[Muslim Role Models ]    [From Convention to Conviction ]   [Responsibility for Household ]    [Responsibility for Society ]   [Waking up to the Challenges ]   [Search for Knowledge ]   [References ]  From Convention to Conviction One of the most fundamental and principal mission of Islam was to liberate man from convention and blind followership and to make man arrive at decisions based on reason rather than habit. Islam had to liberate man from his own follies for only then can man learn to use his head and base his actions on conviction rather than convention. Thus the Qur’an kept censuring the people of Makka on their insistence on following the ways of forefathers, asking them if they would insist on the ways of their forefather, "even though theirs fathers were void of knowledge (wisdom) and guidance?"[8] Today in Nigeria we do a lot of what we do simply because this is how others do it. In other words we do a lot of the things we do out of convention, even when they go against the grain of human reason and principles of our faith. As Muslims we ought not to act like the kuffar of Makka who would insist on following their forefathers even when a superior truth has been brought to them by their lord and creator. It is the height of folly for one to ignore his lord and creator in favour of some fellow mortal who is himself a creation entirely dependent on that same lord to whom is the ultimate return. "Lord, what fools these mortals be!"[9] This way not only do we fail to resist evil when it becomes rampant, but we go down the drain with it, giving it ample opportunity to grow and leaving behind no hope for truth, honour and decency. But the essence of being a Muslim is precisely to free oneself from conventions and to work on conviction. The faith in God is essentially to give us that strength to resist the temptation of following the crowd and the courage to defy society in favour of truth and righteousness. If Muslims should fail to fear God and begin instead to fear people [10] and consequently abscond from the path of truth and give up the fight against evil, tell me, what then remains of their Islam? What hope is there for that society? Who else is there to pull the society from the eminent destruction that awaits it? If only our Muslim women would learn to be Muslims, to do things as Islam wants them to be done irrespective of what the so called culture says, irrespective what the people would say, for as Muslims we ought to know that what is important is what Allah will say and not people. For as we know too well, from the very elementary teachings of Islam, people can neither create nor cause death nor can they sustain life. It is Allah alone who created us, it is He who sustains us and it is to Him we ultimately and inevitably return, is it not the greatest of follies that we still care about what some ignorant silly fellows somewhere feel about our actions so long as it conforms to our lord’s wish? My sisters, I am stressing this point knowing fully well what Muslim women in Nigeria do today when it comes to marriage, for example. They never care to know what Allah says nor do they listen when someone reminds them, their hearts become blind, their ears blocked, their body itches and wont be at rest until they satisfy their lusts, whims and caprices. Top in their minds is not what Allah and his Prophet say or would feel, no, it the feeling of some ordinary ignorant miserable mortals somewhere, what a folly, what a pity indeed what a tragedy!