BEFORE ISLAM WILL BE ELIMINATED FROM YORUBALAND... Christianity has to leave first! For almost a century, Muslims co-habited with non-muslims in the south west. We lived in peaceful accord and no religious uprising nor religious chaos is documented between Islam and the other religions. We did not infringe on the right of each other and we never forced each others value or creed on another. Ever since christianity came after almost eight centuries(756 years) of islam in Yorubaland, things have never been the same. It keeps depriving us of our religious rights and are forcing their own creeds and values on us through the colonialists designed system of government that was derived from christianity. If they are not banning our Hijab, they are victimising our muslims sisters in university, in the nursing wards, in the law schools, etc. They pretend as if they are the victims and call us extremists for abiding by our religious creeds. The arrival of Islam in Yorubaland from Mali through Kolanut and Adire trades has been so long that historians only make estimate of the age of islam in the south- west. Our great great grand fathers cannot also ascertain how old Islam is in Yorubaland and this makes them to presume Islam is as traditional in the region just like the traditional religious beliefs. A living proverb attesting to this fact has been handed down from generations to gernerations through oral traditions. It says Aye Labafa, Aye Labamole, Osan gangan nigbagbo de meaning Oracle practice is traditional, Islam is traditional, christianity is a recent introduction. Islam is called Imale in the traditional Yoruba language due to the historical account of its arrival from Mali, which is called Male in yoruba accent. Over the centuries, Esin Male metamorphosed into Esin Imale, meaning Religion Of Mali Ancient account of the arrival, introduction, adoptions and assimilation of islam in the region is told in several proverbs and traditional lyrical renditions of Ijala. When the Yoruba traders arrived with islam from mali, the practice of the religion was welcome even by their kith and kins with rapt curiousity. People gathered to watch how the new reverts Yorubas observed their daily prayers. Local poets composed and rendered poetic lines to praise or describe the newly arrived religion. A good example of such lyrics reads Esin Imole dotitoo esin Imole dotito Biwonjin loru oganjo Won akigbe tooo Esin imole dotito Meaning Islam has become a reality, when they wake in the night, they make loud calls They are refering to the call to prayers around 5am or around 3am during the month of ramadan to wake people for the Sahur. After years of gradual assimilations of the religion by more pagans, they had learned that islam prohibit Idol worship and other paganistic practices. Many have taken the Sahadah and embraced islam while others were skeptical about the permissibility of some of their traditional occupations in Islam. Palm wine tappers, knew it was a haram occupation and blacksmith had learnt that He can continue with his work but must stop his usual offerings of libations to the gods of iron. It was a period where issues were being ironed out and the new religion was growing in its beautiful appeal to the locals. The local hunters, whose occupation was deeply interwoven with a form of idolatory in the worship of a deity called Ogun later composed and sang another lyrics expressing the permisibility of their occupation by islam on the account of doing away from Idolatory. A line of such lyric reads: Imole ope kinma sode Imole Ope kinma sode Bimo ba kasubaa tan Maweran lo Imale ope kima sode Meaning, Islam does not forbid hunting, after my morning prayer, i can go for hunting The ancient yorubas also affirm in several other proverbs the natures, beauty, devotions and methodologies of islam. Such examples again include the following; Esin Imale kiisesin ole. Meaning Islam is not for lazy people. They say this because of the nature of our five daily compulsory prayers, fasting a whole months, waking up in the middle of the night for prayers etc. Ati kekere nimale tii komo e lesin. Meaning A muslims child is trained in his religion from childhood. The say this because of the manners in which islam mandates muslims to order their children for daily prayers from age of seven and lash them to pray at age of 10 if they are not yey cmpliant. Ebi opamole olohun Ojaaya, bebi bapa sule yio jobo meaning when a Muslim is not hungary, he would say monkey is forbidden, when He is hungary he eats apes They say this when muslims explain shariah law that when a person is left with no choice, He can eat a forbidden meat to survive. Islam had become an integral part of yoruba culture and civilisation and till date, some islamic terminologies have been adopted as part of the language such as Shariah, which is otherwise pronnounced as Seria and used to mean a punishment for evil deed. Islam came with its values and it was more easily acceptable because pagans already knew God was One but only worshipped idols as intermediary. He was called Oloun, Eledumare, Aseda, Eledua, Eledumare etc. Islam also did not pose any threat to their ways of dress, as traditional Yoruba attire worn by men had its trousers far above the ankle. Infact the best ones had their grounder at half the shin (what islam describe as ( #Nisfu Saaq, which the prophet said is the best). Such types are called #Kembe, #Kamu etc and actors of yoruba traditional movies use it till date to depict the closest reality of the culture. Islam allows only restricted polygamy with conditions while Yoruba culture also allows polygamy. Islam only regulated and brought the conditions to practise it. With this levels of conformity of many issues, it was easy for the people to adopt other aspect of islam that did not agree with other issues in their culture. Even many pagans that did not accept islam usually invited muslims clerics to name their children on the seventh day of birth. Since Islam permits honouring such invitations, Cleric would go early to name the children with the hope that they may become muslims in life. Some will later give these children to the clerics around 6-10 years of age to be trained and raised as muslims. Some children dont get that lucky but they reatained their Islamic name till old age and die as pagans. It is that practices that has gone on for centuries and it still happens in many Yoruba villages till date, hence most of the Pagans bear muslim names. The traditional worshippers have trusted Muslims for centuries unlike christianity which came down through colonialists and it was being forced on the people initially as a condition to be given western education. The many Yoruba old scholars of western education today that bear muslim names but are christians are products of that colonialist dubious manipulations. It was when rancours, mis-givings, dis-harmony and dis-unity started to grow among the various religions especially christianity and islam due to rigidity of Islam and refusal of colonialists manipulations that the proverb became a verdict on which religion between Islam and christianity has the right to freedom of practice. Hence they would repeat Aye Labafa, Aye Labamole, Osan gangan nigbagbo de meaning Oracle practice is traditional, Islam is traditional, christianity is a recent introduction. We must be allowed to practice our religion, Islam is more Yoruba than christianity.
Posted on: Thu, 23 Oct 2014 19:56:08 +0000
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