncle Abdullahi son of Muhammad ibn al-Hajj al-Hassan son of Hamm son of Ali, Ibrahim al-Barnawe, Muhammad ibn Abdulrahman, known as Mujji, Muhammad Sambo, Ibrahim al-Mandari, Muhammad al-Firabri , Shaikh Ahmad ibn Abi Bakr ibn Ghari, and our Shaikh and the Shaikh of our Shaikh the learned imam al-Hajj Jibril ibn Umar, and to God is his fame among the learned in east and west. From him I learnt books on the origins of the law, such as al-Qarrafi, al-Kaukab al-Sati, and Jam’ al-Jawami’, and its commentary. I read with him some of his writings; I stayed with him and profited much of him. He instructed me, together with my brother and my Shaikh Usman and gave us license to pass on what he had related. He gave us Alfiyat al-Sanad which his Shaikh al-Misri Murtada had composed, and had given him license to pass on, together with all that he recited.[18]

Shehu Usmanu Danfodiyo studied different branches of Islamic sciences, such as Tauhid, Arabic Grammar, Law, Jurisprudence, and Fiqh from dozens of Ulama’-scholars in Hausaland since he was young. His first tutors were his father and mother, after them the he started moving from one scholar to another in search of what a certain scholar-Alim specializes and then moved to another. That was why Abdullahi Fodiyo in reference to the scholars from whom he and his brother Shehu Usmanu studied concluded in the following:

I cannot now number all the Shaikhs from whom I acquired knowledge, but these were the famous ones among them. Many a scholar and many a seeker after knowledge came to us from the East and from the West from whom I profited, so many that I cannot count them. May Allah reward them all with his approval, and set them down in the neighborhood of His paradise, and may He give us of their blessings.[19]

Some of the books he studied included: Maqamat al-Hariri, Qatr al-Nada, Khulasa of Ibn Malik, Bahjat al-Mardiya, al-Tuhfah al-Wardiyah, al-Durar al-Lawami, al-Fiyat al-Maani, al-Fiyat al-Athar, Qasida of Shatibi and host of others.  Shaikh Jibril bin Umar al-Aqadesi, as Abdullahi informed us, certified the two of them- with Shehu, his brother- (with Ijaza) and confirmed them as established scholars who are competent to teach others, and also to carry the mantle of knowledge and disseminate same in all corners of the Muslim World. That was why Shehu supported by his brother Abdullah (1766-1829) and his son Sultan Muhammad Bello, (1787-1837), took it upon themselves to teach, preach and enlightened the Muslim Ummah in Hausaland, which was at a low ebb of understanding of the religion. It was as a result of the Da’awa and teaching methodology of Shehu Usmanu Danfodiyo that made the Jihad of 1804 successful, and the establishment of the Sokoto Caliphate in 1809 feasible. The Caliphate which left an indelible mark on the general atmosphere (political, social, economic and religious landscape) past and present of the West African sub-region.

In the course of teaching and enlightenment Shehu authored more than one hundred and sixty books. Some of the major ones include:

Ihya al-Sunnah wa ikhmad al-Bida’h

Al-Farq bain Wilyat Ahl al-Islam wa ahl- al-Kufr

Al-Amr bil Maaruf wa al-Nahyi an al-Munkar

Al-Farq baina ilm al-Usul al-Deen wa ilm al-Kalam

Irshad al-Ibad ila Aham Masail al-Jihad

Irshad al-Ikhwan ila Ahkam khuruj al-Niswan

Irshad Ahl Tafrid wa al-Ifrat

Talkhis Asrar al-Kalam Abu Hamid Al-Ghazali

Tawqif al-Muslimina ala Hukm Mazahib al-Arba’ah

Sauq al-Ummah Ila al-Tiba’ al-Sunnah

Umdat al-Ulama’

Umdat al-Ubbad

Umdat al-Bayan

Umdat al-Mutabbidin

Usul al-Adl li Wulayat al-Umur  

The nature of his writings cut across all facades of human endeavour especially on the establishment of a sound Muslim family upon which an Islamically oriented society will evolve. The foundation and basis of everything good in religion and worldly in the purview of Shehu Danfodiyo is knowledge. According to his Wazir and spokesman, Abdullahi Fodiyo, ‘knowledge to us is the foundation of every work and nothing is approved that is done in ignorance. Every good comes from following (the Sunnah) and every bad comes from starting (an innovation).[20] In his analysis of the text authored by Shehu Usmanu Danfodiyo, Professor Umar Faruk Malumfashi made a astonishing conclusion regarding the place of knowledge in the making of carrier of the Shehu at the very tender age. In his opinion:

Shehu Usmanu was not only an arid student but a learned seeker of knowledge with prodigious memory, who assimilated whatever he learnt. By the age of twenty he had become an authority in his own right and he embarked on a carrier of teaching…as Shehu Usman taught, he also preached, and as preached and taught, he continued to study under other scholars. To him and his brother, learning was a continuous process and the basis of any reform… it the duty of a scholar to imprint knowledge to the people and teach them the affairs of their faith.[21]

 Thus, making the basis and foundation of his tajdeed movement fundamentally and primarily based on knowledge and education and training of the self for discharging of the noble responsibility of guiding the Ummah.

Abubakar Mahmud Gummi on the other hand, had a similar training both at home, from his mother and father, as well as other scholars within Nigeria and abroad. This outstanding modern Islamic reformer is described by the Oxford University, Islamic Studies in the following:

Leader of the Izalah fundamentalist movement in Nigeria. Grand qadi of northern Nigeria during the First Republic. Taught and preached a return to the Quran and hadith after retiring in the 1960s. Became a popular radio star. Criticized traditional Sufi orders, local religious practices, and modernizing secularism. Translated the Quran into Hausa. Emphasis on non-Arabic Quranic interpretation helped to develop a specifically modern and Nigerian interpretation of Islam. Took a legalistic approach to Islam, opposing innovation and emphasizing the necessity of direct individual access to the Quran. Revived interest in re-creating either the Sokoto caliphate or the Medina model in the lives of individuals and political communities in Nigeria. Revived the early Islamic emphasis on education of women.[22]

This revivalist was born in an intellectual family with a history of Islamic learning and commitment to the spread and teaching of pristine Islam for centuries. Abubakar was the son of Alkali-(judge)Mahmud na-Gumi, ‘he settled at the town of Gummi after decades of wandering teaching Islamic religion, he was easily the most learned man around, considering the age and reputation of those who came to learn from him’. His grand father was Malam Muhammad Marina, the son of Sheikh Aliyu Barou el-Badawi, an Arab from Bedouin nomads, Muhammad Marina was one of the three children of el-Badawi. They were all men and, like their father, they devoted themselves to Islamic scholarship. [23]  El-Badawi’s settlement in Hausaland was assumed to be the same period when as other Arabs and Berber scholars had influx especially in cities of Kano and Katsina for Islamic scholarship.[24] Abubakar Gumi’s mother was Amina; she came from a famous Fulani clan known as Fulani Moure. Her home town was Tambuwal, a local government in the present Sokoto State.

Born in on 7^th November, 1924 in Gumi town, which is currently situated in Zamfara State, Nigeria. At a tender age, when he barely started to learn how to speak, Abubakar commenced receiving instruction and lesson from his mother, who was also a scholar teaching other women from far and wide.  The intellectual scene created in the region as a legacy of the Caliphate established by Shehu Usmanu Danfodiyo, learning and ulama were regarded in high esteem, had hugely left imprint on his life and the search for knowledge. According to him:

Unlike in most other places in this country, there had been quite an established intellectual tradition among Muslims, dating back several centuries before the coming of the European colonialists. We had an indigenous from of writing and a developed system of education. For a long time, our scholars had been involved in advanced scholarship from the Middle East and the Mediterranean, and this had largely influenced the direction of social tradition in our societies. Islam is not a religion that confines itself to acts of worship only; it also covers every aspect of human culture.[25]

The best advantage which later favored Abubakar Gumi above all other Islamic scholars of his age in Nigeria was combination and simultaneous pursuit of Western and Islamic Education. It was a very rare opportunity to attend western schools at the time due to the apprehension and suspicion associated with Europeans and education system to brought with them. In spite of the Abubakar father was renowned Islamic scholar and Qadi, he enrolled him to Elementary School at Dogon Daji in Sokoto State, and further encouraged him to dedicate himself to learning. As a result of his extraordinary performances at Dogodaji Elementary School and the Central Elementary School in Sokoto, Gumi had spent six in Sokoto Middle School, 1936-1942, and throughout his pursuit of Western Education, he made sure his study of Islamic sciences and Arabic language did not suffer.

