03082019 - Worsening Insecurity: Suspected herdsmen kill Catholic priest in Enugu

SATURDAY Vanguard, AUGUST 3, 2019—11
Shi’ites, Shia or IMN, what is in a name?
Continues from pg 10
Elzakzaky’s followers are Shi’ites and
some are not. He said there are two
other factions of Shi’ites who
recognize the government of Nigeria
and himself as Kaduna state Governor
while also not pledging allegiance to
any foreign government. These, he
said are contrary to the beliefs of the
IMN and hence his reason to outlaw
the movement.
Shisms
Apart from theological contestations
between the Shi’ites and Nigeria’s
mainly Sunni Muslims, the
Elzakzaky’s IMN have often been
accused of running a parallel
government. In fact, in each state,
they have been accused of having a
“Coordinator”, who they see as the
Governor of that state.
This was what el-Rufai
meant when he said the
IMN do not recognize
him as governor, nor do
they recognize
President Muhammadu
Buhari as Nigeria’s
sovereign.
Mut’ah
Then there is the
concept of fixed or
temporary marriage,
often called Nikah
Mut’ah, different from
the two other common
forms of marriages in
Islam, that is, Nikah
Halala and Nikah
Misyar. Mut’ah is an
Arabic word meaning
pleasure. In Nigeria,
the temporary marriage
is often referred to as
“Auren Mut’ah” among those who
practise it.
While Sunni Muslims view the
mut’ah as a cover for prostitution
or a way of legitimizing illicit sex,
the Shi’ites see it as achieving the
direct opposite of that accusation.
In an interview with the BBC,
Omar Farooq Khan, president of the
Ahlul Bayt Islamic Society (a Shiabased
society) at Bradford
In Nigeria, this task
of spreading the Shia
philosophy was
carried out by
Ibrahim Yakub
Elzakzaky. The man
Elzakzaky devised
several strategies to
achieve his mission
University, said the practice is on
the increase among Shia students.
“Definitely Nikah Mut’ah is on the
rise now due to students becoming
more aware about it. Students are
educated people so obviously they
look around for a solution to their
problems from an Islamic
perspective,” said Mr Khan.
“What else are they going to do?
They can’t just have a cold shower
because it doesn’t work and
otherwise they just end up doing the
haram thing and having a girlfriend
or boyfriend. Many people won’t
talk about it though, because it is
still a taboo subject,” he added.
An anthropologist at Boston
University in the United States,
Shahla Haeri defines mut’ah
marriage in her authoritative work,
Law of Desire: Temporary Marriage
in Shi’i Iran, “as a contract between
a man and an
unmarried woman, be
she a virgin, divorced,
or widowed, in which
both the period the
marriage shall last and
the amount of money to
be exchanged must be
specified”.
The mut’ah can last
from just a few minutes
to as long as 99 years
and can also be
renewed when the time
elapses.
Critics of the mut’ah
marriage have said
there is no difference
between it and
prostitution, especially
because there is a time
limit on that type of
marriage, and the
mahr given as a gift
from the man to the
woman is the equivalent of whatever
payment a man makes to a
prostitute.
The nikah mut’ah entails a
contract, verbal or written, in which
the man and the woman agree the
length of time and conditions for the
marriage.
Usually, there are no witnesses
required for mut’ah and a cleric
does not have to solemnize it. Either
of the couple can conduct it.
According to Haeri, the woman, for
instance, can say, “I [name], marry
(or mut’a) thee, for the amount of
[money] and for such and such
period.” The man says, “I accept.”
At the end of the marriage, the
woman will then observe sexual
abstinence for the length of two
menstruation cycles in order to
identify a child’s legitimate father in
case she is pregnant, the reason
being that children born of
temporary marriages enjoy the same
status and rights as their siblings
born of a permanent marriage.
“Here lies the legal uniqueness of
mut’a, that which distinguishes it
ideologically from prostitution,
despite their striking resemblance,”
Haeri writes.
Curiously, while a man can enter
into several temporary marriages at
the same time, women are not
allowed to do so and while a man
can have temporary marriages with
people of other faiths, the women
can only do that with fellow Shia
Muslims.
For the IMN or the entire Shia
population in Nigeria, there appears
to be no data on the number of such
marriages ever contracted or still
subsisting.
The Origin and
philosophy of Shiites
By Shola Balogun
The split between the Sunni and
Shia sect is almost as old as Islam
itself.
Soon after the death of the Prophet
Muhammad (s.a.w), in the year 632,
there was a dispute in the community
of Muslims in present-day Saudi
Arabia over the question of
succession.
Most of the Prophet Muhammad’s
companions wanted the community of
Muslims to determine who would
succeed him. A smaller group thought
differently and felt that someone from
his family should take up the mantle
of leadership. The small group
favored Ali, who was married to
Muhammad’s daughter, Fatimah. The
Sunnis prevailed and chose a
successor Abu Bakr to be the first
caliph.
Abu Bakr became the Caliph that
most people agreed on. He was then
succeeded by Umar upon his death,
with Uthman after him. According to
the Muslims who believed these
men were the legitimate caliphs, Ali,
then became the fourth Caliph to
lead the Muslims. The Sunnis
believed that leadership should fall
on the person who was deemed by
the elite of the community to be best
able to lead the community.
The second and third caliph eras
were greeted with violence because
of the dissenting voice on the
leadership particularly from the Shia
group. Two of the earliest caliphs
before Ali were murdered. War
erupted when Ali became caliph,
and he too was killed in fighting in
the year 661 near the town of Kufa,
now in present-day Iraq.
The development split the Muslim
community into two branches that
had remained disunited till today.
The war continued with Ali’s son,
Hussein, leading the Shiites.
Hussein rejected the rule of the
caliph and the Sunni. He and 72
members of his family and
companions fought against a very
large Arab army of the caliph. They
were all massacred.
Hussein was killed on the
battlefield at Karbala and buried
there. Hussein symbolises the
spiritual power to members of the
Shiites; and members commemorate
his death yearly usually in a public
ritual.
The Shiites are concentrated in
Iran, southern Iraq and southern
Lebanon. But there are significant
Shiite communities in Saudi Arabia
and Syria, Afghanistan, Pakistan
and India as well. The government
of Iran set an agenda to spread Shia
to other countries including Nigeria.
In Nigeria, this task of spreading
the Shia philosophy was carried out
by Ibrahim Yakub Elzakzaky. The
man Elzakzaky devised several
strategies to achieve his mission.
Many believed he took advantage of
the gullibility of some Muslim youth
who were not informed to buy into
the idea of ‘Islamic revolution’,
‘establishment of Islamic state’,
‘total change’, etc. They initially
tagged themselves Muslim brothers.
They organized lectures and several
demonstrations in their first phase.
Shia
philosophy
Those who followed Ali were having
none of this fourth Caliph. To the
Shia, Ali was the only legitimate
caliph from the beginning. Members
believed they were the followers of
Muhammad’s ordained successor. In
fact, they believe that Ali was divinely
appointed to succeed Prophet
Muhammad (s.a.w) and they consider
other earlier Caliphs as usurpers.
Therefore, to them, all the hadiths, or
Islamic religious rulings and
teachings, from these intervening
caliphs, do not apply. Shia Muslims
believe that the only real leaders
would have to come from Ali, and
from those who were to follow after
him. The Sunni sect vehemently
disagrees. This divide was political
and deeply contentious and has
remained so to this day.