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Nigeria Islam
Islam is a traditional religion in West Africa. It came
to
northern Nigeria as early as the eleventh century and was
well
established in the state capitals of the region by the
sixteenth
century, spreading into the countryside and toward the
middle
belt uplands. There, Islam's advance was stopped by the
resistance of local peoples to incorporation into the
emirate
states. The Fulani-led jihad in the nineteenth century
pushed
Islam into Nupe and across the Niger River into northern
Yoruba-
speaking areas. The colonial conquest established a rule
that
active Christian proselytizing could not occur in the
northern
Muslim region, although in 1990 the two religions
continued to
compete for converts in the middle belt, where ethnic
groups and
even families had adherents of each persuasion.
The origins of Islam date to Muhammad (the Prophet), a
prosperous merchant of the town of Mecca in Arabia. He
began in
A.D. 610 to preach the first of a series of revelations
granted
him by God (Allah) through the agency of the archangel
Gabriel.
The divine messages, received during solitary visits into
the
desert, continued during the remainder of his life.
Muhammad denounced the polytheistic paganism of his
fellow
Meccans; his vigorous and continuing censure ultimately
earned
him their bitter enmity. In 622 he and a group of
followers
accepted an invitation to settle in Yathrib, which became
known
as Medina (the city) through its association with him. The
hijra,
(known in the West as the hegira), or journey to Medina,
marked
the beginning of the Islamic calendar in the year 622. In
Medina
Muhammad continued his preaching, ultimately defeated his
detractors in battle, and had consolidated the temporal as
well
as spiritual leadership of most Arabs before his death in
632.
After Muhammad's death, his followers compiled his
words that
were regarded as coming directly from God in a document
known as
the Quran, the holy scripture of Islam. Other sayings and
teachings of the Prophet, as well as the precedents of his
personal behavior as recalled by those who had known him,
became
the hadith ("sayings"). From these sources, the faithful
have
constructed the Prophet's customary practice, or sunna,
which
they endeavor to emulate. Together, these documents form a
comprehensive guide to the spiritual, ethical, and social
life of
the faithful in most Muslim countries.
The shahada (profession of faith, or testimony)
states
succinctly the central belief, "There is no God but Allah,
and
Muhammad is his Prophet." The faithful repeat this simple
profession on ritual occasions, and its recital designates
the
speaker as a Muslim. The term Islam means
submission to
God, and the one who submits is a Muslim.
The God preached by Muhammad was previously known to
his
countrymen, for Allah is the general Arabic term
for the
supreme being rather than the name of a particular deity.
Rather
than introducing a new deity, Muhammad denied the
existence of
the pantheon of gods and spirits worshipped before his
prophethood and declared the omnipotence of God, the
unique
creator. Muhammad is the "Seal of the Prophets," the last
of the
prophetic line. His revelations are said to complete for
all time
the series of revelations that had been given earlier to
Jews and
Christians. God is believed to have remained one and the
same
throughout time, but humans are seen as having
misunderstood or
strayed from God's true teachings until set aright by
Muhammad.
Prophets and sages of the biblical tradition, such as
Abraham,
Moses, and Jesus, are recognized as inspired vehicles of
God's
will. Islam, however, reveres as sacred only the message.
It
accepts the concepts of guardian angels, the Day of
Judgment,
resurrection, and the eternal life of the soul.
The duties of the Muslim form the "five pillars" of the
faith. These are shahada, salat (daily
prayer),
zakat (almsgiving), sawm (fasting), and hajj
(pilgrimage). The believer prays facing Mecca at five
specified
times during the day. Whenever possible, men observe their
prayers in congregation at a mosque under direction of an
imam,
or prayer leader, and on Fridays are obliged to do so.
Women are
permitted to attend public worship at the mosque, where
they are
segregated from men, but their attendance tends to be
discouraged, and more frequently they pray in the
seclusion of
their homes.
In the early days of Islam, a tax for charitable
purposes was
imposed on personal property in proportion to the owner's
wealth.
The collection of this tax and its distribution to the
needy were
originally functions of the state. But with the breakdown
of
Muslim religiopolitical authority, alms became an
individual
responsibility.
The ninth month of the Muslim calendar is Ramadan, a
period
of obligatory fasting in commemoration of Muhammad's
receipt of
God's revelation. Throughout the month, all but the sick
and the
weak, pregnant or lactating women, soldiers on duty,
travelers on
necessary journeys, and young children are enjoined from
eating,
drinking, smoking, or sexual intercourse during daylight
hours.
Those adults excused are obliged to endure an equivalent
fast at
their earliest opportunity. A festive meal breaks the
daily fast
and inaugurates a night of feasting and celebration.
Well-to-do
believers usually do little or no work during this period,
and
some businesses close for all or part of the day. Because
the
months of the lunar year revolve through the solar year,
Ramadan
falls at various seasons in different years. A
considerable test
of discipline at any time of the year, a fast that falls
in
summertime imposes severe hardship on those who must do
physical
work.
Finally, at least once during their lifetime all
Muslims
should make the hajj, or pilgrimage, to the holy city of
Mecca to
participate in the special rites that occur during the
twelfth
month of the lunar calendar. For most well-to-do Nigerian
traders
and business people, the trip was so common that the
honorific
"hajji" (fem., hajjia), signifying a pilgrim, was
routinely used to refer to successful traders.