According Gumi,

Even today I never could say how it used to happen to me, but it was clear at the time I had been blessed with an excellent memory, particularly in respect of Arabic grammar. Whatever I learnt once became part of me and never to be forgotten. In this regard I was helped tremendously by Malam Junaidu(to make up my Arabic and Islamic education while in school),  a very able teacher and a gifted Arabic scholar. Malam Junaidu, later to become the Waziri of Sokoto, taught us well, and I benefitted much from him. Under him (while attending western school), I studied such books as Mulha and Alfiyya . another equally good teacher was Malam Yahaya Gusau, a graduate of the Katsina College, although he did not teach my class.[26]

Malam Shehu Yabo who also studied under Gumi’s father also helped in dual education of the young Abubakar. ‘With him in the school, Gumi further confirmed, I had the opportunity to work harder, covering many books within a relatively short time. I would attend my usual classes in the morning and at night go to his house. In this way I studied Risala, Muktasar, Askari, Mualliqat al-Sittah, Muqamatul Hariri and a few others. [27] Abubakar Gumi further attended different schools in Sokoto and Kano. He was at Kano Law School where he was trained as Qadi-Judge, in addition to the prestigious School for Arabic Studies, SAS, also in Kano. The name and fame of the institution went the crop of its teachers who were specially selected from other Muslim countries such as the Sudan, and Pakistan, with a view to provide appropriate coaching for the Muslim elites in the Muslim majority northern Nigeria.

His quest for knowledge also took to the Sudan at various times, at a time four of them, who later became Grand Qadis in different States in Nigeria were enrolled with him. Among them who were students in Sudan with Abubakar Gumi, were Abdulqadir Orire, Grand Qadi of Kwara State, Haliru Binji, Grand Qadi of Sokoto State, and Alhaji B. B. Faruk a onetime Deputy Governor of Kano State. According to him:

We had been admitted for the institute`s advanced Diploma in Education in Bakht al-Rida Institute(Sudan). It was an exciting moment as we settled down to a normal life of full-time study once again. We learnt principles of Education, Arabic, History, Mathematics, as well as English and Drawing. The languages of instruction were Arabic and English…… We mixed with other fellow students freely, and almost every one of us thought that it was indeed a fair time. During our teaching practice we were all sent to Madrasah al-Ahfad, a calm College across the Nile from Khartoum in Omdurman suburbs.[28]

According to Professor Mansur Ibrahim and Huzaifa, Abubakar Gumi proved his educational attainment by profiling his ideas and ideology in a number of books he authored. He engaged scholars especially those are opposed to his teaching intellectually to prove the folly of their Daawa and to call attention of especially the youth to his method of teaching.  Some of his major

1. Rad al-Azhan ila Maani al-Qur`an
2.  Al-Aqidah al-Sahiha bi Muwafaqat al-Shariah
3. Kitab al-Nasiha ila Amir Mantiqat Katsina
4. Where I Stand, written in English with Ismaila A. Tsiga, 1992
5. Hal al-Niza` fi Mas´alatNuzul Isa alaih al-Salatwa al-Salam.
6. Musulunchi da AbindakeRushe Shi: (Nawaqid al-Islam).
7. Zad al-Haj, (The provision for a pilgrim)
8. Kitab Maratib al-Islam, (A Book on the levels of Islam)
9. Kitab Manasik al-Haj wa al-Umra, (A Book on the Rituals of Haj and Umrah).
10. Tarjamar Ma`anonin al-Kur`ani Maigirma: (The Meanings of the Holy Qur`an in Hausa).
11. Tarjamar littafin al-Arbain al-Nawawiyyah, (Translation of Forty Hadith in Hausa ).
12. Tarjamar Kitab Nur al-Bab, (Translation of Nurul al-Bab in Hausa).
13. Tarjamar littafin Hidayat al-Tullab fi Aham Masail al-Din, (translated to Hausa)
14. Qiyam fi al-Iqtisad al-Muasir wa al-Taamul maa al-Bunuk
15. Tarjama al-Kitab Usul al-Din (A Book on the Fundamentals of Din in Hausa).[29]

With the level of training and educational attainment, Abubakar Mahmud Gumi excelled as a promising scholar and reformer even before he was age twenty. Indeed, his waves of change and reform started to gather current and potency especially in Sokoto, in 1940s and later to other parts of Nigeria. Thus, he had in both western and Islamic education enough that made distinguishable among equals in the academic and intellectual milieu in the Muslim World, especially when he was awarded a seat in Muslim World League. He was throughout a teacher whose passion for reform was based squarely on use of education and enlightenment as veritable and tool.

He mastered Arabic and was an interpreter and adviser to Sir Ahmadu Bello, then the premier of northern Nigeria, and the Sardauna of Sokoto, site of the Islamic Caliphate. Gumi served as an external affairs office in Lagos before becoming Deputy Grand Khadi of Northern Nigeria, a position of spiritual leadership, in 1960. Two years later, he was elevated to Grand Khadi. He was a member of the Judicial Advisory Council to the Supreme Military Council, the military government that ruled from 1966 to 1975. He received Nigeria’s highest award, the Commander of the Order of the Federal Republic. But it was for his translation of the Koran into Hausa, the language of millions of northern Nigerians and others throughout West Africa, that Gumi was awarded in Saudi Arabia the King Faisal International Award, reputedly Islam’s highest service honor. He died in London on 11^th September 1992.[30]

METHODOLOGY OF DA’AWA AS KEY ISSUES IN REFORM AND REVIVAL OF ISLAM: DANFODIYO AND GUMI APPROACHES COMPARED

Moderation and intellectual articulation on issues relating to religious tenets are the basis of Islamic mission and reform since the Prophetic era. Following the example of the Holy Prophet and sticking to the Sunnah has been the watchword and equalizer in the course of Da’awa activities among Muslim over the centuries. Wherever and whenever, these worthy etiquettes of the Prophet were not observed or nor observed correctly, there will be tendency for extremism or compromise. Shehu Usmanu Danfodiyo as exemplary follower of the Sunnah, observed strictly the moderate path fashioned out by the Prophet for Da’awa and Irshad in the Muslim Ummah.

