Truth Is Bitter Series (Ep 7)
Short satirical reflections on faith, society and the uncomfortable truths we avoid. First published in the Rabi’al-Awwal/Rabi’al-Thani 1431 AH (2010) print edition of The PEACE Magazine.
By Abdulfattah Abdussalam
Time and some Muslims
Recently, a popular Nigerian Islamic Youth organization held an award ceremony, cum the celebration of the Islamic year. The organization prides itself as the present body of Nigerian Muslim youths, but the events of the day, suggest that some Muslims are not living in line with Islamic dictates. The gathering was to start at 10:00 am but as of 3:30 pm, the programme had yet to commence!. Sadly, it is almost the same general thing, amongst Muslims except for very few! Ironically, when many Islamic groups send out invitations to such events, they always add that the programme shall start so and so Islamic time, i.e. 10:00 a.m. Islamic time. Let’s ask what is Islamic in a programme that starts six hours behind schedule? May Allah help us, Islam in its true sense, put a premium on time consciousness. We need to change our ways regarding our sense of time.
Our mess
Recently, the world beamed its searchlight on Nigeria and decided to label one hundred and fifty million Nigerians as terrorists. The decision spearheaded by the United States came as a result of the sin of Faruq Abdulmutallab? Who for reasons best known to him, attempted to blow off a Delta Airlines flight, in Detroit, United States. As a punishment, Nigerians are now to be subjected to body scans at the airports, especially while entering the United States. Sadly, the body scan will expose your body to your manhood and womanhood! Alas, Islam abhors prying into others’ privacy (awrah), because of one man’s sin, millions are subjected to indignity. Ironically, when our precious women travel they would be prying into the question here is where then is Islam in what the likes of Abdulmuttalab do?
JAMB, JAMBA?
Without seeking to overstate the obvious, in the last two decades our educational system, more at the tertiary level has gone haywire with many dubious policies that have left many in bad shape. The Joint Admission Board, JAMB, perhaps is at the forefront of doom. Ask many homes what JAMB has done to truncate the ambitions of many young Nigerians? Your findings will make you weep. In its usual style of milking Nigerians, in the last couple of years in the name of online registration and online result checking, it introduced scratch cards of various amounts. The question is after completing one’s registration with payment of the required amount, why should one now pay again to have the results? It is a clever way of stealing! Once the results are placed on the website it should be for the public, after all we all browse on the web and see much information what makes JAMB’s result different? It is JAMBA Nigerians’ way of doing things!
Editor’s Note: Truth Is Bitter is a weekly reflective and satirical column drawn from the “Front of the Book” pages of PEACE Magazine. It seeks to provoke introspection, not hostility; reform, not ridicule.
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