THE TRADITION OF TAJDEED IN WEST AFRICA: AN OVER VIEW - 4
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[INTRODUCTION ]
[ AL-MURABIT FACTOR] SHEHU USMAN DAN FODIO Moved by the level of ignorance among people the Shehu, as early as 1774, then at the age of 20, embarked on teaching people the basics of Islam. He quite naturally started single handedly around his home town Degel in the Hausa State of Gobir, but was soon to be assisted by his brother Abdullahi 12 year his junior. As they began to expand their teaching programs to different parts of Gobir and beyond into other Hausa States like Zamfara they were joined by another hand who though much younger was crucial tot he success of the venture. This was Shehu Usman's son Muhammad Bello. The three put together formed the triumvirate that led this movement, intellectually and politically, saw it through to its logical conclusion and even had the rare opportunity of translating into practice the ideas they spent the whole of their lives fighting for. While the triumvirate were undertaking the painstaking task of educating the general public of Hausaland, which they saw as their primary assignment, they were also learning from as many Shaykhs as were around and reading as many books as were available. That Abdullah could not remember all those Shaykhs form whom they took knowledge, (18) that Muhammad Bello alone read about 20,000 books, (19) not to mention the grand Shaykh Usman Dan Fodio, may give one a glimpse to their level of scholarship. "The breadth of their knowledge of Arabic writings" writes Professor Abdullahi Smith "Is particularly remarkable when it is realized that none of them eve visited North Africa or the Middle East." "This learning of the leaders" continued Smith: "Showed itself in their writings which were voluminous. The astonishing total of 258 books and pamphlets is at present provisionally attributed to the triumvirate, and this is probably not a complete list. These writings cover a very wide range of subjects including all the classical Islamic Sciences, as well as history, mysticism and medicine ... This literary output is particularly noteworthy when it is remembered that a large number of these books were written in the midst of active campaigning, and that they do not include official correspondence which the leaders (especially Muhammad Bello) had to keep up with their supporters in the field." (20) For nearly 20 years the triumvirate and the expanding team of disciples and students traveled the length and breadth of Hausaland, teaching the basics of Islam raising yet more students and following. Wherever they went and whenever they moved, they left behind one of their students to continue what they started. Through this unassuming process, knowledge spread far and wide and the Shaykh raised followers among men and women, young and old, all over Hausaland and beyond in Borno and Masina. For the next 10 years the Shaykh and his team were to return to his home town Degel to settle for more teaching and writing to meet the foreseeable needs of his community, the jama’a. This provided the Shaykh with the opportunity to develop his spiritual potentials through Tasawwuf, produce and mould scholars of higher learning and discipline from amongst his students both men and women. But this opportunity did not last as long as the Shaykh had apparently wanted. For his expanding community, having acquired sufficient knowledge of Islam to raise their level of perception and consciousness, were becoming impatient with the excesses of the pagan Hausa rulers. The more they learnt the more they realized the obligation they owe to their Lord Allah, the Most High, to command the right and forbid the wrong (Amr bil Ma'aruf wal Nahyi anil Munkar) in the face of the corruption, tyranny and oppression rampant in the Hausland. It was however neither the Jama'a Nor the Shaykh that was to start the confrontation. It was the Hausa rulers, especially of Gobir, whose power based had been drastically narrowed by the ever increasing following of the Shaykh. In a desperate and frantic move to save their dwindling authority, they resorted to attacking the Jama'a. Even then the Shaykh wanted more time, for rather than retaliation he ordered a Hijra from Gobir in 1804. But the Gobir rulers would not leave the jama'a a and the he latter had to defend itself. Thus in the same year (1804), the jama'a, few, impoverished and scattered all over Hausaland, started fighting, under the leadership of the Shaykh, against the corrupt and tyrannical Hausa rulers, along with those venal scholars (Ulama al-Su') who had always given support to corruption and opposed the jama'a. The fighting could not have come as a surprise to Shehu or his Jama'a. Shehu's perceptive mind had long foreseen this eventuality and has apparently prepared the Jama'a for it. His teachings and writings were designed to match the needs and level of development of the Jama'a. Initially it was the basics of Islam and gradually the obligations of Amr bil Ma'aruf wal Nahy anil Munkar and how it should be carried out was expounded. At the onset of the confrontation, the obligation from the Hijra, the basis and rules of the Jihad were clearly explained in a wisely circulated document Wathiqat ahl al-Sudan which Bivar calls the manifesto of the Jihad. (21) It was only during the Jihad and of course after that books dealing with the details of t he Islamic order to be established were written. It is significant that in the 27 points the Shehu raised in the Wathiqat, the first three were: "(i) That the commanding of what is right (Amr bil Ma'aruf) is obligatory by Ijma' (consensus of scholars). (ii) The prohibition of what is wrong (or evil) (Nahy anil Munkar) al obligatory by Ijma' (iii) That Hijra (flight) form the land of unbelief is obligatory by Ijma'." The Jama'a were thus to fight in order to remove injustice and corruption and establish justice and righteousness in society. The Hijra was a necessary step in this direction. The Jama'a, true to their training, complied. By 1810 the better part of Hausaland had fallen to the Jama'a, the Jihad was in the he main over, except for skirmishes in Borno, leaving the Jama'a the task of translating their ideals into practice. (22) This tremendous success did not however mean the task was over. In fact it looked like it had just began for it sparked off a spate of writing on the details of the socio-economic, legal and political order that was to be operated in the new dispensation. In fact the Shaykh found it necessary to devote the rest of his time to laying the intellectual foundations of the new State leaving the routine administration to his two able assistance, Shaykh Abdullah and Muhammad Bello. It was the activities of this small band of itinerant scholars whose primary objective was to simply teach Islam, which silently but effectively eroded the moral and cultural foundations of the decadent society and mobilized the Muslims towards the renewal, Tajdeed, of their society. In due course the small band of scholars were to find themselves at the head of a growing party of believers which inevitably had to confront the party of unbelief and corruption with the ever recurring result of victory. Thus the Jama'a were able to pull their society cut of the decadence and corruption it had drifted into and place it back on the he path of purity and progress. (23) It was this success which triggered off a wave of change which was to cleanse the whole region of decadence, corruption and unbelief and restore to Islam its position of prominence. Talking about "the repercussions which the movement had in West Africa" Abdullahi Smith noted how it occasioned the emergence of Shehu Muhammad al-Amin al-Kanemi who was to revitalize Borno and shook the Oyo empire to its roots. "Perhaps most important of all under this head, however," observes Smith "was the influence which the Sokoto leaders exerted on later Jihad movements in other part of the Sudan." (24) |
