- Abubakar Gumi
Infobox Person
name = Abubakar Gumi
image_size =
caption =
birth_date = November 1922
birth_place = Gummi
death_date = 1992
death_place =
education = School of Arabic Studies
occupation =Preacher
spouse = Late Maryamu
parents =
children =Sheik Abubakar Gumi (1922-1992) was an outspokenIslamic scholar andGrand Khadi of the Northern Region of Nigeria (1962-1967), a position which made him a central authority in the interpretation of theSharia legal system in the region.John N. Paden, Muslim Civic Cultures and Conflict Resolution: the challenge of democratic federalism in Nigeria, Brookings Institution Press, 2005. p 60. ISBN 0815768176] He was a close associate ofAhmadu Bello , the premier of the region in the 1950s and 1960s and became the Grand Khadi partly as a result of his friendship with the premier. In 1967, the position was abolished.Gumi emerged as a vocal leader during the colonial era, where he felt the practice of
indirect rule had weakened the religious power ofEmirs and encouragedwesternization . Beginning in the 1960s, public conflicts emerged between him and leaders of theSufi brotherhood, some of whom he later debated on television programs in the 1970s and 1980s. By that time, he had managed to keep himself and his ideas in the spotlight by holding Friday talking sessions inside theKaduna CentralMosque . He used the sessions to revive his criticism of established authorities based on his views of a back to the source approach or the need to embrace a puritanical practice of Islam. He also criticized harshly the involvement ofmysticism and the resulting syncreticized practice of the Sufis.Biography
Early life and education
The Sheik was born in the
village of Gummi to the family of Mahmud, an Islamic scholar and Alkali (judge } of Gummi. Hiseducation started within the walls of hisfamily when he was apupil of his father'sIslamic teachings. He later went to a school under the tutelage of a Malam called Musa at Ambursa,Sokoto province . There he was introduced toFiqh and readbooks and praise poems on the prophet. The firstsecular school he attended was the Dogondaji Primary School, while in the primary school, he met the future Sultan, Ibrahim Dasuki and excelled in religious duties. He was made Hakimin Salla (leader of prayer) and was delegated responsibility for catering to the students religious activities. Within a year, he was transferred to the SokotoMiddle School , where Ahamdu Bello was teaching, there he was acquainted withShehu Shagari ,Waziri Junaidu and Yahaya Gusau, the latter was a co-founder of Jamaat nasr al-Islam, a prominentNigerian Muslim organization.After completing his studies at the middle school, he went to
Kano to studyLaw and was trained as anAlkali . He started work as a scribe to Alkali Attahiru but he soon became disenchanted with the specifics of his job. He gave private lessons on Islam andtafsir as an escape from his disenchantment.Early career
In 1947, Abubakar Gumi, left his job as
secretary to Alkali Attahiru and went to teach at the Kano Law School, which he had previously attended. While in Kano, he met Sheik Sa'id Hayatu, a man widely considered one of the most prominent victims of colonial rule. Hayatu was the leader of the Mahdiyyamovement and had just returned from a forced sojourn inCameroon . Abubakar became enthralled with the teachings of the movement and briefly became a follower of the Mahdiyya movement; he later married Hanatu's daughter, Maryam. However, she died after giving birth to a son.In 1949, he took a teaching job at a school in Maru, Sokoto. The school had a famous tutor,
Aminu Kano , who was the co-founder of the Northern Teachers Association and proprietor of a fewMuslim school s. Aminu and Gumi mingled and shared views on the influence of the traditional society with the Islamic faith and also the indifference or support given to the situation of {Bida } or syncretism by the Sufi brotherhoods. [ Lomeier p 48-50. ]He left Maru to further his education at the school of Arabic Studies in kano. On completion of his studies, he became a teacher for two years at the school. He also attended a school of education in Sudan. John Owen Hunwick. Religion and National Integration in Africa: : Islam, Christianity and Politics in the Sudan, Northwestern University Press, 1992. p 551. ISBN 0810110377]
In 1957, he became an interpreter for the Northern Nigeria government on
Saudi Arabia matters.Conflicts
Abubakar Gummi like Aminu Kano had reservations about the