Shehu since the beginning of his Da’awa avoided confrontation and violence, but adopted conciliatory and intellectual approaches. Sultan Muhammad Bello in Infaq al-Maisur fi Tarikh Bilad al-Tekrur, provides an outline of the nature of Shehu reform methodology in the following:

It is known that Shehu as soon as he was grown up was a self- restrained religious man, of a nature that won confidence and friendship. People came to him from East and West. He became a great Mallam. He upheld the banner of faith. He revived the law. He put an end to evil practices. He disseminated knowledge. He drove away unhappiness; he reformed the minds of men with his knowledge (not with weapons). He increased knowledge of the true law; he held public readings of the Koran before the assembled Chief Mallams and devout men. He put aside disputes and was steadfast in the truth. He made men to know things which it is difficult to know. He filled the countries of the West with knowledge and with seekers of knowledge.[31]

Preaching was the second most important aspect of the reform movement institutionalized by Shehu Usmanu Danfodiyo, which became the foundation for the establishment of the Sokoto Caliphate. Unlike what was prevalent before the jihad movement where scholars remained mute and reserved in their circles without taken the duty and responsibility of going around to teach and enlighten the people matters regarding the religion of Islam, Shehu and his brother Mallam Abdullahi were in the opinion of Shehu Umar Abdullahi completely different. He said:

Shaikh Usman and Shaikh Abdullahi Fodiyo wanted as a matter of strategy, to secure popular support for their revolutionary project that was principally designed, not only to purge Islam of the indecent innovations introduced into it but to fight against the then prevailing ignorance, moral depravity and the tyrannical system of government as well as exploitative economic system; Hence, the introduction of a new style of preaching in Hausaland. This new style of public sermons which took Shaikh Usman and his able aides to different parts of Hausaland… he spent twenty-nine years on the itinerant public sermons. They used three languages Hausa, Fulfulde, and Arabic in their mobile public sermons… sometimes in prose and sometimes in poetry and Shaikh Abdullahi was his most able aide on those tours. Wherever they went their central theme was one and their target was one; that is total destruction of all customs and traditions that were in conflict with the Shari’ah.[32]

Mallam Abdullahi further confirmed the efficacy of this method in transforming the society in Tazyin al-Waraqat, where he says: “Then we rose up with the Shaikh helping him in his mission work for religion. He travelled for that purpose to the east and west, calling the people the religion of Allah by his preaching and his qasidas in other languages, and destroying customs contrary to Muslim law. Some of the people from the surrounding countries came to him, and entered his community while we were in his country which had become famous through him, and which was called after him namely Tagel/ Degel.[33]

This brings us to another important aspect of the Da’awa mission of the triumvirate, namely, wakakokin wa’azi – Wa’azi verse. Indeed, it was recorded that the Sokoto ulama’a continued to make-poetry even after the jihad and consolidation of the Caliphate. That was with a view to fully instill the ideal of an Islamic state as perceived and advocated by them among the masses. According to Hiskett,

The reformers had previously been restricted to urging their case by exhortation and preaching, they now found themselves faced with the more demanding task of imposing an Islamic moral and political ideal upon a subject population steeped in traditional African custom and belief. The vernacular poetry therefore continued in its role of mouthpiece for the Islamic polity that the reformers were trying to set up.[34]

Poems were used to serve all purposes in the nineteenth century jihad in Hausaland. Through it, tauheed-, oneness of Allah, Sira-biography of the Prophet, ibadat– rituals, and general wa’azi-warning were composed and disseminated to the people.  Professor A. B. Yahya, provides some examples of the usage of poetry by the jihadists in addressing those fundamental issues. In Wakar Tauhidi by Shehu Usmanu some stanzas made a very important appeal with regard to some obligatory practices such as:

In Islam, the search for knowledge about an obligatory act

Is what allows a woman to go out, and there is no harm in this.

All of you, women repent and pay respect to marriage

You should all obey the words of your husband according to law,

You should all wear the veil and fear Allah

In order that you do not plunge yourselves in the

Hell of Jahima in the hereafter. [35]

In the above premise, the use of various options for mass mobilization and educating different levels and categories of Muslim with what he or she could easily comprehend were employed by Shehu Danfodiyo as well as his lieutenants to the tajdeed and reform of the Ummah.

The social commentary of the Shehu revealed here is only part of what he produced during this phase of his career as an Islamic scholar and revivalist of the Islamic Faith by which he was renowned. His mission was to reform sinful Muslims rather than convert unbelievers. Furthermore, his sermons were destined to people who were familiar with Islam but who often performed its rite incorrectly rather than to animists to whom Islamic rites and doctrines were totally strange. No doubt his approach differed according to circumstances and the kind of people he was addressing. As a whole, he strove for the renewal of the Islamic Faith. His method was to seek out indigenous customs, attack them and seek to replace them with Islamic practices. In other words, he did his utmost to apply the Sunnah as a substitute for the traditional mores and customs in Hausa land (emphasis mine).[36]

Shehu, according to Idris and Ibrahim, ventured boldly into the world of Sufism, he read from Al-Ghazali, most especially Ihya Ulum al-Din from which he derived much profit. His book, Tariq al-Janna, was a summary of what al-Ghazali had written on piety and moral purification. In his book Asanid al-Faqir Shehu leaves no one in doubt as to his tremendous knowledge of hadith.[37]

Primarily, the Shehu despised and abhorred extremism and laxity in the course of reform of the religion. He categorically condemned these acts. In his Kitab Irshad al-Ummah li Bayan Taysir al-Millah, Misbah al-Muhtadin, Kitab Nasaih al-Muhammadiyah, and Irshad Ahl Tafrid wa al-Ifrat ila sawa al-Sirat, was categorical on the dangers of extremism and merits of moderation. That this religion of Islam (Dinan Qiyaman) and this Ummah al-Muhammadiyah (as Ummatan Wasatan) moderate generation, are generally blessed as moderate in saying and action, and in all ramifications.

In supporting the Shehu’s Da’awa in this regard Abdullahi authored Kaff al-Ikwan an Ta’arrud bil Inkar ala ahl -Al Iman and Sultan Muhammad Bello on the hand also authored Kaff al-Ikhwan an Ittiba’ Khatwat al-Shaitan. In the content and context of these books the two able lieutenants of Danfodiyo continued to engage the community in avoidance of excess and transgression and evil of compromise and syncretism among the Muslims. In the philosophy of Danfodiyo, a scholar and reformer must be open to the society and accessible by all. Therefore, ‘no withdrawal from the society, but continue to illuminate the society but continue to illuminate the society by explaining, expounding and give counselling through light, educate and warn, the populace, both rulers and ruled’.[38]  

That strategy of avoidance of physical or military confrontation even when he was persuaded by his followers to do so was the singular methodology of the Sokoto tajdeed movement of the nineteenth century.  Mallam Abdullahi informs us of the consistent response of the Shehu whenever approach with such radical break with the political system thus: Abdullahi reported the Shehu sayings:

I will not interfere between anyone and his chief; I will not be a cause of parting’. He strove to avert a quarrel. But the trouble grew and grew. He then tried to appease the sultans by visiting them and pretending to be loyal to them. But they saw the growing number of his following and the hold that Islam had gained’. Its growing strength made them furious, and the devils among Jinns and men urged them on saying: if you do not disperse this concourse of people, your power will be gone; they will destroy your country, by causing all the people to leave you and go to them.[39]

On the whole, teaching moderately the tents of Islam, and emphasis on education and knowledge rather than force and violence were the lasting legacies of teaching that resulted to most enduring reform in the Sub-Saharan Africa, the Sokoto Caliphate. That was further confirmed the following:

The Da’wah of Shaykh ‘Uthman bn Foduye had tremendously brought about positive changes in the understanding and practice of Islam. His Da’wah called for the reform of the faith, and devotional practices of Islam and also the practice of good moral standard, he also advice the people to abandon customs contrary to Islam. Many scholars in the contemporary period are emulating the Da’wah methods of the Shaykh. He and his lieutenants had left many manuscripts which many Muslims are of the opinion that those intellectual heritage are capable of ameliorating the pathetic conditions the Muslims are facing in Nigeria today.[40]

The path emulated by Abubakar Gumi in order to convey the message of Islam and reform the society during his time, was principally based on the tradition of Da’awa of Danfodiyo, which served as a model for him and almost all other reformists and revivalists to date. Gumi had undergone training in both western and Islamic education and had outshined most his course mates and fellow students. He became iconic in terms of religious teaching, mass mobilization and revival of the faith of Islam from decay in Northern Nigeria in the 20^th century. The task of revival of Islam which he started when he was young at the age of sixteen years only (1940); he continued until his death in 1992. In some places we argued Gumi as representing a new generation of Ulama who wanted to change and challenge the old order through educational mobilization and enlightenment. It has been noted that:

a new class of Muslim clerics who were dissatisfied with the activities of the older generation in their subtle relations with the Emirs as agents of colonialism began to emerge from the new schools in Nigeria after 1940 and became more popular in the 1970s and 80s. The major characteristics of this group of Muslim clerics was their ability to speak fluent Arabic like native Arabs due to their attendance at formal schools of Arabic studies in either Nigeria, the Sudan, or the famous al-Azhar University in Cairo. Among the first cohorts of students who studied in the Sudan from Hausaland were Sheikhs Abubakar Mahmud Gummi and Haliru Binji and Sheikh Abdulqadir Orire. [41]