Two features of Islam are essential to understanding
its
place in Nigerian society. They are the degree to which
Islam
permeates other institutions in the society, and its
contribution
to Nigerian pluralism. As an institution in emirate
society,
Islam includes daily and annual ritual obligations; the
pilgrimage to Mecca; sharia, or religious law; and an
establishment view of politics, family life, communal
order, and
appropriate modes of personal conduct in most situations.
Thus,
even in 1990, Islam pervaded daily life. Public meetings
began
and ended with Muslim prayer, and everyone knew at least
the
minimum Arabic prayers and the five pillars of the
religion
required for full participation. Public adjudication (by
local
leaders with the help of religious experts, or Alkali
courts)
provided widespread knowledge of the basic tenets of
sharia law--
the Sunni school of law according to Malik ibn Anas, the
jurist
from Medina, was that primarily followed. Sunni (from
sunna), or
orthodox Islam, is the dominant sect in Nigeria and most
of the
Muslim world. The other sect is Shia Islam, which holds
that the
caliphs or successors to the Prophet should have been his
relatives rather than elected individuals.
Every settlement had at least one place set aside for
communal prayers. In the larger settlements, mosques were
well
attended, especially on Fridays when the local
administrative and
chiefly elites led the way, and the populace prayed with
its
leaders in a demonstration of communal and religious
solidarity.
Gaining increased knowledge of the religion, one or more
pilgrimages to Mecca for oneself or one's wife, and a
reputation
as a devout and honorable Muslim all provided prestige.
Those
able to suffuse their everyday lives with the beliefs and
practices of Islam were deeply respected.
Air transport had made the hajj more widely available,
and
the red cap wound with a white cloth, signifying its
wearer's
pilgrimage, was much more common in 1990 than twenty years
previously. Upper-income groups went several times and
sent or
took their wives as well. The ancient custom of spending
years
walking across Africa to reach Mecca was still practiced,
however, and groups of such pilgrims could be seen
receiving
charity at Friday prayers outside major mosques in the
north.
Nigerian Islam was not highly organized. Reflecting the
aristocratic nature of the traditional ruling groups,
there were
families of clerics whose male heirs trained locally and
abroad
in theology and jurisprudence and filled major positions
in the
mosques and the judiciary. These ulama, or learned
scholars, had
for centuries been the religious and legal advisers of
emirs, the
titled nobility, and the wealthy trading families in the
major
cities. Ordinary people could consult the myriads of
would-be and
practicing clerics in various stages of training, who
studied
with local experts, functioned at rites of passage, or
simply
used their religious education to gain increased
"blessedness"
for their efforts. Sufi brotherhoods, (from suf, or
wool;
the wearing of a woolen robe indicated devotion to a
mystic
life), a form of religious order based on more personal or
mystical relations to the supernatural, were widespread,
especially in the major cities. There the two predominant
ones,
Qadiriyah and Tijaniyah, had separate mosques and, in a
number of
instances, a parochial school system receiving grants from
the
state. The brotherhoods played a major role in the spread
of
Islam in the northern area and the middle belt.
Islam both united and divided. It provided a rallying
force
in the north and into the middle belt, where it was
spreading.
The wide scope of Islamic beliefs and practices created a
leveling force that caused Muslims in the north to feel
that they
were part of a common set of cultural traditions affecting
family
life, dress, food, manners, and personal qualities linking
them
to one another and a wider Islamic world. At the
constitutional
conference of 1978, Muslim delegates walked out as a unit
over
the issue of a separate Islamic supreme court, a demand
they lost
but which in 1990 remained a Muslim goal. To adapt fully
to
northern life, non-Muslims had to remain in an enclave,
living
quasi-segregated lives in their churches, their social
clubs, and
even their work. In contrast, becoming a convert to Islam
was the
doorway to full participation in the society. Middle belt
people,
especially those with ambitions in politics and business,
generally adopted Islam. The main exception to this rule
was
Plateau State, where the capital, Jos, was as much a
Christian as
a Muslim community, and a greater accommodation between
the two
sets of beliefs and their adherents had occurred.
Divisions within the Muslim community existed, however.
The
nineteenth-century jihad that founded the Sokoto Caliphate
was a
regenerative and proselytizing movement within the
community of
the faithful. In major centers in 1990, the Sufi
brotherhoods
supported their own candidates for both religious and
traditional
emirate offices. These differences were generally not
disruptive.
Islamic activist preachers and student leaders who spread
ideas
about a return to extreme orthodoxy also existed. In
addition, a
fringe Islamic cult, known as the Maitatsine, started in
the late
1970s and operated throughout the 1980s, springing up in
Kano
around a mystical leader (since deceased) from Cameroon
who
claimed to have had divine revelations superseding those
of the
Prophet. The cult had its own mosques and preached a
doctrine
antagonistic to established Islamic and societal
leadership. Its
main appeal was to marginal and poverty-stricken urban
in-migrants, whose rejection by the more established urban
groups
fostered this religious opposition. These disaffected
adherents
ultimately lashed out at the more traditional mosques and
congregations, resulting in violent outbreaks in several
cities
of the north
(see Domestic Security
, ch. 5).
Data as of June 1991
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