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The Message

Translated from Hausa by Abdul Mumin Giwa

The following is the closing speech delivered by the leader of the Islamic Movement at the end of the daily Qur,an commentary session of the month of Ramadan 1430 at FIC Zaria

By the grace of God Almighty we have reached the end of the chapter T H. it is at this point that we are going to close the daily Qur'an commentary of the month of Ramadan which we started from the Wednesday preceding the month. Today being the last Wednesday of the month, we are going to close.

Usually, in the beginnings of the months of Ramadan, though I am not sure it gets to the ears of those it is referred to, I use to say, whenever the Ramadan begins, a lot of sessions for the Qur'an commentary take place. It has been an age long practice such that a lot of the commentators have grown to see the practice. In the past it used to be called 'Jalalayn' because it is the Jalalayn that used to be read form the first to the last chapter. Most of those that used to attend those sessions were students. Those who attend carry along with them ink and pens with which they make corrections of their hand-written scripts. There are great attendants at the sessions because, due to the attendance, one would think that they are returning from the Friday prayer whenever a session closes. This is because it is only one person that conducts the session in a town.

As time goes on some people started conducting it at home in the circles of their relations and students. In these sessions, they hardly complete the entire Qur'an in a month as a result they split it and conduct it halfway through and complete it in the subsequent year. This is talking about 40 years ago. That is to say since 1971.

The practice continued to gain popularity among the public continuously. The practice came to lose the usual prestige it had. It became so lose that someone informed me that he had seen the session being conducted at a side mosque of a petrol station. Probably a customer might branch for fuel at the station and then spend a while there listening to the commentary.

It became as popular as it is now on air in the radio and television. You will hear it being conducted by various so-called clerics. We are not saying that it is not good to conduct the sessions. What we are saying is that the commentary should be conducted with the actual commentary of the Qur'an. It is good that the Qur'an be regarded and respected. The commentary should be such that it benefits the audience. There is no problem in using it to comment on current issues that concern their lives for as long as the person conducting the session is capable of doing it. But in a situation where one has an opinion he intends to express, then he should not use the commentary session as opportunity to express it. He should rather call for a public lecture and invite listeners there to listen to his opinion. He should not interpret the Qur'an to support his opinion but respect the Qur'an and say the actual commentary of it. Such opinions, no matter what they are, be they political or otherwise should be expressed in other public gathering places and not the session of the Qur'an commentary. When he does that at the public gathering place or a hall, his supporters will then applaud his political opinions and his opponents will oppose but not during the commentary sessions. This is because what he is saying is not the opinion of the Qur'an but his personal opinion. In a situation where the Qur'an is recited and you interpret it to mean your opinion, then you are not regarding and respecting the Qur'an.

It has now gotten to an extent whereby those in authority dictate what is being said during the commentary sessions by some of those conducting it. It is such that this year's commentary session is different from those of the past as a result of misguided utterances made by some of those conducting it. They concentrated on one single issue, meaning that it was planned. They went further to organize public lectures on the same issue and also read other books apart from the Qur'an during the Qur'an commentary session to prove that same issue. We were able to come to the conclusion that they were assigned to do that. Some were contracted by the security agents to concentrate on those issues. It was such that the same issue was made the topic of the Friday sermons in mosques around. They persistently concentrated on talking about the issue of Shi'a all over. They even went as far as calling on the Shi'ites to be killed. This is because the authorities have a plan of an onslaught on the Shi'ites and have planned that it takes place in the last ten days of Ramadan. What a horrible plan in a holy month to be executed in the last ten days of the months that are considered as the holier days of the month; these are supposed to be the days in which one is expected to seek forgiveness and reconciliation with God Almighty against his past wrong doings. It is in this holly period that they are planning to shed blood. Hey have done all their plans assuming that the people will concede to that.

I know that they might not listen to whatever we are going to say but it is a duty to still inform them, may be a day will come that they would realize the truth. It is good for them to know that it is not necessary that people concede to whatever they are told. What they hear from you does not necessarily find a place in the minds of the people. Your placing it on radio or elsewhere does not necessarily mean that the people will concede to it. What is important is that which has a place in the minds of the people and is useful to them. An officially accepted opinion does not necessarily make the opinion valid. The empty barrels make the loudest noise. What you are saying is not the truth and it is only the truth that has a place in the minds of the people. Also it does not imply that if you do not see something or have barred others from seeing it, it does not exist.