Abubakar Gumi committed himself to teaching and preaching, and above he served as bridge between Western and Islamic corridors. He was trained in European and Islamic type of schools. At the same time, he served in government at various levels, as English and Geography teacher at Maru in the 1940, to serving as Qadi and later adviser to the Premier of Northern Region, Sir Ahmad Bello Sardauna of Sokoto in the 1950s and 1960s. On the other hand, he also had training in various fields of Islamic sciences in the traditional setting as well as receiving Islamic education from some notable scholars from the Sudan and Lebanon. That made Abubakar Gumi a unique scholar among his peers, and Islamic scholar-cum trained educationist and administrator in the colonial government. Concerning the issue of education Gumi’s position was very positive. He said in an interview:

Nigerian society is like any other society, if you educate them it becomes good, if you don’t educate them, it becomes like any bad society. Between mankind and beast, the difference is education. When you educate them you elevate them. [42]

Abubakar Gumi was also identified to have maximally to have appropriated education, through his annual Tafsir during Ramadan, and his weekly Hadith lessons which were aired throughout West Africa, via the radio Nigeria Kaduna, at Sultan Bello Mosque Kaduna. In his mosque personal mosque at Modibbo Adama Road at Kaduna he instituted various lessons ranging from Arabic Grammar to Tauheed and Fiqh between Magrib and Isha’i prayers. The programs aired in the media attracted millions of participants and listeners among the Hausa speaking communities in West Africa. Above all, most of these programs were aired live in both Radio Nigeria Kaduna and the Nigerian Television Authority, Kaduna. Further, Gumi established an effective network all over Nigeria, where the same programs were conducted by his students and disciples, and local radios and television were mainly the tools of dissemination of information. In all these, programs learning and capacity of Muslims were aimed at being revitalized to become better practicing Muslims, with basic knowledge and understanding of the fundamentals of religion. For Abubakar Gumi, violence is adverse, detrimental to Islamic spread and development and most cases counterproductive.[43]   At his valedictory a commentator sums up Gumi’s philosophy, viz:

Gumi stood apart from younger firebrand Muslim preachers such as Ibrahim Zakzaky and Yakubu Yahaya, who refuse to recognize the state of Nigeria because its laws are not Islamic. The release of Mallam Yakubu from jail earlier this month, after serving 18 months for sparking a riot, prompted the authorities to put the northern city of Katsina on a state of alert. Although Gumi rarely addressed a press conference, he was a favorite source for Western and Nigerian journalists wishing to gauge the political temperature of northern Nigeria.[44]

CRITICAL NEED OF THE UMMAH AND THE ROLE OF THE REFORMER: A COMPARATIVE PHILOSOPHICAL IDEAS OF DANFODIYO AND GUMI IN FOCUS

One of the fundamentals qualities of a reliable reformer and reviver of the religion is having adequate knowledge of his society, current issues and happenings in the world. Thus, apart from adequate knowledge of the Qur’an and Sunnah, the reviver must equip himself with the worldly knowledge that keeps him abreast and relevant, not obsolete in his fatwa and advocacies. That was the reason why Danfodiyo read widely different aspects of sciences, history and economy, social and political spheres, and encouraged other Muslims especially Ulama’ to be well informed of the current affairs of the society. He directs that:

Busy yourselves, then, Oh my brethren by reading the literary works (written) by scholars of your time. This is because they know those things that are important to your time and situation. It has become part of their(scholars) effort to give details of those things (that are important to your situation but) given briefly in books of previous scholars. Hence the works of each of generation serve as additional explanation to the literary works of those who preceded them. For this reason, each scholar (in every period) exerted effort and busied himself with authorship on his own, notwithstanding, that all that which could satisfy people’s need in matters of religion were available in the books of the scholars before him(but to update Muslims and keep them informed of the contemporary developments) (emphasis mine).[45]

As an exemplary scholar, Danfodiyo took the lead in the intellectual research, innovation and inventions in almost all what the Ummah may require for its spiritual and temporal needs. That could be confirmed in the nature of his writings, which provide deeper analysis of the society, in all ramifications. In the 19^th century, Shehu Usman Danfodiyo provided the lead in responding and addressing to all the emerging challenges confronting the Muslim Ummah vis a vis the position, and responsibility of the Ulama’. The period could be regarded as the golden period of Islam in West Africa, with more than five hundred new books injected into the society in the fields of administration, tauhid, Arabic Language, jurisprudence, law, sciences, Medicine, mathematics, agricultural sciences, town planning, environment and host of others.

Similarly, in the 20^th century, Abubakar Gumi following the legacies of Danfodiyo attempted to provide solutions and in most cases applied rational evidence and proof to appeal to the understanding of Muslims in the affairs of the religion. That was with the aim to keep the Muslims in touch with happening and development in the fast-moving world, without compromising the codes of their religion. Some common puzzling cases include addressed by the two scholars of our study at different epochs of their experiences include:

Women in the Society

Shehu Usmanu Danfodiyo was perhaps the first scholar in West Africa to have articulated the issue of women very critically. The thesis and debates against the existing scenario affecting women in the 18^th and 19^th centuries in the region, were enveloped and shrouded in cultural mystery and superstitious shades.  At the formative stage of his Da’awa, Shehu conceived with the plight of women a serious concern and strove hard to fight and change the situation, that marked the first intellectual confrontation he had with the Ulama’. Mustafa Goni, one of the renowned Borno scholars of the eighteenth century, wrote, criticizing the Shehu for allowing women attending Islamic lessons and sermons in the same ground with men to receive discourses and learn the religion.

In addressing this crucial issue of women education and other rights and privileges the Shehu authored a book  entitled: Irshad al-Ikhwan ila ahkam jawaz khuruj al-Niswan, (Guidance for the brothers on the legality of women out-door activities),which was widely disseminated all over the region of  Hausaland with a view to clear the dust on these vital but misunderstood problems. He says in the preliminary part of the treatise that: “Let my brothers know that I am prompted to write this book by the split of the people of Bilad al-Sudan as to whether women can go out or not. On this matter the people were divided into two, each of them was in the extreme side. One class which was prone to negligence believed that women can have absolute right to go out whether or not there is legal necessity. Though this belief was absolutely erroneous was nevertheless the widely held in Bilad al-Sudan. The second class was also guilty of extremism, for it places absolute ban on women to go out whether or not there is a legal necessity. This practice was wrong. Members of this class were in the community in this Bilad al-Sudan. Shehu further stressed that, ”I am writing this book in order to counsel members of these two classes so as to explain to them the Islamic golden mean- a position between the two extremes. That ‘It is lawful for women to go out whether where there is a legal need such as attending to either worldly needs such as economic activity (which with she obtains a livelihood), and the like, or religious necessity like going out for acquisition of knowledge if her husband cannot teach her; for in matters of religion everyone is responsible for what he or she does’.[46]

Unequivocally, Shehu declared in his Nur al- Albab and Wathiqat al-Ikhwan, that the domestic services rendered by women in terms of cooking, provision of firewood, grinding, fetching of water, and labor in the farm were not sanctioned upon them by the Sharia’. Shehu tirelessly fought for the economic and social emancipation of women, through ensuring their rights to ownership of property, inheriting of estates of deceased relatives and husbands, and opening of educational opportunities.[47]  In response to the seriousness of the problem, the Shehu adopted some radical measures to match with the gravity of the problem. He started by   describing the situation of women in the pre-jihad societies in the following:

