By Abdinoor Derrow.
The inter-textuality of Mustafes’ Solomonic Wisdom.
I was today privileged to have a “meating” with my Mentor, the man or rather the scholar,who without him, I’m a shell out of a man. First I would to thank Sheikh Said Rageah who,in his reading of my book; Pruning the Youngster find necessary to be brought to the attention of the Scholar Mustafe Hajji Ismail, who was the source of my inspiration and motivation during penning the outline of the Master-piece. Sheikh Said Rageah coaxed me to bring a copy of the same to the Sheikh so that he may appreciate and supplicate for me and give me some sort of mental capsules First-handedly.
I remember when My Nigerian Reviewer Hassan Idris Idris was reviewing my book, he insisted me to write about the Sheikh so that he may be a model to many.
The Sheikhs’ oratory lectures which are global in scope, are in somali which made his talks only popular in the Somali-speaking communities in East Africa and the Somali in the diaspora.
Sheikh Mustafe Hajji Ismail Haruun, is a Somali-Norwegian Muslim Cleric and an all-rounded kind of a scholar whose fountain of Knowledge and sagacity is only equated to that of Solomon (pbuh).
Sheikh Haruuns’ sagacity is in fact, a delicious mental capsule that has smoothly enchanted my linguistic palate, a nutritious meal of creation that stimulates the mind, soothes the veins, tranquilizes the soul and by extension rebranding the inner spirits.
I have in fact drank from his calabash of wisdom, sip the art of seducing my ideas from it, starting with how magical they are; to how they float around the world looking for me, and how they could caress the listeners or readers ears/eyes to earn their trust.
In this veins, I want to sketch very briefly the landscape of the pespectiful insights I have drawn from him, either through listening his Muhadhara or Physically meeting him:
1)a scholar, either Religious or secular, has to significantly and subjectively analyze the problem of the day (الواقعة).
A scholar has to professionally and ethically address the contemporary problems and popular prejudices affecting the society. A true scholar (Aqoon-yahan) should constantly inquire about issues affecting his/her society and as such, critical analysis and independent thinking are fundamental in doing so.
The scholar should make some acquaintances and should be able to formulate demanding questions about the day-to-day issue and by extension, challenge what the society is reluctant to raise.
The world will always present some sort of bottlenecks but it is up to the individual to investigate soberly and discover the inner truth and panacea beneath the problem. Contrary to this,a Scholar should not apply and supply the bulky theories or ideologies of late philosophers and thinkers of western to address our own contemporary problems.
Theories or ideologies proposed by thinkers and philosophers are inevitably affected by their political, economic and social views of their time.
In other words, such theoretical ideologies were used to address the problems affecting them in their “ecosystem”. To mention but a few, secularism, (فصل الدولة عن الدىن), the Marxist theory, Darwinian, orientalist or Feminism.
All this ideologies used to address the then challenges and they flourished but we can’t take them in full package to address your own problems without sieving and filtering them to suit our cultural, religious standpoint. In other words, we can’t take these ideologies at face value, otherwise they become toxic or rather pathological in our religious well-being.
However, this is not the case when it comes to Mathematics, physics (pure science) as they are based on facts.
The ideological belief of the scientist doesn’t matter as long as it’s accuracy is unquestionable.
2)Who is the ideal Muslim leader? (Wa kumaa Hogaamiyaha dhabta ahi?).
There is an intensifying debate around the Muslim globe surrounding the qualities of a Muslim leader.
It does not matter whether the society is religiously minority, we should lead a Muslim nation.
One of the fundamental quality that seems have been long forgotten by our Muslim world, is weather the leader is well-versed with the Islamic Law or even basics of Islamic knowledge or is it a leader with a scant Islamic knowledge who is a machinery of secularism and his main agenda is to imbibe or indoctrinate the common people with his toxics? Search your inner soul and ask yourself those two questions
A knowledgeable Muslim leader not only nurture a healthy society but also creates a niche for himself.
