Shykh Uthman Ibn Fodio and the Revival
of Islam in Hausaland - 3

[Preamble]   [The Milieu ]   [ Birth, Studies & Career ]    [The Phase of Teaching and Public Da'awah ]   [Phase of Organising and Planning ]   [Phase of Hijra and Jihad ]   [Phase of Victory and Establishment of Caliphate ]   [Shaykh Uthman's Contribution & Ideas ]  [Impact of the Shaykh Beyond the Sokoto Caliphate ]  [Concluding Remarks ]  Birth, Studies and Career Uthman was born at Maratta, a town in the Hausa state of Gobir, on 29th Safar 1168 AH / Sunday 15th December 1754. His father Muhammad Fodio was a well known scholar of his time in Gobir, a descendant of the Torankawa Fulani and heir to a long Islamic tradition of learning. Coming , as he did, from a learned family, with a long tradition of leaning, Uthman had two advantages: access to one of the best instructions and a social status in a society full of respect for learning. He learnt the Qur’an at the feet of his father very early, as was the practice then and proceeded to study elementary fiqh and Arabic language. He then proceeded, this time under scholars renowned in their respective fields, many of whom turned out to be his uncles, to under take advanced studies, where the curriculum is heavy and the influence of the teachers great. Here he studied Tasfsir, Hadith, Sirah, Fiqh, Arabic Language, Tasawwuf, Mathematics and Astronomy. He received a thorough grounding in these fields and before he was twenty he had already written his first work in his mother tongue, reflecting not only the early intellectual maturity but also a propensity for literary out put. By the time he was twenty he had formerly finished the basic texts for advanced studies and free to pursue a career. Soon after, he wrote his first work in Arabic, a poem in praise of the prophet, indicating his proficiency in Arabic and his career inclinations. As he was growing up one thing appeared to have taken Uthman’s attention, the level of ignorance of the wider society, especially among the women and the pervasion of innovations (bid’a) and widespread syncretic practices. He was deeply worried about the violations of the Sharia, the neglect of the Sunnah and the plight of his society as it came increasingly under the tyranny of ever unjust monarchs. The more he read the more he seemed to find this state of affairs unacceptable. The situation was not for want of teachers, indeed there were many, but the teachers had kept themselves in their ivory towers making their knowledge available only to the few who cared to come, to the neglect of even their own families. There were teachers who instead of correcting the ordinary people, were in fact making fortunes out of their ignorance, collecting their wealth under several pretexts and condoning violations of the Sharia and often conniving with rulers to perpetuate all manners of injustices. So by the time he was through with formal studies and became a man of his own he had already decided to devote his time to educating the public the basics of the religion. He started giving public lectures, sermons in and around his home town as he pursued hid post graduate studies with renowned scholars within his reach. He was soon to be joined by his brother Abdullahi, twelve years his junior and much later his son Muhammad Bello. As if the society was waiting for him, he received an immediate response among many, not only in his home town but beyond. Abdullahi, who became an erudite scholar, has captured this initial start in one of his many works: "Then we rose up with the shaikh helping him in his mission work for religion. He travelled for that purpose to the east and to the west, calling the people to the religion of God by his preaching and his qasidas in other languages and destroying customs contrary to Muslim law." As people started crowding around this young and rather daring scholar, soon Uthman found himself at the head of a circle of young people sharing some revolutionary ideas. This, unknown to them all, was the nucleus of a movement that was to transform Hausaland for good. Having taken off, the movement went through four distinct phases. The phase of teaching and public da’wah, the phase of planning and organisation, the phase of hijra and jihad and the post jihad phase during which the Caliphate was established. In what follows, we shall be looking at these phases one at a time.