One of the habits of men, scholars of the Sudan is that they leave their wives, daughters and slaves neglected like a grazing livestock without teaching them what Allah made obligatory on them of their articles of Faith, regulations governing their purity, fasting and their like, i.e. buying and selling. They consider them like a container, which they use; when it breaks, they throw it in dung and rubbish places. It is the duty of every Muslim to start with himself and guards it by performing his duty properly also, to abandon unlawful things, thereafter, he should teach his family and relations.[48]

Finally, Shehu unreservedly called upon the women folk in the strongest terms saying:

O Muslim women, do not listen to the speech of the misguided (group) who misguide others and deceive you by making you to obey your husbands without ordering you to obey Allah and His messenger (peace be upon him). They claim that the happiness of the women is in obeying their husbands. They do this in order to get their selfish desire out of you. They also ask you to do what Allah and His prophet did not stipulate at all, like cooking and washing of cloth and the like. At the same time, they do not ask you about what Allah and His messenger has ordained to you of obedience. Yes, it is incumbent upon the wife to obey her husband according to the consensus of scholar-jurist in secret and in open even when the husband is very poor or a slave. It is not permissible for her to disobey him at all, according to the consensus unless he orders her to disobey Allah, in which case she should not obey him’.[49]

Finally, Shehu unprecedentedly succeeded in this crucial issue.  Women in the Caliphate were emancipated and appropriately placed as equal partners in progress in the realization of the ideals upon which the Sokoto Caliphate was founded. The efforts and initiatives of Nana Asma’u (the daughter of the Shehu) under the Yantaru[50] system is the clear testimony that fact. Nana Asma’u, and Fatima daughters of Shehu Usmanu as well as other daughters and wives of the Caliphal leaders served as the women wing of the Jihad movement. They established schools and initiated educational circles for women, they traveled throughout the region preaching and teaching same as men used to do with a view to educate and mobilize the women folk. That singular act and opportunity accorded to women, remained as the most unique achievement of Shehu Danfodiyo’s reform which was very rare in most parts of the Muslim World.  Danfodiyo did not only create opportunities for women in juristic and spiritual spheres, but also on some administrative ethos such as military expeditions and other related issues in the governance of the society.[51] That legacy provided unflustered atmosphere for the emergence of women scholars in most areas of the Caliphate.[52] In the opinion of Boyd and Mack:

The network of teachers established a conduit for all women to be apprised of current events and news of political concerns during a period of rapid sociopolitical change. Women in these networks acted deliberately. They undertook responsibilities, organized food for the army, brought up orphans, distributed goods to the poor, gave religious instruction, sorted out problems and related well to everyone willing to respond, regardless of their background or status. They were by no means isolated in seclusion as has often been suggested by contemporary scholars, but constituted a sisterhood.[53]

In the study of Abdoulaye Souney, Shehu Danfodiyo’s concerns about the proper practice of Islam led him to oppose the Hausa customs (al’adu), but also the whole political structure of his time. He challenged the dominant moral and political order and was eventually able to overthrow it. The significance of this lies in the way many Muslims have interpreted the advent of his power and the social reform he implemented. Revolutionary, as many scholars of political Islam have argued, Usman Dan Fodio’s jihad represented the materialization of a new era not only in political terms, but also for Islam and re-Islamization processes in the region.

Following the same trends, Abubakar through his Izala Movement made the issue of women education (both Western and Islamic) very central in their discourses and polemics. As a result, Gumi suffered criticism and attacks especially from the tradition Ulama’ who accused him of promiscuity and being unholy as to allow women out of their homes for religious purposes.  His defence and point of authority were the statements and verdict put forward by Danfodiyo in his books for the justification of women education and other rights as seen above.

Gumi went further extra as to strove for the women participation in politics and voting in order to elect leaders in democratic dispensation. His analogy was, electing a good leader who will respect and appreciate the Shari’ah is compulsory like waging a Jihad where possible for the establishment of just system. Therefore, no vote should be wasted of the Muslims, all must come out to ensure the emergence of a better candidate.  In his study on `Islamic Reform and Political Change’ in Nigeria, Roman Loimeier detailed and analyzed this aspect. It is enough to present Gumi’s view on participation of both men and women in the voting system in this context. According to him:

It is said that if the Muslims rest, the unbelievers will make war on them. So, it is a duty for men and women to take up arms…Well (by this analogy), it is (a duty) to cast a vote. Now since this will be beneficial to oneself and moreover beneficial to the Muslim community, it is Satan who prevents them (women) from going out… As long as a man’s wife covers her body properly, there is no problem. If you hear somebody say that this is a gathering of men and women, we don’t want it, this is Satan who urges the unbelievers, men and women to oppress the Muslims. I personally will go out with my wives, with our children following. If this is not done, even to the point of letting unbelievers predominate, then what is our position? …This religion, if you do not protect it, it will not protect you. This is what makes me say that politics is more important than prayer… With politics one stands and worships together, whereas prayer is only part of this … It is a necessity that every man takes his women and children above the age of eighteen to register so that we can predominate over the non-Muslims (emphasis mine).³⁹

Gumi’s opinion has remained a main reference in the contemporary democratic processes. Abubakar Gumi’s followers reiterated his words, especially against his opponents. The reintroduction of Sharia during democratic era, since year 2000 in Nigeria, in some cases even with criminal cases, proved and vindicated decades of Gumi’s struggle for Muslims to participate (both men and women) in modern politics and use the power of ‘votes not bullet’ to serve Islam and Muslims.

On Ulama’a al-Su’– Venal Scholars

The most notable scene where reformers and revivalists of the religion find exertions and difficulties has been their encounter with the fellow Ulama’ who are largely their contemporaries. The basic problem is that, these Ulama’ have become part and parcel of the problems disavowed and refuted by the reformers or provided backing and support for the status quo to continue abandoning their responsibility as custodians of the religion entrusted to guide and illuminate the path for the society.

The category of Ulama who refused to support the truth against falsehood, Danfodiyo branded them as traitors of the trust and betrayers of the divine responsibility shouldered on them. Shehu categorically charged that class of Ulama’ of treachery and hindering the progress of the way of Allah in several treatises such as Wathiqat al-Ikhwan, Nur al-Bab, Kiatb Wujub al-Hijrah al-Ibad, Najm a-Ikhwan and host others. Shehu identified such scholars as, ‘more dangerous than the devil, and their position in the society was no better than a rock in the sea, which neither drinks water no allows anybody to drink’. Removing their influence in governance and the society entirely was, in the opinion of the Shehu, a catalyst to attaining of a viable political system.[54]  The Shehu’s contention against the Ulama’ al-Su’i – venal scholars- as expressed in Wathiqat al-Ikhwan was synonymous with that of Sidi al-Mukhtar al-Kunti’s description of such Ulama’’a in the following:

They (the venal Ulama’)included those who had knowledge but failed to put it into practice; those who presented an appearance of compliance with the outward religious duties, but had not eliminated characteristics such as vanity, hypocrisy, ambition, desire for political office and high rank; those who presumed that they had the exclusive right to guide the common people and yet entered into unholy alliance with the( corrupt political leaders) sultans, thus encouraging the sultans’(leaders’) oppression of the people; those who engaged in jihad but only to obtain fame and wealth; and those scholars who used false methods, such as music, to lure people into spiritual practices. The danger of those scholars, the Sidi said, could be seen from the hadith of the Prophet (Allah bless him and grant him peace): ‘I fear for my umma after me more from Ulama’ al-su’(venal scholars) than from the Dajjal, and when asked who these were, he replied that they were Ulama’ al-alsina, the Ulama’ of the tongue’. [55]

The young Danfodiyo responded to the challenge posed by the venal Ulama’ in his sermons and his literature, with a view to silencing them and reducing their influence on the society to enable the religion of Allah thrive. He engaged the Ulama’ al-Su’ into debates and arguments and responded in the most effective and loud voice, through which his expression and assent, the Word of Allah emerged victorious and supreme in the region.