administrative andreligious guidance of theemirate officials in Northern Nigeria, but Gumi was particularly irked by the latter. His first dogmatic conflict with authorities was in Maru. The conflict dealt with the practice ofTayammum . The chief Imam of the Mosque in Maru practiced the act of washing with sand(Tayammum) beforeprayers while Gumi argued that Tayammum was only applicable when water was not available, and water was widely available in Maru. Gumi went further in his challenge of the practice, by asking students not to show up for prayers until theImam reneged on practicing Tayammum. However, Gumi who had earlier written a scathing attack on theSultan of Sokoto, now found the Sultan interested in his grievance with the Chief Imam of Maru. A commission of Inquiry was raised on the issue with the support of the Sultan. However, Gumi's knowledge of Islamic dogma was superior and so was his argumentative skills, the commission ruled in favor of Gummi. Roman Loimeier. Islamic Reform and Political Change in Northern Nigeria, Northwestern University Press, 1997. p 51. ISBN 0810113465] Having gained a small victory over the Sultan, Gummi capitalized on the attention he got by writing a critical article on the issue of Muslims, especially the Sultan, accepting British titles. By then, he had began to gradually challenge established beliefs and attitude to actions among the MuslimUmmah .Another target of Gumi was the
Jibril Martin ledAhmadiyya movement. The movement was an easy target for Gummi, as some of the movement founder's views were at odds with fundamental Islamic dogma, as the founder had labeled himselfprophetic . Gumi's fears about the movement were later fomented by the organizational skills of the Nigerian founder, the movement gradually became involved in the Western Nigerianpilgrimage board and had establishedschools for pupils in the South and was moving up north in his dissemination of the principles of the Ahmadis. Gumi took on the challenge easily and the movement's northward agenda was curtailed.Mass media approach
Sheik Gummi made his first pilgrimage to
Mecca in 1955 and was joined in the journey by Ahmadu Bello. While in Mecca, he translated Islamic works in the company of Bello and King Sa'ud. He also met and befriended many members of the Ummah or Muslim community in Saudi Arabia, many of whom later became his benefactors after the death of Ahmadu Bello in 1966. On returning to Nigeria, he began to teach at the School of Arabic Studies in Kano and also at some Muslim schools founded by the Jammat nasr al-Islam (JNI) which were situated near themetropolis of Kaduna. A large part of his teachings focused on the differences between tradition and Religion, and how to understand and embrace an Islamic identity. He also wrote interpretations of theQur'an , mostly based on theSunna and translated the Qur'an fromArabic toHausa . This process led to the dissemination of the Holy book to a larger Northern Nigerian audience and his views and message on fundamental Islamic teachings began to find a wider audience. [ Paden p 61. ] However, his opposition to the dominant Sufi brotherhoods such as theTijaniya andQadirriya earned him constant criticism and was usually attacked by some Muslims on his interpretations, he usually replied that they should go on and make their own interpretations, if they don't like his. [ Paden p 61. ] By the 1970s, he became a regular feature on Television shows especially during Islamic events.By the late 1960s, after the death of Bello, Gumi's major Nigerian
political support and moderating influence was gone. He felt the new administration had the political power to curtail his views, and in the process, he resulted to consult his friends in Saudi Arabia formoral , dogmatic andfinancial support to promote agrassroot and media approach to the promotion of Islamicreform centering on the rejection of mysticism, return topuritanical Islamic teaching and rejection of the then dominant Sufi brotherhoods. He also wanted to findmass support in his battle with the brotherhood and what he felt was their hold on the political process. Gumi, became more interested in ensuring political support for his ideas, based on his perception that a political Muslim has the power to change the course of lives of a larger number of people than publishingscholarly works or engaging in private debates and gradually became more interested in political means to achieve an Islamic reformist end. In the process, he became a supporter ofwomen's rights tovote and increasing women's candidates. By the early 1970s, to contest what he felt was the hijacking of major Islamicpolitical organization s by the Fityan al-Islam, an organization founded in Kano by Mudi Salga, a leader of the Salgawa network and who was opposed to some of the policies of the late Ahmadu Bello and his Jamaat nasr al-Islam (the Association for the support of Islam}. He decided to start a movement and relied on his oldstudents to spread his views on Islamic dogma, [ Lomeier p 209 ] prodding many to take jobs at the JNI and enter into legislative duties. He used his students as a foundation for the new movement to challenge the Sufibrotherhoods and ensure a return of Islam to afundamental way. However, his views where without its share critics especially from the Sufi brotherhoods. Many held that Gumi was driving a wedge between Muslims and non Muslims, that his interpretations of theHadith and Quran were based on his own personal views and not the Sunna, and that he was monopolizing themass media for his personal views. He was also criticized for his rebellious views on traditional authorities. [ Lomeier p 210.]References
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