Remembering Sheikh Ja’afar: The Religious Leader with the fear of God, By Malam MB

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When it comes to Taqwa (fear of God), no one needs to discuss how religious people are or how submissive they are to their sect because most of the religious leaders from all the sects are greedy, stingy, unscrupulous, and deceitful.

One shouldn’t be decried for saying the late Islamic scholar, Sheikh Ja’afar was unique amongst his fellow Ulama (Islamic scholars) due to his intelligence, fearlessness, honesty, magnanimity, and above all Taqwa (fear of God).

Sheikh Ja’afar was born on February 12th 1960 in Daura, Katsina State, Nigeria. Sheikh Ja’afar was named Ja’afar Mahmud Adam by his parents. Sheikh Ja’afar started his Qur’anic education at a non-formal learning centre (Maakarantar allo) in their family house in Daura under the stewardship of his brother in-law, Malam Haruna. The young Ja’afar was later transfered to another non-formal learning centre in Koza town, Northern Daura in order to be under the guidance of Malam Umaru.

In 1971, Malam Umaru of Koza town departed for Kano along with his student, Ja’afar where they stayed at the non-formal learning centre of a Nigerien-Nigerian, Malam Abdullahi. Whilst Sheikh Ja’afar completed the memorization of the Qur’an in Kano, he enrolled for two different programs at the same time, Arabic learning at the Egyptian Cultural Centre and Adult Evening Classes (for western education because he exceeded the rightful age to be in primary school), he kept attending the former in the evening while the latter at night.

When Sheikh Ja’afar accomplished his two programs he joined GAC Gwale in 1984 and graduated in 1988. In 1989, Ja’afar Adam secured an admission at the Islamic University of Madinah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia where he studied Tafsir and Ulumul Qur’an (Qur’anic mastery). Instantly after his graduation he proceeded to the Islamic University of Omdurman, Sudan and obtained his Masters degree. Before the assassination of Sheikh Ja’afar Mahmud Adam in 2007, he was a PhD student at Usman Dan Fodio University Sokoto, Nigeria.

However, life of late Sir Sheikh Ja’afar Adam at the evangelical arena is an amazing story to disseminate. Whilst Sheikh Ja’afar became famous and versatile Islamic scholar, enormous tycoons in Northern Nigeria wanted to appoint him as the Chief Imam of their mosques, Sir Ja’afar accepted few offers.

As time went on, those tycoons started seeing Sheikh Ja’afar as radical because he would fearlessly speak the bitter truth in their presence and on the podiums of their mosques. Sir Ja’afar Adam was one of the few Islamic scholars embraced by many members of different sects due to his evangelical neutrality, in away, he would never insult or curse those who disagreed with him as thousands of Ulama do today. He was the embodiment of knowledge, he (Ja’afar) always preached peace and harmony amongst different sects unlike our Islamic leaders in these days who are always bribed by the pitiless politicians to mislead their teeming followers.

Sir Sheikh Ja’afar never ceased to tell those at the corridors of power the unwanted truth because he put the fear of God first. Moreover, almost every Muslim irrespective of sect disparity became very eager to meet Sheikh Ja’afar, in 2006 when i (Malam MB) was a student at the Institute of Arabic and Islamic studies, Bauchi I had the opportunity of meeting the brainy Sheikh of Islam (Sir Ja’afar) where he led us in (asr) congregational prayer, I was over the moon.

On April 13th, 2007 Sheikh Ja’afar was assassinated while leading a (subh) congregational prayer at Dorayi Juma’at mosque, Kano. He had two wives and seven children. The world of Islam misses Sir Sheikh Ja’afar Mahmud Adam. May his soul continue to rest in Jannatul Firdaus.

Malam MB writes from Bauchi and can be reached via: malammb16@gmail.com

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Sky Daily