Similarly, Gumi was confronted and attacked by certain scholars of his time who viewed him too young to stand for Islam, or not fit for the job due his background in modern education and connection with the political powers of the day.  The first confrontation Gumi had, was from the scholars of the Sufi orders especially, Qadiriyya and Tijjaniyya who felt particularly threatened and assaulted with his anti-Sufi mantra. In order to make his anti-Sufi advocacy more pronounced he published a book titled, al-Aqidah al-Sahiha bi Mawafaqa al-Shariah, which served as the basic reference work for anti-Sufi preaching in Hausaland. In it, Gumi criticized the mode of Sufi practices as well as the feast associated with wedding and naming ceremonies, as well as the Maulud al- Naby – celebrations of the birthday of the Prophet – as Bida’a (innovation). According to Gummi:

…soon after al-Aqidah Sahihah had gone into circulation, however, I became apprehensive about the consequences among members of the public…this at once generated a lot of controversy, which in no time spread to many parts of the country… Subsequently, Malam Ismaila Idris continued his preaching… citing al-Aqidah Sahihah as authority to attack negative practices which had been introduced into the religion. He called for the return to orthodox Islam, based on the true teaching of the Holy Qur’an and Sunnah. He also condemned the traditional rulers for their corruption… I returned to Kaduna from Saudi Arabia at the height of the crisis… the whole city was on fire, with Tariqa followers fuming because they had been told that their Sufi beliefs were inconsistent with true Islam.[56]

Abubakar and his young followers challenged both the old and the old system of the practice of religion on the nature of Islam itself.[57] According to him: “In Islam, nothing has been left to chance; every law has been carefully laid out, so that one is not left in doubt with regard to one’s responsibilities as a Muslim. It is not a question of choice or that of selective application. One is either a Muslim or not, since it is not possible to accept Islam half-heartedly. This is why for Muslims too, the person who stands in the way of the religion is not allowed to force others to go along with him, instead he is knocked down to make room for all to pass freely”.[58]

Politics and Governance

Seldom Muslim scholars –Ulama’ partake or even comment on the political situation in Muslim societies. That was for the simple reason of not being identified or branded with names and labels or face the intimidation of the ruling class. In facing this reality, reformers and revivalist are left with no option than to express critically on this very important factor in Muslim collective and individual life-leadership. As theorised by Sayyid Qutb, the issue of leadership among Muslim is of paramount importance at least to show the potency of Islam to be able to lead humanity like other systems. In his Milestones Sayyid Qutb, maintains that:

Islam cannot fulfil its role except by taking concrete form (through governance)in a society, rather, in a nation; for man does not listen, especially in this age, to an abstract theory which is not seen materialized in a living society… Islam cannot fulfil its role except by taking(taking leadership of)  mankind, then it is necessary that the Muslim community be restored to its original form (through Islamic polity).[59]

The two personae for our study in this paper, Danfodiyo and Gumi never reserved their opinions and views with regard to leadership and its consequences on the practice of religion of the Ummah. Indeed, Danfodiyo is of the opinion that the religious status of a nation is gauged and determined by the status of its leader. If the leader, president, Emir, Shaikh is a good Muslim so the State is, if he is a not a good Muslim so the be the status of his domain. That was why the question of leadership mattered a lot in his debates and sermons. Political transformation was one of the salient factors in the Danfodiyo reform movement as expressed in the following:

One of the major milestones and legacies of the new Caliphate was political transformation. A complete shift from oppressive administrative machinery based on whims and caprices of those on power, to a sanitized system with all checks and balances. The issue of good governance and ensuring equity and justice regardless of one’s economic, social, religious, or political status was top-most in the blueprint of the Sokoto Caliphate, (founded and led by Shehu Danfodiyo).[60]

The ideology of the Sokoto Caliphate was neither ethnic nor tribal or regional affiliates; but sound Islamic creed and professionalism, which cemented peoples together. Any ethnic, tribal or regional attachments were discouraged. The Shehu warns leaders, especially of Muslim societies to be mindful of the liberty, equality and equity of Islam so as to treat all in the fold of Islam with fairness. Otherwise, such governments or systems will be destined to collapse. Shehu strongly declared that:

One of the swiftest ways of destroying a (country/state) kingdom is to give preference to a particular tribe over another, or to show favor to one group of people rather than another and draw near those who should be kept away, and keep away those who should be drawn near.[61]

The transformation of most societies from the level of simple lineage, clan, or tribal organizations to that of centralized emirates system, the Hausa states, Nupe and part of Yoruba states were consolidated into a single Caliphate was one of the major achievements of Usman Danfodiyo in the political scale. This involved an unprecedented diversification of the political communities refocusing of loyalties from supra-clan and supra-tribal institutions to a wider Caliphal and universal worldview that the Caliphate represented.[62]

In specific reference to the Sokoto Caliphate Shehu Usmanu Danfodiyo synthesized the concept of power in two major books on Political Thought namely, Misbah ahl al-Zaman and Najm al-Ikhwan under four major points as abridged by Ibrahim Sulaiman :

1. Caliphal office is a Sharia institution unanimously accepted by ahl al-Sunnah as valid and imperative.
2. Giving allegiance- bay’a to the holder of this office is obligatory; this entails loyalty by the citizens inwardly and outwardly.
3. The state power and those in authority must safeguards the territorial integrity of Islamic state, nourish and empower the people, eliminates injustice and subdue corrupt people.
4. Rulers and ruled must respect the law, operate within the law and defend the law of the state as all are equal before the law.[63]

On this note, leadership in the context of the Sokoto Caliphate is unique in many senses. One of the striking and distinctive features of the Sokoto leadership was welding and combining of intellectual activities, with political power. Clearly, a Caliph must not only be about learning, he must be himself learned, just as he should be receptive and solid, the Ummah must be rightly instructed. It is that circular loop or ‘feedback’ of communication and authority that renders them alike both appropriate and powerful.[64] In essence Shehu Danfodiyo succeeded in translating theory of administration and governance,  which he propounded during his preaching and teaching into action when the egalitarian Caliphate of emerged under his leadership in 1809, which changed the entire political landscape of West Africa ever since.

Abubakar Gummi on the hand, remained a controversial and most misunderstood scholar in terms of his stance and position regarding leadership in Nigeria. He started expression his ideas and views on political matters when he was not satisfied with the statement of the Sultan of Sokoto in the 1940s.  Gumi though trained in western school, he contemptuously regarded the colonial administration and British occupation of the Muslim land in Nigeria and elsewhere in the Muslim World as aberration. So, the same as Danfodiyo considered the traditional system of government liable of being removed and overthrown, so Gumi felt and expressed that British Colonial Government was unjust and misplaced.  The then Sultan Abubakar III, 1938-1988, used to commend the British in his speeches, especially during Eid feasts, which did not go well with the young and zealous Gumi.  Thus, he wrote to the Sultan a letter expression his dissatisfaction and urging him to change, the letter was confidentially sent and not made public until the Sultan himself made it known.

In the same vein, the British Government awards of medals to Muslims in the British Empire were also attacked by Abubakar as inappropriate for Muslim leaders to accept such honors from Britain the origin of which goes back to Church.  Gumi and his friend and confidant, Malam Aminu largely influenced by Gumi, wrote to the regional News Paper, Gaskiya Tafi Kwabo, that, ‘Such titles include the Knight of the British Empire (KBE) conferred on most emirs, and the Companion of the Order of St. Michael and St. George (CMG), which was conferred on the overall Muslim leader in Nigeria, the Sultan of Sokoto in 1947, and later, on the Emir of Kano Sanusi’, were illegal.[65]  Abubakar Gumi was seen as an all-out young alim-scholar to challenge both the traditional and modern systems in favor of Islamic. He advocated for Muslims to participate in government and as much as possible aspire and assume political positions, with a view to represent Islam, in a new system hostile to the religion.