3)Who is your Role model?
This is not not only vital but monumental question which Muslim Umah asks particularly the Youths.
We are living in a world and especially the western world where our society worships celebrities, adores fancy names and fame, values nakedness, glamour and many contents not as per Islamic values. Walahi, Many will be moved and drifted to embrace the lifestyle of celebrities should they get the financial means to do so.
But it is not only embracing their lifestyles that could be problematic, it is the blind-following and unquestioning admiration of celebrities that is unbecoming. Famous Actors, politicians, athletes and media Personalities continue to draw unparalleled coverage in the mainstream media.
Filtering through the headlines covering the lives of the celebrities, you will invariably find scandals, falls from grace to grass, hero to zero, infidelity,moral corruption and so on and so forth.This is a starch contrast to the teachings of a noble religion where our Prophet is our role model.
قال تعالى:وأنك لعلي خلق عظىم
“And indeed, you are of a great moral character”
(Surah Al-Qalam ayah 4)
4) Basic Human Rights are inherently God-given.
In Islam, rights and responsibilities are inherently ascribed to us by our Maker.
قال تعالى:الا يعلم من خلق وهو لطيف الخبير.
This is in itself, basically different from the western vantage point of view of Basic Human Rights which is premised on the fact that the society has struggled to secure their basic rights from the repressive regimes.
It’s in the public domain that Western world, rose against despotic kings, Greedy landlords, materialistic pastors and bourgeois elites as Sheikh Abdirisak Rakuub explicitly substantiates in a broader sense in his treatise titled ”Toobiye”
Those Rights include right to own property, right to vote, freedom of speech. It’s even in the public domain, that Women were considered to be non-human being.
Sheikh Mustafe substantiates that Women were not even considered as human beings but after a tuff struggle by them, they fought to be considered one, but this time round they were considered a cursed human beings that are naturally hell-bent and as such a man can sell his mother, wife or sister with very little amount of money (in fact six pesos).This had facilitated the emergence of feminists revolution who fought their rights extensively until they over-rated their fight against infringement.
Do you see where Feminism came into being? Western Society and their non-sense media should be the last to send a kitchen-sink condemnation that Islam infringes girl-child right.
And my advice to those so-called feminist groups who perpetuates toxic feminism, to go down in the annals of this ideology and research before they delve into machination of un-islamic Stuffs that of course, titillates the external well-being of our culture.
Contrary to that, the Islamic concept of basic human Rights is based on the belief that is inherent and God-given and thus nobody has the mandate to infringe them from any individual be it women, men, children or Parents. It is something that is ordained and prescribed and with no amendments to suit personal interest.
5)Muslims social Integration with the western host communities is not quite a two-way things.
In the last 30 years, Western Countries have created Conspiracies, strategies and devastating tensions in the Muslim countries to destabilize them so that they could not go back to the powers they (Muslims) had before (read the best-selling book; convention of economic Hitman) As a result of this, Many Muslim flee to the Western Countries. Campaigns to integrate this these Muslim comunities have become a frequent theme in the news. But the real meaning of integration is sugar-coated in the sense that they have a hidden agenda. It is presented as the increased and balanced interaction between the migrants and host communities. But the idea is skeletonized,in following that it is against human nature. The culture, the tradition and the religion of the host (west) will have a bigger influence and domination.
It will be more overwhelming than the migrant (Muslim) communities. It’s not surprise that many migrant communities after many years in Western Countries adopt the lifestyle of the host communities despite being Muslims.
However, Islam does not oppose integration with non-muslims as long as it is within the purview of Islamic tenets. Islam encourages peaceful co-existence with communities of there Faiths.
The list is so long but let me conclude because conclude I must,that indeed, sheikh Mustafe is the fountain of knowledge and the heritage of SOMALI nation and by extension, muslims around the globe. May Allah increases his knowledge and bless his life with longevity.
The Writer is the author of the book titled “Pruning the youngsters”