They have sanctioned our Qur'an commentary sessions because we try our best to ensure that it is the Qur'an commentary that we make although we try to make it brief enough for the understanding of all. There a more elaborate commentary that we read for students in a separate session where a lot is said about every verse and it purpose as well. This kind of commentary cannot be suitable for the Ramadan session. In the Ramada session we try to make sure that we learn useful lessons from the Qur'an such that any listener will go home with a useful lesson that will influence his life.

I have mentioned in the past Ramadan that I have heard a lot of noises made against us in the process of which they even mentioned names and made negative comments against us. We tried as much as possible not to respond to their unguarded utterances. We left them with their noise-making. We did our best and left the decision with the people.

We can only say that you are deceiving yourself to assume that barring people from listening to us means that they don't listen. This is because the people know what is actually good for them. Even the Christians listen and benefit from what is being said. My attention was once drawn to a Christian that used to gather people to listen to what is being said and says afterwards to the listeners that it is the old and new testaments that are being interpreted. There were also football watching centers that showed the last year's commentary session to viewers in Kaduna during the last Ramadan as against the football they used to show.

This year around, the authorities sanctioned the media against airing our Qur'an sessions. There were also those that were threatened after they had aired the programs for some days. This is because there assumption is that if it is not aired then no one listens. How do you justify stopping the TV and radio stations from airing our programs while you accuse us of insulting the companions of the holy Prophet SAWA? Why don't you allow the people to listen to us and verify the truth? Why are you barring them from listening to us? Why don't you allow them to listen and verify the truth of your accusations? Why are people who abuse and insult us allowed on air when, we don't even retaliate what they are doing to us and we are barred? Allow the people to verify the truth by allowing them to listen to us after all we are saying is what is contained in the Qur'an and the traditions of the Prophet SAWA.

All we have to say at this juncture is that you are only deceiving yourself because the TV and the radio do not change anything. We are not doing our programs because we want them to be aired on Radio or TV. Even what was aired last year was suggested by the media workers. I told them that I don't want our Qur'an commentary sessions to be aired among the series of so-called commentary sessions performed by so-called scholars. They insisted saying that there are people that would prefer to listen to you because everyone has his own view. I then referred them to the brothers in at Kaduna and they made the arrangements and resumed the broadcast. It is not because of my personal view. Even this year there were some radio stations that approached in the same manner wanting me to concede to their demand of airing the program and I told them the same thing. But still, there are other places where the sessions were aired without any hitch. The problem is only in Kaduna. Some are being financed by some brothers both during and after the Ramadan. Some are aired on TV and radio and others on FM and state radio. I have what I might describe as a weakness on my part, I never give addresses with the consideration that someone is going to listen to me from a cassette on watch me on TV. I always try to address those in front of me listening to me. I really don't know how to deliver address for the purpose of subsequent transmission. I rather address those in my front listening to me. This is what others listen to. There are those who sit in front of microphone and deliver address for subsequent transmission.

Let me remind you, barring our programs from being aired can never change anything because there are audio cassettes, videos, CDs, DVDs and others all over the place. During the Islamic Revolution in Iran, there were no such means of information dissemination available. The leader of the Islamic Revolution, Imam Khumaini QS was never let on air at any time before and after he migrated out of Iran. The Shah never allowed him on air or in any newspaper. More so, they even used the media for campaign of calumny against the Imam. They abused his character at a certain time and roused the people's anger. While he was in Paris, he used to address his students who record his speeches using small tape recorders and subsequently use the analogue telephone to call a receiver in Iran and play it to him while he records it and gets it duplicated for distribution. It was such that the security went round houses in search of tapes carrying Imam's messages. They killed anyone found with such tapes but it never stopped the cassettes from going round. How then can you stop the message from reaching the people in an age with various means of communication that include tapes, CDs, newspapers and even the internet? For as long as you cannot stop the sun from rising, you cannot equally stop the message from getting to the people. It is not true that what you don't see does not exist. Why are you then behaving like the animal that hides its head and leave its body assuming that it is not being seen by those seeking it for prey? This is what the authorities are doing. They are summing that what they don't see does not exist. Let me assure you that the call is alive. It is very much alive in the hearts of the people. The authorities even assume that whenever we have a gathering that is attended by about a million people and we disperse that everything is finished because they don't see the people again. My question here is did all the people they saw die? Certainly they are very much alive; they are around. It is not the gathering that made them what they are.

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