Gumi’s philosophy towards politics and governance in the Muslim society was of ‘stick and carrot’; the system must change in favour of Islam, but peaceful and tolerant dispositions should be adopted. Before him, most Ulama’ abhorred Muslim participations in the institutions of military and police in the country, and others frowned at enrolling into western schools or working for government, judging on the non-permissibility of Muslims engagements into the system. Gumi stood alone, initially and encouraged Muslims to partake in all aspects of government institutions and to be worthy ambassadors of Islam in all facets of human endeavour, and to reduce the impact and control of non-Muslims through active participation.  He set himself as example, all his children apart from Islamic education, obtained various professions and worked as medical doctors, military personnel, accountants and bankers including his female children. His daughter Aisha was a one-time Accountant General of Sokoto State.

Gumi made it very clear the basis of his concern for political and governance in Muslim societies, and throughout his life kept struggling for a just system. According to him:

Because of its defined social and political policies, Islam has often provided an easy yardstick for Muslims to assess their leaders. The religion has made it clear about how to govern in fairness and justice. Leaders know what is expected of them at all times. Similarly, the people also know their rights and obligations, both to the leaders and to God, the Creator. These laws are unchanging and apply to all times and circumstances. A particular regime may disregard or refuse to obey them, but no matter the time it takes, God will enable someone or a certain generation to rise and call the whole society to order. Readers of history have sometimes wondered about this enormous capacity of Islam for regeneration, without really considering its capacity and comprehensiveness as a faith and a system of life.[66]

Although, Gumi did not bring about a change of government during life time, but did provide a workable frame and philosophy upon which Muslims in Nigeria and other West African countries conduct themselves in a polity embedded by European invaders upon Muslim communities since the beginning of the 20^th century.

CONCLUSION

The paper is an attempt to on comparative basis shed some light on the individual etiquettes, personal discipline as well as the role education and intellectual bradawl in the making of a reformer and revivalist in the Muslim society, comparing the two reformers of the 19^th and 20^th centuries Northern Nigeria. Northern Nigerian is one of the most important parts of the Muslim World, which has sustained history of Islamic Tajdid for the past five hundred years in its experience as a Muslim area, which could traceable to the 1460s Sarki Muhammad Rumfa and Al-Maghili alliance. Since then, the question reform and revivalism has been a tradition to reckon with in the region. The most iconic and seminal reform in the history of the region and the most successful of all was the tajdid led by Shehu Usmanu Danfodiyo, 1754-1817. The impact and influence of the said revivalism can still be visibly seen in all aspects of life of the people of the region. Due to its intellectual disposition, its effects remain more indelible and effective as to inspire the subsequent reforms and tajdid in the entire West African Sub-region.

The 20^th century had its peculiar nature and challenges to the Muslim Ummah generally, and the Nigerian Muslims in particular. The advent and introduction of European secular philosophy in education, politics, and general separation of religion from public affairs were the unique encounters, which confronted the Muslims at the time. Addressing such problems require extra mobilisation and training to be able confront them. Abubakar Gumi, 1924-1992, was the unique Muslim Alim who was blessed to have dual advantage of learning and mastering both Islamic and modern education systems. That singular opportunity, made his comments and ideas relevant and contributed significantly in safeguarding the Muslims from the morass of the colonial government as well the post-colonial experience better than most scholars and Ulama’ whose expertise was on single knowledge system. The two reformers(Danfodiyo and Gummi) therefore, maximally utilized their personal capability as well as the available tools and mechanism at the period for Da’awa and guiding the Ummah.  Consequently, their ideas and ideology of reform have been shaping and guiding the new generation of du’ats and the mass of the people, and commonly emphasising on the use of education and intellectual acumen instead of violence and use of force. Thus, leaving behind a lasting and durable legacy for the future reformers and revivalists among the Muslim Ummah in Nigeria and the wider Muslim World.

FOOTNOTES

[1] See Sayyid Qutb, Islam the Religion of the Future, International Islamic Federation of Students Organizations, Holy Qur’an Publishing House, Lebanon, Damascus, nd, p. 22.

[2] Thus, the relevance of choosing to study Shehu Usmanu Danfodiyo, 1754-1817 and Abubakar Gummi 1922-1992.

[3] Youssef M. Choueiri, Islamic Fundamentalism, London: Continuum, 1990, p. 20-21

[4] Syed H.  H.  Ndvi, Islamic Fundamentalism: A Theology of Liberation and Renaissance, South Africa, Durban-Westville University, 1995, p.10.

[5] Abul A’ala . Maududi, The Islamic Movement: Dynamics of Values, Power and Change, Khurram Murad(ed), London: Islamic Foundation, 1984, p. 11.

[6] Sayeed A. Maududi, The Islamic Movement…, p. 25.

[7] See details in  Lansine Kaba, “ Islam in West Africa: Radicalism and the New Ethic of Disagreement, 1960-1990’, in Nehemia Levtzion, & Randall l. Pouwels, The History of Islam in Africa, Ohio University Press, pp. 189-208.

[8] See details in Abdin Chande, ‘Radicalism and Reform in East Africa’, in in Nehemia Levtzion, & Randall l. Pouwels, The History of Islam in Africa, Ohio University Press, pp. 349-368.

[9] See discussion on this in Bunza, M. U., “Shari’ah in the History and Political Development of Nigeria”, in Adekunle, J. O., (ed), Religion in Politics: Secularism and National Integration in Modern Nigeria, AWP, NJ, USA, 2009, pp. 137-158.

[10] Hunwick, J. O., “Africa and Islamic Revival: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives”, Direct Submission DATE: Fri, 14 Jun 1996 11:41:57 -0600 TEXT: P. 7. See also M. U. Bunza, “The New Role of Ulama’ in Nigeria: Focus on the Post 1999 Democratic Dispensation”, Aljamiah: Journal of Islamic Studies, University of Yogakarta, Indonesia, 2014, Vol. 52, No. 2, pp. 391-415

[11] Youssef, M. Choueiri, Islamic Fundamentalism…, pp. 23-24.

[12] See her introduction in Zeenath Kauthar, Contemporary Islamic Political Thought: A Study of Eleven Islamic Thinkers, Malaysia: IIU, 2009, p. xiv

[13] See concept of Tajdeed Philosophy and views of Al-Maghili as expressed in his replies to Askiya Muhammad of Songhay in Ibrahim Sulaiman, A Revolution in History: The Jihad of Usman Danfodiyo, London: Mansell Publishing Limited, 1986, p. 1-5.

[14] Syed H. H. Nadvi, Islamic Fundamentalism…p. 16

[15] Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, Approaching the Sunnah: Comprehension and Controversy, London: IIIT, 2006, P.33. see also Irfan Abdul Hameed Fattah, Religious Thought and the Challenges of Modernity, Malaysia: IIUM, 2002, PP. II-VI.

[16] See details in Usman Bugaje and Ibrahim Jumare, ‘Shehu Usman Danfodiyo, 1754-1817’, in Bugaje, U., and Jumare, I.M., The Sultans of Sokoto, Nigeria: Kaduna, pp. 1-10, . S.J. Hogben & A.H.M. Kirk-Green, The Emirates on Northern Nigeria, London, Oxford University, 1966, P. 116.

[17] See Mukhtar U. Bunza, Gwandu Emirate: The Domain of Abdullahi Fodiyo, Since 1805, Kaduna: GEDA, 2016, especially chapter two.

[18] See, Mervyn Hiskett, ‘Material Relating to the State of Learning Among the Fulani before their Jihad’, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, Vol. 19. No. 3, (1957), pp. 560-565

[19] The information in this section was paraphrased from Mallam Abdullahi’s own account in Ida’a al-Nusukh, most of the translation used here was from Hiskett, M., “Material Relating to the State of Learning among the Fulani before their Jihad’, Bulletin of School of Oriental and African Studies, BSOAS, VOL NO. PP.550-578.

[20] Zahraddeen, M. S., ‘The Acquisition of land and its administration in the Sokoto Caliphate as provided by Abdullahi Danfodiyo’s Ta’alim Al-Radi’, in Kani, A. M.,  and Gandi, K. A.,eds,  State and Society in the Sokoto Caliphate,   Usmanu Danfodiyo University Press, 1990,193.

