I was regaled with the interview granted by Pastor Tunde Bakare to BBC Yoruba. At times, I like this kind of entertainment; for it is not the one that corrupts morality like the entertainment industry which notoriety for nudity, promiscuity, prostitution and all sorts of immorality is well known.
It is this industry that wows must youths today and its effects are the reflections of their abysmally low academic performance. All known methods of teaching employed to educate these youths only give catastrophic result. Not because our trained, experienced and passionate educators do not know how to teach anymore; but because the educatees (students), with few exception, have compulsive disregards for knowledge and scholars.
This is by the way. My focus this week is onPastor Tunde Bakare. If you don’t know him, you are on your own. You mustn’t know him—I mean you are not obliged to know him. But it is advisable for students who might be asked who Tunde Bakare is in their Government JAMB exam. One may also be asked in job interview. In a nutshell, aside being a pastor, he is the Vice President to Muhammadu Buhari (now PMB) in the 2011 Presidential Election.
This Pastor recited the Qur’an in a recent interview. Many have criticized him for taking pride in his ability to recite the Qur’an. They ask: how does his ability to recite the Qur’an solve Nigerian problems? These people are taking it too far. I think they are trying to politicize his recitation.
Can we use the same logic to ask ifNigerian Muslims’ recitations hadsolved Nigerian problems?Definitely, our recitation of the Qur’an has not solved Nigerian problems and probably would not. Should we, for that reason, stop reciting the Qur’an or stop teaching it in Islaamiyah? No, of course. In that case, Tunde Bakare is free to recite the Qur’an if he likes.
But he is a Christian whoused to be a Muslim! Can a Christian recite the Qur’an? Hmmn! I will come to this later.
It might sound outrageous that the recitation of the Qur’an cannot solve our problem. Let’s ask: can a good Muslim make such assertion? Doesn’t Allah say: “And We send down from the Qur’an that which is a healing and a mercy to those who believe”? How wouldn’t or couldn’t the Qur’an solve our problems in reference to this verse?
We should not forget that the verse does not stop there; it continues. It says: “…and it increases the wrong-doers nothing but loss” (Q17:82). This is why the Qur’an will not solve our problems: we are wrong-doers, unjust, unfair, corrupt, transgressors, liars, and sycophants. Thus, we are where we are, despite our recitation of the Qur’an.
So even if we recite the Qur’an million times a day (and we do so everyday) without living our lives according to its injunction, it will remain an exercise in futility in addressing our problems. It would be like the futility of a hardworking water fetcher who is determined to fill tomato basket with water. Na sorry be in name.
Now, does Tunde Bakare, a pastor for that matter, have the right to recite the Qur’an? It is like asking if Yusuf Mabera or Yusuf Adepoju or any other Muslim has the right to recite the Bible. Though I will not dismiss the question as imbecilic, the answer is: he can recite the Qur’an. This is, provided mockery is not intended. As we can see in the interview, mockery is indeed not intended.
But he claimed he can recite it fluently. If he could, actually, that should be a very good challenge to those ‘Muslims’ who could not do so but would readily and ignorantly ‘kill’ in the name of ‘Allah’. What a pity!
I listened to his random and brief recitation of the Qur’an; though I have problem with that claim to fluency. Yet he could be excused for in that generation (in the 1960s) in Yoruba land, reciting the Qur’an with fluency (if by fluency we mean tajweed) might be difficult to come by. Nevertheless, I appreciate his ability to read it as he did having converted to Christianity for more than four decades. I would rather he recited much of it to prove his claim.
If you compare the Pastor’s recitation to that of a top Nigerian Muslim politician whose recitation of Suratul Fatiha was scorned—six years ago—you will understand the patheticness of our situation vis-à-vis the Qur’an. Yet we expect it to solve our problems. Abi oti solve e ni(a pidgin Yoruba sarcasm to express something that is not possible).
Some also ‘criticized’ the Pastor that he could only recite the Qur’an but does not understand it. This criticism is mediocre. I was taken aback by this backlash knowing fully well that absolute majority of Nigerian Muslims do not understand the Qur’an as well.
Rather than criticize the Pastor, why not commend him for the recitation which many Muslims still could not. This should challenge us to the necessity of not only learning the Qur’an, but also understanding its meaning.
If Pastor Tunde Bakare can recite it, we (the Muslims) should go a step further to understand it so that we can explain it to him and his likes. Understanding the Qur’an perhaps may bring him back to the fold of Islam.
Back to Islam? What of his pastorpreneurship? Trust Nigerians, they will ask many questions. It was even argued that he displayed his aptitude to recite the Qur’an in the interview so as to win the hearts of the Muslims in preparation for 2023 general elections when he will be contesting for president. Could this be true? Let me leave this to political analysts and pretend not to be one.
Is he going to contest for President? What else do you want him to contest for? After all, he contested as Buhari’s running mate in 2011. He should go a step higher to fulfil his prophecy of becoming the next president. Kai, this prophesy sef tire me!
If you had listened to this BBC Yoruba interview or read its English rendition, you must have heard him saying he heard the voice of God to convert to Christianity. To me, this is not necessary since he has the constitutional right to change his religion. The Pastor further said he heard the voice of God again to become a pastor.
What worries me about these pastors who always claim to have heard the voice of God is that the voice only instructs them to do what butters their bread. The Muslim clerics have their own way of saying this too. Compare this to Prophet Musa (Moses) [AS]—either the Biblical or Qur’anic version—who heard the voice of God; but for an onerous task.
When shall our pastors start hearing the voice of God which will command them to go and free the kidnapped Bethel Baptist students? When also shall their Muslim counterparts go to the kidnappers’ dens to free the Islaamiyah kids under the instruction of God? Enough of this ridicule.
Can we really hear the voice of God? Hearing the voice of God is a blatant lie at worst; a hallucination at best. Please, let us pause to ask: how does the voice of God sound like—I mean the pitch? Which Language does He speak? How do we distinguish His voice from that of an angel or jinn or Satan? Does it sound feminine of masculine? From what direction would the voice be heard? North,South,West or East? Is the voice sonorous or tiny? I wish I could write on this one day. May Allah make the Qur’an our guide.
Abdulkadir Salaudeen
Salahuddeenabdulkadir@gmail.com