[21] U. F. Malumfashi, ‘Divergence Of Opinion In The Law Of Islam: Being Editing, Translation And Analysis Of Shaikh Usman Bin Fodiyo’s Najm Al-Ikhwan Yahtaduna Bihi bi Izni Allahi  fi Umur Al-Zaman’, PhD Bayero University, Kano, Nigeria, 1989, pp. 5, & 9.

[22] See www.oxfordislamicstudies.com accessed on 18/01/2020

[23] Abubakar Gumi with I. A. Tsiga, Where I Stand, Spectrum Books Limited, Lagos, 1992, pp. 1-2.

[24] Abubakar Gumi with Tsiga, Where I Stand, p. 2.

[25] Abubakar Gumi with Tsiga, Where I Stand, p. 15

[26] Gumi with Tsiga, Where I Stand…, pp. 20-21.

[27] Gumi with Tsiga, Where I Stand…, p.22

[28] H. A. Jangebe, ‘Islamic Reform in Nigeria: The Contribution of Sheikh Abubakar Mahmud Gumi’, International Journal of Humanities and Social Science, Vol. 5, No. 9; September 2015, p. 178.

[29] See Mansur I. Sokoto, ‘Al Shaikh Abubakar Gumi wa Amaliyatihi al-Dawaiyah: Dirasa al-Tahliliyah min  Khilal Tadris al-Hadith’, M.A., UDUniversity, Sokoto, 2000, p. 37, see also Jangebe, H. A., ‘Islamic Reform in Nigeria…’. P. 179.

[30] Karl Maier, ‘Obituary: Sheikh Abubakar Mahmud Gumi’, 16 September, 1992.

[31] Bello, Infaq al-Maisur, pp. 22-23.

[32] Abdullahi S. U., On Search of a Viable Political Culture: Reflections on the Political Thought of Abdullahi Danfodiyo, N. N. N. Press, Kaduna, 1984. Pp.29-30.

[33] See Abdullahi Fodiyo, Tazyin al-Waraqat, Hiskett, M., (trans) Ibadan University Press, 1963, p. 85.

[34] Hiskett, M., A History of Hausa Islamic Verse, SOAS, University of London, 1975,  p.19.

[35] See detail in Yahya A. B., “The Significance of the 19^th Century Hausa Poetry Teachings’, in Kani, A. M. and Gandi, K. A. (eds), State and Society in the Sokoto Caliphate, p.p. 282 & 286.

 [36] KAMECHE Mohammed, “The Shehu ‘Uthman Dan Fodio the Reformer, The Renovator and the Founder of the Sokoto Caliphate 1774 – 1817”, A Thesis for the Degree of Magister of Arts in African Civilization, University Oran, Algeria, 2009, p. 67.

[37] Rabiu G. Idris and Ahmad A. Ibrahim, “Reformation of Islamic Knowledge in Hausaland: The Life, Contentions and Contributions of Usman Ibn Fodio”, Journal of Creative Writing, Volume 3, Issue 1, 2017, P.

[38] Umar F. Malumfashi, “Divergence of Opinion…, p. 80

[39] Abdullahi’s account of the event In Tazyin Alwaraqat, pp.88-89

[40] Aminu A. Bala, “The role of Da’wah in the introduction and spread of Islam in Hausaland (Northern Nigeria)’, IOSR Journal of Humanities and Social Science (IOSR-JHSS), Volume 20, Issue 8, Ver. I (Aug 2015), P. 32

[41] See Bunza, M. U. and Ashafa A. M., “Religion and the New Roles of Youth in Sub-Saharan Africa: The Hausa and Ebira Muslim Communities in Northern Nigeria, 1930s-1980s, Journal for the Study of Religions and Ideologies, 9, 27 (Winter 2010), p. 316

[42] See details in M. U. Bunza, ‘Islamism Versus Secularism: A New Politico-Religious Struggle in Modern Nigeria’, Journal of Religions and Ideologies, Summer 2002, pp. 60

[43] See detail of his theory of teaching and philosophy of reform in Mukhtar Bunza, ‘Social and Religious Contributions of Islamic Scholars in Northern Nigeria: Life and Works of Abubakar Gumi’, B. A. History, Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto, 1988.

[44] Karl Maier, Obituary: Sheikh Abubakar Mahmud Gumi, Wednesday 16 September 1992 00:02

[45]  See Shehu Usmanu Danfodiyo, Najm al-Ikhwan yahtaduna bihi bi izn Allah fi umur al- Zaaman,

4. 3-4.

[46] Shehu Usmanu Danfodiyo, Irshad al-Ikhwan ila ahkam jawaz khuruj al-Niswan, mss, p. 1.

[47] See detail discussion on this in J. M.  Kaura, ‘Emancipation of Women in the Sokoto Caliphate’, in Kani and Gandi ed, State and Society…pp.75-99

[48] See translation of the text used here in Kani, A. M., The Intellectual Origin of Sokoto Jihad, Iman Publications; Ibadan, Nigeria, (1405AH)1985, p.69, citing Shaikh Usmanu Danfodiyo.

[49] See A. M. Kani, Intellectual Origin…, pp69-70 quoting from Wathiqat al-Ikhwan of Shaikh Usmanu Danfodiyo

[50] That was an association of the women folk, founded by Nana Asma’u, for the advancement of the course of the Sokoto Jihad, principally targeting the women, teaching, re-orientating and enlightening them.

[51] See details of this M. U., Bunza, Gwandu Emirate…, pp. 18-20

[52] See details in Sa’adiya Omar, Malamai Mata a Daular Usmaniya a Karni na 19 da 20, (Women Scholars in the Sokoto Caliphate in 19^th and 20^th Centuries), Kaduna: 2017

[53] See JEAN BOYD and BEVERLY MACK, The Collected Works of Nana Asma’u, Daughter of Shehu Usman Danfodiyo (1793-1864), Ibadan: Sam Bookman, 1999, 9.

[54] Shehu made this statement in his Wathiqat al-Ikhwan, however discussions on the issues could be found  in  Abba Y., ‘The 1804 Jihad in Hausaland as a Revolution’, in Usman Y. B., Studies in the History of the Sokoto Caliphate, published by the Department of History ABU, 1979, PP.20-33, the chapter is generally good for understanding the point.

[55] Citing Sidi al-Mukhtar al-Kunti in   Ibrahim Sulaiman, A Revolution in History…, p. 13

[56] Gumi, Where I Stand…, pp. 153-175

[57] See details on this in Bunza and Ashafa, ‘The New Role of Youth…’ ‘pp. 320-322.

[58] See Gumi, Where I Stand…, p. 175

[59] Sayyid Qutb, Milestone, International Islamic Federation of Students Organizations, IIFSO, 1978, Reproduced by The Islamic Call Center, Lagos Nigeria, 1985, p. 11.

[60]  See details in M. U. Bunza, ‘The Application of Islamic Law and the Legacies of Good Governance in the Sokoto Caliphate, Nigeria (1804-1903)’, Electronic Journal of Islamic and Middle Eastern Law | Vol. 1 (2013), p. 89.

[61] Shehu Usmanu Danfodiyo, Bayan Wuju al-Hijra ala al-Ibad, El-Masri, F. H., (tran &ed), Khartoum University Press, 1978, p.142.

[62] See M. U. Bunza, Gwandu Emirate…, chapter one, especially section, ‘Building the Edifice in Theory and Practice’, pp. 45-55

[63] Ibrahim Sulaiman, A Revolution in History…, pp.65-74

[64] Whitaker, C. S. ‘The Sokoto Caliphate as Cosmopolis’:  Boboyo H., and Yakubu, A. M.,(eds),  Sokoto Caliphate History and Legacies 1804-2004, Kaduna Arewa House, 2006. Vol. 2, p. 329

[65] Gumi, Where I Stand…, p. 47

[66] A. Gumi, Where I Stand…, p. 177.